New Years Eve

Around here we don't do anything really exciting. We went to Outback for dinner (yay! didn't cook!) Usually we just hang out & watch movies. Then tune in to watch the ball drop & we go to bed. Yeah it's boring but that's how it's been since we had the girls. Now that they're older things haven't changed much...maybe next year. ;)

Good Luck with your resolutions....I can't commit though there are lots of things I'd like to try...

• Be more focused


• Lose weight


• Spend time more wisely


• Scrap more, without obsessing with making it "perfect"


• Finding balance

Happy New Year's Eve!!

May you all have a wonderful 2011!

School Kits: Kindergarten Miss M

I can't tell you why there's such a L-O-N-G gap since I last shared school LO's......well actually I can. I procrastinate. I dwell over the little things, making them into big things. I need to "let go" & enjoy the process more. Seriously. I've had the first LO done for a while (early Nov.) but didn't want to share it until I had the second LO done that goes with it. Then I got hung up on that & couldn't finish it so I didn't share. They sat on my desk staring at me...making me feel guilty with their evil glares....but then I showed them to my sisters & had the breakthrough I needed to get past the hang up & get it done! Don't know why it took so darn long.....unless you toss in the fact that the Holidays took over for awhile...

So if anyone out there is still interested, here is the 1st LO..... detail shots....and the second LO....that threw me off....

See this journaling card?? Believe it or not THAT'S what threw me off!! I was stumped about what to embellish it with. After showing it to my sisters around Thanksgiving I mentioned this stamp I had but didn't feel it would go with the LO. They reassured me it wouldn't matter & I realized I had to let go of the small stuff & just go with it. So I took the stamp (from OTC??) & I stamped it onto different colored cardstocks & cut them out & pieced it together. I think it works after all.

So if you're still with me THANK YOU. I was trying to squeeze this in before the end of the year & will start fresh with the new year!

Word of the Day:ORGANIZE

Not that I'm actually doing a lot of organizing.

Mostly I'm thinking about it.

A LOT.

The start of a new year always spurs ideas of un-planned organization around here.

It never fails.

After a trip to Michaels today I put together one more of those storage cubes....for my laundry room. Already had 4 in there but wanted another to store Marissa's Easy Bake Oven when she's not using it....which has been since just about when she got it. ;)~ And yes I use my laundry room for storage. Yes it's the only room in the house that is truly "mine", & yes I store other people's crap in there.

You figure that one out will ya?

Sorta before I started (already took some stuff off the top before remembering to take a pic)...
And After.....Yes I know it's not much of a change but the cube adds more secure storage so the damn thing won't come tumbling on my head as I do laundry.
Any-whooo!! Like I was saying, I've got organizing on my mind. There's a cabinet in my kitchen that needs to be completely re-done...to make room for other things from a different cabinet in my kitchen....which needs more room to store my ever growing collection of coffee mugs (that have not been all bought by me, despite my telling people I do not need anymore mugs, thankyouverymuch).

Then there's the china cabinet in the dining room that seems to have some space that I could use for all the assorted Christmas platters/plates. The plates usually takes up two huge rubbermaid containers that go in the crawl space & they are flippin' HEAVY. So I'm changing things up a bit to make room in the dining room which hardly gets used except for about two or three times a year.

I told Joe we've outgrown this house. He agreed.

Send help.

The Blizzard AFTER Christmas

So it wasn't a white Christmas around here. It snowed AFTER Christmas....and I'm ok with that.

We didn't have to go anywhere.

No one was coming over.

We could just stay put!

It was great! We stayed in our PJ's & played with our new toys, watched movies & ate leftovers, while the wind blowed terribly & the snow came down.These were taken from the inside of the front door....I wasn't stepping foot out there!This is the other front door that leads into our kitchen...I just opened the door & snapped a pic. Looks so pretty!

This morning Joe, of course, sets out to go to work so he shovels his half of the driveway, knowing I wasn't leaving the house. However he realized after shoveling that it just wasn't worth going out there & possibly getting into an accident. So he called his guys & told everyone to stay home--YAY!! I've told him time & time again that he NEEDS a snowblower but he's got nowhere to store it & just sucks it up. Later on our next door neighbor came over with his snowblower & did the other half of the driveway.....thank you cookies were sent over!

You can't even see the pathway to our front door!The backyard doesn't look as bad...but if you look close the middle swing is buried under snow.This wasn't shoveled at all. It was the wind!! It made these crazy snowdrifts.

So it's a good day to stay in & play. Love it when we're snowed in & everyone's home!

Stay warm!

Christmas Day 2010

Merry Christmas to All!!


Had a little bit of a late night last night between all the cleaning up & the last few presents that needed wrapping. So the kids let me sleep later this morning while waiting patiently to open their presents.

They know the drill...before opening presents they need to have their pic taken in front of the tree.The girls have been asking for new comforter sets but instead of the polka dot ones they wanted I found ones with OWLS--they were a HUGE HIT!!There were a lot of Owl gifts this year. And I was lucky to find owl wrapping paper at Target. Of course all the owl gifts were wrapped in that paper....and Marissa figured out the theme! Nothing gets past her!Dolls still hold a fascination for Gianna. She's still into Strawberry Shortcake, which brings back so many memories for me...love the scented dolls! ;)These Harumika fashion dolls are huge with the girls. It's a mannequin that comes with fabrics & you create fashion styles for them. This Rapunzel doll from "Tangled" tortured me. Within minutes of taking it out of the package Gianna manged to tangle the hair. I did my motherly duty & de-tangled it only to have it brought back to me in 5 mins all tangled back up. GRRRR....I un tangled it again but then braided its hair by hand (not the stinkin machine that tangled it) & told her to leave it that way.

There's no pics of me opening presents of course. Joe had been teasing me with hints about something he got me that "I've been asking him for", that for the life of me could not figure it out. Turns out he got me a "P-Touch".

Do you hear crickets?

Um, yep I've asked him to bring home his p-touch from work so I could BORROW it but didn't really want my own. Don't get me wrong the organizer in me will use it.

Then he brings out another box....

It's the iPad! The other gift was just to throw me off! Now I didn't ask for either thing but I'm pretty darn happy with my gifts. LOL! He was sure that I was going to smack him with the p-touch!

Joe got a new coat, & a load of DVDs. He was a happy camper

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2010

Every year we celebrate Christmas Eve at my house. This is when we all swap presents between my sisters & Joe's Dad. It's not a lot of people but it's still a housefull. I make appetizers & have the meal catered then serve it all buffet style.

During it all my sisters & I take pictures....TONS of pictures! I even managed to get in a few.

We managed to get some pictures of all the kids in front of the tree. Of course we had to tell them they couldn't open presents until we took pictures....you'd think they'd know the routine by now!! Then we got our annual "Sister" picture.

When it was finally time to open presents we sort out all the gifts & give each kid their pile of gifts.Then we torture them even more by taking MORE pics first!!Finally at the end of the night I managed to get a family pic in front of the tree.
Of course we can't go to bed without leaving out cookies & milk for Santa! The girls quickly got into their Christmas jammies & made sure to leave a nice sample of cookies & carrots for Santa & his reindeer.

Then it's off to dream about the goodies Santa might bring!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Hoping to get back to regular blogging soon...have some posts to catch up on. In the meantime..... I hope all your Christmas wishes come true!!

Holiday Class Parties 2010

These past two days we have been in party mode around here.

Yesterday was Gianna's Holiday class party.

They made crafts.
They played games.
They had snacks.
It was lots of fun.

One of the crafts was cutting paper snowflakes.Then they split the kids into 2 groups & played games. One of the games they played was Marshmallow toss. They split each group into teams & then they had to toss marshmallows into the other groups mouths. Hence the wide open mouths. I wanted to join in too.

The next day Marissa's class had their Holiday party.

They played games.
They had snacks.
It was lots of fun.

Marissa's class broke into 3 groups & each group had to turn one kid on their team into a reindeer. They blew up balloons stuffed them into stockings (un-used of course) then "dressed" the reindeer. Starting with the nose, they added a scarf & finally the "antlers". First team to finish won bragging rights. Marissa's team won way before the other two teams.

It's also the last day of school for Holiday/winter break. The kids will be home until January 4th. Wish me luck. ;)

My Christmas Angel

Today Marissa's 4th grade CCD class put on a Christmas pagent at church.

Marissa was an angel.

She had wanted to be Mary or the Angel Gabrielle but they were taken. They had a few kids read the story & the rest of the kids just acted their parts. The kids mainly just stood there, trying to remember to smile.She looked so sweet & innocent. So peaceful. This is mainly what the angels did the whole time.They even had a real "Baby Jesus". It was a cute show.Another pic for my December Daily album that isn't even close to being considered an album. HA! Talk to me in January! ;)