Dontchya wish you had smellovision!!!

These are the cutest dont you think?? We made these yesterday at my friends house. I am soooo grateful to have my stampin time. Anyways. Besides the fact that they are the cutest thing ever...they SMELL! They are scratch and sniff! Yes, just run your nails over the fruit and the smell comes to life!





The inside says: Sending you a little something wrapped in a whole lot of love. Marilyn suggested going to McDonalds and getting the $1 gift certificates for icecream and enclosing them in there with them. HOW COOL IS THAT??? I know lots of kids that would think that was just the bomb!

And finally the great news of our house. BESIDES the fact that it is summer time, our schedules are long gone and I have gotten REALLY bad at blogging... ITS OFFICIAL! We have a Daisy amoung us! And Jennifer...your Daisy is absolutely adorable. But I think mine might give her a run for her money! Hannah said her Girl Scout Pledge last night and received her tunik, and her first patch. Shes very excited! And of course we are proud!

I nearly forgot to show you the pics of "da Van" this is our newest addition. "da Van" is her official name and she is a lot of fun! We are uber grateful for her. She has lots of bells and whistles and we once again feel safe in our car. Always a GOOD thing when one is driving around your entire family. We got a fair price and I couldnt be more happy with the dealership. I also couldnt be more grateful that I dont have to test drive anymore stupid cars! NO, I still have not sucombed to the whole minivan thought. But I LOOOOVE the way she drives, I love the room and so far we have gotten about 28 miles to the gallon. How can you beat that??? And at least she is red, and not granny gold or silver or white. I am happy. And whats even funnier is to see my 6'7 husband all giddy with da Van too!

Anyways...we are heading to the pool! Have a blessed day!

B

SUMMER IS HERE!

I got this new Hopper in. I LOVE HIM! Inside I stamped the YOU ARE SEW TERRIFIC! Cant wait to play with him more!

Our summer has OFFICIALLY begun! The girls are out of school and our schedules are free! WOOHOOOO!!!

I pray that each of you have a wonderful holiday weekend!! Be Blessed!

We are blessed!

We may not agree with the current leadership of our country, and we certainly might not agree with those running for the next round of presidency....but there is one thing for sure that I think we can all agree on and that is that we are free in America. We have the freedom of our Presidential candidates to battle for the chairs, we have the freedom to argue over religion and what is right and what is wrong. Just watch the news for a few minutes and we are quickly reminded how dang lucky we are. So even though its not July 4th, I wanted to just say IM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW IM FREE!!! I am proud to know that if our country was hit with a huge natural disaster that our pride would not get in the way of accepting foreign aid. I am grateful that there are soldiers all over the world that are fighting for America. Not only AMERICA, but for ME. Little ol me. So, even though we all get disgusted as we surf through the channels, not able to find the "news" without first waiting for the presidential running totals to be announced or to learn how a female can or cannot beat an African American or whatever....sit back and remember that many countries dont even have a choice in who their leaders are.

Be blessed...B

Monday Mornin!

OF ALL THE BLOSSOMS IN LIFES GARDEN, FRIENDSHIP IS THE MOST FRAGRANT.


Its Monday once again. WOOHOOO! My last peaceful Monday I might add too. But I am anxious for the girls to be out of school.

The party was a huge success. When I went to bed at 2am they were still singing. I figured it was cold enough outside that they wouldnt be up and moving any so I was safe to head to bed myself. They had a great time and everything was perfect, despite my stressing before the party.

R and I's weekend was a bit more stressful after we dropped the girls off at Grammee & PawPaws on Saturday. We had decided that since we were going right by the Motor Mile, we would just stop by and see a few cars. We werent in a hurry and car shopping is MUCH easier without children. Well the first lot didnt prove anything. We didnt find a thing there. But during this time, my car is getting harder and harder to stear. Like the power stearing fluid is gone. Even though R checked it and it was full. Well just a little ways down the road the car was taking all that he had to drive. We decided to turn around and go back to PepBoys where I had just had tires put on it last week. They obviously had done SOMETHING to it!!

The series of events to follow SHOULD have told us to return home. They said itd be an hour before they could even look at it. Okay...so we walked somewhere to get lunch....the first place said...no, they werent serving lunch today that they had a private party. So we walked some more. Lunch was good once we finally found a place. We even saw Marty Stuart (country singer) eating there!

While dining we got the call from Pepboys that told us the great news that the undercarriage that was holding my engine in place was broken and that the car was absolutely NOT safe to drive. Theyd have to order the parts which of course wouldnt be in until later this week. I was sooooo grateful that R was there tho. Because for one, I couldnt have driven the car. I surely would have wrecked it. And for two, he made them prove that the problem was not something they had caused.

Moving on to the next event. We are searching for a rental car. Of course no place in town is open on Saturday. (HOW CRAZY IS THAT???) We find out at that we have to go to the airport to get one. Greeeaaaat! We then call a taxi to come and get us. Get the taxi. Go to airport. Go to the first window. Set it all up and the man says he needs a major credit card. *gasp* We dont HAVE a major credit card. We dont OWN one! OK...so move on to the next window....start all over again.

Finally get a car for the weekend and once again we are on our way out of town. There is construction all of the way up the mountain. People EVERYWHERE!!! It was crazy hectic. We FINALLY get up to Harrahs at about 730 pm. We decided to go ahead and go play for awhile....deciding that wed get a hotel when we left. HA! Mistake number 5 gozillion! We lost our butts at the casiono. Not a HUGE deal since we only take what we can afford to lose. We had a humongous breakfast buffett at midnight. It was great food, but at midnight???? I would surely be in a coma! We finally left there at 3am. Ronnie just kind of nonchalantly asked the valet if he knew of a hotel. To which we got the grand news that most everyone was booked up. *gasp* Giving us a printout of the local hotels with their phone numbers. Trying to call and find a room. Three phone calls later...we decided just to drive back home. We got home at about 530am yesterday morning. Miserably tired.

It certainly was a weekend that we wont forget too soon. Not exactly the time of our life. But we did enjoy being together.

I hope and pray our week proves to be more easy going. This is truly an example of what happens when you dont listen to Gods little hints that youd really oughta go back home.

Have a good week-be blessed!

There is nothing as happy sounding...

There is nothing as happy sounding as a bunch of giggly little girls. I am thrilled to pieces with the party so far. No one is fighting, everyone is having fun and all is absolutely FABULOUS!

We have tiedyed tshirts, played flashlight tag, had the bonfire ... in which we burned homework (YAY!), had smores, danced, told ghost stories and had enough junkfood to last at least a week and a half. They are now munching on popcorn and devouring the candy boquet as they watch movies out in the popup. Sooooo cool! They can giggle and talk and whatever....and the rest of the family kind of has some sense of sanity in the house.

Do you know what sounds better than little girls having fun? Its when you hear one of them whispering to another that THIS is the best party ever! WOW! I feel like I have just been crowned mom of the year!! WOOWHOOO!

Thank you Jesus for the best job in the whole wide world! I loooove being Mom!

Off again...Happy Weekend!!---B

Its Party Time!

The day of the party has finally arrived! I, of course am prepared to the T and have now got time to polish my nails and read my novel. HA! Yeah right! I am running like a chicken today! I got 53 different things going on. Ha! You can see the ADD in me today...as I cant seem to finish ANYTHING! Oh well...a grand time shall be had. 9 little girls and 16 hours to make em happy. I can do it right???

Anyways....heres the candy boquet I made for movie time. Each little cluster has some of all the candy.

Have a blessed weekend! See you all on Monday!!!

Hot Chocolate

Today is a hot cocoa kind of day. Its raining and colder. I am not complaining at all, as we need the rain so desperately. But boy it sure does make one sleepy. Dont you just love these mouses?? I love House Mouse stamps. I looove coloring them!

My week has been a doozy. Yesterday was dentist day....ugh! The fact that I am more than half way through the reconstruction consoles me for a half of a second. But it sure is awful to go through. Yesterdays scheduled appt was for 2 1/2 hours. I was there double that. I am sore today but hanging in there. Are you surprised to hear that I am taking a break from the whole dental thing for awhile??

It looks like we will have a house full of girls on Friday. We are sooo excited for Heathers party! I of course am running like a chicken trying to make sure everything is just perfect for it. I hope that it doesnt rain on them.

All in all...everything is good here. We are still car shopping. The dealership that had the van that we were looking at didnt seem too willing to deal so we walked away. I reaallly liked that car. But I know that there is something better out there. Maybe the Lord is still trying to remind me that I am sooooo not a mini-van person. Who knows. For now...I have my Pacifica. It has pretty new tires on it and it still gets me where I need to go. So all is well.

In shopping for a car I am reminded by this email the other day, I couldnt wait to share it with you all.

HOT CHOCOLATE

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.



During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.


Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.


When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.



Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.



God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

Monday! Whats not to love?

Happy Monday everyone! If your like me, you are noticing that your "MONDAYS" are limited! As in...this is my second to last one! YIKES! Now, mind you--I am overly excited to have my babies back home and to not have to endure the alarm clock every morning but...wow! Its hard to believe that summer is just a week & a half away!

This is my new Hopper stamp. Is he not the cutest? I am hopelessly addicted to these. I just love every single one of them!

I pray that each of you had a beautiful Mother's Day. Our trip out to the lake was fabulous. My girls got me a new fishing rod for Mother's Day. Not just ANY fishing rod. This one is pink!!! And it has bling!! (And no, it is NOT Barbie...thank you) And it is an awesome rod! We fished all day. Played games...it was awesome!!!! Yesterday, we had a wonderful lunch out and then went car shopping. WOOHOO! Yay me...right? Actually *whispering* we went looking at minivans. Okay okay...you can stop laughing now. As I know it WAS me that swore I would NEVER have one. They are ugly and nothing screams "MOM" more than a minivan, but well...for the gas mileage, for the room and for the overall car...you just cant beat em. My car is just not working for us. Its too light to tow the pop up. It has less room than most CARS. And well....its just not working. We found one van that I really really like. Its already got the towing package on it, its got all the bells and whistles of the dvd, the navigational system, auto doors, blah blah blah. Dont know if we can make the deal work or not...so its a "GOD thing". Meanwhile I will try to get used to the idea of a minivan. UGH! (At least it's a pretty maroon and not a granny brown or something like that.)

Anyways....I wanted to add a small note to all those that are enduring the weather. For those of you that have family that is or that are close in some way to all of the destruction as of late. My heart truly goes out to you. We have had some severe winds, but nothing as dramatic as what those to the West, North, South and even East of us have had. I pray for safety, healing and recovery for all. May God bless you.

Its stamping day! WOOHOOO! I am off to go and play!

And I leave you with this poem that I rec via email this morning! I thought it was VERY fit! Enjoy!

Help Wanted Position: Mom, Mommy, MaMa, Ma

Job Description: Long term project leader needed for difficult work in an often unorganized environment.

Potential applicants should possess excellent communication skills and be willing to work variable hours. Hours will include evenings and weekends and even 24 hour shift work. Overnight travel may be required including primitive camping sites with small campers, sporting tournaments and other events in distant cities.

Expenses are not reimbursed for these or any other day trips. Courier duties will be added as necessary with little or no notice.

No sick leave nor vacation pay.

Responsibilities: The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated until someone needs Five dollars or more. Must be able to bite tongue without bleeding. Must posses the physical stamina of a pack mule but be more cooperative. Must be able to go from zero to 60 miles per hour when screams come from the backyard. Must be mechanically and technically capable of working small gadget repair such as puzzle stuffed toilets and stuck parka zippers. Screening skills for phone calls and computer usage is useful as well as the ability to coordinate a team calendar and see to the completion of various homework projects on schedule. Must be willing to be indispensable but also a complete embarrassment. Must handle the assembly and product safety testing of hundreds of Foreign made cheap plastics and battery not included products. Must always hope for the best and be prepared for the worse case scenario. You will also be responsible for all the janitorial work throughout the facility.

Possibility for Advancement: NONE. Your job will remain in the same position for years and you shouldn't complain but instead constantly retrain yourself and update your skills so those around you will ultimately still be smarter than yourself.

Previous Experience: Not required, but on the job training will be offered at an exhausting pace.

Wages and Compensation: Actually you will pay them and offer them frequent raises and bonuses. You must assume that college will help them become independent after a balloon payment is demanded at age 18. When you are dead you will expected to let them inherit anything that might be left. It's odd but you will actually cooperate and sometimes enjoy this reverse salary arrangement and wish it could be more.

Benefits: No health. No dental. No pension. No reimbursement for tuition. No paid holidays. No stock options. Please note however that this job includes limitless opportunities for personal growth. You may even receive unconditional love and free hugs and kisses for life if you are successful in your project.

Retirement: None, that is Never. Because you are a mother forever and just maybe thru the Grace of God will can know the unlimited of joy of being a grandmother.

Happy Mother's Day to those of you ON THE JOB.

Written by Ray Smith

Happy Moms Day

Happy Mom's Day friends. And especially to YOU, Mom. I hope that your weekend proves to be beautiful. We are heading out on the lake with my in-laws today. Agh! First time in a bathing suit this season. That will shock a person back into reality huh? Oh well, gonna be a great day despite the whale stuffed into the little black bathing suit!

This is not a great pic of the card I did for mom. But I was trying to capture the fact that its 3-D. I stamped the fan twice and then cut out alternating blades and popdotted them all on top. Then I stitched the ribbon around the top of all of them. I think its pretty.

I love you Mom, and I love all of my "adopted" moms. I love all of you too...my friends. Have a fantabulous and perfect weekend!!

Be blessed---B

ITS FRIDAY!

I didnt realise that I was taking a picture of one of the ones that I hadnt finished coloring. But this is the invite that I made for Heather's end of the year party next week. She and her friends are very into the Ninja's and oriental stuff, so I found this little guy on line. I just printed him in black and white on cardstock and then colored him. The inside just has the legits of the party.

XXXXX

Many people do show and tell on Friday's on their blogs. I wanted to share something with you that I hold very dear to my heart. If youve followed my blog for very long at all, you know that Twinkle is exactly that. The Twinkle of my eye. My darling husband got her for me almost 9 months ago. A surprise to me since he told me I couldnt have another cat until Jenny passed away. I had pretty much sucombed to the idea that I would never get one. As I strongly believe Jenny is going to out live us all.

I love her feet the mostest! The way she curls her toes. They just look soooo adorable! Like she has little mittens on!!
I love the fact that each and every day she has something new to make me laugh. I love the fact that she is with me almost all day every day. Usually basking in the sun in her window seat that is right above my desk. I love how she takes life with so much energy. When she plays...she plays hard. When she sleeps...she sleeps hard.

I know that she is JUST a cat. I know that her life is jellybeans compared to so many other things in the world. But for me, she is inspiration. She is love. She is a part of our family.

Be blessed--B

BEACHIEBELLA!!

Is anyone else out there ready for beach time? I know I am!! Bella is colored with Copics. Pretty straight forward eh?

~*~

Lizard drama: Well, I *polishing nails* managed to get Lizard #3 out! Now mind you this was ONLY after trapping it under a cup. Losing it again and going many rounds of under the fridge out from under the fridge, around the cabinets, under the table, back under the fridge. Me armed with my broom, my cup and my dustpan...and very little wits. Him and his wiggly little butt. He finally gave up the fight and made his way out the door and down through a crack in the deck. I think he is just as happy as I am. Twinkle has been cyboshed to outside today. I have decided that if the lizards are already in the house they obviously have been doing it for sometime now and I had never seen one. So they can go on doing whatever they do. And of course the other way for them to come in is in her mouth...and she can just torture them outside. I personally, do not feel the need to take part in her escapades any longer.

Hope that you are conquering what is being thrown at you. Keep fighting. As for me, this is one battle I am choosing to walk away from. I know God says I can do all things through Him. But I have tested my Lizard hunting skills 3 times. PROOF ENOUGH FOR ME!! I got the picture, Lord. Can we move on to something else? No wait...I didnt say that. What will it be next? Snakes? Oh dear Lord, no, cant I just go back to my boring and quiet days?

Be blessed...B

FOR SALE BY OWNER

OK...so I thought Id get a card done to be able to post, but well...it just hasnt happened.

I had to come on to say that we have a lovely 4 bedroom / 3 bath house for sale. Its got great southern charm.

Oh yeah...comes free with LIZARDS!

Yes, friends...another one has ventured into my kitchen! The difference is that this one is missing! I cant find it! Hannah saw Twinkle chase it under the stove. But when I pulled the stove out (yes, it is difficult to do from the top of the countertop) there was no lizard.

Do you know how unnerving it is to cook when there is a fear that something is making its plans to run across your feet?

Okay, so maybe I am not QUITE ready to relocate. But dang...really just how much must one tollerate??

Dentist....Knocks me on my tail EVERY time!

So sorry to be missing in action. I had another round of dental work last week. I am closer and closer to a beautiful white mouth...but dang I hate the fact that it litterally takes me OUT of the picture for days.

Last week was Heather's final band concert of the year. YEHAW! First year flute is over! Isnt she beautiful? She did fabulous and they sounded wonderful of course!

Hannah was invited to Sarah's Birthday party last week too, and they had someone there painting faces. Talk about amazing stuff! She did dog faces that REALLY transformed the kids. I am talking like THEATRE work! I was proud of my eagle:

And of course my Tiger:

Then on for the excitement of my day today. I dont know HOW and I dont know WHERE and I definitely dont know WHY...but I have had TWO--yes you read that correct, two lizards in my house this morning!!! After chasing the first one around (fighting twinkle for it) I got him outside. We were BOTH tramatized and Twinkle was miffed that we interrupted her playtime. Then not even an hour later ANOTHER one!!! No, it wasnt the same one...I checked--he's still sunbathing on the deck....wiggling--but very little. This one was BIGGER and FASTER! And ewwwwwww. I was so proud of Twink. She caught him and took him right out the door I was sooshing her out of. GOOD KITTY. But wait!!! She went around the house and brought him back in through the back door! DANG! DANG! DANG! OK...so I caught him again and he now has joined his friend sunbathing. And Twink...GONE! I cant find her. So either she has FOUND where they are coming from and is sitting perch or has decided that is enough excitement and headed up for an afternoon siesta on one of the beds. EWWW...she has Lizard mouth! GROSS!!

So, what great things are being thrown in your direction today? Are you conquering them? Be blessed!!--b