project 365 - day 124

This is a pretty decent shot of Owen up at bat. It's so hard to really get a shot, since we forever have a fence in our way.

project 365 - day 123

I took the kids to the book fair (and picked up an insanely overpriced Hannah Montana book that Nicole deemed impossible to live without because it came with a microphone. That would make the HM microphone number THREE in my home, but I digress.) In addition to the book fair, they had artwork displayed all over the campus of the kid's artwork (except for Kindergarten, they got totally shafted, I guess) and Owen is quite the little artist. Of course I knew this, but having his stuff on display for the world to recognize his gifts, too, is fabulous.

project 365 - day 122

For some reason I just adore this color on her. Must be the blond hair.

in a word

Got this in an email from Linda and I dig it.

You have to answer using just a single word:

Where is your cell phone? PURSE
Your significant other? PERRY
Your hair? BROWN
Your mother? SANDY
Your father? ROBERT
Your favorite thing? KIDS
Your dream last night? DUNNO
Your favorite drink? DIET
Your dream/goal? SUCCESS
What room are you in? SCRAPROOM
Your hobby? SCRAPPING
Your fear? DROWNING
Where do you want to be in 6 years? SUCCESSFUL
Where were you last night? HOME
Something that you aren't? CRAZY
Muffins? CHOCOLATE
Wish list item? KICKPLATE
Last thing you did? EMAIL
TV? LOST
Your pets? MANY
Friends? MANY
Your life? STABLE
Your mood? ENERGETIC
Missing someone? NOPE
Drinking? NOPE
Like Strippers? DEPENDS
Your car? SILVER
Something you're not wearing? SHOES
Your favorite store? ALL
Your favorite color? RED
When is the last time you cried? DUNNO
Where do you go to over and over? WORK
Your favorite place to eat? JAPANESE
Where would you like to be at right now? VACATION

project 365 - day 121

OMG, I am so excited! I won a spree (it's like a raffle) and got to pick out $110 worth of Homemade Gourmet items from Heather. And it came today! Woohoo. I can't wait to try some of these things and see if they are every bit as yummy as they sound. Stay tuned for future reviews!!

project 365 - day 120

Today Perry dragged us all to the airshow. Whee. I am sure it would have been thrilling, if a)I had any interest in planes; b)they weren't so insanely loud (I mean come on, is that REALLY necessary? IMO, it's the equivalent of guys making their bikes/cars loud to compensate for the fact that they are insecure about their penis size); and c)we hadn't already experienced an airshow, at the same location no less, only like a year before. But Perry seemed to enjoy himself, so we went along with it. I am truly contemplating dragging him to some kind of scrapbooking convention as payback, however.

project 365 - day 119

And again with the silly. It's quite hard not to laugh when your seven year old is throwing gang signs while dressed in TMNT pajamas.

project 365 - day 118

My kids are nothing if not silly, and I think Nicole proves it quite well in her latest photo:

what I'm coveting now

This Palm Pre has been "coming soon" for MONTHS now. First it was supposed to be mid first-quarter 2009...now they are saying by summer. I am tired of waiting! But doesn't this look worth the wait? My current cell has started this annoying thing of deciding seemingly arbitrairly that some of my calls just don't need to be answered. Needless to say, I am finding this somewhat annoying. And I think I'm ready to be able to access my email more easily on the go again. Not to mention my blog, facebook, my yahoo groups, etc. Let's face it, I either need a new phone or far less online connections. Don't see the latter happening, so I guess I'll shoot for the phone. Best of all, it's going to be offered through Sprint, which I already have, so I don't even have to screw with my plan. Rocks my world.

project 365 - day 117

I have been saying for awhile now that I needed to take a picture of my work aquarium. In as much as it's not really an aquarium but a random cool looking giant brandy snifter that Jason and I found at Home Goods and decided fish should live in. This was back I don't remember how long ago, and after a few sets of "starter fish" we've had the same five going strong for quite some time now. We refer to them as the CSG Mascots.

Rockin' Ottoman

I am really digging this Ottoman from Amazon. It's designed to open up to stow your Rock Band gear, to avoid that oh-so-common problem of having those silly "instruments" laying around your family room. I don't yet have Rock Band (Guitar Hero - yes - but the guitar isn't nearly the PITA to stow as the RB drums would seem to be) but when I get it, the accompanying ottoman will be a necessity. What do you think? Dig it or no? It even goes with my brown leather furniture. How convenient is that??

Oh, for three more hours

So I'm new to this whole Plinky thing, and in perusing the previous questions I came across the question of what I would do with an extra three hours in my day today. Hmmm...tough call. Sleep - I never get enough of that, but if I were to spend three more hours sleeping I would feel like I'd wasted it. Playing around on the internet - clearly I already do enough of that so I would like to think that I wouldn't go there. Spending time with the kids would be worthwhile, but to avoid some of the mom guilt, let's just say that these extra three hours came into play after the kids were already in bed. So that being the case, I guess I would probably spend them scrapbooking. I have a lot of guilt (I know, I know) over the fact that I'm now officially TWO years behind in my day to day albums. Why I carry around all this self-imposed guilt, I don't know, but there it is. So three hours would allow me a little time to do a few pages. Maybe I wouldn't even do pages, per se, maybe I would instead just organize some of my pictures with papers and embellishments into packs ready to be scrapped, so that when I had a few spare moments I could actually accomplish something. Now where do I sign up for those extra three hours?

project 365 - day 116

I enjoy having fresh flowers in the house. I love the color, the mood, everything. I tend to buy them during my weekly grocery shopping, when I remember. Sherbert likes having them in the house for completely different reasons. He's a pest, but I still love him.

Inspirational Video

I am cleaning out my inbox...you know all that stuff that you flag to watch/read/follow-up with and you never get a chance to do so? Tell me that's not just me. Anyway, I came across a link to this video that I'd been sent back in January or so and I finally watched it. Pretty cool, so I thought I would share. Enjoy! Finish Strong

Dogs are really running things on Earth

I think surely it must be dogs that really run the show. They are sure in charge in my house. There aren't a whole lot of creatures that consistently have others providing all their food, picking up after them, and generally catering to their every whim.

project 365 - day 115

Spring soccer season is officially here. And the best part is it overlaps with baseball season. I really should get some kind of mother of the year award for having these kids all over town every night of the week, yes?

project 365 - day 114

This guy was waiting for me when I went to leave for work in the morning...

Arson

Someone apparently tried to burn down my office building today. I should add that I do NOT work in a bad neighborhood. It's quiet, suburban, quite nice. The speculation is that it was an inside job. How very odd. Because if that's the case then it would seem that this was done by somoene I know, and I really can't wrap my head around that. Anyway, I have no idea what the extent of the damage is to the building itself, or to my personal things on my desk, etc. I guess I will find out later this week. Truly crazy.

project 365 - day 113

Awhile back, we decided since Nicole was going to be spending so much time at the baseball fields again this year, it was only right that she have her own glove. And I'm kind of hoping she'll decide she'd like to play softball next year. (sidenote - Nicole is not nearly as athletic as Owen is and I'd probably save myself a bit of hassle if I stopped trying to force her to be, but oh well.) She really does enjoy playing catch with the boys, though. As much as she drives them all insane with her general inability to either catch or properly throw.

project 365 - day 112

Today was a huge day for Nicole - her birthday party. This year held at Dinosaur World. Much better than option a: our house, or option b: Chuck E. Cheese (which was last year). Dinosaur World was actually WAY more fun than I had even anticipated, and I'd been there before. They were awesome for the party, we got to have it in a kick ass cave, which was pretty fab. Nicole had a great time, as did her guests, and naturally she made out with a ton of loot!

project 365 - day 111

Today is Nicole's birthday, so she got to open her family presents. Grammy was down, of course, and then tomorrow is the big birthday bash for her and her friends. Always a good time, and as Perry says, at least this year it is not at our house! You pay a little more, but save ever so much time in cleanup and hassle. Worth every penny.

Happy Birthday

Today is Nicole's birthday. Six years ago today I was in the hospital bringing her into the world. Seems insane. Sometimes it seems like it was forever ago, and that SO much has happened between then and now. Other times it is hard to believe it was really that long ago. She's SUCH a beautiful girl, both outwardly and on the inside. She's honestly one of the most generous, loving children I've ever met. She would do anything for anyone, especially myself and her brother. It's really quite cute. I guess I can only hope that as her mother, I don't do anything to damage that beautiful spirit of hers.

project 365 - day 110

We are back in spring soccer. It's every bit as chaotic as when Owen did it a couple years ago. Gotta love when we have overlap with two different sports. This shot is Owen playing around with a friend he made while Nicole's game was going on. At least he was entertained.

project 365 - day 109

For Christmas, I got Owen a Dinosaur dig book from Usborne Books, and up until this point we'd not busted it out. It's actually pretty cool. You can excavate a dino skeleton with a little hammer and brush. Super cute. He even let his sister help a little big (at my urging).

project 365 - day 108

More with the bunny lips. It's amazing how thrilled with these they were. lol

Heart Link

My Heart Link meeting was tonight. It was a much smaller group than usual, but that was actually something of a nice change. We didn't really worry about the timer, and everyone got a chance to chat even more so than usual. A couple new members this month, and they were an awesome addition to the group. I look forward to seeing everyone again next month, and hopefully welcoming some more new members. I adore being a part of Heart Link - not only is it nice to get some "girlie" time, but the women I get to connect with every month are just fabulous.

project 365 - day 107

The kids got some silly bunny teeth/lips from the Easter bunny and they have been happily wearing them around

project 365 - day 106

The Easter egg hunt starts in my house as soon as everyone is up. The kids get to hunt for plastic eggs with either candy or money inside each. They both are much more interested in getting the money eggs. Grow up quick, huh? This year was the first year that Nicole got more in the hunt than Owen. I was as little surprised, actually, because usually he completely creams her at it. But then, that daughter of mine is very money motivated. Just like her momma.

project 365 - day 105

In addition to dying eggs, which of course everyone does, we also make a magic Easter cake every year on Easter eve. You make a regular cake, and frost it like you normally would. Then put Easter grass on top and have the kid plant jelly beans in the Easter grass. Overnight the jelly beans will grow into lollipops. It only works on Easter eve, and the kids LOVE it. I shared the tradition with my friend Amy this year and apparently her boys loved it as well. Gotta have some magic in childhood!!

project 365 - day 104

Every year we always dye Easter Eggs. The kids love it, and frankly so do I. They're just so pretty. I simply do not understand why we don't make pretty things all year round!

project 365 - day 103

Before we took the tent down, the cats couldn't resist checking it out. They had a great time playing around in there. Too funny to watch.

project 365 - day 102

What is better to kids than tents? Whenever anyone sleeps over, they always want to sleep in the tent. And this tent has never had to spend the night outside, never had to touch dirt. Never been anywhere other than stored in the garage and appreciated in the family room. Quite a life for a tent.

project 365 - day 101

It seems like a lot of my photos feature people sleeping. I've been thinking about that, and I have come to the natural conclusion that this is because when they are all sleeping is about the only time I have a chance to do anything. Huh. Seems simplistic but it's true.

project 365 - day 100

100 days! Woohoo! This is harder than one might think. I won't even mention how far behind I am in my on paper journaling!! OMG.

Today's pic is a giant collection of candles that I won on one of my boards from Terri over at Mia Bella. You have no idea how yummy these smell! I can't wait to burn them. Thanks Terri!

project 365 - day 99

Nicole wanted a new bike for her birthday, and this is the one she picked out. Of course as soon as she got home she cried that she wanted a different one from the store, but she's going to have to live with this one. We need to take the training wheels off, and likely watch her fall, a lot, before she masters biking without them. But that's part of growing up, right? For me and her.

project 365 - day 98

Awhile back I posted a table arrangement that had some Southern Living. This is a modified version of it, that I am not completely sold on yet. I added the serving tray underneath the candles and potpourri. Stay tuned to see if I move that piece somewhere else.

project 365 - day 97

I've had this mirror for forever (5 years or so I guess) and I got this word decal thing from Uppercase Living to put somewhere, so I decided to put it on the frame. I am really happy with how it turned out. I now have this hanging in my guest room.

project 365 - day 96

While it may be hard to tell, this is a dead snake. Or more precisely, half a dead snake. A small one. No, I do not know how it died, nor do I know how it ended up in my kitchen. Or for that matter, where the other half ended up (inside one of the animals, I would presume) But it was odd enough that I figured I would capture it for all eternity.

Freebie

Hey guys! In case anyone loves Body Shop products, you can get a Love Your Body Card (normally $10) for free by going to www.thebodyshopathome.com/loveyourbody and filling out the form. The card gets you:

-10% off all qualifying purchases from The Body Shop
-A birthday gift when you come in during your birthday month (retail value up to $10)
-Special savings during “Customer Appreciation Days”
-Rewards with fourth and eighth qualifying purchase
-You can earn your fourth point, and choose a free product valued at up to $15. You can earn your eighth point, and choose a free product valued at up to $25 and a free membership renewal

I just signed up for mine today - what the heck, it's free, and I LOVE their bronzer!!

project 365 - day 95

Yet again a picture of more Southern Living stuff! lol. These three plates came with my starter kit, and then I picked up the stands at Homegoods. I am not completely committed to leaving them here. Can't quite decide. For now I'm digging them, though.