Summer Slacker

Sorry about the lapse in new postings. I am thinking that the ole blog is on summer vacation. We have been busy with swim team and getting up early and being tired all the stinkin time! Ok - so maybe I am the only one having a hard time with the early wake ups for swim team. I really love the sleep!

SB's big half iron man is coming up this weekend. He is saying that this is his last long distance triathalon. (we'll see!) So, if you think about it - send a quick prayer for him. He is thinking he is gonna be hurtin when he finishes this one. I on the other hand think he will do fantabulous! (new word - ok not for me - but am farely certain it isn't in the dictionary)

The kids and I are going to see Shaggy Dog this afternoon. We had a small glitch in our plans for the day and had to scramble to find something "fun" to replace it. I have wanted to see this movie and now is my chance. B wasn't very excited until we found a trailer online for him to see. (isn't the internet awesome?!!) Hope you enjoy your day and just know the postings will be fewer and longer in between.

I have been working on a new and exciting venture! My friend and her friend have started their own scrapbooking manufacturing business and I am designing papers for them. I am so stinkin (hee hee just to bug you Kelly- she thinks I say stinkin way too much!) excited to be doing this. They want to have a paper line for the CHA trade show this summer. I have been playing around for a few months now and have finally come up with something I am truly excited about and inspired by. Of course I can't show you what I am talking about at this moment but hopefully in the very near future I can unveil my first scrapbooking masterpiece.

Domestic Diva

Well the verdict is finally in and it is looking glum. I always thought that once that you had a laundry line hanging in your backyard that life was over! Not to mention being excited about having one - I have actually been wanting one all summer! Every morning we go to swim team and then come home and hang the swimsuits and towels over chairs. I just kept thinking how wonderful it would be to have a laundry line - so I found one at Lowe's that is retractable! (and I am so thrilled to have it!!) Notice the underwear hanging at the far end and the clothes pins in the lower left side (eek! did I really just say clothes pin?) Okay - at least it isn't in the front yard!
I think now I am an official Domestic Diva. Or maybe not. . . you decide!

Bahama Mama

Ok! I am back after a brief respite to the Bahamas. I know, it was really rough and mean of me to be gone for so long on the ole blog. I am back and rolling - so to say! (hee hee)

Anyone interested in our scuba trip and what we did? Well I will tell you anyway. We had a great time. We saw boats and planes that had been sunk for one reason or another (mostly to film movies - they say that most movies with underwater scenes have been filmed in the Bahamas.) On one of our dives we swam amongst the fish - our dive guide was on the boat feeding the fish - they were parrot fish and seargent majors. I think that was one of my favorite dives. We got to dive deep, I went 85 feet and Sb went 101 feet (shame on him). There was a wall (that is when the coral drops off from about 45 ft to 6500ft!) That was a little eerie but cool at the same time.

We also saw the fence that surrounds the area where Sean Connery's Bahamas house is! We also saw lots of rain - but we didn't mind it. We haven't seen rain or thunderstorms in ages! One night we even woke up to the loudest thunder ever - it shook our room. Not to mention that when you scuba it doesn't matter if it rains because you get wet anyway.

We went with a big group of about 65 people. Loved, loved, loved the people. Met some fantastic peeps! Wish I could've gotten to know them more.

I don't have too many pictures to post right now but will have tons in a week or two. The pictures here are the view from my poolside lounge chair and the hotel with stormy rain clouds behind it.

Sixbit's 35th Birthday

Today was Sixbit's birthday. We had a nice slow and easy day (unless you were Sixbit - who biked 50 miles and ran 9 miles!). Boo wanted to give SB something very special for his birthday so he gave him Puppy! SB said that he couldn't possibly take puppy - maybe for a sleepover for a night - but not forever. A gave SB her special caremello candy bar she got from her teacher for "caring so much" over the year. C wrote SB a special birthday poem and made him a card.



His favorite kind of cake is a chocolate roll up. I have made these in the past and are really yummy. I set about making this for him today and seemed to have major problems. It turns out that it was way toooo thin and stuck to the towel and wouldn't release. Therefore you couldn't roll it up. The comments were:

• Culinary treat
• Dessert never looked so good
• Place your orders now
• That is the best cake ever
• Very tasty
• Something about a new recipe that should be in all the cookbooks

Would you say they were being nice or sarcastic. We ate it anyway and SB was excited because he thinks I need to redeem myself tomorrow and make another one.

Rose Colored Glasses

Our neighbors are moving (no, no, no, - not the desk moving boys!) and so we had them over for home-made pizza, chocolate cake and ice cream last night. We had a great time and of course wished we had done that more. She brought me these beautiful roses for my table. I love fresh cut flowers adorning my kitchen. Flowers just seem to brighten it up! I can't help but to smile whenever I walk through the kitchen and see them sitting on the table!

Taxi Cab Driver

I am gonna copy Kk and Miss Miss with my post about the meyer's and briggs personality test. I just took it and think it is probably right on the money. I tested as an ESTP (extraverting, sensing, thinking, perceiving) and here is the description of that:

Caring, generous, cooperative, and enjoys helping others. Friendly, gregarious, energetic, vivacious, and charming. Often the life of the party. Tolerant and accepting of self and others. Has practical common sense. Accentuates the positive. Enjoys new experiences and has zest for life. Really like the charming part!!!

And then it has a section on typical jobs that might fit with my personality (how they came to these conclusions is way beyond me!)

• animal groomer or trainer, occupational therapist, special events coord. athletic coach, performer, teacher, physical therapist, transportation operative, designer police officer dietician professional athlete, travel agent, fitness instructor, public relations specialist, veterinarian, fund-raiser, real-estate agent, medical assistant, recreation worker, musician, salesperson, nurse, social worker

I think this is a funny list and especially like the transportation operative (does that mean a taxi driver?)

What a great waste of 15 minutes. If you have 15 minutes to spare why don't you take this extremely insightful test!!

YAY Neighbor Boys!!!

Neighbors are the coolest!! I love my neighbor. She has 2 sons who are in high school (well, actually one that just graduated last week) - anyway they helped me to move my big desk from the office room to the "red chair" room (which doesn't even have a red chair in it anymore!). SO, I give a BIG shout out to you 2 - Peter and Ben - your ice cream gift cards are on their way! I suppose I need to mention that these boys had been out working in their grandparents yard all day in the heat and they came home to me requesting their help! I also need to mention that my desk is all wood and all one piece. They had to take the door of the frame to get it outside so we could bring it through a big enough door to fit.

See, I was so stinkin inspired this past weekend and decided that I needed an inspiring place to continue to be inspired. I am still working on my space and this was a much bigger job than I had anticipated. (aren't they all!!) I have some really fun and great ideas and can't wait to get started!

Girl's Weekend

I got to take a long vacation this past week - which is why my blog was soooo quiet. I met up with my very great friend from California to go to CKU in Provo, Utah. (CKU is the ultimate scrapbook convention - in case you haven't heard!) My girlfriend has recently started a new scrapbooking manufacturing business (Across the St.) and so we also got to promote her new product the lazy scrapper. We had sooo much fun. We met some really neat gals and gleaned some really groovy tricks and tips. I am very much inspired. I have to give a big shout out to Sixbit for letting me go at such an incredibly busy time. I also give a big shout out to Sixbit's mom and dad for picking up my slack!

My favorite project of the weekend was this book that we made. It is totally awesome. It is meant to be a self reflection activity. Christy Tomlinson of Chatterbox was the teacher and she told us to look through magazines to find phrases that describe ourselves. Ooops I forgot to mention that the title say "A woman has 3 hearts..." and then on the stems it says "One she shares with the world" then "one she shares with her family" and then "one she shares with only herself". I just gotta say I love this because it is an inward reflection of who you are and it gets you thinking... Anyway, then you journal about each phrase and why it means whatever it means.

Thanks DAD!!

My dad bought me this new toy. It is a pencil mouse. It enables you to create on the computer in a whole new way. I just called my dad to ask him about his and within the week - I had one sitting at my door. What a DAD!!! I can't wait to get some time to play. Isn't it cool!!!

Runners, Bikers and Swimmers

I wanna give a big shout out to all my triathletes! Not to mention, Sixibit won 2nd place in his age group! Good job all 4 of you! You all earned your Frontier breakfast this morning!

Pigs and Horses

The other night, Kandid Kiwi came over early before Survivor. It was a beautiful night so C, A, KK and I all played horse and pig. Well, actually I watched while KK and C played a monumentally long game of horse where C won! This picture is of her victory dance. So, then I wanted to play and we all decided we had better play something shorter. Pig it was! Unfortunately, I was the first one out! This seems to be a pattern. See the chicks poker article! I want everyone to notice how low the basket is. How pathetic for me, huh?!! Also, I want everyone to notice KK's big dunk. Isn't she awesome! Well, we had a great time anyway.

Ma'ams and Homeless Men

I know I said I would blog about my weekend - but my day was too blogworthy not to blog about it instead! I am going to try and recap.

First off, I took B to the dr - he has had a goopy green snotty nose for about a month now. I kept thinking it would just go away and it never did. Turns out he has a sinus infection. Well, no big deal there. We go to Target and fill his prescription (never used their pharmacy before) - and did you know they have colored rings to color code family members! That was just one of the highlights of my day. I know - it doesn't take much.

I take B back to school and help out in his class and then come home and start on my list. I had everything all planned - mind you. While I was starting on my list, I hear a loud thump above my head in the ceiling. Now, I have to explain that last night I heard the loud thump at 11:30 and B and I investigated and found nothing - although we did not look in the attic. So, this afternoon I was totally freaked and convinced myself that a homeless man had moved into the attic. So, I grabbed my stuff and left very hastily, I must say. After much consideration, I came home and called my neighbor who came over to stand guard while I - well - used the facilities. ;0) She looked in the attic and GUESS WHAT!! To my surprise - there was NO homeless man. She did not find anything! Go figure.

Anyway, I was out and about running errands and some high school punk asked, "Can I help you ma'am?" Can you believe it?! I don't think I have ever been called ma'am.

And then tonight was my first PTO meeting as president. I was so prepared and had door prizes and agendas and you name it - I was so organized. But. . . I blew it. Our meeting started at 6:30 and we didn't get out until 9:00! I had to email everyone with a sincere apology. I promised never to have a 2 page agenda again. I guess, chalk it up to lack of experience.

In spite of it all, I actually got most of my list done. Just not the watering, vaccumming or cleaning for 45 minutes. Oh well, I will just try again tomorrow.

New Header! YAY

A and I played around tonight and figured out how to put a picture for the header background. We had to try and try and try . . . finally we figured out the right combination. Of course, there are still some small glitches. But. . . I am tired and don't want to fool around with this any more tonight. I am off to bed and maybe someday soon I will play around some more and tweak it to perfection. I like having all of our pictures in the title. The picture was something I just threw together - I didn't want to put too much effort, in it in case it didn't work. I would have been extra fustrated!

Hopefully, the weekend was good for everyone. I am going to blog about my weekend tomorrow. So, tune in if you want to hear about our first Saturday at home in over 378 million weekends (or so it seems!).

Shameless Plug

I have been playing around tonight and found CafePress. So, as you can imagine - I set up shop. It is a pretty cool place because you can upload your artwork and have it printed on a variety of products. I think this might be my new hobby. We'll just have to see. It could also be one of those things that just never comes to fruition. I guess only time will tell. You'll have to check it out and let me know what you think.

New Pillows and Fresh Starts

I have been searching and searching for just the right accent pillows for our new bed ensemble. At last, I have found something that excites me! Now I need to find some curtains and some new blinds. We have been working on this for quite some time now. I even have an interior decorator friend who has offered to help me decorate in there (which I need - I need someone who is taller than me and can stand on a chair to get higher still!) Not to mention I can buy stuff I like, i just can't seem to place it just so!


Tonight we took our oldest to her new middle school for the 5th grade tour. I am not as sad this time around (I dropped her off last month so she could take the enriched math test and when I left her there it just tore my heart! I sobbed and sobbed! And I thought kindergarten was hard!). It doesn't seem as big - maybe because I saw some of my PTO moms there and so I don't feel so lost! At least I have the summer to gradually grow into this change.

My Closet

I have this closet with folding doors in my hallway and one time (a long time ago) I cleaned it out and put built in shelves and my father-in-law helped me to install a small table top, too. I had high hopes of it becoming my craft room. All it ever did was collect JUNK! Go figure. I never really have time for crafting so it just became a junk closet.

This weekend I cleaned it out and managed to find an entire black grabage bag full of trash! Remember a few posts back when I said I couldn't find fly lady and needed to desperately to find her - well she was so kind to come out of hiding for a few hours to help me with this enormous endeavor! Any way, now my junk closet has high aspirations once more - this time to become my office! I think it has real potential. I will have to keep you updated on its progress. Make sure you notice the cool little pencil holder and mail holder!

Game Time!

I have a new "blog toy" on my blog. But. . . it is hidden somewhere on my home page. You have to search to find it! Let me know when you do!

I just wanted to share my front garden with you all. I was extremely surprised to see a white iris growing (not only one but several). I really can't remember ever seeing one of those in my garden before. I don't think I planted it and I know the neighbor across the street has some white ones but I don't think they can spread so far like some other flowers can. So, what I am trying to say is that I do not know where they came from but am certainly glad they came to my garden!

The other iris is just so pretty with its dual tones. I feel so proud of my garden - this is the time of year that it shines. It is a bulb garden, so the rest of the year it is just green without much color. I always try to grow annuals but never have much luck. Maybe it is because I start too late. I am so proud of it but I can't really take much credit for it since most of the bulbs were here before we moved in.

I hope you enjoy the blooms!

Runners, Cartoons and Chicks

I am so proud of my hubby! He completed his first marathon on Saturday and was still halfway alive afterwards. Check out his blog to hear all the details.

You just have to check out Laughter Thought's latest post. It is such a crack up and I was thinking that it is so true! Click here to find out what I am talking about.

A few of us girls got together last night and played a little "Chick" Poker. Not a single one of us really knew what we were doing. We had a good time and of course there was prizes at the end. I won the grand prize which was a very pink water bottle sporting a shiny pink caribeaner. Which was a nice consolation since I was the first one to lose all of my chips (which by the way were white, pink and red). It wasn't uncommon to hear words or phrases such as . . . I'm reverse bluffing, No, you have nothing - you need 5 in a row to make a straight, Diva, I'll let you chicks just fight it out, You are such a Shane, YOU NEED 5 in a row to make a straight! Well, anyway, it was a good time and we have plans to do it again in the very near future.