Family Night

Today I took the kids to the movie. It's funny to watch them get ready. Jacob just gets his shorts and shirt on and he's done. It's a whole different story for the girls! lol Even Dakotoa got into the act! We sprayed her hair, and combed it over my finger to make the "baby curl", and it worked! She was not to be upstaged by the older girls! lol Katie got all dressed up, then had to get her make up on, paint her toe nails and do her hair. Kelsea got all dressed up, too, and we did her hair. Both of the girls have naturally wavy hair, so with Katie's shorter hair, she mousse's it and scrunches it, and straightens out her bangs and she's done! Kelsea's hair is longer, but we moussed it, and scrunched it and then put it in a pony tail. They both looked beautiful. And all this for a $2.50 movie! There are some advantages to living in a small town! :)

We had an unscheduled family night tonight. We usually all get together on the 2nd Sat. of each month, and have dinner, then play this fun dice game. But since the kids were going home tonight, I told Libby to just plan on staying for dinner. Well, Audrey and Dakota were here doing laundry, so I told her she and Ryan should plan on eating with us, then she wouldn't have to cook. Then I decided I'd better call Mom and fill her in on the festivities. So I had a full house for dinner! But I tell ya, Denny grilled some mean pork steaks and hambergers out on that grill of his! And Mom brought over the best tomatoes! OMG, to die for! To me there's nothing better tasting than a tomato from MO, IL, or IA in the summertime. I guess it's because it gets so hot here and somehow that plays a big part in it. I don't really care how it works, I'm just glad we get great tomatoes! Hope you all get to enjoy your local fruits and veggies this summer! :)

The Reward

After all the cleaning the kids and I did yesterday, we had a day of fun today. Denny is off on Wed., so he got to join us, too. We had to go to the big city again. This time it was Cape Girardeau. It's 70 miles away from us, but if you want something more than WM, you've got to travel! Now one of Cape's claim to fame is that it's the largest city between St. Louis and Memphis. According to the 2000 US Census it has a population of 35,349. And this is the "big city"! But here at least I can shop at Target, K-Mart (if I wanted to), go to a Mall where there's an Old Navy, a Barnes and Noble, and Famous Barr. And I can also go to Hobby Lobby! Which I did! Denny, being the saint that he is, took the kids to the mall. That was their reward! Jacob rode the merri-go-round, which he later regretted, when he saw that he could have gone to the batting cage! Oh, well. Next time. But Katie, and Kelsea were on cloud nine. They hit a sale at Claire's! Ten items for ten bucks! Denny said most of the time was spent there, with the girls carefully looking over everything making their decisions. They got 5 items each. We don't want to spoil them! And I think it would have been too much pressure to decide on 10 items each! Jacob did pretty well, too. He got a game for his hand-held Game Boy for $6. So for about $17, St. Denny made 3 little kids pretty happy. Got to love a guy who can sniff out bargains like that!

So while they're having their fun at the mall, I head on over toward Hobby Lobby. I didn't need much there today, except for some E6000 glue for Mom. AND, I had a 40% off coupon! So not a great shakes day at HL, but before going there, I stopped off Big Lots. I hit the jackpot! Now, this BL never really has much, but I hadn't been there for awhile, so I decided to check it out. They had some Life's Journey framed metal words, some Tim Coffey metal art, some Marcella metal accents, some metal alphabet tags, ( they kind of look like dog tags), and the coolest alpha frames! They're by Colorbok, and called My Type. Check them out. Just scroll down. Hope they show up for you, 'cause they are so cool! And all this stuff, was $1 each, naturally. So this was my big biscuit day! It still counts as a BBD, even it didn't arrive by mail doesn't it? I may have to be corrected!

The fun didn't stop there. By now, it's getting close to dinner time. So we head south toward home, and stop off in Sikeston, which puts us 40 miles from home. We go to a restaurant called Lambert's. It's a fun place, but one you just want to go to once in while. Today was the day! After they seat you, someone comes and takes your drink order (no booze!), and then the fun begins! A guy rolls a cart around with these homemade yeast rolls, and throws them to you! I actually got hit in the shoulder tonight, and it bounced off of me over to Katie, and she caught it! So you do have to be watching when they're throwing! Then another person comes around, hopefully before your food comes, with a huge bowl full of deep-fried okra! Then they take your food order. Then someone else comes around with a bowl of fried potatoes and onions, another has black-eyed peas, and another has macaroni and tomatoes. I don't like that, tho. They over cook the macaroni! lol It's not cheap, but the portions are huge, and unlimited! So you do get your money's worth. So check them out and see what you think.

By this time, I'm done! So we finally head on home, get our jammies on, and check out our treasures. Rewards can be exhausting....

I Hate Cleaning!

What a day! I've got Libby's kids on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. for the summer since she started working. She brings them over on Mon. night, because she'd never get them up in time to get them to my house, and then get herself to work on time. So I came up with this arrangement. I almost had Dakota today, too, but those plans changed, thank goodness. She's only 3 1/2 months old, and she scares me! LOL Not really, but I can't just up and go, or get things done with her like I can with the other kids. And today was cleaning day. I can't do standing, bending, stooping, and squatting like I used to. And forget about standing on tip-toes to reach high things. It's not happening! So I enlisted the kids to help me. They did a pretty good job, and I couldn't have done it without them. But I still ended up doing a few things myself. I guess I'll have to figure out a better plan next time, so they're doing ALL the work! lol

But did I tell you I hate cleaning? It's such a thankless job! Why can't you do it once and it stays that way? Especially the dusting. I hate that worse of all! I've never been an immaculate housekeeper, but you never had to wade your way through my house. Can't stand the clutter and tripping over stuff! But you may find the dust 3 inches thick! But I figure you can't trip over dust, right? Thank goodness none of us had alergies.....!

Introducing....

Me! This is my first blog ever. I set it up a few days ago, and have been logging in some stuff to practice. I thought about editting it out, but figured, what the heck--I'll just leave it. Scroll down if you want to read it. In setting this up, I had to pick the brains, or blogs, of a couple of cyber friends--Shar & Cindy. Shar, see anything you like??? Go for it, if you want it! And Cindy, love the "bitchy buttons". Thanks! But anyway, this is where I'm at. I'll be adding more links in that section, but wanted to put in my favorite blogs that I read everyday, and added a couple of my favorite professional sites. There will be other things that I'll be adding as I go along. It's a work in progress--like me!

This may end up being a novel before I'm done, but here's a bit about me. I will be married 30 years in Oct. to Denny. He's a good guy. I couldn't have asked for anyone any better. He puts up with me, so that makes him a stong man! He's good, and kind. Anything I need him to do, he does almost before I get the words out of my mouth! I'm the procrastinator! He's a great father, and grandfather. Well, enough about St. Denny. Just suffice it say, he's a good guy, I'm lucky. But he does still piss me off about half the time, so be prepared for those stories! I have a son, Ryan, that will be 32 in Aug. He's married to Audrey, and they have a 3 1/2 month old daughter, Dakota. What a cutie! She looks just like he did when he was a baby. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen! He also has a son, Kaiden, 7, who lives in OR. We haven't seen him since he was just a baby, tho. Denny and I have a daughter, Liberty, who will be 30 in Sept. Sept. 11, to be exact. Libby, as we call her, has 3 kids: Kaitlyn, 13, Kelsea, 11 1/2, and Jacob, 8 1/2. My Mom is here, too. We all live down in the Bootheel of SE MO. I like that we're close, even tho, we don't see other all the time. But everyone has their own lives, which is how it should be, IMO.

Oh, I hope you'll check out the link for Kathryn Balint. She sells digi kits. I bought one from her last week and LOVE it! I've only printed out one thing, but it's so cute! I'm going to get another one. You can print out the elements and use them in regular scrapbooking. Check it out and tell me what you think of her stuff! She even answers the emails herself. At least she did mine!

So that's it for now. I'll leave you with this thought: When life hands you a lemon, throw it at someone!

Links Are Up!

I did it! Geez, you've got to be EXACT when you're in the template! I was on the right track, but just kept missing getting it right by "that much"! Now to figure out that banner.....

Still Working out the Kinks

My mission for tonight was to try to link to some of the blogs I read into the links section. I got the names there, but when I click on them, it doesn't take me anywhere. Bummer! I thought I read the directions right, but I've miss something somewhere. It's probably something minor, I'm sure. But the names sure look nice sitting there, instead of Edit and Edit! lol Hopefully tomorrow I'll be over this hurdle and onto the next one!

Denny is off on Sundays, so we went to the big city for lunch today. We ended up at Ruby Tuesdays. It's not exactly a place I crave, but it was o.k. There's just not a whole lot to pick from, even in the big city. We shared a hamberger platter, and I got the salad bar. You know, you can add it to your entre for under $3. So lunch was cheap! We do that a lot--share a meal. And not necessarily to save money, tho it does help, but you always get so much! Then we end up taking home the leftovers, and putting them in the fridge, and never eat them. So they get thrown out with next week's garbage. Wasteful! Much better to share a meal.....

Pretty cool, huh?

I ended up going to one of the big cities today. I finally got my XXL, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be satisfied with it or not. Denny says to "forgetaboutit" and just keep it! lol But I had to check out just one more place and see what they had. They had a cute Butterfly tote in a cool green color. But I don't think it's any bigger than what I have. So I guess I'm just going to "forgetaboutit"!


How do you like the clock? It's in honor of my friends over at the monkey board! It took awhile to finally figure out how get it on my blog, but I made it! This whole thing is going to be trial and error, but I should be a pro by the time I figure it all out! I think.....

I Took the Plunge!

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and decided tonight to just go for it! I don't know how long I'll keep it up, or if I'll even have anything worth writing about, but we'll see. At least I'll have a place to gripe about GW, and the way people drive down here. Two things that get my blood boiling faster than anything! But I'll save them both for another day....