Playin' around

As you can see by my new banner that i've been playing around in Photoshop. I really like the effect. Here's another one I did:

I was printing some pics for some frames I got on clearance at Target and decided to play a little. I really like my photoshop but don't have too much time to play around with it. Note to self :: make time! Short post for now, more tomorrow. I've been tagged by Susan...will also do that tomorrow. Good night to all.

Oh yeah, and for any of you wanting a sweet treat...check out this Sweetheart Blast from sonic. It was very good, just make sure you like raspberry!

A little update

The boys are still loving their new beds. Very cool! I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for to finish their rooms...bummer. But I will keep looking.
Our superbowl party turned out pretty good. Everyone had enough to eat and my sis even brought over some cookies...way to go! Tim was feeling under the weather though but stuck it out to the end before heading home for some much needed rest. The boys did pretty good playing while we were watching the game. They of course didn't care about watching football(not yet anyway) and were playing games on Sesamestreet.com most of the time. I missed the first half of the game getting the food finished and chatting with my sis in law but at least we saw the most exciting 2nd half of the game. Good job Giants.. I like to go for the underdog alot of the time.
Monday went by in a blurr. I did get just a few thing done but took a 2hr nap right in the middle fo the day. I haven't been sleeping well from my coughing attacks from the sinus drainage so I guess I needed to catch up. We got D registered and applied for at school. We are trying to get him in Pre-K at the Catholic school nearby. We hope to know something by April. We are excited but I am also a little nervous that he will be starting school. Growing up so very very fast!!
We had some horrible weather here last night with numerous tornadoes, lots of damage and even some local deaths due to the weather. We spent much of the evening running from the closet under the stairs, to the TV to watch the news coverage, to outside to see the clouds. I took a few pics that I'll post later. The boys didn't really know what was going on but did like the idea of hanging out in the closet with a huge couch mattress over them like a fort or something. I even made them Pb & J to eat picnic style in the closet so we could make sure they were in there incase something happened. Thank goodness the storms missed our house. My mom could see the tornado that caused a lot of damage from out of her back window..scary!! I was on the phone with her while she was watching it and I'm yelling at her: "get in the closet, get in the closet!!" The tornado touched down not too far north from her house damaging a mall, and causing a building to collapse with 3 deaths. There is extensive damage throughout the city not too mention many other cities around us. I can't imagine my house no longer existing at all! Our prayers go out to all the families affected by the storms!
B is going through a tantrum stage at the moment. whew! it's been a little rough around our house, I'm not sure if he's getting sick or just a phase he's going through. I do know that I hope it passes soon. He is normally such a good boy and so sweet and loving but every now and then it's like he decides to test the waters to see if it's really us or him in charge. We know the answer...US! We are trying to remain consistent and keep calm so that he knows he can't win against us at 2 yrs old!! I hope to have news in a few days that he's back to his self again. I hope!

The bed arrived!

Yeah, the bed arrived Friday am right on schedule. Today we set up the bed, moved D's old bed into Bry's room and are now rearranged. I just need to find a few things I'm looking for to finish off D's room. Then I'm going to slightly make over Bry's room too to incorporate his old/new bed. This is D's room before:

And this is after. I don't have to tell you how much he LOVED IT!

Of course I have to put a pic of my other happy boy too!!

Well the boys are in bed early....7:15pm. They didn't take their naps today and were quite cranky this evening. Not sure what I'm going to do with my extra hour tonight (that is alot in mommy time!)

Superbowl get together tomorrow night. On the menu: hot wings from Sam's, Frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas, Rotel/turkey/velveeta dip, my adored Corn Dip (recipe from Dana), and a Key Lime pie for dessert( I don't care much for it, but my honey loves it) and a pound cake with strawberries on top for dessert also. I'm trying not to have too much, that way I won't eat too much right? :) I think Mike is for the Giants, hope it's a good game. I'll try to look out for any good commercials too. Chao!

Hate It

I really hate when I set my alarm to go off and for some reason it doesn't!! I did take Nyquil before bed again, but I don't sleep that hard. I set my alarm to get up at 4:40am. I had a specific agenda for this am. Well I heard some movement and Mike got out of bed, I didn't open my eyes because the alarm hadn't went off and I knew he'd be right back to bed. Then I heard sounds of dresser drawers and wondered why he was up before 4:40 and starting to get dressed. He sometimes gets up early but not quite that early. So I decided to roll over and look at the clock..................ugh!!!!!! 6:15am. What?!!! Panic set in...... I ususally am up and showered and dressed mostly by 6am so that I can get the boys stuff ready for the day and they get up about 6:30am. So I said quite a few choice words and stomped off to the shower. I couldn't believe it. Of all days.... I usually might decided to sleep in just a little but not today. Like I said I had a list of things I wanted to get done before work, which now means I'll have to do them after work, yuk! Oh well. We did manage to all get ready and out the door on time, so that's a good thing.

Dev's bed should arrive today! I am very excited!!! I hope we can get out tomorrow am to get his mattresses. A fun weekend ahead of reorganizing!

Bryson is too funny. He loves to sing and especially like the song No One by Alicia Keys. He likes the chorus part of singing no one, no one, no one. He also loves singing Spongebob's song Best Day Ever. Not to also mention Wipe Out. We listen to the same songs everyday on the way to school. As soon as we get in the car the boys start telling me what song they want to listen to on the CD I made them. I need to add some new songs this weekend to give it a little variety. I also need to make Dev his own CD for his room. He got a Lightning McQueen CD/radio player for Christmas so I'm a little behind on making him his own music. Maybe I can finish that this weekend also to help finish his new room makeover.

Happy Friday to all!

Tickle monster

I love to hear the giggles from my boys!

No snow

So of course I knew we wouldn't get any snow. Just slight wishful thinking. We basically have just gotten alot of rain, with a slight potential for sleet tonight I think.

I am still keeping up with my 365 project. I just haven't posted them yet, probably tonight.

I stopped by the bank on the way taking the boys to school the other day and they gave us lollipops. Well, it was 8am so I told the boys they could have them when I picked them up from school. Of course they don't forget, Dev especially. Well as I am about to head into the school yesterday I was rummaging through my purse to find the lollies. I could not find them. I must have taken them out or something. Not too big of a deal, although I like to stick to what I say to the boys no matter what. I hated the thought of hearing the sad voices of " you said you were going to bring the lollipops" As I was signing the boys out of school I was telling the director my dilemma. She ran to her office to find a lollipop, but to no avail. She did however have a mini kit kat candybar. Perfect, I said! So as I got the boys into the car and they were looking for their treat I pulled out the kit kat bar. "huh? A candy from Papa!!" they exclaimed! I started laughing so hard. When we go to my dad's he usually has some type of small candy bar for them and of course they remembered that. So after all my troubles of searching for the candy to substitute for the lollipops..........they thought it was from Papa. Too funny!! It did make them very happy I have to say!Gotta love it!

To any Biggest Loser fans out there...thank goodness. I have been waiting for one of the purple chics to be voted off and finally. Sorry but I don't think they have been working as hard as everyone else and I was so sad when Betty Sue left. The soda temptation was pretty funny. I have to be thankful that I'm not much of a soda drinker. I don't drink regular soda, only diet and now Coke zero. I try to only drink a soda or two on the weekend, with only water or light juice during the week. Coke Zero is pretty good, tastes more like the regular but it's diet! As Jillian the trainer stated best "WE DON'T DRINK OUR CALORIES" unless of course it's a margarita I say! :)

Still fighting off this cold and I'm not happy. I have this annoying cough and it's worse at night of course. 2am I was up from coughing and took a few tablespoons of Nyquil. Ah--much better after it kicked in 30 min or so later.

I did get to see American Idol last night in Miami. I ususally don't see the Tues night show because it's up against Biggest loser and I'm not so upset to miss these first episodes of craziness on AI. The belching girl was something. Why would you go on TV and do that? Just insane! It seemed they did have some talent there. I am looking more forward to when the real season starts though. I hope it doesn't stay up against Biggest Loser, so that I get to watch both shows.

One month of 2008 gone already. Can you believe it? The time sure does go faster and faster all the time! Never take advantage of what you have today while waiting for tomorrow! We must live in the now, because you never know what's in the future! Toodles....till next time.

To be or not to be...

Well, they are saying ice, sleet and maybe snow. We will see. I'm not getting my hopes up for a snow day at home. Although it would be nice to let them play in the snow a little while. The great thing about my new job is that they will actually close for bad weather, yahoo!! Like I said though, they usually predict and we get nothing!
Short post for now....off to get some sugar free peaches and free cool whip! Sounds scrumptious doesn't it? Ha!

Nice shower

Well we are back in town and trying to get ready for the work week ahead. We had a great time back home for the baby shower for Amanda and Tim. They received alot of very nice gifts. It was great to see everyone and see those that we haven't seen in a long long time!! The weather was cool and rainy the day of the shower but everyone still came anyway. My mother and father in law and aunts in laws did a great job getting the house ready for the shower. The food was spectacular also. My hubby did a great job preoccupying the kids during the gift opening at the shower. If the weather was nicer they could of been outside but it all worked out well. Of course Sunday was sunny and 55-60 degrees outside. My in laws watched the boys Fri night and we had a date night. We ate at BoneFish Grill. The food is so wonderful, it was nice to get a night out alone. Thanks to them!! The boys did wonderful on the trip there and back. The movies were so helpful and they even napped really good during both trips!! :)

I am in the process of fighting off a cold. I am staying on top of my doses of airborne. It works well!! I just hope I don't pass it on to the boys!

We have planned a trip to Orlando in about a month. I am very excited! Mike's cuz works for Disney and we're going to take the boys to "Mickey's house" as Dev says. We haven't told the boys yet though. I am gonna make a calendar to hang the 1st of Feb and let the boys cross off the days till we leave. I saw on a website also to let them start earning some money to save up for some Disney dollars and let them pick out what they want to buy while we're there. It should be so much fun and I'm already excited!!

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I think we're going to have a small get together this weekend for the Superbowl. Most of our family doesn't enjoy watching football like we do, but the fellowship and food will be good. Although, I'm trying to make all healthy snacks.....huh? Is that possible? I don't know but i'm going to try. It should be interesting! We must try to stay on track! A trip to Orlando in one month and also a cruise to Cozumel in April.... no slacking allowed....there will be swimming involved on these trips....yikes!!

D's bed will be arriving this week! I am very excited to get it in his room. He will love being in the lighting McQueen bed! Bry is happy too about moving into a "big boy" bed! I just have to get the bed rail guards from mom. So hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have all the beds rearranged and the crib mattress over to Amanda and Tim! I post pics when done.

Well here's a few pics from the fun baby shower! I'll have to get over this weekend and get some updated tummy pics and nursery pics for her album. I'll post them later too!

The boys couldn't wait to get there and have Mimi's chicken salad!

Dev thought he'd go out with us and wear my shoes!

The adorable expecting parents!

A non edible cake I made out of diapers and baby stuff for them.

A sweater for their mini Schnauzer dog Walter. He'll be a big brother soon!

Busy evening

Tonight the boys were pretending to play Rock Band with daddy, very cute!! We leave tomorrow for the baby shower for my bro and sis in law. Tonight's to do list: pack boys clothes, toys and snacks, pack my own stuff, get all things together that I'm taking down for the shower, with a few suprises included. :) I'm also making some chocolate covered pretzels for the shower in cute baby girl colors. I'll try not to taste test too many while I'm making them tonight.

We're burning some more movies on my ipod to take for the trip too. It's works well through our portable car DVD player but instead I control it through the ipod. It's much better than constantly switching out the DVD's the whole trip when they change their mind 2 minutes into the movie to watch a different one. I'll post pics when we return. I believe the weather should be a nice 65 degrees or so while we are there, yeah! Happy weekend to everyone!!

27 degress?

Yes, I actually took the boys out in 27 degree weather. I have personally come along way as a mommy. I don't like all the bundling and freezing outside so I usually choose to stay indoors. Well Mike and his bro were taking their airplanes flying on Sun so I decided to go along to help out watching the boys. My boys and the two big boys had a great time. Mike actually did well for his first flight and actually didn't break the plane, although Tim broke part of one of his. Typical for RC adventures!

The boys had fun running back and forth across the field. Little House on the Prairie anyone? That was what I was thinking when my baby B fell flat on his face in mid stride!!But he got right up and kept on running!! Good job baby!!

Just a few bath pics to share also. They were taking turns making faces. Don't they know their faces will stick like that if they keep doing that!! (right mom and dad?)

So, I am finally getting over being crabby. But now I have turned to being pure mad!! I bought a new scale today because we were convinced that ours wasnt' working right. It keeps track of your inital weigh in, gives you a 10% lower goal weight and will show you change in weight loss between weigh ins. Pretty fancy huh? Well...... we both weighed in. I wasn't happy with that since it weighed me higher than our old scale did, but whateva! Anyway, smarty pants Mike decided to weigh in again after he worked out.....WHAT? LOST ALREADY!! WHAT THE H***! I weighed again and had gained 2 pounds just from lunch! OK that really sucked!! A weight watchers chicken wrap, baby raw carrots and 2 small pickles....that's 2 pounds?? what the h***! Yes I got a little angry to say the least! I WILL beat that scale!! I am determined, I have decided to turn my crabbiness into anger and win the fight over that dumb scale!! So, I put on my workout gear and headed out the door, determined in the 46 degree weather. I ran for 19 minutes non stop and then came in and did 25 minutes of arms and ab work. I WILL WIN!! I am going to put a tracker on the side of this blog to track my exercise. I despise exercise that's for sure, but I refuse to let the scale win! I am mad because I'm not obviously doing enough to make a large enough difference....so here it goes! HA! They always say to turn your negative energy into positive right?

And thanks to my friend Dana! She sent me a great email thanking me for helping her to lose 15 lbs. Several months ago when I did the WW before I made her a notebook like mine to help keep track of points and recipes ect. She started using it recently and has lost 15 lbs. WAY TO GO GIRL!! Keep up the good work! She also gave me some inspiration to not give up, thanks.!

TGIF

Yeah! Another work week gone! Although it's a short weekend for me this time, I don't get my usual four days off since I'm working on Monday. I switched days so I could be off next Fri to head to Mobile for my sis in laws shower. Anyway then I'll have a five day weekend so it's worth it!

So any of you looking for a weight watchers hint? I found these great english muffins that are zero points and some WW cream cheese for 1/2 pt. A great low point breakfast item and you could put some sugar free jelly on it and away you go.

Although I would much rather eat this! It's been sitting in the pantry since Christmas calling my name! I think at some point this weekend I'll treat myself for losing seven lbs. so far. Only 1 million to go....ha ha....it feels like that sometimes.

I've still been practicing my Rock Band drumming skills. I can actually play a few of the songs on expert level. I have mastered several of the songs at hard level now I just have to practice the expert level, on some of the songs I just don't know that my mind can comprehend and react fast enough to play totally different beats with my right hand, left hand and foot pedal all at the same time. D was playing some Tiger Woods 08 with his daddy the other night and beating him. It was hilarious, one game they were playing D almost his a hole in one like about 5 times in a row, we were beside ourselves. It was so funny. Mike could only hit his into the water :)

Tonight before bed I had the kids put on their headlight headbands they got for Christmas and play in the gameroom in the dark. They thought it was absolutely fabulous!! I tried to take a pic and got this:

Then I switched to a night mode on my camera and caught this:

What great effect huh? I just laughed when I saw the pic, I told the boys to look at the ray beam coming out of their heads.... hee hee.."take more mommy, take more!" They had a blast and then off to bed, a little cranky for D though. I think sometimes staying up a little late really gets to him. Maybe he'll sleep in tomorrow to make up for iT.

BIG CONGRATS TO SUSAN AND HER FAMILY ON THE ARRIVAL OF THEIR HEALTHY BOUNCING BABY BOY!! He's adorable!!

Hope to have some inside fun this weekend with the boys. It's supposed to be really cold here this weekend so we'll probably be homebound most of the weekend. I have a few ideas planned for the boys with some new inside games to play. I got some ideas off of a few websites, we'll see how it goes. Toodles for now.

Crab Apple

That's my name for today. I am feeling like a crab today. Not so sure why.. just one of those days! The scale is going down again finally but I'm just irritated that I have to starve and exercise forever, ya know! I hate it I must say, but my mission is to stay healthy for my boys and my husband. I want to be around forever to take care of all of them!! So as I'm feeling terrible today I get the most wonderful text message (to be my POTD #17) that I'll post later on tonight! What can I say.... I just smiled as tears ran down my face! Thanks baby!! I needed that!

A little bit of this, and a little of that

Well, I got quite a bit of reorganizing done over the last few days. There is still so much more to do, but I have tried to convince myself not to fret and just take it a little at a time. I made quite a to do list and I'll try to work down the list by priority....we'll see.

My friend and her family came over Sat. We had a great time chatting while her daughter kept my boys busy playing. The guys were out in the yard of course, running the RC stuff. I think my hubby might have gotten her husband hooked! It's kinda contagious apparently for the guys to be able to drive things that go really fast! It was nice to spend time with them, it was alot of fun! We'll have to plan another one real soon Beth!

The boys are doing good! B is continuing to copy everything his older brother does. The good thing is that most of it is positive. I am currently in the process of looking for a new bed for D. It's about time to move B up into a big boy twin bed. We'll also be able to pass the mattress down to my bro and sis in law whose baby is due in a few months. I figured I will put D's bed into Bry's and look for D a new bed since he's older. I am really thinking about the Lightning McQueen bed. I think D would absolutely love it. I just have to convince his daddy of that!

It has gotten good reviews on the sites I've checked. So hopefully I'll be ordering it soon. I think I'll use this time to slightly redecor his room also. Not too much to do, I like the walls, but maybe I'll change up his dresser a little and some other little touches. I'll post pics once I get going on it.

Well lunch is over, back to work now. I'll be back later.

Artichoke Dip

If you've seen my 365 POTD blog, you saw the almost empty dish with a promise of a recipe. I might have posted it in the past but for those of you who missed it or didn't try to make it, here it is. You really should try it. Another one of those recipes that is really easy and only a few ingredients, but sorry it does have just a tiny bit of fat.

HOT ARTICHOKE DIP
1 8 oz. Cream cheese softened
8 oz. Hellman’s mayo
1 8 oz. Sour cream
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and finely chopped
*Mix together and put in pie or quiche dish. Top with shredded parmesan cheese (to taste)
*Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden around edges.

Flashback

I was doing a little bit of early spring cleaning today and came across a great picture! I can see where B got his looks from that's for sure! Two cuties!!

365 POTD 1/11/08

Here is my pic of the day..... Bryson told me that it was cold outside so he needed his gloves on......well his gloves are actually his socks!! Gotta love the boys imagination and creativity!! I hope to get these pics over to my 365 blog,( link to the right) this weekend. so I can start putting my pics over there.

How adorable

Well Amanda should of known she'd end up on my blog. I went by to take some snap shots of her and the progress of the nursery. She's hand painting it herself and it is looking so adorable! So I just thought I'd share it with you all and show you how the nursery is coming along. She looks great and is doing a great job with the decor. Her Alabama shower is in two weeks and that will be alot of fun. I'll post pics here for sure from that.

365 POTD 1/10/08

Here's my pic for today. We had some really bad weather and tons of rain this am. My hubby actually took the pic, but I told him to go get some pics for me since I was at work (that counts right!) This is a pic of the two neighbors across the street where their yards join, flooded!! wow!!

365 POTD

Ok, after lurking several blogs I have decided to join the 365 (picture of the day) project. So the idea is to take a picture everyday for 365 days. Of course I am a few days behind, but actually have a few taken over the last few days. I will fill them in where appropriate and have to just live with missing the few others. It should be interesting, seeing that I love to take pics of EVERYTHING (so my hubby says) it shouldn't be too hard, ya think? We'll see. I'll do my best.. I think I will join Susan and design a separate blog for the pics. I will prob post some on here too, but to check out my progress I'll design it's own blog page. Not tonight of course but within the next few days I hope. So here it goes, my beginnings for 365 POTD!!


Also a few big thanks are in order for today:

*Mom---thanks for picking up the boys and having dinner with us
*Dad and Dee--thanks for the commissary goodies and the sofa recliner(looks great in playroom *Tim and mom for helping us moving the ***##%%@ heavy thing upstairs!!
*my wonderful boys for eating all their dinner without a fuss and getting a great treat after!!
*my outstanding husband for our new scanner,fax, printer combo thing, can't wait to hook it up
*my in-laws for all their constant prayers

Good night!

365 POTD 1/1/08

365 POTD 1/2/08

365 POTD 1/4/08

365 POTD 1/7/08

365 POTD 1/9/08

As for this pic from today, swim, eat, swim, eat, swim, eat and some sleep...wouldn't it be nice!

Funny story for the day

This was sent to me in an email and it's simply hysterical!!



DADDY'S GONNA EAT YOUR FINGERS ...

This one is for everyone who ...a) has kids, b) had kids, c) was a kid, d) knows a kid e) is going to have kids.

I was packing for my business trip and my three year old daughter was having a wonderful time playing on the bed. At one point she said, 'Daddy, look at this,' and stuck out two of her fingers. Trying to keep her entertained, I reached out and stuck her tiny fingers in my mouth and said, 'Daddy's gonna eat your fingers,' pretending to eat them.Went back to packing, looked up again and my daughter was standing on the bed staring at her fingers with a devastated look on her face.
I said, 'What's wrong, honey?'She replied, 'What happened to my booger?