And So It Begins...

We are finally back home, and I couldn't be more happy.

Our eldest and his All-Star team ended up getting 2nd place in the state tournament, which is AMAZING for our small little town.

After the 4.5 hour drive home, I spent the remainder of the night working on a 15 page book report.

This morning, I woke up at 2am to finish my book report.

At about 4am, I began to study for a huge exam that I needed to take at 7:30am. (Which I got a 91% on!! Woohoo!)

Once I got home, I made lunch and then brought my daughter to the doctor's office for some shots (she didn't even cry! Tough like her mama...)

Now I am making supper.

I haven't stopped moving. Ugh....but tonight I'm shooting for bed at 8pm, lol.

Anyways, we had a great time in the quaint city of Dodgeville, WI.

The Cave of the Mounds was amazing.

Anyways, I'm deciding to get off my mopey (mopie? mope-y? lol) butt and start being my old self again. I'm trying to find low/no cost projects for the house.

I already have one in mind, so stick around for that!

Now to just find the time....lol

Sunshine in the Storm

Things have been a little rough, lately, for my family.

You guys already know a bit of our troubles, and your support and encouraging words mean the world to me!

I just want everyone to peek at what we've been doing the past few days.

We've been down state for my eldest's All-Star State Tournament.

So far, our shining city hasn't lost!

Everyone's morale is high, and we are having a great time!

We also got to tour a plane for FREE.

And soon (depending on the tournament schedule and such), we will be touring a cave!

You see, times are rough for us, REALLY rough....but when the kids were very young, my husband and I said that our kids will never be deprived of experiences because of finances.

I want my kids to have every opportunity that every other kid has.

So, no, we can't take an awesome vacation this summer, but with very careful budgeting, I believe we have given our eldest a summer vacation worth remembering.

And I couldn't be more pleased ;)

Message Board

We have plenty of message boards in my house.

Remember when I made this one?

It's great for tacking on coupons or phone #'s. Sort of like the face of a fridge.

Or how about when I crafted this one?

I use this one a lot less. I guess because I don't yet have a great place to put it...

The kids have one MAJOR rule at my house. (Well...at least my oldest does because he's the only one old enough to go places by himself...).

If you go somewhere, make sure someone knows where you are.

About 3 years ago, I had to quick run to the store. I grabbed my toddler son and went outside to get my oldest.

He was nowhere in sight...

I tried calling his name, I checked the neighbor's houses...

Couldn't find him...

I started panicking!

I strapped my little guy in the van and started driving all around the neighborhood, yelling for him.

(Got some strange looks on that one!)

I finally drove home so that I could call my husband....

There he was, crying on the front porch.

He never told me he left our yard to play with a friend, he came home, and I was gone! (Out looking for him, lol!)

That event was a great teaching tool. It showed him that my rules aren't meant to be mean, but for safety!

Now he always lets us know where he's going ;)

Anyways, so I figured I would help give my kids options for this rule. My oldest is 10, and before I know it, he'll be old enough to be at home by himself. I know that I need a good place to write notes to each other to communicate.

I remember writing my mom notes all the time, to tell her where I was going <3

My mudroom was the perfect place!

I was working with this:

Yes, I know I still have St. Patty's Day decor up.

See that lime pastel green color?

I changed it out to white.

That way if I ever get bored with the room color, I will never have to paint the door again!

Oh, just a warning, the picture quality on this post is going to be terrible. I was in too much of a hurry dealing with a setting sun to care about getting that "perfect" picture.

I found this old clipboard in my basement. It was my husband's.

I think I'm going to stop nagging my husband about being a pack rat.

I seem to find a lot of cool stuff in his "junk" bins =)

It even had a cool map of the city on the back.

No cool history on this one.

It was his clipboard from his pizza delivery guy days!

So I found a pencil and drilled a hole near the top.

I threaded it through, tied it off, then tied the other end to the clipboard.

I purchased some velcro and stuck that on the top and bottom.

Then I smooshed it on my door.

It's also a perfect place to write love notes to my husband!

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about the playhouse! I'm just waiting until I get further along for more "WOW" factor!

It's almost ready for paint, so stick around to catch that!

I am also about to start 3 MAJOR projects, two requiring building permits. I have only a two week window between the end of my spring semester and the start of my summer semester (yes, I take classes in the summer!), so I'm going to try busting butt to get as much done in that window as possible!

Pea

Pea.

Princess Pea

Peanut

Hailbop

Sweet Pea

Hailey

My baby turned two today.

She will always be the baby. My baby.

And yes, she's a princess.

I love her <3

5 Years of Love

I've loved you since the day you were born.

I can't believe you're already 5!

Love, Mom

 

Needing Advice

I have these twin archways in my very formal dining room:
Though they aren't the best arches I've ever seen, I still think they should be highlighted better.

Having someone come in and make custom trim is way to expensive.

I know that I can make decorative accents for them, but my only problem is the curves.

How on earth do you make your own arch trim?!

Any crafty advice would be much appreciated. I'm usually good at coming up with awesome ideas, but this is leaving me stumped.

Any and all suggestions are very VERY welcome!

Now that we got that done, I carved pumpkins with the munchkins last night!

From left to right: Will's scary pumpkin that he got to carve all by himself (1st year!), John's very happy pumpkin that he drew and gutted, and Hailey's random drawing that I managed to squeeze out of her (such a cranky girl....)

Need any more proof that she was crazy tired? Haha.

Alright, I've been really chugging along on this big reveal, so it should be done in the next few days. I'm almost done with the staircase hallway as well. Here's a peek at the BIG REVEAL:

Gorgeous detail!

John's First Day of School

It was my son's first day ever of school today!

I was going to give you an awesome redo post today, but I'm too sad/excited about my "big boy" that today's going to just be a brag post.

Here's my bugger all dressed in his favorite color: purple!

Here's him showing me that he's all ready to go!

This is him waiting patiently for the bus "Mumma, can you call the teacher? The bus isn't coming..."

Here's him hopping off the porch to get in the bus.

And here's my baby face in front of the bus. Notice that there was not one tear shed? Okay, maybe on my part, but not his! Such a brave guy =)

Pizza on the grill, windchimes, luminaries, bubbles

I've been too busy for the past couple days to actually cook for my family. A lot of fast food or cheat-meals. A lot going on in my life, and it's only going to get worse as I start my degree. But, as I type, I'm waiting on a pizza to get done. Just frozen, so don't get all giddy on me. But it's on the grill!

Most of the time if you put a pizza on your grill, it will come out burnt on the bottom, frozen still on the top. Or if you're like my dad, a flaming pizza (the result of getting drunk and forgetting to take the cardboard off the bottom of the pizza) which is, in fact, one of my favorite memories.

So, as an ode to that funny man, I love making pizzas on the grill. But I like to eat pizza without burnt cardboard, so I bought a cool pizza pan (made just for the grill!) at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's kind of like those grilling woks, but flatter.

The handle on mine folds up for easy storage. Buy one and start grilling!

Also, my son made me an awesome windchime. It's a kit we got from Walmart. Have your kid paint it, then seal it with some varnish (supplied), and hang!

And we may be making our decoupaged luminaries tonight also! I wanted star cutouts, but I forgot to buy the punch while I was at the store, so I may be making a late run there. There will be a HOW-TO soon on that.

My son is currently running through a sea of bubbles. I agreed to buy him a toy, b/c I lied to him today. Not intentionally. I didn't think he was going to get a shot. So I PINKIE SWORE that he wouldn't. Ended up that he needed blood work. I almost cried when he called me a liar. Broke my heart. So we came home with a monstrous bubble machine. But it's entertaining!

Lots of fun coming up! Stay tuned!

Potty Mouth

So though I plastered it all over facebook, I will be once more repeating a quote that my son made at the doctor's office. My shining moment--------

"I GOT A SHOT FOUR FUCKING TIMES!!!" right in front of the nurse. Yep, I'm proud, lol.



My dirty mouth son---

Easter '09

Mmmm...mmmm....good looking day! Just got done dying eggs with the kids. They turned out wonderfully!

Adjenda:
1. Make a trip to the dumps (done)
2. Go out for a jog (done)
3. Bring the kids to their grandma's house (done)
4. Start my new piano lesson book (done)
5. Buy Easter stuff (done)
6. Iron all the kids' clothes for Easter (done)
7. Play Easter Bunny
8. Watch Marley & Me
9. Take dog on a walk
10. Dishes, laundry, overall cleaning (done)
11. Buy a killer stop watch for my interval training (done)

Busy busy day. I'm hoping that by next summer, I will be ready to start running with my aunts, mom, cousins. So I'm starting my yearlong training. Should training really take that long? No, but when you haven't ran in the past 10 years, then yes! Cuz there is noooooooooo way I can compete in the shape I'm in.

On a lighter note, pictures of the kids and their eggs!

Will and his eggs-----

John and his eggs-----

Hailey and her eggs------

Punch recipe, Hailey's birthday

I promised recipes, so here's a punch recipe that I made for my daugter's b-day.

*20 oz. frozen strawberry's in syrup, thawed

*3 cups apricot nectar (find in the juice aisle)

*3 cups cold water

*1 cup lemon juice

*6 oz. orange juice concentrate

*1 cup sugar

*1 320z. bottle of ginger ale

*Ice ring (recipe follows)

Prepare the ice ring the night before. Use a blender to puree the strawberries. In punch bowl, combine strawberries, apricot nectar, water, lemon juice, orange juice concentrate, and sugar. Stir it until the sugar's gone. Pour in the ginger ale. Do this slowly! It splashes like hell! Add the ice ring right before serving.

Ice Ring:

You can wing this pretty easily. Get out your bundt pan. (The star one makes a snowflake! Soooo cool!). I'm not going to put exact measures. How much you put in depends on the size of your bundt pan and punch bowl.

Pour in some ginger ale. Most of your mixture will be ginger ale, so fill it ALMOST to how big you want the ice ring. Add around 1/2 cup of lemon juice. Then start your garnishes. I add tons of fruit. Grapes, pineapple chunks, blueberries, strawberries, apricots, whatever. You can also add some mint leaves, but since I don't want mint leaves floating around my drink after the ring melts, I usually don't put it in.

So Hailey's party was pretty fun. I got quite a few compliments from my punch bowl. Plus I made my veggie bars, but no, no recipe will follow. Gravy meatballs, baked beans, spaghetti salad, taco salad, Italian salad, cheese/cracker/summer sausage tray, chips & dip, grandma brought a pistachio tart (sooooooooooo good!).

So my baby's 1. Bitter-sweet for me. Here are some pictures of her special day.

Catch with Will

Lazy morning, busy day.
We are missing church today. Mainly b/c McCrabby pants is sick, and Jr. McCrabby pants insisted on sleeping in my bed. So I'm too tired to force everyone there. So once McCrabby pants wakes up, I promised the boys they can watch a movie we rented last night. 3D!

But today's going to be busy, of course.
1. Bring the piano from the garage to the living room. This means that we need to call Mike an bribe him with beer. (Check-check)(Mike was working. I had to move it. Now I can't move....)
2. Clean the house spotless. Piano repair guy is coming tomorrow (hence getting the piano in) and Hailey's 1st B-day party is Tuesday, and it's fixing to be a doozy!
3. Go to Younkers to buy Hailey's Easter dress. (Check-a-roo)
4. Go to Walmart to buy the boys' suits for Easter. Then shop for Hailey's presents. (Check)
5. Go grocery shopping for Hailey's b-day party.

But tomorrow's going to be the really crazy day. With the piano guy coming, and decorating the house, pre-preparing (does that make sense?) the food, and Will's wrestling practice. It's going to be crazy. Tomorrow I'll give a list of food that I'm serving, and maybe even a few recipes!! Except my veggie bar recipe. So far everyone says I make the best they have had, and I know of a *few* people who would just LOVE to know my recipe!

Mm....almost forgot! Yesterday was bunches of fun. Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy!

Joe and Will playing catch in the backyard-----









Hailey watching me take pictures of the guys-----------