16.9

I can drink 16.9 ounces of water in no time flat. I amaze myself. Water bottles are so easy to drink. I need more!

Cleaning UP & Out

While I was cleaning out the top of the closet today i had the great joy of walking down memory lane way to many times. I have some photos that I will blog eventually, but at this time I only have time to post this one thing. It is from my graduation scrapbook. It is a poem that my cousin Debbie wrote for me, you know her as Aunt Debbie. She and my mom grew up like sisters, instead of first cousins so I have always called her Aunt Debbie. So here is the poem she wrote me for graduation. I was delighted to find it in a scrapbook. I have every card that was given to me and every article posted about me going to Masters Commission. I have not look at this book in at least 10 years so It was nice to see it.

“Driving Miss Staci”

You had to drive her out of bed- stay behind her or she’d fall right on her head.

Staci get ready I would say we have be at playschool right away. Jenny is ready and the kids are all on the bus, but look where is Staci she is defiantly not in a rush!

Both shoes on- shirt & pants, oh my never never ask her to wear a dress. Now she is dressed but oh no- one blue sock and one white sock, this will never do.

Breakfast in the mornings- cereal, grits or eggs- everyone is happy. But Deb & Staci eating cold pizza, chocolate cake, spaghetti- whatever it would take to put that smile on Staci’s face!

Brush your teeth, Comb your hair, Staci it would help if you use toothpaste. Look how nice- how about a bow- Okay not today, hurry now we must go!

Get baby Josh and the girls off we would go, headed for St. James. Kiss Deb goodbye. Staci -wait, is that sleep in your eyes? If your eyes are bad, its because they were washed with Deb’s famous spit and love.

No matter how far you go, just know on your nose there is my chicken pox scar. I said it would never go away caused I kissed it and filled it with love. I do love you Staci you were my little girl. Thank you Denise for that special gift in my life. Memories of Staci were never frills & lace, but I would never ever trade them, no matter what the case.

Ideas Please

I will not confess as to how many of these bags I have but I will say I have “several” I have held onto them for a while thinking I would use them if I resale the shoes. Now I realize my kids will use them until they are not resalable! So I don’t need the bags for the shoes. I hate to just throw them away. I’m an organizer at heart and want to utilize these for something. Any ideas? They each have zippers and little handle too.

 

What would you store in them or use them for?

COW

This Friday (July 10th) they have the 5th Annual Dress like a cow day at Chick Fil a. Here is a link to the details. http://www.cowappreciationday.com/ We are going to do it. They have a starter kit online too so I'm printing mine off now, so we can dress up like a cow and get a FREE meal! Sounds good to us!

Happy Birthday Sam!!!

Tonight we went to O’Charley’s for Sam’s 31st birthday! We enjoyed our fellowship with everyone. There were only a few families present, but all together we had 9 kids ages 5 years old to as young as 4 months. They gave us an entire area for our group. I think there were 20 of us all together. Tiff can tell us. Here is the yummy strawberry cake Tiff made- it has my favorite icing on it: Rainbow Chip…. oh so good. I had two slices! Good thing I had a salad for supper!

We had a great time. We didn’t make it to church in time, so we went to Walmart instead. Of course I forgot several things, because I didn’t have my coupon binder or list with me since Walmart was not in the plan. I did find my sweet JOY of July…. Makers for $1. School Supplies on sale is like my candy. I get so excited. Now the OCD in me wants to know why I only bought two packs of crayons instead of three- since I have three of everything else. LOL. I bought my son his first crib set and the poor boy is almost 2 years old. I have been watching this set for months now. It was on the clearance isle! I was so excited to get it 60% off! I also bought some 4th of July shirts for my daughter for next year.

Check out those tomatoes! Don't they look amazing! Even Chris is eating tomato sandwiches everyday at lunch. He didn’t even eat tomatoes before I married him! These are right from our garden!

Last but not least by any means…. my new favorite cake! It has to be single packaged. I don’t like it when its in a big cake- it dries out. But these small packs are perfect with a glass of milk. They were only 50 cents each. I was excited to find them on sale too. (I love a bargain!)

Well we are off until Monday morning. Then we have a seven day shift (I think!) After that I need to start planning the rest of our days before baby is here! We have less than 70 days… sounds like a lot, until you really think about it! It will be here soon!!!!

Got Trash?

We have tons of trash at our cottage. With 8 girls and 4 Adults and 4 small children living under the same roof, we go through a ton of garbage bags and trips to the outside dump. Especially when you have three of the four still in diapers! Yuck. That is some nasty trash! Here at mom's house we have garbage pick up once a week, on Sunday nights around midnight. I would not like to have that shift, but I'm thankful they run at night/early am so that its not often that you get behind one driving during the day! That always got on my nerves in Texas! I live in NC now, but if I lived in NJ I would look into the NJ junk removal they offer Garbage disposal and will clean up the mess and haul it off! I spent my Tuesday night cleaning out our basement, of course I still have a long way to go, but we did get a truck load of stuff to take to the church yard sale. We also have a pile going for the garbage. I can't overload the can though- or our trash from upstairs won't fit and then we will have a problem. I am hoping to work in the garage in the morning, but if I don't get to bed soon then I won't be able to function in the morning before the kids wake up! We are taking the load to the church in the morning and then coming back to load up more! Lots of fun. Right? We have enough to do our own yard sale, but I just don't feel like doing it and the church has this one planned already and so I'm all for donating it!

Times like now...

There are nights like tonight when I am up late and think that it would be best if I were on some kind of appetite suppressant I seem to get those hunger pains right before bed time. I usually fight it, but now that I am seven months pregnant, I give in. Last night I had ice cream. Tonight I am going to have a bottle of water! Since I had two slices of cake tonight at Sam's party! I am not sure why our bodies get hungry before bed, but even my kids want a night time snack. Now when we are working we eat at 4:30 or 5pm for supper so of course by 10 I am hungry. When we are home though- we usually eat around 6 or 7. Depending on what all is going on around the house! What time does your family sit down for supper? Bottle water sounds great right about now, but then I think how many times I will be up in the middle of the night and think I'd do better off to just go to bed. Nope- I'm going for the water bottle! LOL.

I did eat better today though. I had a bowl of golden grahams for breakfast- then a tomato sandwich for lunch and a salad for supper. Of course I did eat those two slices of cake, but one was for me and one was for the baby- right?

Okay all this food talk is getting to me! Better stop!

Pups & Collage

The boys finally got a haircut. They look so much better! I know they were hot! They look like different dogs all together! It’s cute though. I didn’t get good photo’s because it was getting dark and they are still excited and jumping around. Chocolate has fluid in his ear- we would have never known if we didn’t get him shaved. It’s sealed closed! We have to take him to the VET to get it drained.

 

Here is the collage I made. I had the girls each make one. I ran out of room before I ran out of stuff to put on it! I had fun making it. It’s been years since I’ve made one!

Okay, I have to get back to the cottage! I still don’t know our plans for the 4th of July!!!! First time ever that I didn’t have plans in stone! Feels weird!

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner....

I could eat tomato sandwiches all day long... they are so good!

All of you is more than enough for all of me....

Weeeee

My kids love to play on the swing sets at the park. They love to play outdoors. Thankfully my husband enjoys the outdoors as much as they do! He takes them all the time to play. He's comfortable taking them alone. I on the other hand have trouble taking them. They seem to go in different directions and I'm running all over the place. My dad built a really cool swing set for my kids. They got to enjoy it on Father's Day. He did it all by hand. He's so crafty. I am amazed at what he can build. He is good with wood work, metals and machines! I can't do any of that. Even my Popsicle stick house falls apart right after it's built! We have a nice swing set here at the house, but I am always looking at the newest things they come up with. I know kids outgrow swing sets, Jess has had her swing set since she was 2, but she doesn't mind sharing it with the kids now. It's lasted a long time! Do you remember having a swing set? I do. Ours is actually out in the burn pile now, its over 30 years old! I remember the monkey bars and slide and the swing, it was not build like the ones they build now, but it was the best. Luke and I played on it all the time.

Upgrade...

Mom is doing some things around the house to update/upgrade the house. She bought shutters a few months ago and finally got them up and they look great. I think her next project is to build a building for storage and then expand the bathroom. She loves Lowe's! She is able to go in and find something every time. I on the other hand get nervous in that store! I don't know where anything is or what anything is for that matter. I am good to get in and find a person to help me find whatever I'm looking for. I have looked at the glass tile before, they seem so cool. I am not sure that I will ever have a place for them, but its nice to look right? I was in an area of town yesterday that took my breath away. The houses were SO BIG and I just can't imagine what these people do for a living to be able to pay for those houses! It's fun to dream big, but also to be practical. Chris and I both like simple things, so it doesn't take much when it comes to decor. I will tell you this, if I can't find him in a store he's sneaking around the decor, finding things he'd like to have one day. I think its cute. If he's not there he's in the entertainment section!

Impressed and Hooked….

I am impressed and slightly hooked now on the Magic Bullet. At least for smoothies. I found a Magic Bullet in the basement. It belongs to my mom’s husband. I asked him if I could use it, and he said “SURE” he had used it maybe twice. I think It will need to stay in sight now. I made a strawberry banana smoothie that was simple and out of this world! All it required was 1 cup of ice, 1 banana, a handful of strawberries and I added one teaspoon of sugar. I blended it in less than 10 seconds and now I am enjoying it and blogging about it! With everything cleaned up in less than 2 minutes! I could totally get use to this thing. I know you can make dips and other things with it too- ohh like soups. I think me and the MB will have some good times together! I’m ready to go to the store now and buy some things that will be used in the bullet! But instead I will get some work done around the house!