Getting ready for the State Fair

I love going to the State Fair and looking at all of the beautiful items that people have entered in the different divisions. When my friend Peg told me about entering the Fair I said sure what the heck. Oh my gosh what FUN it is! The best part of it is seeing all of the wonderful things that other folks have made. My kids love to look at the rabbits and other animals. The horticulture exhibits are fantastic as are the photographic exhibits but my favorite of all is to look at the quilts. They inspire me to create paper crafts be it layouts or note cards. I love it all!

So now I'm going to pull some layouts together that I want to enter in the Fair this year. I'll make some note cards as well plus enter some photo's (need to get them printed in 8x10 glossy format).

So even if you don't enter anything in the Fair please go an check it out! It's fun for the entire family!

It's Tuesday Gromit

Ahhhh, Tuesday sweet Tuesday to some just another day of the week but for me it's the kick off of a busy day.

I'm one of those people that naturally and on their own wake up around 5 am and am wide awake. But today I got up at around 6 and was still feeling rather sleepy. Weird is all I can say about that. So I drag myself out of bed so I can see our son off as he leaves for a leadership event on the other side of the state. I'm going to miss him while he's away.

So here we are...just Hannah, the cat and me...3 chicks on our own today. I think that this calls for total chick food! Yup that's it, it's a chick food chick drinks total chick day!

I want to mention that a dear friend of mine is having a birthday today...Happy Birthday Cindy! If you can, please drop by www.3scrappyboys.com and wish Cindy a Happy Birthday!

Other things on my agenda it to get more information together for a news letter for our HOA. Get more information from the 3 sanitation companies that service our local area and give some scoop on our ever rising water bills.

I've got to crank out a board report for OSC, get a menu list done and get invitations out to various nonprofit charities that depend upon volunteers. I've also got to shop for the Bingo Prizes for the September function- eek!

I've got to work some more on the garage. It got too hot in there to continue working on sorting through things yesterday. I've really got to make a big push to get it done though.

I did manage to get some more boxes cleared out of the guest room/home office. I even went though a big box, sorted the items and out those items where they need to go... you know- the donate, keep and toss piles and then sort it further from there.

What I did today...

I’ve been keeping myself fairly busy today…

*Got up at 5 am, drank enough coffee to keep a small village of elves awake for a week

*Took my son to the High School for yet another round of leadership school, this one being sponsored through the Douglas High School JROTC program

* Made a double batch of Manicotti today (with meat- ground chicken to be exact)

*Washed about a zillion loads of dirty clothes

*Talked to my youngest brother in law, he’s having surgery tomorrow and he had some anesthesia and recovery time questions for me. I’ll call him in a couple of days to see how he is doing. I won’t call tomorrow…he’s going to be rather out of it with the drugs, LOL!

*Did some HOA stuff, getting information together for a news letter

*spoke with the VP from OSC and she put together a smashing letter to send to the different volunteer organizations in our area.

*Cleared 2 boxes of crap from the garage- was it ever hot out there too!

*And now for me to watch some more awesome programming on The Discovery Channel- it’s Shark Week!

 

 

blog challenge- Top 10 things on my mind right now...uncensored

1- I need to thank the ladies who stepped up to be board members for our HOA. This is a wonderful thing that they do and I'm proud that I have such wonderful friends and neighbors who want to help me to get our neighbors to join together and make our community be the best that it can be!

2- Need to call the 3 different Sanitation companies on Monday and get more detailed outline of what they can offer our HOA as to recycling and trash pick up.

3- OSC programs- meeting tomorrow with OSC president need to cover what programs I've got planned for the year.

4- Our water bill is pretty high this month and next month it's going to be at least 3 times this amount...I want to vomit just thinking about it.

5-I wonder what my husband and children are going to come back with...they went to Lowes so it can be just about anything.

6-I just love those new nightstands that I bought yesterday. It's an early anniversary present to my husband and myself! The unfinished furniture store is the place for me!

7-I need to go to the nursery and pick up some plants and plug them in my flower beds.

8- I wonder how my friend René is feeling today. She was feeling rather overwhelmed with things the other day. René if you're reading this...don't stress about the glue on the wood flooring, if you wait long enough it'll wear off, LOL! Now you know that I'm just joking, take your time, take Robins attitude...don't stress out on those things that really don't matter.

9-who will be the next HGTV Design Star? I'm watching this and I love it!

10- I hope that my Dad is having a "good" day/week. My heart goes out to anyone who is also having to deal with a parent that has Alzheimer's. My Dad now has days where he doesn't recognize people- people being his immediate family. I try to keep myself alive in his heart and memories by sending him a different hand made card each week just talking about what has been going on with my children and husband.

Be all you can be!

Have you thought about being involved in your community? I've never been politically motivated but more civic minded. I'm always one looking to do or make things better in my little neck of the woods. With that very thing in mind, today I became the president of our Home Owners Association. I have good ideas that I hope to get our community involved in. To be just that...a community that wants to get together with others that live here in our little subdivision. To get to know who we live next to, to watch out for one another and to know when there are strangers in our neighborhood. One of the things I plan on getting our neighborhood together on is a neighborhood watch program.

So the first thing that I'm doing is to get us a contract with a sanitation company that wants our business and is willing to meet the needs of a growing community. Monday I will be calling the representatives from the 3 sanitation companies and go over some things with them and have them send me a new proposal. I will then include that information in a letter and send it to each and every home owner in our subdivision. Well vote on it and get it into play. The sooner we get it done the sooner we can get on to other topics at hand. I've also got a couple of great people to take on the positions of VP and secretary/treasurer. We're going to be starting up a welcoming committee and I'm going to make a huge effort to great all of the new neighbors just moving into in our subdivision and I'd love to be able to meet the ones that have been here a while too!

Yup, I'm going to be plenty busy this coming year that's for sure!

Look what I made!

I made this using the July kit from www.3scrappyboys.com want to see the other sides and the top? You can check it out in the 3SB gallery Ü I had the most fun making this too!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

My baby girl is 12 years old today- WOW where does the time go? Hannah has grown into a charming and thoughtful young lady. She's always thinking how she can do things to improve quality of life for pets, people and even plants.

For her birthday we went to lunch at her favorite place...Mongolian Grill. I think it's because she can get a bowl full of noodles with her choice of veggies and meats. We're building a birthday cake but it's not an ordinary one, it's a train. I got the cake pan at http://www.williams-sonoma.com it's called the railway cake pan. Our daughter loves trains and this is just the most perfect thing for her. I made the little cakes last night and today we're adding on the candy decorations with royal icing.

I'll add in pictures later on of the cake and our birthday girl.

dumb laws in South Dakota...

Lets face it there are some laws on the books that make no sense what so ever...here are a few...

*No horses are allowed into Fountain Inn unless they are wearing pants.

*It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep in a cheese factory.

*Movies that show police officers being struck, beaten, or treated in an offensive manner are forbidden.

*If there are more than 5 Native Americans on your property you may shoot them.

*in the City of Spearfish-If three or more Indians are walking down the street together, they can be considered a war party and fired upon.

After the rain...

Last nights rain storm was more like a torrential down pour rather than a gentle summer rain. Just 4 houses up from us the street is covered in dirt/top soil that has washed away from someones yard. The flower garden area in our backyard has deep ruts running though it from the down pour we experienced in the middle of the night. It was a scary storm, howling wind and the rain was just pounding against the house.
The storm has left us with cooler temperatures and a great deal of humidity. So much humidity that I feel as if I'm back in Virginia. It's just nasty sticky, it's not comfortable to go outside. I popped outside once and I went back inside immedieatly. I just checked the humidity level...it's at 78%, yuck! What a great day to get some stuff done around the house where it's cool and free of humidity levels that make it hard to breathe.

Altered Art

I've decided that today is altered art day. I'm working on a little project using some fantastic papers from www.3scrappyboys.com. The colors of the patterned paper and the cardstock are what inspired me to do this this little project. I'll have to post a picture after I'm done with the project. You'll also see a picture of it in the 3 Scrappy Boys gallery.

My Mother is in my head...

Going through all of the boxes of "stuff" that has been in permanent storage for almost 4 years is bringing back a flood of memories. And on top of that add in the fact that I recently went to CA for a visit to see my parents. My Mom of whom is the Queen of all pack-rats. It's not that she's really a bad pack-rat or that she has a boat load of items hanging around the house...it's just that she keeps the oddest things...old Avon perfume bottles she waves one at me "ooh Sandie these are collectibles and they're worth some money" my reply "yeah Mom...only to those that collect them..." Insert an eye roll with that comment. Or old Barbie dolls(some of which I had scalped or gave horrible hair cuts to when I was about 8 years old) and my Mom dares to tell me that those things are worth something...get real! So here I am going through a box of old freaky hair Barbie Dolls and I'm laughing at myself because I actually contemplated keeping some of them...why on earth would I do that? Because I can hear my Mother speaking to me in my head that's why! Ooh Sandie keep those Barbies, your Grand Daughters will want to play with them. Um Mom...I hate to inform you but Hannah is only 12 and Andrew 15, there aren't going to be any Grand Children for at least another 20 or so years. By then those Barbies will be dust! So with that very thought in mind all of those weird looking dolls with bad hair cuts are outta here! I think that I will take some pictures of them before I take them to the doll grave yard. I want to take a picture of these ugly things are journal about what I wrote here...how my Mom was telling me that they are worth some money, it makes me laugh just thinking about it.

So what memories are you scrapbooking today?

Shopping at my LSS

I want to support my LSS (local scrapbooking store) I really do but I wish that they would have more of a selection. Not that what they carry is bad it's just that I would like to see some more variety. I went in to buy some Bazzill Flowers, not Prima flowers but Bazzill...I need them for a particular project. Of course she doesn't carry them but she had the large Prima flowers. I get them home to discover 2 things...first off that they're really not going to work on this project and second- they stink as in smell like a dead fish (no joke). And I have another dilemma- I bought the milk crate of Prima flowers while there at my LSS only to discover this morning that my favorite on line site has them for $10 less- I want to return the milk crate to my LSS but what do I say to her? Hey I found them on line for $10 less? This really makes me look and feel bad especially since I was talking to her yesterday about how we should support of local scrapbooking stores and shop a little less on line. Or tell a little white lie and say that they really aren't what I'm looking for? Which in essence isn't really a lie at all. She (the store owner) knew that I was really looking for the Bazzill flower embellishments and I settled for these. I always end up regretting impulse purchases- feeling like this sucks, LOL! BUT wait...there are 2 other items that I want to get from her store...and they add up to being more than what I'm returning, that can't be too bad can it?

Now to see if I can find those Bazzill flowers here in town...I bought them at a little yarn shop I wonder if they are still in business...I'm going to check that out in another hour.

Cable TV- what are you watching?

I love Cable TV, there's so much diversity of programming these days. One thing I find is that there are little specials here and there that I will record to watch later with my family.

The Planet Earth Series is awesome! If you haven't seen it yet, tune into one of the episodes, you will be instantly hooked! The photography is amazing...you wouldn't expect anything less than phenomenal from National Geographic and they won't let you down with this mini series.

Shark Week- more family entertainment from the Discovery Channel. Who doesn't like Shark Week? It's so informative and fascinating at the same time. And there's new programs this season, woohoo! I have my DVR ready to record the new shows!

Animal Planet is bringing back Meerkat Manor on August 10th- it's an all new season and my entire family is giddy with excitement about it! So what has Flower and her troop been up to?

The History Channel with it's mini series Ice Road Truckers is topping the ratings charts this summer. We record and watch it later in the week. It's pretty interesting and that driving on a road made from ice gives it the thrill factor that keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Besides the Weather Channel and the News Channels...what's on your TV these days???
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Things that my children do that is driving me crazy this summer...

It's obvious that I've been around my children way too much because there are little things that are driving me nuts with them here 24/7.

*The fact that no one seems to care if they push their chair back in place after sitting at either dining table for any amount of time-augh! I hate seeing chairs pushed out into walking areas.

*Why is it that they seldom clean up after themselves? And when I do hound them like there's no tomorrow they bring those dishes up from their rooms but they don't get them into the dishwasher? They're soon to find out that they'll not be getting anything to drink or a plate for their food...why? Because we ran out of cups and plates because they're where? Down in your rooms that's where!

*Putting wet towels in the clothes hamper. Why after their entire lives of me telling them NO TOWELS in the clothes hampers are they and my husband suddenly putting wet/smelly towels in the clothes hampers? There is nothing worse than mold and/or mildew on clothing caused by stinky wet towels!

*The funniest thing is when the cable goes out...both kids suddenly appear out of thin air saying "Mom we're bored" my reply is "Oh my word...like there's nothing else in the entire world do to...go read a book, ride a bike and write a letter to a friend who has moved away- but what ever it is stop telling me that there's nothing to do!"

But if this is all that I have to complain about... I suppose that I do have it pretty good after all. But the towel thing really is starting to bug the crap out of me, LOL! I pulled out some pretty rank ones from a couple of clothes hampers this morning and I'm still stewing about it!

3 Scrappy Boys

My favorite message board is back up with a new look and it's running at full throttle! Please check out www.3scrappyboys.com and see what new and groovy things are happening in the world of scrapbooking. The pictures that are being posted from CHA are wonderful! Sure some things are kind of funky but there's always something for everyone at CHA! I look forward to the scoop that Cindy brings back from CHA- I want to hear all of the gritty details! Ü I know that it's a total Zoo but it's also got to be such an adrenaline rush just seeing all of those new items first hand.

It's Organizing day

Today is Saturday...the day I get the guest room/ home office organized and pull the table linens out of the armoiré and put them into the chest of drawers in the office. We all need space and my kitchen and dining room items need to go somewhere so they might as well go there.

The permanent storage items arrived on Thursday. I made sure to have a box to items that we are going to donate, I did this right from the start. It's much better than bringing it all into the house and going form there. So here I am with oodles of things to go through and you know what...it wasn't that bad. I made decisions right there on the spot as to what stayed and what was coming into the house. You have to keep in mind that these are items that I have not seen in almost 4 years, of course there are going to be quite a few things that I would have purged during that time. I think that I've done very well in the purging department! Now to finish my work and figure out what to do with all of these wine glasses, LOL!!!

Happy Birthday Andrew...one day late

Our son Andrew celebrated a milestone birthday yesterday...he turned 15. Andrew really never liked having a birthday party per say but rather just our immediate family and sometimes a friend or two. Yesterday was no exception to that rule. We went out to lunch at his favorite restaurant (Olive Garden), went to see a movie last night

(the 5th installment of the Harry Potter books made into movies).At the end of the evening we ask him how was his birthday and we got this...the thumbs up. What a happy boy excuse me...what a happy teenager we have!

I wonder about people...

There's so much going on around me that I wonder about. Take the recent deaths of a couple who were duel military. They have been stationed here only 3 weeks. Their deaths are still under investigation and there is a lot of speculation going on to it being a double murder or a murder suicide. It troubles me to no end that someone can be so unhappy to kill themselves but worse yet to kill their spouse or children? I'm one of those very curious people...having to know all of the details into the human psyche as to why people do things. I suppose we'll never really know why anyone does anything so horrible but I can't help but wonder.

Then there's this neighbor of ours...let me just say that I've never seen a worse case of "keeping up with the Jones' in my life! I have to roll my eyes when I think of this couple. A good friend and neighbor told me when we first moved into our new home to observe this couple. I laugh at the antics of this woman and her husband. It's all about keeping up appearances with those two. If they see you having something that makes them not to have the latest and greatest, well then they are off to go out and buy one for themselves.

The first thing this woman did was to buy a new stainless steel grill like ours. I didn't think much of it at first as a grill is a grill and if you need a new one well you need a new one. But when I overheard her talking to her husband about it I had to laugh. She saw ours and suddenly her black grill was no longer any good. Now if you want to talk about needing a new grill here you go... our black grill was on it's last legs! First off it was 7 years old, the handle that you use to lift the grill top up was broken in half, we've had to replace the burner elements inside of it, replaced the grill racks twice and lets face it the side burner was rusted out and I wasn't going to sink any more money into it.

Good friends of ours who live in the neighborhood recently had their deck extended, a 2nd set of stairs was added (one set goes down to the grass area of their yard and another set goes down to the concrete patio) they've also changed the railings- WOW it looks very nice! Talk about adding greatly to the future resale value of their beautiful home. Now this other neighbor is badgering her husband about getting their deck added on to and how she wants one just like our friends' deck. I feel that it's just a matter of time until she calls the landscaper and has him add on to their yard with concrete curbing around their trees and the addition of flower beds. I see this couple digging themselves into a financial hole that they won't be able to get out off all because they crave attention, to cut it short they want to be the envy of the neighborhood. The man has already ruined his lawn by cutting it twice a week during the hottest time of the year in the desire of having the best manicured lawn in the neighborhood. When it's this hot (in the 90's to 100's) you need to let your grass grow longer, to the 3 to 4 inch range. And I heard from another friend in our neighborhood that the "keeping up appearances neighbor" was complaining to him about his water bill being so high and that he has altogether stopped watering his lawn...oh my gosh what an idiot! Well if the guy would stop scalping his lawn and let it grow he wouldn't have those huge brown spots in his yard! I shake my head and wonder about this couple.

The Landscaping is done...

Here it is, the landscaping is near completion. You see that the colored concrete curbing has been done, the rocks beds filled and the cedar mulch added to the planting areas. Here is dirt, lots and lots of it too.

Over here we have grass, lovely green soft grass! Same view but WOW what a difference grass makes! I do not for one single moment regret getting sod. I know I was having my doubts about the contractor but he pulled it out of the bag! And before you even ask...yes we have a sprinkler system! It's been hot humid and hazy all day long. You can see the haze in the picture.

And over here to the right is the view from our formal dining room window. No more dirt to look at, just lovely green grass! The sun came out for a bit then went away. It rained for a while this afternoon- which is fine by me!I look forward to picking out and planting our flowering bushes this weekend.

Blog Challenge - List 5 things you are thankful for today

My blog challenge to those who have read this today (and please put a link to your blog in the comments section so we can all read it )...

List 5 things that you are thankful for today..

*My husband - I give thanks to the Lord every single day for putting him in my life. He is my inspiration. If you think I'm creative...you should see my husband, he's the true creative one in this family!

*My Children- without them I don't think that I would laugh as much as I do. Trust me when I say that my kids are always doing something on a daily basis that makes me laugh!

*Our Home- after living 3½ years in base housing I still feel as if I'm dreaming that we're really here, living in this beautiful spacious home.

*The Air Force- without it, I would not of met my husband, would not have moved as much as I have in the past 17 years and would not have made the friendships that I have.

*My PINK Columbia sandals- oh my word are these things ever so comfortable! I can wear them all day long and my feet don't ache! Now that's a good pair of sandals!

2 Peas blog challenge for Tuesday 7/17/2007

2Peas Challenge: Blog about 5 things you do every day , without fail. List 5 things you do each and every day, weekday or weekend...

*make my bed- I can not start my day without the bed being made!

*make a pot of coffee- must have coffee each and every day!

*read the news on line from at least 4 different news sources_ I like to be informed about what is going on in the world and in my own neck of the woods.

*water my container garden- my herbs and flowers must be watered daily since it's been so darn HOT!

*wipe down the kitchen counter- We have a cat and I KNOW that she walks on the counter tops during the night. So I use my Lysol disinfecting cleaning wipes and clean everything before we have breakfast!

I've got my groove back!

Oh yeah have I ever got my groove back and them some! I think what I needed was a project to get involved with/in. I've got a mission of sorts, to be honest it's more than one.

*I want to be president of our home owners association. I'm tired of nothing being done, no information going out about anything. I want to whip it into shape, make our homeowners abide by the by laws and keep the neighborhood informed of things changing in our town. We've had a few "issues" with things in our subdivision and I want to get everyone involved in a neighborhood watch program. Many things can and will be addressed at our next HOA meeting at the end of the month. Recently the town of Box Elder has been informed that the sanitation service contract will be cancelled as of August 31st. I've taken it upon myself to get in contact with the 3 sanitation firms that service our area, I'm having them write up proposals and send them to me. I want them to include recycling of glass, paper, aluminum cans, steel cans plus a yard waste recycle pick up.

* I'm involved in making some layout pages for a family who suffered a recent loss. There's a plea for help with this over at 2 Peas. Who could resist making pages so the kids and husband can put pictures to those pages?

*I'm having a girlfriend over for lunch today and we're going to be working on some things for the 2007/2008 OSC board year programs. I can hardly wait to get started on this! I've got some great ideas for the upcoming social calendar for our club and I can't wait to get started on them!

*I've also sank myself hip deep in a card making project for the MSG spouses group- I've been making birthday and anniversary cards for everyone! I've also made a small stock pile of thinking of you cards to be sent to all of the spouses in my group who have a husband or wife who is currently deployed overseas.

I figured out that I do my best when having a ton of projects going on. I like to keep active and this should pretty much keep me busy for a while!

The grass has arrived!

I'm so excited...our grass is here! I'm going to go outside and take some pictures of it being rolled out! Oh my word it looks so darn pretty!

symptoms of depression...

As I admit that I feel in a slump of sorts I wonder if I'm feeling depressed. Lets face it, many of my girlfriends either moved away or are in the process of moving away, my recent trip to CA and seeing my parents and their health related issues, and there's us being stationed here at least another 3 years. Don't get me wrong, I think that buying this house was a good thing but knowing that we're pouring ourselves into yet another new house that we don't get to keep is bittersweet.

I think that June sucked away my mojo and July is keeping it at bay. I need to get back into the swing of things... I need to get back in and finish clearing out the garage. Our permanent storage shipment is to arrive next week (eek) and I want to have a place to store the empty boxes and items that we're going to be donating. That would be 2 full crates of household goods that we have not seen in 3¾ years. I wonder...will we even want most of that stuff after we open the boxes and see the furniture? I hope and pray that they're all still in good condition. I suppose that I should get the guest room/home office ready for the additional furniture pieces, I hope and pray that the mattresses for the trundle bed aren't infested with bugs or rodents (I've heard some awful stories over the years about items being in storage for that long).

I bought some fabric yesterday to make some pillow cases for my daughter. She adores frogs and I thought that this would be a fun mother & daughter project. Maybe this will help to get me out of my slump.

We're almost done with the landscaping...almost

Can you believe that it's Friday already? I'm looking past the weekend and forward to Monday...as that's when the concrete curbing is to be done and on Tuesday our sod will be rolled out and placed on the yard. I can hardly wait to take pictures of the yard once it's been completed. I'll of course be posting one here on my blog so you all can see how pretty it looks. I should post before and after pictures - those are always fun to look at. Seeing the transformation of weeds and dirt into a lovely yard with a fence, trees and grass. I will be planting my own flowers and bushes- I want my flowers to be planted in a particular manner and well I find that it's best of I do it myself. Besides I like gardening, I find that it's relaxing (up to a certain point). I don't think that my husband and I could have done this entire yard ourselves, not like this and in this amount of time. This project would have taken us all summer long and that's without doing a lot of stuff that we're having done now. There are some things that you just have to leave to the professionals and for us this is one of them. The picture you see if of a portion of our backyard- to the left is the corner where I will have a small flower garden. I will be having flower beds out from but back here is where I will have my herbs and my future pergola.

2 peas blog challenge 7-12-07

Today's Challenge~ So you have something special that has been pasted down in your family? Let's share what it is and the meaning to you.

For me (from my father's side of the family) it's Turkey Platter. On my recent visit home to visit my Mom in California I brought back (okay so I had it shipped) this Turkey Platter.




This Turkey platter was first owned by my paternal Great-grandmother, handed down to my paternal grandmother, then to my mom and now to me. Every holiday and I do mean every holiday where turkey was served THIS platter was used. Throughout my entire childhood and even in my adulthood this platter is strongly embedded in my memories. To me it represents a time when our family gathered together to give thanks for what we have. So when my Mom asked if I'd like to have the Turkey Platter you better believe that I took her up on the offer. I'm big into sentimentality.

On my Mother's side of the family it's 2 different pictures- first it's this inlaid wooden picture. My maternal grandfather (my mom's dad) got this when he was a young boy, it's done with different kinds of wood. The second is my grandparents wedding picture.

On my husbands side of the family- there are the paintings that his grandmother had done. I think that we own the majority of her artwork as that no one else thought that they were paintings of any sort of quality...Hello just because it's not a famous name on the bottom of the painting doesn't mean that they don't hold any sort of worth or value. What a true treasure to have...something like this is worth it's weight in gold in the sentimental value department.

another day of landscaping work...

I know that one day it will be done and we will have a lovely yard to go along with our beautiful home I just wish that it would go faster! The backyard is looking good, it no longer looks as if we've attempted to fence in South Fork Ranch but rather a more manageable sized backyard. The black diamond edging and rock border along the fence line makes it appear to be smaller, which in our case is a good thing. The garden area in our backyard is a manageable size as well. The landscaper wanted to give me this huge garden area that was the entire length of the backyard. All I have to say is- HELLO I'm not growing crops, I'm growing FLOWERS! Sheesh! Why did my husband and I go through the trouble of measuring and charting out exact square footage and placement of items when no one listens to us? The fence is larger than we wanted it to be and the guy had a copy of our what? Our exact measurements and fence/gate placements. Still the gates were not where we wanted them PLUS the fence is much larger that we wanted it so in turn that means more costs for the landscaping as to rock boarder, concrete curbing, sod and of course more sprinkler heads, UGH! But apparently with both of these older gentlemen they are old school...meaning that they're going to give us what they think we need versus what we told them we want. On Monday I was so fed up with the landscaper that I woke my poor husband up (who had worked all night) and had him deal with the guy. If I had to deal with him any more I would have bonked him upside his head with a brick and kicked his sorry ass to the curb!
Men can really tick me off when they think that they know more about things than women do, especially when it's things concerning MY HOUSE! I'm here to tell you than women and especially military wives aren't about to be walked all over by men who think that they know better in regards to what we need versus what we want when it comes to our homes. HELLO we do more time on station that our husbands do, so you men out there better listen up! When we say we want something done a certain way you better do it the way we want it!

My husband and I have this rule...he buys the cars and I buy the houses. He makes sure that we're safe on the road and I'm the one who makes sure that we're comfortable at home. Between the two of us I think that we do pretty well at taking care of our family.

My Cookbook Nook: My Kitchen

My Cookbook Nook: My Kitchen
come and see some pictures of my kitchen!

It's time to purge those unwanted items

I've been working my way through things ever since moving into this new house, heck even before that. I have really tried to rid myself of items that I know that I just will not use for what ever reason. I had tons of stuff left over from our garage sale and I'm just not willing to sit down and go for a 3rd one at this time. I'm wanting a cleaned out garage where we could actually park 3 cars (what a concept parking cars in the garage). Our local scrapbooking store "Scrappin' Ladies 2" is taking donations of scrapbooking supplies for a local charity. I've been meaning to bring this stuff in for quite some time and yesterday was the day. I made a big drop off at the Salvation Army and then over to the scrapbooking store. I can't begin to tell you how good it felt to 1- have that stuff gone from our home and 2- to know that it's going to a good cause.

I urge you all to purge some items from your stash...go through your scrapbooking supplies and donate some to a worthy cause. Every area has a children's receiving home (nice name for Orphanage), or how about Hospice House or any of the other wonderful organizations to do with children.

2 peas blog challenge- Do you have one book that you would recommend a friend to read?

Yes and actually there’s more than one. I highly recommend reading

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

Emma

Persuasion

All are by Jane Austen

 

And if your tastes run to murder mysteries I recommend Agatha Christie- any of her novels make for excellent reading!

 

 

My Cookbook Nook: Fruit Salad, Fajitas and other good things...

My Cookbook Nook: Fruit Salad, Fajitas and other good things...

Scrapbooking in the "Nook"

my 2 Peas blog challenge for Sunday ...
Every time I have walked into My Scrapbook Nook this week I start putting things away. I have let stuff pile up quite a bit and it really shows. I'm just one of those people that can not work in a messy environment. I seriously con not function in a creative manner when surrounded by mess and disorder. So today I am making myself put the rest of my scrapbooking stuff that is spread all over the place...away! Then I will print off some pictures, put the finishing touches to a project that truly does need to get finished up and put in the mail.

I miss having friends over to scrap with. I'm thinking about starting up a new round of scrapbook group very soon. Our scrapbook group is taking a break for the summer because we all have kids and they are into everything...soccer, swimming, baseball, tennis and gymnastics. Okay so that's more like everyone else's children and not mine, LOL! I "make" mine go to the base pool for a few hours on a near daily basis. The other part is that 2 of our members moved away to new assignments and now there's only 3 of us left. It's hard to get the ladies together in the summer months because of vacations and well other obligations (having kids in sports activities and such). But dang it if I'm not missing spending time with my girlfriends from our scrapbook group! I LOVED making a special lunch for us all and just hanging out talking about pictures we took and placed we've been. So why am I missing it so much?It was just an afternoon spent in the company of good friends. Hmmm, there's that bonding thing, spending quality time with girlfriends, sharing good food and experiencing much laughter. Sheesh! With all that, it's no wonder why I'm missing it so much!

I love birthday parties!

Tonight we attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Matt. His wife Rohini has been planning this party for over a month and tonight all of her hard work was evident. Everything was wonderful and who knew that you have to go the the Holiday Inn in Rapid City to get good Mexican food in this area. Matt was truly surprised, the food was excellent, the company was "the best". Everyone had a great time. Happy 40th birthday Matt!

It's going to be a scorcher!

Today's projected high is 103º suddenly I feel as if I live in Arizona. It was 86º at 7 am, not the cool morning that I was expecting. I stepped out onto the deck to have my morning coffee outside where it would be cool- well wasn't that a shock to my system finding it being so warm.

For today I'm assigning myself a project to do in my scrapbook nook. I've got to finish my birthday picture layout and get one started about my Dad and his having Alzheimer's. Seeing him as a shell of his former self really has me thinking of how he used to be. I don't feel sad for me as I had a good relationship with him I feel sad for those that only have got to know him since he has been "in care". They will never truly now the gentle soul they now take care of.

I have these great 12x12 frames that are in natural but I'd really like them to be in black. I'm going to ask my DH and son is they would mind getting some paint and changing the color for me. I want to put some layouts in those frames but they have to get painted first.

I know that my intentions was for this to be a total scrapblog but here it is a mirror f my life. Would I change it if I could? Nope not for a moment. Scrapbooking is about real life and what goes on in it. I do plan on getting back on track with my picture a day as it got put on hold once we moved into this house.

Over at 2 peas I've been joining in on many different topics. One that I've very glad to have participated in is the reading of blogs from other scrappers. These are blogs from women (and a 14 year old young lady) who have the scrappin bug. My other favorite place to hag out on the web is www.3scrappyboys.com but be prepared...Cindy has got some things going on over there that are going to wow us all! I can hardly wait, I've very excited about this Ü

I need more coffee as my favorite pink mug is down to it's last drop. Coffee, that lovely brown liquid that warms your soul!

working around the house

We've let things go a little this past week. Since returning from our little vacation of sorts we've not done much other than to was a load or two of "needed at the moment items" and wash dishes. So I decided that today we're going to tidy up a bit. I had no idea of the size of the Mount Washmore that awaits me. Lets just say that the laundry has piled up to twice the size I thought it was. Once the kids started picking up their dirty clothes from the floor each one has at least 2 hampers worth of items that need to be washed. Add that to the towels that they've been carting off with to the base pool, and the 2 changes of clothes that everyone but myself seems to think that they need on a daily basis and in that right there is the real reason as to why I have such a massive amount of laundry to wash, hence my calling it Mount Washmore.

I'm having the kids do some manual labor around the house, vacuuming, mopping floors, scrubbing bathtubs etc. Why should I have to do all of this work if I'm not the one making everything so grimy? Not to mention that they need to get off of their lazy hineys and help around the house. I know that Andrew helps quite a bit with the yard work but hey! We do not have a "yard" right now beyond the dirt I like to call Death Valley. LOL!

The only time I've been into my scrapbook nook is to put something on the counter top. I need to get in there and tidy up some stuff and make myself do some layouts. I'll get myself in there some time in the next week. I just want to get my house back in order before my head explodes.

I must be hallucinating...

Because someone started working in my yard at 7:45 am- they must be from a different company because the company we hired can't see to get anyone to show up until at least 12 noon, LOL!

Spending the 4th of July with Friends

Our good friends and neighbors invited us over for a 4th of July get-together yesterday...what a great time we had there! We got to meet some of our neighbors from another part of our subdivision- it was a terrific turn out, great company and I do believe that even the kids had a fun time.

B-1 fly by at Mount Rushmore

Here is a shot of a B-1b Lancer doing one of 2 flybys last night. We also had a B-52H Stratofortress from Minot AF, North Dakota do a fly by as well. Talk about two things that got people out of their seats cheering! The 2nd B-1 flyby was at dusk and they came screaming past with the afterburners on...that was fantastic!

Happy Independence Day!

Today is going to be one of those kick back kind of days. Our friends and neighbors are having an impromptu BBQ/get-together later on this afternoon of which we are attending Ü What an excellent last minute idea, we wouldn't miss it for the world!

It's early and it's already getting hot outside! So I can only assume that it will continue to get hotter as the day progresses- ugh! No one hates sweating more than myself and I'm already feeling sweaty-yuck! On days like this I would much rather stay indoors with the a/c on or bobbing around in a swimming pool. When it's like this we need to remember to drink lots of fluids so we don't get dehydrated.The photo you see here is one that my daughter took last night with my camera.

Fireworks at Mount Rushmore

I'm always a little hesitant of going somewhere that is going to have large crowds...what do I consider large? Over ten thousand people would be a good start. I worry about the traffic, folks getting impatient to get home and with that comes a certain degree of recklessness.

So here is the first picture I took of the evening, it is of Mount Rushmore. I see this place as an amazing piece of art work and determination. You don't really appreciate the size of the presidents until you actually see them in person. Creating this magnificent piece of American history out of the sides of these huge rock formations was no easy task and yet it was done. Please check out this website http://www.travelsd.com/placestogo/rushmore/ for more information on Mount Rushmore and other sight seeing attractions in the Black Hills area.

So to get on with my story...the crowds were large but manageable, the parking situation kept in control. We were in the parking garage (we had a parking pass) and our wait was only a hour...which by the way was a lot less than the 3 to 4 hour wait we were expecting. All in all it was a great experience and I highly recommend it to any and everyone!

I wonder about people...

I am having some serious doubts with the company we that hired to do the landscaping. Again they got a late start...today the crew showed up at the crack of 12 noon and they were yawning, yesterday they didn't show up until the afternoon. So I suppose that showing up at noon was early for them? I'm paying this guy a good amount of money to get this done and I've been getting nothing but the run around- ugh! Some times you just have to chalk it up to the plain and simple fact that you're dealing with men and leave it at that. Men have a much different way of thinking than women do (it's a proven scientific fact) but that doesn't make me feel any better about wanting to smack this guy up side his noggin and say "are you listening to me? I'm the one paying you so you better listen to me and hear what I want since this is MY YARD and MY MONEY".

Just another day on the Prairie

It's hot, it's humid, it's windy and now it's raining- great! Now my landscaping will be delayed even more. I actually woke up in a pretty good mood until I saw how dark the sky was and then when it started raining it cinched it all in for me...ugh!

My Cookbook Nook: My new sink has been installed!

My Cookbook Nook: My new sink has been installed!

Click on the link and check out my new kitchen sink and get the scoop!

Molly Brown House Museum- Denver Colorado

So here we are, Andrew and me in front of the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver Colorado. Since there is a NO Cameras Allowed policy inside this museum this photo and two others are all that I have of our visit to the museum. The tour was wonderful and very informing. Not once did Mrs Brown every go by Molly she went by her true name Margaret. Molly was something made up by Broadway producers for the musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" because Molly was easier to sing that Margaret. Everything inside of this house meuseum is charming and it gave you a glimpse into a different time in America's history.

Landscaping...I hope it starts today but I'm not holding my breath

I'm so darn tired of waiting for the landscaping to start. The company owner stopped by today at 10:30 am - he told my husband he would be here "first thing" in the morning. I find it rather funny how some people have a different idea as to what First Thing in the AM means than others. Myself, first thing in the AM means showing up between 7 or 8am, not 10:30 am.

So now I hear that he's going to have the crew come out this afternoon to start the power raking. Basically I'm being held hostage in my home waiting for this man and his crew to return...ugh!

July...a month long scrapbooking challenge from 2 peas

I joined a month long scrapbooking challenge today over at www.2peasinabucket.com you can find the thread here http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2290873
I like to participate in challenges that motivate me to get working on scrapbooking projects, especially ones that get me to use what I have on hand. Since I have quite a bit of stuff "on hand" this challenge is perfectly suited for me, LOL!

Now for me to print off some pictures and get to work!

2 peas blog challenge- What paper lines are you just loving right now??

For me it’s Fancy Pants. There’s something about it right now that appeals to me.