So, I actually was able to do something this week other than stress out, pack 4 boxes, and haul kids all over O-Town and back. I took all my scrappy stuff to Rockwell Manor, oh by the way we got our keys Tuesday, and instead of wasting time unpacking or hooking up utilities or something - I scrapped! Where are your pictures you say? Well, they would be back at Rockwell Manor, where I wish I were. Hubby just got home from installing the floor tile and was going to bring them with him, however he forgot - don't get too mad now - I forgot them yesterday. So we give him an out and maybe later I will update as soon as I get my hands on them.

Just to let you know though, even in the midst of utter chaos and stress, I scrapped. I got 5 pages done yo! And the rest I will leave to the imagination until I am able to upload them. I hope you will come back and see them, I'm kinda fond of them :-D

**UPDATED***

I just got home and remembered my pages - YAY ME! - so here ya go, if there are any of ya ;-)



These two are just a simple spread using the last (I THINK) of last years Christmas photos. They were actually a set of premade page layouts I got from Target, on clearance, 4 pages - $2.96 - SERIOUSLY. They are pretty simple, I may still add a title for the first page, but we'll see.





These were also a set of premade pages. You guessed it, 4 coordinating pages - $2.96. I really liked the patterns they used, they had a romatical feel to them, so I used them for our "non official date" anniversary pictures. I really just LOVED these pictures :-D

For being a bunch of pre-made pages they came out pretty well! Especially for being done in the midst of moving and absolute chaos. SO YAY ME! :-D

And YAY to all you guys who have joined in with your craftiness-es! And for the rest of you, what were YOU up to this week?? Post about it! Leave me a comment and Mr. Linky your crafty post!

TNT!

HEY THERE! Welcome back to the weekly installment of Masterpiece Monday! It has been a crazy week around here but I still managed to get a little scrappin in, think it helps me feel normal in the midst of the craziness of late. I'm hoping that keeping up with my lil hobby here keeps me in tune with myself, that part of me that can be so easy to loose in the hustle and bustle of taking care of a household and a large family. I am SURE so many of you out there can relate to THAT. So if you have been crafty this week, post about it! Link here and tell us all about it! It's helping me on many levels, it you'd like to join in, just link below!

So on to MY craftiness this week . . .

This is a VERY old pic I found while looking for a quick subject. It was taken of Mad back in April of 2006! I love the black and white though. What I love about this page are the letters, mostly the pink with rhinestones SUPER CUTE!

This is the other half of the spread, my lil B can, and will, fall asleep ANYWHERE. I love the letters on this page too! and the big flowers - oh and of course the subject ;-)

This is a spread for My Album. This is my friend's baby shower earlier this month. The page is simple but I like the layout.

The facing page is simple too but I like it, I really like that pink pattern paper. I just noticed my hand writing is a little um askew? Ahhhhh, it gives it character!

This is another spread for My Album. My friend came down from Texas for a visit and we hung out a bunch. I think this is such a cute pic of us, we were at a scrap class for an All Boys Album by Hiedi Swapp - LOVE HER!

This is the facing page - I think the title says it all :-D If you can't read it, it says "All Hail the Mangotini!" :-D We even got to sneak out after the class for a lil drinky drinky and it was GREAT! I love the cocktail sticker! And the little drinky girl stickers! SO CUTE!


So that was my handy work this week, what were YOU up too?? Post about it! Leave me a comment and Mr. Linky your crafty post!

TNT!

I just BET no one can tell me what movie THAT is from! ;-)

Well Happy Satruday to you all. I have had the worst week EVER and can't wrap my head around all that I would have to talk about. Sigh, let's only say that I am glad it's MOSTLY over and let us never speak of it again ;-)

SO BACK TO BEING SMART! Well until about 23 minutes ago, according to Joe I was flatlining! Things are looking better for me now though - WHEW! It's funny cause all the stuff I was working on for around the house went to POT! The other stuff I almost NEVER really do, not so bad. Course, that may be due to the fact that I have spent about 4 waking moments in my home since Tuesday morning - ish. Let's look at the facts...

Making the bed - 4/7 days - yeah, up through Tuesday morning I was doing GREAT!

Quick clean the kitchen at night - 2/7 days - HA! was I home 2 nights this week?!

Read to kids at bedtime - 2/4 days - um yeah - doin GREAT! ;-) well half ain't SO bad, right?

Limit TV during the day - 7/7 days - GOAL BABY! w00t! I am the BEST! GO ME! I am taking ALL the credit even though we were basically gone for most of the childrens waking hours :-D

Do something exercise like - 4/7 days - OH YEAH OH YEAH - I am TOTALLY counting the 23,875 I lifted that baby and her stroller in and out of that car, and walked the kids EVERYWHERE I could think of all over O-Town and the surrounding areas as exercise THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Brush teeth before bed - 1/7 days - yeah well . . . I WAS IN THE CAR 12 HOURS A DAY PEOPLE! GIMME A BREAK! Besides, I brushed em in the morning so as not to offend the teachers/students/kids/other moms/neighbors/people in traffic next to me - SO THERE YA GO! ;-)

Get UP by 6:30am - 5/7 days - yeah I do REAL well with THAT one seein's how I am usually on the ROAD by that time! My goal is 5/7 cause I deserve that weekend break of 7:00 DANG IT!

Sweep - 1/7 days - Do I have floors? It's weird cause I haven't seen them in so long...

Wash my face - 3/7 days - I really enjoyed this new habit when I did it cause it felt good, however that required being HOME, and since did not have that luxury this week I did not do so well.

Therefore, since this week I will getting my keys - PRAISE GOD - and attempting to move in and and paint entire house/rip out most downstairs carpet/install tile and dots/rip out counters/install granite/install a door/drywall said door/build cabinet/install said cabinet oh and fix and pack the entire house we live in NOW - so therefore and back to my point - no new habit this week. I could say I am going to work on my other habits, but um . . . yeeeeeahhhhh.

So good luck to the rest of YOU though - you go girls! And just wish me luck - and sanity - for the next week. If you haven't joined in on the SMARTies Club - go check out The Lazy Organizer - WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! :-D

TNT!

So...tired...drove many...many miles...good day...but very tired...no time for...details...only time for list...and talking like...William Shatner...

The first day of school in O-town:

• Got up at 5:55, looked at the clock and thought "WHY THE @#$% IS THE ALARM SET SO EARLY?" then remembered it was for me...
• Lil B and Mad didn't eat cause they weren't hungry ona counta it was before DAWN
• Got out of the house pretty close to on time, an HOUR before school started, took the backroads cause the freeway was CRAP, got to the school in the midst of the worst traffic EVER
• Didn't get to walk her up to the class cause she would've been late by the time I unloaded the crew, first time I haven't done that since she was a kindygardener
• Headed to my second home for the breakfast of champions - Starbucks coffee and bagel for me, muffins for the kids
• While congratulating myself on being the master of my universe, my baby pushed my purse which knocked my coffee, which drenched my 5 year old in scalding hot coffee
• After the shock and awe of the situation had thoroughly set in I picked up my SCREAMING child and raced to the bathroom, remembered to grab the baby who was also now screaming because I wrenched her away from her muffin
• Did I mention the place was PACKED? Well it was...
• Found that child A was now screaming not because she was hurt, but because she was so upset that her brand new, first day of school, perfectly accessorized "outfit" was RUINED!


• Had to make an emergency run to teh nearest Target to get a new "perfect" outfit and made the mistake of trying stuff on for myself :-(


• Went to park to sit and fill out paperwork the teacher wanted back TODAY, which was hard with Mad making mad dashes for the street everytime I start spelling out lil B's name for the 4538th time


• Found papers in her backpack STILL when I got home after school


• The pre-walk on my house made my damn week. It could not be more perfect! And all the imperfect stuff will be fixed by the final walk next Tuesday :-D


• Sprinted out the door of my new house to take lil B to school, remembering on the way that I had forgotten to feed her


• Made her WOLF down a warm PB&J I had prepacked this morning


• SAW THAT HOE from yesterday and she never made the attempt to appologize and since I was a little afraid she might shank me, I didn't say anything either {YOU NEVER KNOW HOW THOSE CHOLA'S ROLL}


• Ate lunch with DH at Taco Bell - those 23,975 calories never tasted so ok-ish


• Drove to a nearby city with a park on the river thinking it would be a little cooler - HA!


• Hung out about 20 minutes and it was time to go get R from school


• SHE HAD THE BEST DAY EVER! Made friends, likes her teacher, loves her school, life is GREAT!


• Took her to the park JUST as Mad fell asleep, I stay in the car with sleeping child and let other child run and run


• Until it was time to go get the OTHER child from school!


• Lil B HAD THE BEST DAY EVER! Made friends, likes her teacher and loves her school - best part - NO BULLYing ATTEMPTS MADE! w00t!


• Take Mad from the stroller and back into the carseat for the 34,586 time today, and that was one time too many


• SHE DONE LOST HER MIND - started screaming and hollering and BEGGING for juice


• I only gave in because she hadn't had much in the way of fluids today so we went to Rite-Aid and all got NICE ICE COLD BEVERAGES AND WERE IN HEAVEN


• Until I had to take it away from her to get it rung up - WHOLY @#$% was she PISSED


• Drove 10 hours to take children to their dad's house, run an errand, and return home - THANK GOD


• Made 2 trips to unload the car from today's adventure


• Made a list of all the CRAP I need for tomorrow when I LEAVE the house at 6:30 for another 10 hour adventure in faux homelessness


• Ate apple pie and ice cream for dinner as poor DH falls asleep on the couch from pure exhaustion after another 16 hour day at work and then working at his mama's house


• REALLY enjoyed eating pie for dinner - CAUSE I CAN! w00t!


• Blogged and tried to keep my eyes open and fingers typing - for your enjoyment folks, I do this for YOU! ;-) No not really, I needed to vent and you all can just LIKE IT! ;-)

Okay...enough...for me...must sleep...and get stuttering problem..........LOOKED at ;-)

TNT!

One word that would sum up today = DRAMA.

It started out with me getting the kids up and getting myself presentable at the butt crack of noon. Today we had Lil B's kindergarden orientation, in our new town. I knew I would have to take all FOUR kids with me to this thing. So I called my mom yesterday and basically promised her my first born if she would go with me. She got here right on time and flew out the door. I was pretty well put together actually! I remembered the stroller, the snacks, the hella waters, the baby, and my purse! Then about 13 miles away I remember that I, wearing a navy top, black layered shirt and jeans, forgot to grab my CUTE shoes, and was instead sporting pink flip flops - yeah. But whatever.

So 10 hours later we finally get there. HELLA FOLKS man. So we shoved past them all only to be told to shove back the other way into the cafeteria. I sent my mom and the other 3 kids off to play and explore. Lil B and I listened to some guy say some stuff and then it was OFF TO THE CLASS ROOMS! Her teacher is very patient, very nice, and very understanding - so she and I will get along very well! B was a little skittish at times but there were HELLA kids in there so that was understandable. We looked around, played with some toys,

took some pics and left to meet my mom and the kids outside the door. I went back in for a minute to ask the teacher something and then all DRAMA broke loose.

My oldest comes barrelling through the door to tell me M (my 8 year old stepson) got punched in the eye!!!!! I got out there and get the story. Appearently, some KID was bullying my lil B! He was pushing her and hitting her and then tried to push her off the playground equip!!!! He was lifting up her foot to push her off when my hero M comes up and yells "HEY! Don't you do that to her! LEAVE HER ALONE!" to which the little bastard says "If I push her and she falls it'll be funny!" to which my hero says "YOU BETTER NOT!" and starts climbing up to help her. So the little shit leaves her to go to M. He says to M, "Hey let's go play over there." M says "No way."

SO THE @#$%ing little BASTARD SAYS "Then you're gonna get what you deserve"

AND PUNCHES HIM IN THE EYE!!!!!!

He's a kindergardener . . . in lil B's class. FUN. I was so FREAKIN PISSED. I come running out and see that the little SHIT and his GHETTO-CHOLA-WANNA-BE-WHITE-GIRL-CAN'T-BE-MORE-THAN-20-WITH-A-5-YEAR-OLD MAMMA and her GHETTO-ASS-CHOLO-THINKS-HE'S-HARD-CORE-CAUSE-HIS-SON-PICKS-ON-LITTLE-GIRLS-LIKE-HE-DOES Boyfriend leaving to get in their car. In their haste to get away before the have to face me like a real woman would, THEY LEFT THEIR 2 YEAR OLD BEHIND. Her man ran on and met her with the car and the whole damn time she was walking away, she was staring me down. She walked all the way throught the parking lot lookin at me behind her. Now, there are two reasons for a staredown like that...

Welcome back to another Masterpiece Monday! I am hoping that this will grow in popularity {so more than just me and a BFF are doing it ;-)} so I am going to outline what I'm thinking are the guidelines.

On Mondays I will be posting whatever craftsy/artsy/creative things I have done over the past week. For me, this is helping me to carve out time for myself to do something I enjoy - SCRAPBOOKING! Since I have four kids and LOVE to take pics of EVERYTHING I do, I have A LOT to scrap! So doing this helps me make "ME TIME" during the week. I think I may have gotten more scrapping done in the last few weeks than I have in MONTHS! GO ME!

So I invite you all, and anyone you can think of to tell, to join me! You can post a picture of anything you did that was creative in anyway. Photos you took, something you baked, something you made, something you organized ;-), or something you scrapped! In the post, link back to Masterpiece Mondays. I will have a Mr. Linky at the bottom of my post and you can link to your Masterpiece Monday post! You don't need to ask ahead of time, just link up! I am REALLY excited to see if anyone else participates! You can also use the cute little picture I got in the corner here if you'd like! Put it on your post, on your side bar so other people see it, whatever makes ya happy :-D I know it'd make ME happy, and Rebecca too since she created it :-) {thanks girl, much props ;-)} So now that that is settled, let's look at how crafty I was this week!



This is a layout for my family album. Mad was a busy girl round the holidays and was getting into all kinds of mischief! But she was just so darn cute!



I love this picture. It took FOREVER to get, but I GOT IT! Mostly cause my mom has a picture of me at this same age doing the same thing - super cute.




This layout is for My Album. My girlfriends and all our hella kids got together before we all scattered to the winds. It was funny cause THIS was the GOOD shot! It was so funny trying to get all these kids corralled and looking at the camera, let alone US! And we still are missing two kids!




These were the outtakes! They were just so funny I HAD to put them in! Especially the one where my friend is doing the "Chriss wave" as she called it ;-) I really like the way the title came out on this one, and the inking on both pages, makes it pop somehow I think :-D



This is another layout for My Album. This is of the time Rachelle and I took Rebecca out for some relaxation before her baby was born. I have a single pic of me that I lost somehow, so I left a spot for when I print pics next. I love the letters on this page and the pattern paper!

Ya know, when I started this page I was kinda like BLAH, but now that I look at it, I REALLY REALLY LIKE IT! I like the flowers, oh and the picture of course :-D

Well I hope you enjoyed my latest Masterpieces and I would LOVE to enjoy yours! So just put your info into Mr. Linky, leave a comment, and post your pieces! w00t!

TNT!

*BEEP *BEEP *BEEP

Now, be honest here . . . I see a pimpley red one eyed-monster, does that NOT remind you of a certain part of the male anatomy?! Either way, I really don't want that creepy one eyed-monster teaching any "life lessons" to my kids, they will learn THOSE lessons WAY TOO SOON as it is. Perhaps, I am reading WAY too much into kids cartoons these days, but PLEASE? Who thought we needed some orange haired beat boxer who plays with toys and his one eyed-monster to teach our kids "life lessons"?!

*UPDATED*

THIS is the way *I* see it ;-)

So please folks, beware of the new form of parental torture that is infecting your normal cartoon viewing time starting August 20th. And that concludes our EMERGENCY PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

*BEEP *BEEP *BEEP

OH, and if anyone out there disagrees or can find something redeeming about this CRAP, 1st reread the one eyed-monster arguement, 2nd PLEASE tell me how you can find this non-offensive! I gotta hear it...

TNT!

This week's installment of Works for Me Wednesdays is about getting kids to help out around the house, and FAST!

Just one more week:

• until the kids start school! - can I get a w00t! w00t!
  
• and we pre-walk on our new house! - just a quicky look-and-pick-out-stuff I-want-fixed-but-not-too-picky-cause-HE'S-friends-with-the-superintendant(HAHA!) walk through


• of leisurely mornings with nowhere in particular to be - until the afternoon and kids go ape-s**t and force me out into the searing heat to get the out of the house


• of having kids around to help with the chores any time I need it - yeah, I'm gonna miss that, not the whinning that ensues, but the help I will miss


• until I have to figure out what the H*** to do in the new city until my kids get out of school - One kid goes in at 8, the other at 12, one kid gets out at 2ish, the other at 3:30 and right now I live 45 minutes away = F.U.N


• and I can start attending the mommy meetup groups I signed up for MONTHS ago - course so far, all the times conflict with either getting a kid to or from school!


• and my scheduling goes OUT the window! - HOW do you schedule things like naps when you are out of the house all damn day, and your baby thinks she's too good to sleep in a stroller?


• until I can use my walking trail during the day and not have to drive 45 min to get there! - LOOK OUT SINGLE DIGIT DRESS SIZES, HERE I COME!


• and all my scrappy time is GONE! - Rebecca is gonna SMOKE me on Masterpiece Mondays! I may resign myself to posting old pages, just cause I can ;-)


• until we start living in "MOVING-MODE" and only have plastic utensils and paper plates and eating crappy take-out/fast food cause we have nothing to cook in or time to do it! - LOOK OUT DOUBLE DIGIT DRESS SIZES, I COMIN BACK!


• to get 3 kids school-ready (hair cuts, new shoes, first day outfits, backpacks and supplies) - MAN, kids get expensive around school time! guess that's the price you pay for freedom ;-)


• for kids to get used to going to bed and a decent hour and getting up at the butt-crack of 6:30! - HEY, if *I can do it, THEY can do it! although I will miss my quiet time in the morning with just me and the baby, well I guess I wouldn't call it QUIET time


• until I see my house DONE BABY! - Oh my home sweet home!


• to have whole days devoted to packing - too bad I have no EMPTY BOXES DH!


• until the mad dash to get all of our loan paperwork in order to sign the papers and get our keys as soon as humanly possible - I really hope they don't pull that whole 'we-need-your-great-aunts-Lilly's-W2's-from-1952' or 'get-us-paperwork-you-haven't-seen-in-3-years' type stuff, who am I kidding, I need to get my great aunt Lilly on the phone...

In other news, I went to a baby shower on Saturday and it was so cute. See, ain't we sweeeeet ;-) My lil preggie friend got lots of cute and homemade stuff. She looked so cute with that belly pullin her around everywhere ;-) Then she and her honey came over for dinner and we had a great time. My baby cooked up this new honey bbq recipe he came up with and OOOOH it was GOOOD. My baby can COOK! Although, I don't know if any of you have delt with this but, when your man cooks like WAY better than you, it's hard to WANT to cook cause you feel like they're goin "OOOOH, you call that chicken? That's cute". Even if they don't really SAY that, you KNOW they're thinkin it! :-D

So this post has been pretty abstract hasn't it? Well that's kinda how my brain is working lately so there ya go. Ok, I better get going and read blogs - I MEAN - take care of my SMART Habits or something! :-D

TNT!

HEY THERE! Welcome back to the next installment of Masterpiece Monday! I was pretty crafty this week and I loved it! Last Monday after posting the previous weeks craftiness I was feeling inspired! So Rebecca and I scrapped for a couple hours (via phone, better than nothin!) and I got so much done! Then later on that week I was back at it and got MORE pages done! Let's take a look at my week's hard work . . .

HELLO FROM DATE NIGHT! :-D Yesterday was the anniversary of our first date so we took a leap of faith and called the Crazy Cat Lady over to watch the baby so we could go celebrate. I say "watch the baby" but all she ACTUALLY has to do is sit on my nice comfy furniture and watch my nice comfy cable in my nice comfy air conditioning since the baby is already in bed when we call her. You would think that wouldn't be so terrible, but to hear her talk it's like the worst inconvenience EVER to walk all the way across the lawn to our back door and be all nice and comfy for a couple hours every couple MONTHS, but whatever.

So we got her over there, said bye, or something that sounded more like 'babysinbedleaveheralonewe'llseeyainacouplehours-SEEYA!" and slammed the door. It's just better if we don't give her an opportunity to say anything cause 98.99% of the time it pisses us off and that's what we talk about at dinner. ANYWHO~ so we left for our lil date. Being that it was the anniversary of the beginning and really awesome non-date, we decided to go back to where it all began, Marie Calendars. I know I know, SEXAY! ;-)

It's fun to remember what started the transformation from work-acquaintences to loveofourlivesmarriedwithbabyblendedfamilyofsix. It was a Friday and I was at work, working, and his friend (whom we also worked with) called to tease me that they were taking out the ski boat and what I was missin out on. Then he started talking about how I should get off work early and meet them. It was funny cause I was totally NOT interested in my now DH at the time, like not even a little! But hey man, a boat ride is a boat ride! It sounded like fun, and I didn't have my kids that day so what the hell I said! And I ran and put on my 'good-ass jeans' and high tailed it out there! That ride was awesome. I never really cared much about boats before that but it was so damn much fun! And I started looking at this guy in a MUCH different light! He took off his shirt and was all sexay and drivin that boat all crazy and fast and BOY was it hot! He just looked all, it's hard to describe but, powerful and MANLY and stuff = SUPER hot! Then after the ride we 3 talked about going out for drinks. Then his BFF suddenly said he had to go and we should just go without him. We later thought he did that on purpose so we could go out together alone - and we basically gave him credit for our falling in love and ultimate bliss. Turns out his crazy wife called and gave him a ration of crap and he tucked his tail between his legs and ran home, awwwwww sweet ;-)

So, we end up going to Marie Calendars and sitting at the bar. We talked for over 3 hours and only left cause they closed the place down on us. We talked about everything! It was fun because I saw him in a completely different light, just as a man. He told me later that he did the same thing, and that seeing me in a pair of jeans instead of office attire, REALLY did it for him ;-) THANK YOU good-ass jeans, THANK YOU! ;-)



So this picture was SUPER cute on my tiny camera screen, not so much here. Funny thing was, i was attempting to get a pic of us myself and the bartender came over and offered, takes the pic, then says "Wow, those photo classes really paid off if I do say so myself!" totally serious - hehe um, ok sure :-D



Man, last night was JUST what we needed. We were there for almost 3 hours this time, and again, only left cause they closed down on us. It was so great. We were just talking about stuff, about each other, what we loved about each other, our new place, and the possibility of him going out on his own and becoming a contractor. It makes such a difference in our relationship when we can get out and just be a couple, a man and a woman. Talk about stuff going on with each of us, or just talking about nothing in particular. It reminds me of our first date, when everything we thought we knew about the other one changed.

It was cute, the bartender called us 'love birds' all night and asked if we were there for anything in particular and we gave him the short story (haha, no such luck for you guys!) and so dessert was on him! w00t! w00t for free cheesecake baby! MMMMMMMM...

It was so nice, relaxing and yet invigorating! Just staring into each others eyes and thinking about the first time we sat together in those two seats. Except, as he pointed out, he got to kiss me this time. Hehe, our first date and we were so nervous and excited about each other that he walked me out to my car and we almost fell over each other! We did that 'i'mtotallyintoyoubutsoscaredi'mjustgonnagiveyouanextralongtotallyNOTfriendshugcauseIjustcan'tkissyayet' hug ;-) It was cute :-D So now we always sit at the bar almost everywhere we go. You get way faster service that way for one, and the best reason, you get to be about as close as you can get to each other. It gives you such a sense of intimacy and you can kiss ANY time you get the notion, can't beat that!

Oh, and you're WAY more likely to get your Cosmo made the RIGHT way, and yes there totally is a RIGHT way. Hehe, this one was so good it got it's OWN picture! Oh, and he made it a double and I didn't even noctice! THAT's a good bartender ;-) So I challenge you then next time you go out with your special someone, whether it's tonight or next year, sit at the bar together, see if has the same effect on you! And if it saves your relationship, I TOTALLY accept thank you gifts! ;-)

TNT!