Lack of Technology

Hey Folks - it is with dread that I face this week without the laptop or the Man. He has flew off to Texas for work and thus I am at the library posting.

We did have a really good weekend though because the weather was so wonderful. It didn't even get to 80 yesterday - feels like WA. We played outside most of the day and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.

Today both boys are in school and it feels so weird to have this time to myself, although I've got lunch duty starting in 20 minutes. I'll do my best to post again on Wednesday, but I'm not making any promises. And there will not be pics, although I'll go back and fill you in next week and up load the First Friday Flashback when the Man returns.

Happy Working to Mammaw who is substituting at her old job. I know it will be fun for you to be with your friends again and knowing its only temporary is the best.

ANSWER to the Thursday Thinker

B C D G J O P Q R S U
A E F H I K L M N T V W X Y Z

The top row letters have curves, the bottom row of letters are all straight lines.

It was a thinker.

THURSDAY THINKER!

Let's have a little fun and work the brain.

Leave M.E. a comment with the completed pattern of the alphabet. I'll post the answer this weekend.
B C D G J O P Q

A E F H I K L M N

Reunited

The computer and I have been reunited and it feels so good. The Man had to go out to the rigs Monday and Tuesday night and of course taking the laptop with him leaving M.E. without.

He mentioned getting M.E. a blackberry (I hope he does) so I will have my email and perhaps be able to post some messages here.

So far today, I've taking Buddy to school and sat in front of this computer catching up on the goings-ons. I'll post photos later today.

And by the way, Wanda - no need to be jealous about my all night scrap, because I thought of you all night and ever told a story or two about Two-Page Wanda. Love Ya!

Once in a Lifetime

The Buddy is in Cub Scouts. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but he was really excited about it. I know its a wonderful organization and they do alot of cool stuff, but Buddy is very much an athlete and we invest alot of time and energy with his sports. I definitely do not want to over commit him during the school year - come on his only 6. So we are going to be playing it my ear and see how it goes. They said we only had to do things twice a month, but with the days flying by that's going to seem like all the time. As long as, school does not suffer we are a go. The October activity is a Mom & Me camp out. I'll admit I'm looking forward to having that time with Buddy by myself, something we never get. And we love camping.



Moving on to the ONCE IN A LIFETIME.... but in Buddy case, the 1st in a lifetime.
He caught or rather chased down a foul ball at the local AAA baseball game last night. He had taken his glove but wasn't wearing it at the time and honestly wasn't paying much attention. But when the ball hit the bleaches right in front of him, he was quick to chase it down before the other kids did. He was so excited. We took this pic in the parking lot before loading up to come home (you can see it in the pic, but it actually says *OFFICIAL BALL* on it - awesome). The Man said that he has never got a foul ball before, so it was once in a lifetime for him. My guess is it will only be the first, not the last, for Buddy!

This Weekends Layouts

So here is the layouts that I got done minus the 18 page set I did.
The boys love the pool at Grandpa and Nana's RV park in AZ.

This was so funny. Our buddies got to meet some new cousins while in NH over Christmas break and during dinner we heard one of the cousins ask Buddy, Can cousins be best friends?

[journaling reads: We were very surprised that you volunteered to help Nana brush Winnie considering you won't touch a dog or cat. It was a sure sign that you are growing up. And we couldn't be prouder of you]

Sorry Nana if I have the wrong horse named in the pic. I don't know which is which.

Love the boys looking in the windows of the ice cream shop.

One our stops on our spring break trip, the petrified Forest National Park.

The Scrapping Gals

I certainly missed Wanda, Audrey and Christy from back home in ole KY, but it was nice to have some company while scrapping all night. I managed to stay up until 4AM before heading upstairs to bed (we were at a hotel). I got 6 layouts completed and made an 18 page set, that I'm probably continue to embellish and give to the Buddy's school as a fundraiser item. I'll be posting that whole project when its done.

It was fun and I'm looking forward to the one in November.
Thanks Ladies for a great time!
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get pics of the layouts uploaded for you to see.

It was nice to get home today to all my boys. And many thanks to the Man for letting M.E. lay on the couch most of the afternoon recovering from lack of sleep.

Scrappin'

Today finds M.E. scrapbooking. I was invited to go to a crop by a wife of someone on the Man's work team. I was so excited and I got some stuff accomplished which was good.

I'll try posting pics of my work later this week.
Happy Saturday.

Surprise Mommy!

The Man was out-of-town yesterday, so I was without the computer, therefore I didn't upload my pics until today. And guess what I found when I did..... A surprise photo shoot of Buddy and Little Guy.
1) I have no idea when this happened, from the looks of it, I think Wednesday.
2) Where I was and how I missed it, I don't know.
3) And how they were brave enough to use my camera without my approval, I'm guessing must come from the Man's genes.
Photo #1 Features LG reclining, thus letting M.E. know Buddy was the instigator.


Photo #2 Features Buddy, but LG got his finger in the photo. I don't think LG has ever used my camera before so the fact that it turned out this good is not bad. I'm also pleased to see them taking turns. Unusual to say the least.

Photo #3: LG must have saw the photo on the screen and realized his mistake and got a better shoot of Buddy picking his nose.


Photo #4: They switched again. This is so pleasing to M.E. that they are taking turns and so we have LG sucking his finger or biting his nails or something like that. And Buddy zoomed out for more prospective. nice. Photo #5: We can see a glimpse of LG, so this is Buddy taking a pic of our dining room table that is in the living room. For the record, the two non-lite light bulbs are not burned out, I just loosen them so I wouldn't have to pay electricity to burn all 5 when all we really need is three. Does that make sense? Also, those are legos on the floor not bits of food. Ok, well maybe a few of them are bits of food. Photo #6: He gave the camera back to LG and here we have a great shot of Buddy, who is playing with the camera cable. No finger in the shot this time. LG is a fast learner.
Photo #7: LG decided to go for a similar shot but zoom out. He's definitely got talent.

Photo #8: LG capturing Buddy again. What I can't understand, is why neither of them is posing for the other? I would have thought, they would have been woo-hoo we got Mommy's camera let's be silly. But instead they are just capturing their normalcy. Its quite refreshing actually.
Photo #9: LG still got the camera and must have grown tired of capturing his brother, who was obviously watching tv, and got a picture of himself.
Photo #10: He decided to try that again and fill up the frame alittle more.

This concludes the boys' photo shoot of each other. They either got bored with it or heard M.E. coming - I'm not sure, because I apparently missed the whole thing.

But I will say is was a surprise and one that I will cherish.

Texture of Summer Challenge

For the record, I did not cry yesterday when dropping LG off at preschool. I could have. Easily. But I choked them back with some deep breathes and it wasn't so bad. It was almost anticlimactic. He had been there before and it wasn't brand new to him and he was only staying 3 hours. Friday we'll see how he does with an all day thing.

So I finally finished my scrapbook layout for the Dixie Pieces "Textures of Summer" challenge. You first probably think of the beach, sand, grass, those sorts of things, but after some brain storming and talking it over with the Man, I went with the textures of the garden. It is something that I can honestly say I've expected a lot of in the last 10 years. We had to use gray, baby blue and cranberry as our colors and there had to be doodling. So here's it is....

[the journaling reads: The Man had a really good time working in his 1st garden and I must say it was very successful. I can only imagine how big it will be next year!]

1st Day of PreSchool

First Day of PreSchool for Little Guy!

He was such a big guy walking into school. He has visited the playroom several times during church and he was in his classroom during vacation bible school, so he pretty much knew where he was going and what was up.

Here he is outside his classroom and yes, that's toothpaste on his shirt. He refused to change, so there we have it. His class is called FISH! It was only a half-day today, so the Man and I got to pick him up after lunch. He seemed to be happy and said he would be going back on Friday. He's too cute!

I would also like to recap yesterday. Buddy liked 1st Grade. He was please that it wasn't too much different from kindergarten but challenging enough to be considered a big boy.

Here's what I found in his back pack, which helps explain the strange spreadsheet, I talked about the other day.

I'm not sure who got the two touchdowns but both teams apparently missed their extra points. Here's another...

I think it's safe to say Buddy has sports on the brain.

Also in his backpack was a letter from the teacher going over the basics and it stated they would be having quiet rest time in 1st grade too and if students wanted to bring a pillow for their desk, they could.
Therefore, I present Buddy's pillowcase. I made it from the scraps of LG's pillow and trimmed it in blue for a Seahawk vibe. What'd ya think?

I might just have to get some sort of patch or iron-on transfer of the Seahawk logo to just set it off!

First Day of 1st Grade

Today was the big day.... 1st Grade.


First of all, M.E. couldn't sleep last night. The anticipation of having to get up early prevented M.E. from falling asleep or perhaps it was the 15 year delay in back to school gitters. What ever it was I was wide away when at 11PM, Little Guy wakes up screaming and crying with his legs again. He cried so hard he wound up vomiting. Nice. After some cleaning up and rocking in the recliner, I finally got him settled back in bed and got my self to bed and fell asleep for the first time about 1AM, then a huge stormed rolled through about 4AM wake M.E. up, then LG got up again at 5AM. Needless to say, I was frazzled this morning, but not Buddy. He jumped out of bed like a firecracker on the first mention of time to go to school. This was a good sign. The morning ran very smoothly and the Man was able to go with us to school, which was awesome.


Here's Buddy with LG, who is not happy, either its because he's up & out so early, still feels yucky, or he's going to miss Buddy. I'm guessing all three. [not sure why my pics are so blurry, I seriously need to consider a nicer camera]


The big 1st Grader!
We got to school early enough that the doors weren't open yet, so here we stand on the curb. Look at all the mixed emotions. M.E. alittle emotional about the 1st day of school experience for Buddy and overwhelmed that I have a 1st grader, LG seems a little put out, and Buddy excitedly spys a friend across the parking lot.They finally open the doors and we head in with all the other family like a huge herd of cattle. I've got a hand of each boy and as we enter school, Buddy gives my hand a big squeeze. I almost cried. He found his seat pretty quickly and began chatting with those around him. He seems happy enough, huh?


Yep, he's happy to be back at school. M.E. too!

You can't tell we are related can you. Oh my goodness!

LG just stood aside and observed with his little hands in his pocket too cute.

As were standing at the front of the room observing Buddy doing his bell work, a couple of his friends broke out in tears as their parents were trying to leave. I almost lost it. I really hadn't realized that I was going to be emotional. I understood my crying last year, it was the first day of school ever, but today - I'd been there done that. But when these little boys started the waterworks, I had to look away and get out of there or I would have been joining them. I can only imagine how tomorrow's going to go.... First day of preschool for Little Guy. I'll have to pack some kleenex.

Last Day of Summer Break!

I asked Buddy this morning how he wanted to spend his last day of summer vacation and he said, watch tv. ugh! The boys have really become coach potatoes and its coming to an end. Starting this week they will be earning tv time, I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
Mammaw read here, that LG needed a little pillow for preschool and said Walgreens had them, so off to Walgreens, we go. And we found one for $2.50, Thanks Mammaw, it sure beats $12.

Came home and started working on the pillow case. I'm super excited to say, its so cute.

Its going to look great with his mat and he thought is was awesome. So while I was working on it, Buddy comes to M.E. and asks what I'm making for him. Ah, how could I refuse him, so after some brain stormy we came up with a tool belt, aka bomb and weapons holder. I made one for both boys and they spent the rest of the afternoon playing together. Here's LG with his belt on. Buddy refused a picture.
I like the super hero pose he's got going on. Here's a close up.

There are 2 pockets, 3 little loops and one big loop. Let M.E. say they had a blast with them.

Supper was almost late, due to my sewing these, but it was worth it and supper was delish. I made some homemade chicken nuggets and they turned out really good. After supper, Buddy wanted to play some cornhole, as it was nice and breezy outside and tomorrow is a school day. We had a really fun time playing and Buddy even got a phone call from Grandpa and Nana wishing him luck tomorrow. He thought that was nice. We wound up staying outside until 8:30, then off to bed.

Buddy has mixed emotions about tomorrow. He likes staying home, but he misses his friends. We'll see how it goes.

Inside Buddy's head!

Good Sunday, but I didn't take many pictures today. We just laid around the house and played games and watched tv. Buddy is most excited about preseason football being on tv and watching the games, although he still is completely into baseball. So much so, he plays games in his head and keeps score on the computer.

Sorry the pic is so blurry, but it was hard taking a pic of the computer screen.

I wish I could have captured the whole screen and it be legible. The yellow team you see is LSU (they won the college world series) and the red team is OU (university of Oklahoma, we live in Oklahoma-go figure). They obviously were playing to games, LSU winning the first one. Second one still in progress. The Man and I find this spreadsheets all the time when we come back to the computer. Buddy has my mathematical skills - that's for sure.

This afternoon we went for a run in the water fountains and stopped for some Marble Stone Creamery. Yummy!

Projects Day!

We decided to spend the day on projects. After breakfast, we got ready and headed to a near by shopping center, where M.E. and LG went to Micheal's (Love this store) and the Man and Buddy went to Lowe's. Now this Micheal's store is really new and laid out totally different from anyone I've ever been in before and the entire center section of the store is scrapbooking. The whole thing. I was in awe, but I did not go in there for scrapbooking so I only briefly went through this section.

Back at home, I began work on LG's mat sheet. And I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

The Little Guy loved it.
He said he wanted to take a nap on it but I figured he'd just wind up pulling the mat out and tearing it up, so I opted to put it up until Wednesday. I've still got to make a second one, so I don't have to worrying about a quick turn around on washing it when its sent home. I'm also going to make a little pillow case, when I find a little pillow. The little ones at the fabric store were $12. I don't think so. I'll need to go by the dollar store for that.
I had every intention of doing more projects today, inspiration journal, door hanging and scrapping, but it didn't happen. Just played with the kiddos and had a fabulous day.

Meanwhile the Man was pricing and making plans to put french doors in the opening between the living room and sunroom. I'm excited for this project and will be happening in October. I'll keep you posted.

So maybe I was wrong about only 5 comments per post, as there are already 7 comments on the Sights of Summer post. It wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

This morning was school registration. It was exciting to go to school and see everyone, but it was not exciting to write that enormous check.

This afternoon the Man had promised Buddy to go bowling once last time of summer break and I needed to take LG to the fabric store. He will be taking naps in preschool, or rather they will be putting him on his mat in hope he takes a nap and they asked if we could provide a cover for the mat. A sheet of sorts.

The gears began turning and saw M.E. using my sewing machine in my near future. LG was so funny in the fabric store. He really had an opinion on what he liked and didn't like. This is what he eventually picked out.

He said he loved it and carried it all through the store and at home.
The blue fabric has planes, cars, racecars, firetrucks, & trucks on it and the green coordinates. I'm excited about this project too.

1st Grade Party

Tonight was the 1st Grade back to school party and let M.E. tell you Buddy was excited. He asked every hour on the hour when the party was, like he didn't know. The LG was also excited, but he didn't want to clean up this puzzle mess he made.

You see he loves puzzles and like to get as many out as he can. I guess its more challenging that way to have to see which piece goes with what puzzle.

Finally its time for the party and Buddy is jumping up and down to see all his friends. When we get there, he runs full steam in circles chasing his friends for a good 30 minutes. Then he settles into playing some games with them. Here's some of his friends, as he refused to let M.E. get a picture of him.

Buddy loves these guys.

It was a really good night and we are looking forward to the near year.

Blog Hop

If your here for the Dixie Pieces Blog Hop, I'm limited to 5 comments a post, so here's a post for you leave more comments. Check out my Sights of Summer below.

Thanks for Hopping By!

Sights of Summer

This week's challenge over at Dixie Pieces is the Sights of Summer, much like last weeks smells of summer, we could only use turquoise, green and white as our main colors and we had to hand-cut an embellishment.




First a hint of what my sight of summer was......



1. it was the cutest, most hilarous, adorable picture I've posted on the blog so far
2. it includes LG
3. it happened in July

Any guesses???






Of course LG asleep on the beach. What a sight, indeed!

12 on 12

Another new blog feature today called 12 on 12!

I know many of you are regular readers and you may sometimes get alittle 'burnt out' on the goings-ons in our corner of OK, so I'm trying out these new features to shake things up abit, you know the first friday flashback and there will be more, stay tuned.

So today, I'm taking a photo every hour on the hour (or very near the hour) so you can see how M.E. and the boys spent our day.

We begin at 9AM with pancakes on the griddle.

I totally love my griddle, if you don't have one put in on your christmas list, because they are fabulous.

10AM finds us getting in the van for a day of errand running.11AM finds up at the doctor's office getting immunization records for school, only 6 more days.

Noon we are at the beauty shop getting the boys pretty for school. Now as I've stated before Little Guy is very particular about his hair and who cuts, i.e. he only lets Novice do it. So I wasn't sure if he would get up there and do it. So Buddy went first and while he was up there LG got in a reclining chair, (that he didn't know reclined) and wound up throwing his self in a rinse sink and busting his chin open. Did I mention this was an upscale place? Yes the girls or rather stylist wear all black and the place looks like a magazine and here LG is bleeding on M.E. So, I don't know if it was the fact that he got hurt or the fact that he's coming into his own age, but when Buddy was done, he said my turn. SHOCKER!

Look at that shaggy mop. Here's Buddy with his handsome cut.
The boys were very happy with their haircuts, so we had to take this group shot outside.
1PM finds us beginning our grocery shopping at 'the' Wal-Mart as the folks here in OK say it. The Man and I always crack up when we here locals say "the" wal-mart, like there is only one. Any how, here's the boys with their chosen treats for being such champs on a day in the van. You can totally see LG's band-aid and that's an apple pie he's eating.

We don't normally get this kiddie cart, but it was right there waiting when we came in, so of course, LG wanted to get in it. It was very difficult to navigate.

2PM we are still in Wal-Mart. ugh! But we tried to have fun and be silly while in the longest check out line ever. Why do they even put in 30 check out lines, if they are only ever going to open 2. I mean seriously, it makes zero sense. zero.

3PM finds us at home.... more pics coming. I'll try to update before bed so you can see the whole day... Thanks for reading.

[EDIT: obviously I didn't upload pics before bed, but here's the rest of the 12on12]

3PM finds us at home.. the boys showing off their new toys.

4PM find M.E. updating the blog with the previous pics.
5PM I've begun making supper. Buddy's request Lasagna. Cheesey mixture + Meat Sauce = yummy goodness.

6PM the yummy goodness comes out of the oven.
7PM, I forgot to take a pic, imagine that.

8PM finds the boys with the Man, whose playing on the computer. LG had just gotten out of the bath tub, hence the blanket.

Hope you enjoyed the 'a day in the life of us'. I think next month, it'll be just 12 random picutres of the day vs. the on the hour thing. That was hard to remember and when the boys go to school, I'm sure it'll be quite boring just seeing M.E. all day. Change can be good!