The BEST surprise!

Tonight the doorbell rang....twice. It's not very loud so we didn't get it the first time. The second time I asked Mark to get it because I was in my pajamas. There was a woman at the door who said she had a package for us. Mark thought she was a solicitor. (we've had a lot out here) The package she brought us was CHAD!!!! I came to the door and saw him and immediately started bawling and hugged him so tight! I can't believe he's here. He left Afghanistan on the 14th and has been traveling home since then. Poor guy! Turns out the woman who brought him to us is Chad's Sergeants wife, Susan Kirby. He had sent home some gifts for his wife in Chads bags, so she brought him home to us.. How neat is that?! The other guy is a good friend of their family. We had some time to catch up a little bit and now Chad in the shower since he hasn't had one in a week. We are going to go surprise Sandy in the morning. She is going to freak out! I'm so happy! It's really him...can you believe it? and I have him until June 5th.
He hasn't cut his hair since he got there. It's so long! (for him) He's going to let Sandy cut it. :o)

graduation announcements and fluff

Tonight I finished Sandy's graduation announcements. I took Kyle's pictures and started on his. It feels good to get some stuff done. They are the same, because they go to the same school and I told her to invite her friends and family to the party the next night. I HAVE to get Kyle's done tomorrow so they can get in the mail this weekend since graduation is 2 weeks away. I did 24 for her and I'm doing 45 for Kyle.

I went to a new nail salon here in Maricopa today. I had them take off my old nails and put on a new full set. Holy heck do my fingers hurt! They are so tender from ripping them off and sanding down my nail bed. It's painful to type so this will not be a long post. :o)

Cole asked me for help with his math homework tonight. I had NO IDEA how to do it! Seriously! So to answer the question of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" The answer would be NO! heck...apparently I'm not even smarter that a 4th grader. So embarrassing!

I also made my fluffy girl chart. I left the month off and the dates so I could print the same sheet each month and hand write in that info. I plan to color it to cute it up a bit. I don't know how to do downloads like Amy. So you can make up a chart that works for you or you can see if you can click on this picture to save and print. I don't know if that will work, but it's worth a try if you want to use it. Anyone is free to jump in at any time with our fluffy girls club.

Today I've drank 4- 8oz. glasses of water...which is not where I need to be, but far better than my normal 0-1 glass of water. I am terrible at drinking water! I almost didn't exercise but I decided that I couldn't blog until I did, so I did exercise tonight for 35 minutes while watching CSI. I'm still feeling the burn. Yay me! Okay girls....how did you do today?

Miss Sandy

I almost didn't blog today because my mood is beyond bad, but I took pictures of sweet Miss Sandy for her graduation announcements and I had to share because she's just so darn cute! I'm so glad my boys have good taste in girls. I'm so proud of her. This year in school she has worked so hard. She was cheer leading captain, in charge of the yearbook, got good grades, made the National Honor Society, is getting a $1,000 and a $5,000 scholarship. How great is that?! She is planning to getting a year of cosmetology school under her belt while Chad is in Afghanistan. Then they will plan their wedding. I have good news. I haven't wanted to share yet because I know the military doesn't always tell the truth, but all the soldiers are SUPPOSE to get a 2 week leave during their tour overseas. Chad knew he'd have no shot at any of the holidays, so he requested Kyle and Sandy's graduation. I got an email from him on Mother's day and he said it's been approved. We are hoping and praying it really does happen and he makes it home in time. The thought of seeing him is....ummm...I can't even think of words to describe my feelings about that. I just need to see my boy. Right now he's out on a long mission and he didn't know how many days it would be before they got back to base. My stomach hurts so much every time he goes on a mission because I know he's in danger. That's is part of the reason for my mood....one of many reasons today. So many cruddy things happened today. You ask, what are they? Well I'm not going to say. Nothing big...you know how sometimes just a bunch of little things that pile of top of each other until you can't take one more thing and you can't decide whether to be angry or cry or both. I don't want to be a downer right now so I plan to get some sleep and pray for a better day.

Good things today

*Had a great shower!

*Mark made the boys breakfast and did the dishes.

*Got cute pictures of Sandy.

*Jordin made it through to the finals on American Idol.

* I got my favorite church cookbook rebound.

*Lots of girls want to be in the fluffy girl club.

See....the day wasn't all bad.

(ironic that the "I had a bad day" song is playing right now, huh?!)

I will make my fluffy girl chart and then we will all start being accountable. So excited! :o)

Acrylic Stamps

All of my wood mount stamps are stored in the baskets on the small bookcases. Amy (aka the organizational queen) came up with this solution for storing acrylic stamps, so I put her idea to use with mine. I don't have very many sets, but the ones I do have now have an organized new home. I got this file box at Target 3 months ago and finally got it organized this morning.

Each set has a hanging file I usually type labels, but to save time I wrote them. The lid stays on anyways.The file box fit's nicely on the big bookcase. Amy and I both have a love for organization, as do so many of you. It's great to bounce idea's off each other because there are so many ways to organize and not all things work for everyone. You're bound to find something that is perfect for you.
Do you see that? Yep! It's the new and much improved shower head. Mark ended up installing it Saturday night after his father's and son's camp out, so I didn't have to do it myself. My first good shower was Sunday morning. It was wonderful...refreshing...and I was able to rinse all the shampoo and conditioner out of my hair! So grateful for small blessings.Meet Storm (gray with black ends), Missfit (orange on her face), Smokey (peeking out in the back) and Bandit(licking his tummy). The kitties are getting big, cute and very playful. Hopefully they will be ready to go to new homes very soon. It seems that people are only interested in the girls so we will have a hard time getting rid of Bandit all because he has an extra package...poor little guy.

FLUFFY GIRLS UNITE

Mindy had a good idea for those are us who are on the "fluffy" side. That we can be a support group to each other. I'm thinking of it being more of keeping each other accountable for exercising and daily water intake. I'm not even going to stress about the weight part of it because that's just too much pressure on you girls and on me. I know I need to exercise everyday because I eat everyday. Makes sense to me. It can be as simple as going for a walk. You don't need special equipment for that. I also know I don't drink nearly enough water (and it shows in my dry skin). If we all do these 2 things the weight will start coming off, and we will just consider that to be a bonus. Our goal is to get healthy(er). I still plan to eat my normal foods...just smaller portions. In my mind life is too short not to enjoy food. So what I'm wondering is how many of you would be interested in checking in with me on your progress...like how many minutes did you exercise today and how many glasses of water to you drink? Amy created a work out log book to keep track of her exercise routine (rep's and stuff) with a download on her blog. She is NOT a fluffy girl, but she does want to get tone and have more energy. I will make something that works for me so I can track my exercise minutes and glasses of water. It would be a good idea for anyone who wishes to participate. Let me know and we will go from there.

A day to celebrate mom's

I hope that all you lovely ladies had a wonderful mother's day. Mine turned out pretty nice. Every year I ask for peace in my home, but all these years I've never got that, so I quit asking...that way I can't be disappointed when all heck breaks loose like it normally does. :o) Check out all that fun pink stuff. You'd think I like pink or something. Kitchen aid came out with a line of the most adorable pink things to support breast cancer awareness. I have a little obsession with kitchen gadgets and these are are beautiful! The cookie sheets aren't pink but they are so neat. I love the way they were designed so the cookies can slide right off. I need to do some baking and try these babies out! Mark even got me a new pink cell phone and case....so cute! My pink bling phone is in pretty bad shape. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but when we were moving here someone left it sitting on the edge of the trailer and drove off. Okay...it was me, but we're not pointing any fingers. It fell off in the middle of Gilbert Road and there it sat until the next morning when Mark found it for me. It still worked, but looked just terrible. Now if I can only figure out how to use the new one. I'm sad that it doesn't have my rooster ring tone. Hopefully I'll find one I like.

Mirror mirror on the wall...who's the fairest one of all?

"It sure isn't you honey"

Kyle got me this great mirror for my bathroom that lights up and has one heck of a magnifier. Let me just say that this thing is a real eye opener. Normally when you get ready for the day you are standing a couple of feet away from the mirror and you really have no idea just how bad you really look. This baby unleashed all the secrets the big bathroom mirror has been keeping. I see every pore, wrinkle, age spot, pimple, dry flakes of skin, hair where hair shouldn't be. There are NO MORE secrets! The ugly truth is out and I am losing this aging battle. I quickly realized that I don't take good enough care of my face. That will change. I love Kyle's gift. Not only because it was thoughtful, but because it's very useful for getting ready and it was a much needed close up of what's happening to me as I get older. Isn't there some super hero quote about "knowing is half the battle"? That's how I feel. Now that I know, I will do better.
After church my side of the family came over for a big mexican feast. We all ate too much and enjoyed each other's company. We got a quick group shot, but it was dark and far away, plus several people were not here tonight. Mark went over to see his mom this morning to wish her a happy mothers day. We were hoping they could come over for dinner but his dad just had his second hip replaced and needed his rest. I want to let my mother and my mother in law know that I love them both dearly. I love my mother for giving me such wonderful memories of my childhood. She's always been creative and fun. She is a mom that built a way cool for her me because she knew I needed to have a place to escape and be alone. She was always there for me and still is. She is supportive of me and loves me unconditionally. Mark's mom Sharon is a special woman who loves people and once she meets someone she rarely forgets a name. She is so smart and very sweet. I don't know anyone who doesn't love her instantly. I love that she raised Mark to be the good man that he is for my family. We count our blessing that we were given such great parents. Coleen got a new 6 week old foster baby named Maryella. Don't let the blue blanket fool you. She was borrowing Mark's. She really is beautiful. Miss sweet baby Angelic was returned to her birth mother and we hope for the best with her. Se is missed by all of us. Maryella has a 1 and 2 year old brothers that are suppose to be coming to Coleen's house too, but the mother is hiding them somewhere. All of the kids have been exposed to crystal meth and really need a safe home to live in until the mother can get her life back of track. I hope the authorities can find these boys soon. I'm so worried about them.
The younger boys played several games of twister tonight. They had so much fun. I was so surprised that Kaden knew how to play and actually did really well. He even won once and was so excited about that.

To my surprise, Kim spotlighted my blog on the Creative Blogs Blog. What an honor that is to me. You'll have to go check it out. It honestly got me all misty eyed that she selected my blog...especially on mothers day. She really "gets" how important family is to me and appreciates my love for organization. :o) In case you don't know what that blog is about. She pickes a different blog to spotlight each day. There are been some really amazing and talented ladies who have come before me so it is wonderful to be counted among them. She has links to all of them as well. Thanks so much Kim...such a treat for me...and you're right...we would be friends. :o)

kitchen and stuff

I guess it's time to share another room of my house. I really like this kitchen. I serve buffet style alot so the big island help with that. I know most people like their counter tops clear of clutter, but I don't. I like them full of things I use most often and with cute things that are there just to make me happy. There is good and bad clutter. In my mind this is good clutter. These pictures were taken 2 days ago, so obviously it's not that clean anymore. It gets dirty quick around here. Mark usually cooks breakfast for the boys, then Brittany cooked breakfast for her and Brek. Plus I brought home groceries last night and not quite everything got put away. Speaking of groceries, Brek and Brittany came home last night and said they found an apartment and are moving out tomorrow. They are so excited! I had agreed that when they moved out I would buy their first groceries since those are the most expensive to get because you need all the staples. I'm kind of sad about them leaving...especially so soon. I know they need to be on their own so they can grow and learn. I will so miss seeing my baby guy everyday....sigh... Do you see my problem? Notice how the water in my shower doesn't spray out with an invigorating force...it merely falls out because gravity tells it it has to. I hate my shower. I hate everything about it. It makes me crazy that it takes forever to get shampoo out of my hair and soap off my body, but I also can't stand the fact that it's a tiny square glass cubical. I can see my self in the mirror while I shower (gross), there is nowhere to prop my foot to shave my legs and I have to squeegee the walls before I get out so that we don't get water stains. For me showers are anything but enjoyable. I've decided to take matters into my own hands. I've bought a new shower head and plan on installing it. I was tempted to get something that resembled the elephant shower head from that Seinfeld episode where they had installed low flow shower heads in the whole building and everyone had flat crappy hair, but I didn't. I got something more practical and it better work. Should I actually get this thing up and working I'll let you know. :o)

Graduation season is here. I made 26 announcements for our friends Nick's son. I went over last week and took pictures of him, got them done on Monday and delivered them yesterday. Isn't he a cute boy?! Next I'm making Kyle's, then Sandy's then possibly some for my cousin's son Nic. I had to do Kirk's first because he graduates the week before Kyle and Sandy. I decided that since I have to make so many that I would do a simple long single panel that would be faster for me to assembly line and would still be cute enough. The others will be the same basic design, but in their school colors, plus I have to squeeze in information about the party here the following night. My friend Cathy made the most darling ones for her son. They look like the graduation cap. I love how it turned out...really cute!

I have LOTS to do this mothers day weekend before my whole family comes over for dinner Sunday night...lots more than I'd like to do, but sometimes we just don't have a choice, huh?!

Can we talk?

While I was in town today running errands at Home Depot and Sam's Club I decided to fill up my suburban...which mind you, I still had a half a tank, but I don't like it to get low. It still took $70.00 just to top it off! How crazy is that?! I saw this little car a few weeks ago and had to laugh as I took a picture of it. With gas prices they way they are, don't you wish we could just wind up our cars like the little toy ones and completely cut out the big oil companies who are raking us over the coals and doing all the ridiculous price gouging?! As I was filling up with gas Mark called me and asked if it was dusty where I was and I told him no, we had blue skies. Then I turned around and saw the big wall of dust rolling across town. Usually when these things come through I'm safe and sound at home, but me and Kyle had to drive straight into it. In between the city and my town we have to drive through 16 miles of desert to get home. While we were on that stretch of highway it was so thick and dark, I could only see the tail lights of the car in front of me. We thought it was pretty cool, but other drivers disagreed and there were several accidents on that highway. I'm glad we got home safely and although it was very cool to see, I prefer to be home when these things come through town.
Summer is here in Arizona and it's already hotter that heck, so I thought I'd share this little find with you. I'm finally found the perfect swimsuit for less than perfect bodies and I'm going to buy it from kneeshorts.com. For one, it's reasonably priced at $39.99 and because it's supportive and modest. Let's just be painfully honest here. I've given birth to 5 children, I cook and eat like Paula Deen, and don't exercise enough and it shows. There is no stinkin' way I'm going to prance around in a suit with my cheeks hanging out. I don't know about any of you other "fluffy" sized women, but the cellulite ripples are not only on my hiney...they roll right on down the legs as well. I don't care who you are...that's just UGLY! We won't even talk about tummies except if it's chunky like mine...cover it up! For the love of all things good and decent, please don't run around with it all hanging out for the world to see. That's all I've got to say about that. Now I can go to the water parks with my boys and not be completely embarrassed...well except for the fact that I have glowing white legs that resemble a plucked chicken, but that's nothing tan in a can can't fix, right?!

P.S. Thank you Andi and Susie Q for sending me the link to help Cole with his magazine report. It was a huge hit at school and he says he really likes you girls. That's a two thumbs up from a happy 10 year old boy!

I'm shutting down my computer for the night. It's faking sick and running slower than tar going up hill on a cold winters day...yada yada yada...It better be running speedy quick in the morning.

National SB day layouts

My sister Coleen and friend Jen came over to scrapbook with me on Saturday. Oh my heck was it hard to find my creative mojo. Plus I ran out of time last week to prepare in advance like I planned to so I only got 3 layouts done since I spent a good chunk of time printing pictures and being stumped on layout design. This first one is our family photos we took December 31'st before Chad left. I really love these pictures. I have a cute little family. Coleen finished her album for her mother in law and Jen got some very cute layouts done of her son Preston.
This layout is from the day Chad left for Fort Bragg. I still cry when I look at those pictures and think of that day. I don't think I will send this layout to him, because I don't want him to be sad or make it harder on him, but I will save it for his book so he has it. By the way....Terri, he sent me a message and said he received your care package. He wanted me to thank you so much for everything. He loves happy mail!This last layout was from Thanksgiving last year at my in-laws house. It was such a nice day, but Cole was home sick with the flu so Mark stayed home with him. So sad! I really struggled with this layout because I couldn't figure out how to get 16 pictures to look good on one layout. By the time I was done I liked it.
Me and Coleen. She's going to shoot me for posting these pictures since she had no make up on, but I think she always looks pretty.
Jen and Coleen...I set up a 6 foot table in here for the girls to use and there was still room to walk around to get to supplies. It worked out great.


Cole had the camera and kept taking pictures of us. Not very flattering, but he thought he was funny getting close ups of us. He even got a close up of my eye and Coleen was naughty and let a little finger birdy fly. Yep! He caught that on film too. Shame on her. :o)
We went to lunch at a mexican food restaurant here in Maricopa called Penascos. The food was good, but the service was beyond terrible. I knew we were in trouble when it took the waitress 10 minute to take my order alone...plus she wrote a one page novel in full detail and still got it wrong. I am a boring eater and ordered a taco tostada combo with no veggies, double beans no rice and a side of sour cream. I specifically said not even any lettuce on the plate to make it pretty. My food came out a tostada, rice, beans and lettuce garnish, then she brought me out a taco separately then a side of beans. I never got the sour cream. I ate half my food before she brought out Jen's food. She asked for extra lettuce and I had more than her. Coleen's food came out several minutes later. I am a slow eater so we still finished at the same time, but the whole experience was a joke. So many dumb things happened, that we couldn't help but laugh about it. We should have just gone to taco bell because we lost precious scrapping time. :o)
Thank you all so much for your compliments on my reorganized closet and your sweet words about my scraproom being published. You are all so sweet and I'm very excited about it.
Well it's now 1:25 in the morning and I NEED to go to bed!

winner...and scraproom closet

"What do you mean I can only pick ONE winner? I want them ALL to win!" "Okay....I pick VALERIE...and she tastes good too!"

Oh, thank you baby Mark for your help with the drawing since all the big boys were gone and thank you to all of you girls who showed me that you do indeed know how to comment. It was so nice to see so many new faces as well as my familiar friends. I loved reading all of them. It's pretty fun so I hope you all keep it up! Congratulations Valerie...enjoy your new ribbon. I will get it in the mail on Monday. :o)

I pulled dang near everything out of my scrapbook room closet today. In the process I made the BIGGEST mess in my scraproom. At one point I was so full of regret as I thought to myself "what were you thinking" There wasn't even room to walk. I went through a bunch of boxes, built a bookcase and cut and installed peg board. Then I hung up my supplies for my personal little "store" and loaded back in as much stuff as would fit.

It's not perfect, but it's way more organized. I know what I have and where to find it, so I love it! Plus now my scraproom is spotless and ready to make some creative messes tomorrow for National scrapbook day. I'm so excited, yet very tired. I better get some good sleep tonight. I'm pooped!

***Very exciting news!***

MY scrapbook room is going to be published in a book called Organized Spaces for Papercrafters. How cool is THAT?! I've never submitted layouts for publising because I do that for fun and for my family, plus I'm not quite good enough for that, but my scrapbook room is something I LOVE and have put a lot of thought and organization into, so I am beyond honored to be asked to do this. I still need to send her the pictures. Will do that this weekend. The book is due out in September. :o)

giveaway...boxes...dinner

I got these two little making memories boxes on clearance at Target several months ago. Today I finally embellished them. I put my new bazzill bling blossoms in the bottom one and haven't decided what to put in the top one yet, but they sure are cute! I put the little apple crate on top just because I liked it. Looks pretty darn cute on my little bookcase.

If you're looking for a quick and easy meal to make for dinner I tried this recipe of Paula Deen's tonight. It's called mexican chicken. Here is the recipe if you want to try it. The only thing I did different is add one more can of cream of chicken because I like it really creamy and it asked for 1 can of diced tomatoes. I accidental put in a can of tomatoes with mild green chili's. It worked out okay and just gave it more of a mexican flavor. I wouldn't put this on the top of my list for most favorite recipes, but it was good and fast. As you all know I'm so dang excited about National Scrapbook Day this coming Saturday, so I decided to share my excitement with all of you by having a giveaway. I ALMOST didn't part with this because it's really a great thing and I like it very much, so surely lots of you would enjoy it too. This little beauty comes with 40 spools of ribbon. Each spool has 4 yards with a grand total of 480 feet of pretty ribbon. Now that is ALOT of ribbon by golly! Even if you don't scrapbook, this ribbon can be used for many other things. If you would like to be in the drawing, just leave me a comment and I will have a boy choose a winner on Thursday night...and YES! lurkers are always welcome to comment on my blog anytime! It's all so pretty...you know you want it! :o)

Good luck ladies!

P.S. I got the pink purse and matching wallet at park and swap in East Mesa on Baseline and Signal Butte. They were very affordable! I don't buy expensive purses.

P.S.S. Did you know that you can click on the individual pictures in my slide thingies on my side bar and see them full size? I didn't until today...so stinking cool!