More Designing

It’s over on the Design Blog if you want to check it out.  =)  The cat, he does hate baths!

The fatter he gets, the more I hate the baths.  He’s got incredible leg power from lifting all that weight.  Thank God the fleas are gone. 

Motivation

Wow.  It’s left me in the dust!  And I don’t even know where it went!?

*sigh* 

Yesterday, I dug out the winter clothes boxes out of the attic and after determining the “needs” for the kids winter wardrobes, I headed for the thrift stores in the town where the hubby works.  I found a few things that were on the “needs” list and then headed over to the hubby’s work to meet him for lunch. 

We went to look at a house that isn’t too far from where he works.  Yes, we are still on the prowl.  We saw this awesome old southern house (think that white house in Gone With The Wind except it didn’t have those columns/front porch) and it was huge (like 8 bedrooms and 5000+ sq feet and 2 stories plus an attic and basement huge) and actually in our price range, so we thought…hey…let’s see what the inside looks like.  So we looked.  It actually had tons of potential, but just like the last one we made an offer on, we would have to make a really low offer because of all the work it needs. 

I was in love with the outside because seriously, the place was gorgeous.  But the inside just needed restoring and the return on investment wouldn’t have paid off.  Plus I was annoyed at the layout of the rooms.  The place was a maze and had a completely illogical layout.  It desperately needed some walls knocked out and doorways blocked off.  I mean, when you went up to the second floor, to the right was the master bedroom, through that was a sitting room, through that was the master bathroom, through that was another bedroom, through that was a weird little hallway and another bedroom or you could go back to the stairs.  And the peeling wallpaper and closets reminded me of my grandma’s old house.  Not in a bad way, but not in an “I’d want to live there” kind of way either. 

Oh well.  That one’s out.  NEXT?

Let’s see…what else is happening in my life lately?

The kids are doing their best to make their momma go insane.  Like the Munchkin who had maybe 10 good days in the entire last nine weeks…well, she turned it around and had a good week last week with NOOO cards pulled—ALL WEEK.  YES!  She finally figured it out!!  But wait…yesterday?  Worst day yet.  Today?  Not much better.  And then there’s K-man, who suddenly regressed back to wetting his britches at least twice a day after being completely potty trained with few accidents for MONTHS now.  Hello??  What’s the deal?  Only thing I can figure out with that is that maybe he’s feeling the upset of the daycare closing and maybe that’s causing the regression.  That is the only thing going on that would make any sense anyways.  And I have no clue what’s going on with Munchkin.  Gonna get an evaluation from a professional on that one…maybe that will do some good.  As of right now, someone is wearing a pullup over his big boy pants and someone else is writing “I will follow directions.” about 20 times.  Stubborn kids.  But I know all about stubborn.  I wrote my share of lines when I was a kid…I’m not sure it broke the stubborn but it sure kept me out of trouble for a few hours.  LOL! 

Now.  What to fix for supper…it has been such a scattered day today. 

But now at least I’ve posted. 

Two Hearts

Well, I felt inspired today and as the page started coming together, I decided to use some of the shots I took at T&W’s wedding for the layout because they fit so perfectly.  Just figured I’d share real quick…

This kit is called Spooks by Sweet Tomato Designs and was originally designed for Halloween, but it is perfect for classy layouts and is just right for wedding pictures that are black and white and purple.  *grin* 

Fonts used: Renaissance & Georgia

Template: Humpty Dumpty (Nov/Pretty Scrappy) by Sweet Tomato Designs

Thanks for dropping by the blog.  Hopefully I’ll be inspired to write a blog post soon…*grin*

A Random Tale

Bob Hill and his new wife Betty were vacationing in Europe... as it happens, near Transylvania . They were driving in a rental car along a rather deserted highway. It was late and raining very hard. Bob could barely see the road in front of the car. Suddenly the car skids out of control! Bob attempts to control the car, but to no avail! The car swerves and smashes into a tree.

Moments later, Bob shakes his head to clear the fog. Dazed, he looks over at the passenger seat and sees his wife unconscious, with her head bleeding! Despite the rain and unfamiliar countryside, Bob knows he has to get her medical assistance.

Bob carefully picks his wife up and begins trudging down the road. After a short while, he sees a light. He heads towards the light, which is coming from a large, old house. He approaches the door and knocks. A minute passes. A small, hunched man opens the door Bob immediately blurts, "Hello, my name is Bob Hill, and this is my wife Betty. We've been in a terrible accident, and my wife has been seriously hurt. Can I please use your phone?"

"I'm sorry," replied the hunchback, "but we don't have a phone. My master is a doctor; come in and I will get him!" Bob brings his wife in.

An older man comes down the stairs. "I'm afraid my assistant may have misled you. I am not a medical doctor; I am a scientist... However, it is many miles to the nearest clinic, and I have had a basic medical training. I will see what I can do... Igor, bring them down to the laboratory."

With that, Igor picks up Betty and carries her downstairs, with Bob following closely. Igor places Betty on a table in the lab. Bob collapses from exhaustion and his own injuries, so Igor places Bob on an adjoining table.

After a brief examination, Igor's master looks worried. "Things are serious, Igor. Prepare a transfusion." Igor and his master work feverishly, but to no avail. Bob and Betty Hill are no more.

The Hills' deaths upset Igor's master greatly. Wearily, he climbs the steps to his conservatory, which houses his grand piano.. For it is here that he has always found solace. He begins to play, and a stirring, almost haunting melody fills the house.

Meanwhile, Igor is still in the lab tidying up. His eyes catch movement, and he notices the fingers on Betty's hand twitch, keeping time to the haunting piano music.. Stunned, he watches as Bob's arm begins to rise, marking the beat! He is further amazed as Betty and Bob both sit up straight!

Unable to contain himself, he dashes up the stairs to the conservatory.
He bursts in and shouts to his master:

"Master, Master! The Hills are alive,.....

..... with the sound of music!"

BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!  Saw that on a blog I read and couldn’t resist sharing…lol!

Three In A Row

Well, I’m blogging for three days in a row.  Doesn’t that just give you warm fuzzies?  Oh.  I’m sorry.  It gave me warm fuzzies. 

I’m exhausted.  But I don’t have H1N1.  Unfortunately, (poor souls) some people in our church DO have it, and the rest of us just have stinky old colds and head junk, so the choir recording this weekend was postponed…again.  They are still going to record some of the solos, I think, but the heavy duty stuff will be put off on another weekend.  Who knows when…

Supposed to go take that placement test in the morning, so I am hesitant to take another Alka-seltzer packet.  I’d really like to, though, because last night I slept SOUNDLY.  So soundly, in fact, that the only time I woke up was when KC jostled me while crawling back in bed (hmmm…maybe intentionally?) and let me know that he had changed K-man’s jammies and put him in the other bunk because he wet ALL the bed and it was stinky and he didn’t want to change all the sheets.  I never heard a thing…until KC woke me up to tell me that.  I can’t say as I blame him…because I remember many nights when I did the same thing and he never budged…and I may have (once or twice) been extra forceful when I crawled back in bed…just to make sure he became aware of my sacrifices.  HEH!  I asked if he had cried and KC said he did…so I was really out of it…I usually hear him.  And that was the last I remember until morning.  And then I had a REAL battle trying to make myself get out of bed. 

So yeah.  I don’t think plugging that stuff into my brain will do me any favors tomorrow morning on that test. 

Anywho…court really stunk today.  I have already vented and growled about it on facebook…I was soo so soooo mad.  They pushed it off again…so now December and then she’ll still have 30 days to appeal AGAIN (and based on the fact that she didn’t show for court AND still got an extension, I feel quite certain that she’s going to keep dragging it out) and then we’ll have ANOTHER year’s wait.  Mad doesn’t even begin to describe it.  Let’s just say that as I was walking to my car and noted the specially reserved parking spaces, some very vandalistic thoughts crossed my mind.  This was after the thought crossed my mind of speaking my mind in the courtroom when the judge asked if anyone had any objections to the extension.  Thankfully, I’m good at controlling those thoughts and not acting on them or else I might have ended up with a lot worse than a warning ticket.  I’m still mad though.  And incredibly frustrated.  I should get off this topic because I’m getting all heated up again. 

On that note, I think I’m going to head to bed…because while I didn’t take an Alkaseltzer pack tonight, my eyelids sure feel like I did.  Night!

Alka-seltzer Plus

I have a burning question.  This has bugged me for ages.  How is it possible that a cold medicine can make you excitable and drowsy all at the same time? 

And while we’re on the subject…I feel rotten.  We had to leave church early because about midway through, my face started burning and when my eyeballs and lips burn like that, I’m usually running a temp.  Not to mention the fact that my head was exploding.  So we headed home to load up on cold meds. 

FYI…that icky (supposedly tasteless) alkaseltzer powder that you put in drinks?  Hot chocolate actually does make it tasteless. 

Heard from the realtor today…it’s back to the drawing board on the real estate side of things.  On the bright side, we’re not so rushed now to get everything ready to put ours on the market.  Although we are still going to go ahead and get all the detail stuff wrapped up so that we’re not rushed when we DO find a bigger place that is meant to be.  Oooohhh well. 

But I got the front porch railing repainted today.  I was miserable and sneezing all the way through but it’s done and it’s bright and white and fresh now.  It was a bigger job than I anticipated because I was just going to touch up the red mudstains, but the rest of it looked so dingy that I had to paint over it all.  Bummer.  Oh well…it does look better now.  Next on the to-do list is kill those railing planters which contain the flowers that the frost already killed and just start with some fresh.  But I’ll save that for another day – when I feel better.

And now I’m drowsy.  Night.

Did You Know?

That if you cross two lanes (EVEN IF BOTH LANES ARE CLEAR), it is considered unsafe movement and illegal?  And that it is preferred that you cause an accident by stopping behind a person who cannot merge onto interstate as opposed to going on around them?  Well, okay, I added the last part, but that’s basically how it is. 

Yeah.  I didn’t know that.  And apparently I did it right in front of a cop because he was on me like white on rice. 

To make it more perfect, I was on my way to sisters night out…so at least half the sisters coming from my direction witnessed my moment there on the side of the interstate. 

I couldn’t find my registration…i knew it was in there but I was so flustered and I kept flipping through the car papers and couldn’t find it.  But at least I didn’t cry until after he took my license and went back to his car.  And I didn’t even know why he pulled me until after he brought back his little clipboard and asked me to sign.  I asked him what I did before I signed it, and he told me and then he explained it was just a warning.  I was much happier to sign it then.  Dear heavenly father. 

I wouldn’t have cried if I hadn’t really thought I was going to get a ticket because I ALWAYS do…and because I did not want to have to tell KC.  LOL. 

I was SOOO relieved to not get a ticket…gaaaa.  I wasn’t going to blog tonight but whew…needed to get that out of my system.  I took a few pics of girls night out tonight but I don’t have it in me to get up, go get the camera, download and upload…yeah.  anyway. 

Dear God, thank you for answering my desperate plea for that cop to have a teeny tiny ounce of mercy on me tonight.  He did.  And I really really appreciate it!  *sigh of relief* AMEN!

Hello.

I am going crazy. 
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So what’s new with YOU?

I hope you’re doing better than me.  I cannot believe I am sick AGAIN.  Why does this only happen on weeks when I have too much to do?  It’s making me insane.  Why can’t I be sick on the slow weeks when I have nothing major scheduled? 

OH YES.  Sorry, Murphy, didn’t see you over there.  Can you move along now?  You are making me insane. 

Not that I’m here to gripe, but I have not stopped moving today…or yesterday…in spite of awful stomach pain and head cold junk.  And this week is just nuts. 

• Tomorrow, it’s paint day at K’s…gotta get those cabinets finished…I feel terrible for leaving her hanging (and a bunch of cabinet doors NOT hanging) for like…months.  OUCH. 
• Tomorrow night: Girls night out. (hallelujah!)
• Wednesday: More DEEP cleaning on the house (I’ll explain that in a minute)
• Wednesday night: church
• Thursday: Court and then I have to run by DSS for a meeting with the licensing worker (one of those things ya just gotta do to keep your license)
• Thursday night: Choir practice and two girls at the house
• Friday: Taking the kids to school and me and the two girls are going to see how smart we are (college placement exams…oh joy!)
• Friday night: Choir recording for the cd (part one)
• Saturday: Choir recording for the cd (part two)
• Saturday night: probably a slow painful death from exhaustion
• Sunday: church

And hopefully somewhere in the middle of all that, we will hear some good news from our real estate dude.  Nothing is going on…YET.  But…anyone want to buy our house? It’s pretty and it’s nice and it has a really, really, really nice backyard.  And kitchen cabinets that are all neat (well except for the one last one that I haven’t cleaned yet).  LOL.  Yes, that’s what all the house cleaning is about—not that it wasn’t already clean (okay, well, we’ll pretend it was).

Speaking of clean?  We have a nobody ghost.  Did I mention it last week when there was um….smears all over the side of the toilet?  Don’t remember if I talked about it or not…but nobody did it.  And nobody did it RIGHT AFTER I GOT DONE SCRUBBING THE FIRE OUT OF THAT BATHROOM, TOO.  I was fit to be tied.  Well…I cleaned it – again.  Today?  I go in there and there is a yellow puddle – behind and beside the toilet and under the trash can…and NOBODY DID IT AGAIN!  ICK.

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah…wanna buy a house? 

Welp…time for me to hop off…hopefully somewhere between working my tail off and collapsing in exhaustion, I will find some time to sit down and detail what’s going on around here…

in a perfect world. 

A world that doesn’t include Murphy.  Huhm.  That’s not MY world.  Well.  One can always dream, right?

Oct. Photo Hunt – The Pictures

Photo Hunt Challenges – The Blog

Well here we are again…another month flown by and another collection of pictures for the scavenger hunt! If you want to see the other entries, go here.

1. A Fall Activity
   
   Playin’ in the leaves.
   
   
2. A Fall Treat
   Okay, I couldn’t pass up any of these pics….they are so yum looking. The first two are gorgeous but the last one is my fav! MMM….BUCKEYES!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. A Harvest
   
   Yep, they appear to be harvested…
   
   
4. Leaves
   
   Fake leaf decorations on the tables at the fall festival at church……
   
   
5. Fall Colors
   
   Sue me…I couldn’t decide. LOL
   
   
6. Something Orange
   
   Sallie’s killer pumpkin cake. Well, the top half of a pumpkin…;-)
   
   
7. Something Spooky
   
   An abandoned building complete with spider and web in the corner of the doorway (it’s hard to see from this angle but it was there)
   
   
8. A Cemetery
   
   Also kinda spooky…all it needs is some fog…lol
   
   
9. A Costume
   
   The K-man in the costume our neighbor gave him a few months ago. We didn’t go trick or treating or nothing, but he likes the costume. LOL!
   
   
10. A Black & White Photo
    
    Munchkin “being a bal-ewwina” when I was trying to take a picture of her.
    
    
11. A Critter
    
    Ick. A fake rubbery freaky looking critter.
    
    
12. Symmetry
    
    The gate/fence on an old southern plantation near Atlanta…thought it looked cool…
    
    
13. Contrast
    
    Oh dear. These are the Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings. As she so eloquently puts it, “…the top gets delightfully crisp and flavorful, while the underneath side remains soft and mushy and more “apple dumpling-y”.” Yeah. Contrast. Hang on while I suppress the urge to run to the store right this second and buy the ingredients to make a whole ‘nother dish of them. If you have never had them, you don’t know what you’re missing. And if you ever make them, you’ll need to ask forgiveness when you ask the blessing. Moving on…
    
    
14. Texture
    
    Pigskin….hehe
    
    
15. A Logo/Mascot
    
    A…Georgia…BULLDOG?
    
    
16. Something Neon
    
    The drink sign at sonic…neon green!
    
    
17. Something Inspiring
    
    I’m not sure why I love steeples so much…I should totally have that checked.
    
    
18. Something Entertaining
    
    Watching a group of young people try to eat those yummy goodies pictured in #2…LOL! (They are going to kill me!)
    
    
19. Something Fast
    
    The car…see the blur beside the mirror of the scenery flying past?
    
    
20. Something Slow
    
    Um. A turtle. This one doesn’t even move…so it’s REALLY slow!
    

Thanks for stopping by!

My Clone

You know you’re parenting a future blogger when you hand your daughter her camera and the following conversation sounds something like this:

K-man: “Oww, I banged my head!!”
Munchkin: “Is it bleeding?  Let me take a PICTURE!”

I caught my little clone on the video camera doing a “photo shoot” only I have no idea how to get it on here, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.  But trust me, it’s hysterical!!

“Stand beside that tree, K-man!  Like this! No, not like that, like THIS!  K-man!  STAND HERE!  Oh that’s good.  Just like that.  NO!  Stand up!  Got it.  AWESOME!”  checks camera  “Oh that’s not cool!  We gotta do that again!”

She did eventually get one of his face…(which of course, I can’t post here) although I don’t think I’d call it awesome…what can I say…he’s not the most cooperative subject (trust me, I know!).  I don’t know that it’s her skills though, b/c she shows promise when she has a halfway cooperative subject.

I am only halfway cooperative.  I was too busy laughing at her because she sounded just like me. 

Then we tried to get K-man to get one of me and Munchkin….

We’ll just note that he did NOT get his momma’s mad photography skillz. 

What?  You need proof? 

I gave up after three tries and just did it myself.  That’s what ya gotta do, ya know?  If ya want somethin done right, NEVER GIVE IT TO A MAN!  Just kidding.  …Sorta.  ;-) 

So here’s me with the cute little girl.  When I get the pictures I took edited, there may be more to come….LOL!  Maybe not, too….since I just realized today that I never did finish the promised beach pictures.  YIKES. 

Anywho…and just like that, another afternoon quickly disappears. 

A Spooky Blog Train

The other CT that I design for is doing a blog train this week.  I’m not part of this one, but here’s a heads up for you readers who are interested in halloween goodies…

Here’s the Designer’s Blog (Sweet Tomato Designs) if you want to start there.

The cool thing about the kit they’ve used is that it’s super versatile, so if you don’t want to do Halloween pages, you can totally do other stuff with it.  Here are a couple I did with it, and you can go to the shops by clicking on the pages. 

They have some cool freebies…have fun riding! =)

Busy Saturday

Well, we took a drive over to TN for R & M’s wedding.  We overslept (thanks to KC taking a Benadryl at 6am and falling back to sleep…and of course, I was expecting him to wake me up, so we woke up 45 minutes before we were supposed to leave) and then everybody out on the road was in no hurry to get anywhere. 

I took pictures on the way over there and on the way back, but not one blessed picture of the wedding.  I was too busy appreciating the fact that I could go to a wedding without any of my family having any part of the stress.  LOL.  Well that and the fact that we were about 10 minutes late and slipped in to the way back corner, far out of picture zone.  I wasn’t mad about it.  I was just relieved that we made it over the gorge without getting a ticket or a wreck and that we got there in time to slip in the back before the processionals started…lol!  I won't say how fast KC was driving, but it was way faster than he allows me to drive.  A cop even came flying up behind us with his lights flashing and KC almost had a heart attack and got over in the slow lane but the cop went right on around.  What can I say?  It’s KC’s luck.  It’s like he’s got a free pass on cavities and tickets.  *sigh*

Well, the leaves were beautiful and the drive was lovely.  The wedding was very nice and it was nice to see everyone again (even if it was for a very short amount of time).  Anyway, here’s the pics (of the drive, not the wedding)… 

And then home…isn’t the house so pretty with the colorful trees behind it?  Wanna buy it?  We’re thinking of selling it.  We’re moving to Honolulu.  JUST KIDDING.  We’re not moving far away or anything.  Just need more space. 

Speakin of space, we left the girl at Mawmaw’s this weekend because mommy needed some space.  I felt so much better when we got back that I even was all nice and put her hair in curlers for church tomorrow…she LOVES doing that and I am NEVER in the mood to do it.  As a follow-up to the haircut debacle -- after her awful beginning and middle of the week, she had two really good days on Thursday and Friday which made me very happy.  I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the consequences she got for her self-inflicted haircut (and for thinking it was hilarious when mommy was talking to her about it) or if she just decided to be good.  LOL.  I’m just happy she had better days.  Hopefully they will be the start of a better trend!

And now, I’m going to hop off…I have a splitting headache and I need to get to bed.  Can’t do another late night because I’ve got the sunday school class in the morning (the 8-12’s in which I am usually the “assistant”)  Yikes.  G-night!