PIF Update!

I'm excited to say that I only need 1 one more taker in my PIF challenge! So far I've got Juli, Missy, Gaby, and Patti. Missy, I don't think I have your new address since you moved, could you send it to me please? My email address is located at the top left corner of my blog. I love looking at the pictures on your blog of your flowers and trees, btw. It look so peaceful where you live :). I know you're gonna love that hammock :). Thanks so much for the compliment on my stitching! Hopefully I'll get another taker in the next day or 2. I've already started flipping through charts and have some really good ideas. Thanks for participating, girls!

Pay it Forward!

Today I signed up for Julie's PIF exchange and am inviting you to join me in mine. She only needed 1 more person to stitch for so I decided to hop in :). Here is how it works: I will send a handmade gift to the first 5 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I have no idea what that gift will be and only promise that you will receive it within the next 365 days. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog (or - in your life - if you happen to be blog-less). I hope you will join me in this exchange. All I need is 5 interested stitchers! I LOVE these kinds of things and know it'll be tons of fun :). You know you wanna join :o).


Moving along.....

You should've seen the lightening show we had last night! It was awesome! A big storm rolled through but we just got the edge of it. Mike got Cassie out of bed so she could watch the lightening as she'd never seen a show like that one. Very neat but then again I love stormy weather :). It rained again for a while this morning but dried up quickly and got pretty hot again. My little fish are swimming once again so I was able to catch up on some things inside without having them yell for Mama a bagillion times. I tell ya, they'd live in the water if I let them. I'm not a big pool person but once I'm near the ocean I don't want to leave either. That's how I felt when I was in Chicago last month. I wanted to hang around Lake Michigan a lot because it reminded me of the ocean. Anyway, I LOVE summer and love it when they're home with me but they just don't ever seem to get tired. I can't imagine why either. They don't drink anything with caffeine in it. You'd think I pump them full of sugar all the time..LOL!

I think I'm melting

It's so hot! I always keep my hair pretty long but it's days like this that make me wanna shave my head. I think it's my hair that makes me so hot. Thank goodness for ponytails! I don't usually get a chance to post during the day but the kids are swimming so I have a few free minutes :). We've been out and about running errands today. Nothing exciting...just your typical boring errands. I picked up my contacts and was pleasantly surprised when I did. I have to have toric lenses and they were a whole lot less than I thought they'd be. YAY! We did stop off at Backdoor Theatre so I could get some tickets. I'm taking Cassie to see Disney's High School Musical Friday night. She's so excited! She LOVES that show. My best friend and her husband are going too. We're not sitting with them but pretty close. I had planned on taking Cassie on Saturday night until I found out Nealy & Patrick were going on Friday. We decided it would be more fun to go at the same time. Plus, she's good friends with the mother of the guy who's playing Troy so I'll be able to get some pics of Cassie with them afterwards :). We did make it to Penney's to get Cassie a new swimsuit. I don't know what happened between March and now but she really grew. I bought this other swimsuit for her in the spring and she can't wear it. I have a hard time finding swimsuits for her because she's so tall she can't wear a one piece, they don't fit her right. She's not much shorter than me..lol. If we get it to fit lengthwise then it's too big everywhere else. We don't do bikinis, only tankinis that cover just about everything up. Those aren't easy to find. I don't understand why they have so many skimpy swimsuits for little girls out there and why people buy them. There's plenty of time for that later. Sure some of them are cute but you never know who might be out there lurking about watching a kiddo in a teenie bikini. I think little girls should look like little girls :). No offense meant to those of you who like the teenie bikinis....it's just my own personal opinion. I must scamper off and figure out what we're having for dinner. Something Mexican sounds really yummy...a cake or pie doesn't sound too bad either :).

Well part of the day was good...

I couldn't sleep at all last night! I kept sneezing my head off and was stuffy. I didn't really feel sick at all I just couldn't stop sneezing. I didn't get to bed until 12:30 and had a buggery time sleeping. When I did doze off I'd wake myself up sneezing. Mike picked a really bad movie to watch last night while I was stitching and that didn't help me sleep either. We watched Sublime...not my choice and I don't recommend it. It was horrible. My least favorite movie in the world is The Hills Have Eyes. Now I can say this is my 2nd least favorite movie. Don't waste your time by watching it. Not a good movie for anyone to watch who might be going in to the hospital for any kind of procedure. Anyway....I was so tired this morning I just couldn't muster up the energy to get myself all prettied up for church. I had promised my mom I would go shopping with her this afternoon so I decided to hang out at home and try to wake up until it was time to go. I usually wear her out but this time she wore me out. I can usually shop until the cows come home but I wasn't worth too much today. I did muster up the energy to try on several tops at Penney's when I saw they they just marked them down to 75% off...LOL! I actually woke right up when I saw that! I ended up buying 4 really really cute tops. I was *really* trying not to buy anything blue. I've noticed I really wear a lot of blue. It was hard to pass them up but I did. Instead, I got all black..LOL! I know but they're all really different and so cute! I've noticed that I wear a lot of blues, browns, and black. I really should wear more colorful things I guess but I don't think I don't look good in light colors at all and I don't think I look good in greens, orange, and purples either. We found a lot of bargains. Just when I thought we were coming home she decided to stop at Cato's when we passed by. I'm really glad we did because I found the cutest things on clearance for Cassie. I got her a long denim skirt, a pair of shorts, and a pair of capris with a matching top all for $20. How great is that?! I saved Mike a lot of money today...LOL!

We had a really good time all the way up until she dropped me off. Not even 5 minutes later she called and told me to call the police :(. Shortly after she left my house and was fixing to get up on the interstate, someone pulled right out in front of her and caused her to hit them :(. It turns out the dummy driving that car didn't have her insurance card or license so she got some tickets. Luckily she was less than 5 minutes away so I got to her quick. Why do people do that? Pull right out in front of you? We were going down Southwest Parkway earlier today and some idiot did that to us. There are 3 lanes and we were in the far left lane. This dummy was at a stop sign and instead of pulling in to one of the other 2 lanes guess which lane they picked? Yep, ours. Even though there wasn't anyone in the other 2. Some people just don't need to be driving.

Made a little progress

I worked on my Halloween fairy for a bit last night for my Friday Fairy SAL with my friend, Rachel. I got a bit done on her but not too much. I would have liked to have gotten more stitched on her but am I am still seeing some progress with the little bit that I did. I was just telling Rachel that I really need to stitch more on her wings. See that light shade of green in them? It's kind of hard to see in the pic. There's a bunch of it. I get bored when I stitch with a boring color for very long. I'm afraid if I save all of it until the end I'll just get sick of the piece and toss it aside. I'm gonna try to make an effort to stitch a bit on the wings every Friday when I work on her. I'm really happy with the way she's turning out and can't wait to display her this Halloween. I'm really looking forward to the beading. I love pieces that call for beading.

We've had a pretty good weekend. We're not doing anything spectacular, just kind of hanging around. Yesterday I took the kids swimming. We have a family membership at the YMCA and they've got a really nice pool so we've been trying to take advantage of it. We went out to lunch today and did some browsing around a bit. Tomorrow after lunch my mom wants me to go shopping with her. She and my dad are taking Cassie to Branson in a couple of weeks and she wants to do some shopping for the trip. Cassie is extremely excited. This is the first time that she's gone on a trip without us. My parents are really excited too and have lots of fun things planned. Joshua and I will be puppy sitting while they're gone. Look at this face? How could you not wanna puppy sit this sweet little thing?

I finished up a birthday gift tonight so must go pack it up. I hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Happy belated 4th!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We went to Arlington yesterday for a Rangers game. We like to go on the 4th because they have a fantastic fireworks show after the game. Before we left for the game I was really worried that it would either be rained out or delayed. Last year when we went it was delayed for and hour and a half because of rain. I was watching the weather and it had been raining on and off most of the day. It said there was still a 70% chance for rain at game time but luckily it held off and everything was right on time :).

I was really happy to discover when we got to our seats they were in their own little section. There wasn't anyone sitting in front of us or behind us. That made it really easy to get out when everyone needed to go potty. We didn't have to hop over 20 people. I may try to get tickets in that section every time we go to a game. Hopefully we'll make it to another one this summer. We just have the best times when we go to those games. As you can see Cassie was all dressed up for the occasion...lol. Since there wasn't anyone around us who could take a pic, Mike tried to take it of all of us. As you can see there are only fractions of each kid in the pic...LOL! Joshua had the best time! He LOVES baseball!! He asked me repeatedly how he could get out on the field. I kep telling him he couldn't go out there so he asked me when he got big like me if I'd take him down there to play. Sure. Nooooo problem...LOL! He was all sorts of in to that game and was thrilled when they won. I just LOVE this picture!! The drive wasn't too bad. I was a little bored though. I sat up front and drove all by myself while Mike and the kids sat in the back and watched a movie. That doesn't seem very fair, does it? LOL :). I waved at the stitching shop on the way to the stadium *sigh*. The next game we go to will definately have to be when the shop's open. The fireworks show after the game was awesome! It seemed to take forever to get out of that stadium though. When we got to the car I had the kids put their jammies on so they could sleep on the way back. It took about another hour to get from the parking lot to the interstate. I don't know what the hold up was but that has never happened before. We usually get right out with no problem. We didn't end up getting home until after 2 this morning :O. I felt bad for Mike...he had to get up at 7:30 to get ready for work. I bet he's in a reeeeally good mood today...lol. Oh well....I have a dinner date with a friend so in the event that he is grumpy I won't have to endure his grumpiness for very long. I'm leaving right after he gets home...lol. In the event that he's REALLY REALLY grumpy, I might just have to find some errands to run after my dinner date...LOL! He usually doesn't have to be at work until 12:15 p.m. but someone went on vacation so he's filling in for them. We already had the tickets when they had changed his schedule. I must go finish folding laundry :).

Cow Milkin

First let me just say how shocked I am that it's raining again! The waters can't recede if the rain doesn't stop! And it's not just a bit of rain...I mean..well, it hasn't been raining for long but it's been raining hard. They had to evacuate another section of town. Anyway....

I bet ya thought when you read the title that I've been milkin cows didn't ya?! Not if you really know me! Anyone who really knows me knows I'd never milk a cow..LOL! That reminds me of not long ago when Mike and I were talking about moving. He mentioned to me how he'd really like to get a ..let me see if I can spit it out..a ffffff...ffffff....farm house...a what?! No...no I don't think we will...LOL! He said, "don't you think it would be great if we had some cows, pigs, and chickens...we could have a little chicken coupe and you could go out and get eggs in the mornings..." No...no I don't think that would be and here's why-

A. Why on earth would I want the hassle of a chicken coupe when I can buy 18 eggs at the market for $2.00?

B. Right....like I'm really gonna roll out of bed and in to the fields or wherever to find the chicken coupe to get ya some eggs...uhuh.

C. What am I supposed to do with cows and pigs? I mean, we're talking about me here...do you really think I'd lay a hand on an udder? And what do I do with the pig again? Is he just for fun?

D. If I'm living in a farm house, chances are that's out in the boonies. I have no desire to live away from civilization..I need to live within 10 minutes of Target or Wal-Mart...LOL! If there's a needlework shop in the area though I might be willing to make a sacrifice.....probably the pig...LMBO!!

E. Exactly who's supposed to be taking care of these things while you're working? I hope you have a job paying a WHOLE lotta money so you can hire someone to run your farm..LOL!!!

Moving along....lol.....

This morning the Soutwest Mobile Dairy Farmers Classroom came to town so I took the kids to see that. Luckily it was easy to get to and not near any of the flooding. It was really neat! We got to watch them milk a cow and the kids learned all about the anatomy of a cow and a lot about milk. They showed them how they milked cows in the old days and they also told them about and demostrated the modern milking process. It's the first time I've ever seen someone milk a cow too. Very very neat. She was a big cow! She was really pretty too....her name was Sister. Look at that face! Isn't she great?! I was really surprised at how many people were there. I didn't think there would be because of all the flooding and such and because it was so early. Joshua thought it was very cool that cows have 4 tummies...LOL. They were a little disappointed that they didn't get to pet her. Apparently they're not allowed to do that any more because of the whole Ecoli thing. I'm sure Mike will find a cow for them to pet. I'm really glad we went. They learned a lot and it was a lot of fun. They gave them some neat goodies when we left so that was really neat. I'm really sleepy today. Mike's off for the next 2 days so I might not be around too much. We're going to Arlington to a Rangers game on Wednesday. I know they're not doing so great this year but they have an awesome 4th of July fireworks show! I'm getting jipped on this visit though...the needlework shops are closed since it's a holiday :(. They're having Christmas in July sales too...bummer. I need to run to the store. I need to get a few things so I make some apple pies for the 4th with those apples I saved the other day...lol.