It hit about a week ago. It got the baby first. Then the rest starting falling like flies. By Wednesday this plague upon my house had them all coughing and crouping, sneezing and dripping, whining and BITCHING. And yet, it has not hit me...

I have an iron lung appearently. And an immunity of super human proportions. Perhaps because I have drank my weight in cranberry/pomegranate green tea with honey over the last three days.

To be surrounded by the amount of CRAP that I am, and to hold out with only a slightly sore throat in the morning, I must be blessed ... OH and have the patiences of a SAINT.

I have 5 children ranging in ages from 2 - 32. It seems the oldest and the youngest are giving me the most problems. Terrible Two has been HELL.ON.WHEELS since about Monday - throwing fits, throwing toys, and throwing her little weight around like she OWNS the place. Which is only different this week by the amount of GOO that is coming out of several of her orafices.

DH however ... is driving me out of my ever-loving mind. He, unfortunately, has something the rest of us don't.

He has the "Man-Cold". Which differs from the regular cold in that it is IMMENSLEY worse, requires constant attention, and is far more horrible than ANYTHING anyone else is going through at any given time. He came home the DAY I mentioned that the kids weren't feeling well and decided he was getting sick too.

Now I don't mean to say that I think ALL sickness is in your head, but I will say, that for the two of us, it seems to be. I decide that I am not getting sick. I can't. All you mothers know what I'm talkin about.

Can I get an AAAAAMEN?!

But HIM. He comes home and says 'MY LUNGS ... It's ATTACKING MY LUNGS" - which because of his fake stuffynose sounded like "BUY LUGZ" - I should have bought the Lugz. Considered it a reward for all the CRAP I would have to wade through over the next week. I attempted to banish him to the bedroom and get him out of my hair, and off my computer, but we can't find the remote so he has planted himself on my couch ... ahhhhh LOVE.

I REALLY AM TRYING FOLKS. I love him, and them, all very very much. But there is only so much snot wiping, med administering, cough hearing, whine ignoring, need answering that one woman can take.

Pray y'all. Not for me. For them. If they don't get over this soon, I will go insane and I will take them with me.

Well for my TAT this week I am going to clue in all of you creatively-challenged folk like myself, to a SUPER easy way of hanging pictures! I kid you not I spent like HOURS {ish} on here the other day looking for ideas on how to hang my pictures. I was more or less looking for ideas on groupings. But had NO LUCK.

Oh internetz how you have FAILED me.

So as I pondered my dilema and talked it over with my BFF via IM she gave me the best idea EVA.

You cut out paper in the size of the frames you have, put tape on the back, and put them where you want them! GENIUS! You can move them and rearrange them until you find the perfect fit for those hard to plan places. It saves on nail holes alone!

And so I did it. Or well, I started. And then as husbands are prone to do, he "helped" me *raises eyebrow. I got about as far as cutting {tearing actually} the first size and he says "Are ya gonna CUT that? It would be more precise that way" ...

And so it began.

And it ended HOURS later with him pretty much just taking over, but hey it got done, so whatEVER. Pretty much anytime I want something done around here, all I have to attempt to do it myself. This in turn upsets my DH's OCD so much that he must do it himself.

I'll tell you what though, if I don't get some baseboards up in here pretty soon I may just walk out of the garage with them one day. As my BFF said, "Well that will either get him to do it ... or he'll start hiding his tools".

That's how we roll. Like I said, it gets done ... so whatever.

And it DID get done! And there was much joy! I got this awesome 7pc matching frame set from my ex-father-in-law and it looks SO freakin cool here!

My house is starting to feel like home ...

And it will probably feel more so when I put pictures in there.

Progress is gradual my friends.

Well if you are looking for more TATer's and more things being TAT'ed about check out the Lazy Organizer and all her TAT'ing friends!

Now mind you it IS only the 3rd week, but still!

Today I went to a matinee with some chicks to see "27 Dresses". It was the funniest movie I have seen in a LOOOOONG time.

Typically I don't care much for chick flicks. That is, if said chick flick is sappy-weepy-bring-your-tissues kinda movie. I guess the only reason this was considered a chick flick is because, well, the main character is a chick. Is that the only qualification? Does ANY movie featuring a girl HAVE to fall under that category?

Let me just say, Katherine Heigl is a brilliant comedic actress. I loved her Knocked Up, but in this movie she really proves her talent for comedic timing. Everything from her facial expressions, tone, emotion - ALL OF IT - was just FUNNY.

And I am a sucker for funny.

I laughed so hard in some places I might have peed ... just a little. Don't worry, I have super mom powers so I was ok. Now, I will give you that the plot was a LITTLE predictable, and of course you kinda knew how things would play out ... but for me, that didn't matter, it was funny and made me laugh.

The matinee was only $6.50 and I only got a soda ($3.something) and shoved about 15 Halloween suckers into my purse - thank goodness for cheap neighbors! And I could not have enjoyed myself more folks, it was the best afternoon :-D And I must say, I think I now have a NONsexual crush on Katherine Heigl - she.is.awesome.

SOOOO, if you are in the mood to laugh your pants off, bring a some wetness protection and head STRAIGHT to your local 27 Dresses! You will be glad you did. And take your man, if he knows funny, he will appreciate this movie too. If you have seen or will see it, let me know what you thought! Unless you hated it, then I don't to hear your blaspheming!

Til Next Time!

Well HEY THERE TAT! Long time no see! It's been awhile since I last TAT'ed but it's also been awhile since I had something to TAT about! {or remembered to TAT anyway ;-)}

So I have been back in the scrapping rhythm lately but still haven't had dug out all of my stuff since the move. It was in 3 different places, 40 different pockets and bags, and I just didn't feel ... together. So this weekend my daughters and I decided to scrap. We used to pull out all the stuff every so often in the old house, but this would be the first time in the new house. So we went out for supplies and snacks, came back and while the baby napped we got to work!

So the girls settled in, and I got my pictures out. I looked at them, looked at my pile of misc stuff, looked at my pics again and was stuck. My OCD would let me go no further. And so it began.

But THIS is what I ended up with :-DDDDDD Totally worth the SEVERAL hours it took. I organized by color all my loose papers into that paper holder, went through my ahem MANY slabs/packs, sorted all my letters by color in these nifty little blue file folders {$1 at Target y'all}, the purple file folders are for all my stickers/embelishments sorted of course by subject. And in the clear tubs {$1 at Dollar Tree!} are my ribbons in one, chipboard letters {seperated by color in sandwich baggies} in another, another for stamps and adhesive, and one for flowers and other stuff that was too bulky for file folders.

I embrace my {slightly} obsessive need for organization.

Because this is where it gets me :-D Look at the PRETTIES!

And my work here is done. Now I am off to create! And organize! And look into therapy because this all made me very giddy :-D

NOW! If you'd like to find more TAT'ers like me check out The Lazy Organizer!

Hey! It's Sunday again and that means it's time to show off my scrappin! This week I had some other scrappy chicks over two days and um ... yeah ... I still only got 2 spreads done *blushes* But I was VERY BUSY THIS WEEK!! I mean I'm trying to watch ALL THREE seasons of LOST before season 4 premiers on Jan. 31st!! THAT is quite a time consuming event! Don't worry, I'm up to the challenge. {and no I didn't just start watching it, I've been hooked since Sept. 22nd 2004 - I just wanted to refresh :-D}

So! On to my TA-DA's!


This holiday season I was trying to post every day of December, all of my holidaysey type stuff, and I was FROSTED for the first time! I was very excited that people liked me so I took a picture of it ;-) And also of my FROSTing project! SO, since there was a picture {or 4} there needed to be a page {or 2} Thats just how I roll y'all.

These are my kids with their Santa presents - they really wanted bikes this year, and Santa came through! They were very happy and decided that "Santa must REALLY love us!" I would have used that for the title, but I didn't have all the letters ;-) I might go back and change it ... hmmmmmm ... yeah I think I might HAVE to do that.

Another TA-DA! was that I went through and organized ALL of my stuff - and let me just say, that was NO small feat. There will stories and pictures galore of the horror and the glory {read: before and after} but that will be for my TAT {Talk about Tuesday} post - check me out on Tuesday!

OK so this week my To-Do's are to scrap more of my 400 photo's from Aug-New Years 2007 - Yes I am aware that is a lot of pics ;-) But I have WAY too many papers so I really gotta use em up! That is my only to-do this week: SCRAP.MORE!

The bonus question: What papercraft would you do if you had to chose one for the rest of time? Why SCRAP.MORE of course! I love scrapping!!!!

If you'd like to see more TA-DA's and TO-DO's go check out Amy and her scrappy sensation Sunday Scrappin'! Join in! It's a great motivation!

This is my first post for Sunday Scrappin' hosted by Amy! I LOVE all things scrappy and have been pretty creative lately so I thought it would be fun to share some of the projects I got done this week. The rules are that you answer the questions posed at her blog in your post. The first are your TA-DA's for the week:

OK, disclaimer here - THIS is actually a gift I just received in the mail from my VERY clever, creative and wonderful best friend :-D I love her can! Well, MY CAN! It matches the colors in my bedroom so pretty so I think I'm going to use it as decor in there - I LOVE IT!

This is a nicer {read: CLEAR} shot of it, it has our family's name on it and the cutest details and embelishments!

OK, THIS one is MY TA-DA! I just made if for a friend of mine down here and I plan to put a gift certificate in it and give it out ... sometime before next Christmas ... hopefully ;-) I am thinking of redoing the green ribbons on the side with a darker green, what do you think?

And this is another gifty for another best friend! I wouldn't normally be posting her gift before I mail it off to her, but I don't think she'll be reading this since her youngest baby is in the hospital again. She's so sweet and is going through SO MUCH right now! If you get a chance, and are so inclined, pray for her little man, and for her and her family to have the strength to get through this.

NOW for the TO-DO's:

This week I want - NO - NEED to get my other 2 paint cans done! Yeah, I am a little slow when I don't have a solid deadline **slaps naughty little hand!** so that is my priority. I would also LOVE to get some ACTUAL scrapping in! I just found a scrappy buddy here close so I think that will help me get my butt in gear! I have all the photos, I have all the supplies, I have {some} time - WHAT am I missing? Motivation perhaps, or maybe accountablity! I think I might use this Sunday Scrappin as my motivation to get back to work! YAY ME! ;-)

And the BONUS question:

Brand name supplies vs. just about anything that will stick to a page = I fall into category 2, for sure. I love the brand name stuff and enjoy getting a good deal on it, but I also heart the dollar aisle at Target ;-) {and Michaels, and Joann's and Walmart and sometimes even the dollar store} I gotta mix my love for shopping and getting great deals with my love of scrapping, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside :-D

Well that's it for me! To check out more creativity check out Amy's Sunday Scrappin'!

I was innocently reading blogs this morning, pondering what great thought I should pontificate about today, when I ran into this post at Musings of a Housewife. She called me out. She talked of her purse love and posted her most treasured purses ... and then there was a poll. Let's just say my number of purses was not even ON the poll *blushes* But then she called to all the other purse lovers in her bloggy world and I am replying - I too love purses and believe that you can NEVER have too many - well maybe 20 is too many - but since I have 19 I'm OK!

This is my current daily use purse. I love it because it's pretty versitile and the canvas is holding up quite well to the damage a mother of 4 can do to it! It's also big enough to hold a couple diapers, wipe holder, and all my other misc. crap.

This is my other most used purse. I love green purses. It's hard to tell in the terrible picture but its a slightly almost camo gree color so it looks great with browns, and creams and well lots of stuff! It's kinda small but it WILL hold 2 diapers and a small wipe container and my make up needs, but that's about it. But then again, what else do you need?!

This is tied for my favorite clutch. Again, horrible picture, but its brown satin with a pretty chinese flower design. It adds a bit of pretty to a normal jeans and normal looking sweater outfit. Of course this is when I am sans small children.

This is my other fav clutch option. One of my best friends brought it to me from her trip to New York and it's just fun! I usually use it with a jeans and cute-goin-out-for-a-night-on-the-town-with-my-MAN black shirt. I love it :-D

Ok, so that is my thought provoking post for today ... purses ... love em or leave em? My opinion is clear. Go on over to Musings and play along! or just look all all the pretties!

Okay, maybe ROCKIN is a BIT strong for our evening, but it was fun! This was the first year New Years fell on a day when we had all the kids so I decided to make it special! I knew that at least 3 of us were pretty capable of makin it to midnight, it was a pick em as to which 3 though.

I went to the store earlier that day for some good ol' kick the year off right bad food! If we we're going to start the new year off healthy and all that, then we were sending 2007 off with a BANG.


Early on the kids were playing and having a good ol time.

We made tons of snacks like brie and crackers, baguette with olive oil and parmesan cheese for dippin, and you gotta love that Papa Murphy's is open New Years Eve! Everyone else in town did! Their cheesy garlic-y naughty breadsticks are heaven.

Then we dinned on their lovely cheese pizza and sipped our cider, Terrible Two even sat at the big kid table! Now, the look on my DH's face is not because he is not a fan of the toast, but because this was the 5-hundredth picture I took trying to get it to come out right ;-) Oh how he loves me ;-)

And the toast ... again ... can you FEEL the love?!

After dinner and putting Terrible Two to bed we watched a movie and then it was time for a pick me up! We put on a pot of coffee and let the good times roll. Earlier in the day I bought funfetti cake mix and these CUTE little individual muffin tins in the shapes of hearts! I made up the mix and made the kids tiny little heart shapped cakes :-D Which they then REALLY enjoyed covering with various sugars and sprinkles.




After the cake and some games, things started getting quiet ... to quiet. We were trying to find something suitable for the FAMILY on TV to watch, but yeah at 11pm - that's SO not gonna happen. So, one of our soldiers fell under the weight of utter boredom.

At the stroke of 11:53 we got our jackets and shoes on, noise makers ready - and took more pictures! As you can see ... DH was OVER COME with excitement!

But this picture came out pretty darn cute if you ask me :-D

After setting off the noise makers and hootin and hallerin for a bit, we came back in and cracked a lovely bottle of champagne to toast our new year. At 12:05 we threw the kids in bed and had our own little celebration :-D

After going to bed around 2:00 we were a little less than perky when Terrible Two woke up - like normal - at 6:00. But we groggily wandered downstairs and made a lovely and healthy breakfast to start the new year off right - cinnimon rolls! New Year's DAY is still technically the New Years holiday I figured so I didn't have to do anything healthy, productive, or good for me until the next day.

And so we ate Chinese food for dinner. Nothin says a healthy and happy 2008 like peking pork.

But to my credit, I actually DID get a LOT done yesterday. After doing everything I could to keep busy and avoid the stares of the stack of bills and mail I had neglected because 'it's the holidays = NO BAD NEWS!' - I finally broke down.

I tried everything. I invited someone over to scrap with me, she cancelled that morning. I decided to blog, went suprisingly fast. I decided to sort through ALL my photos on the computer and upload ALL the unprinted ones to winkflash and send them out for printing, I was suprisingly close to up to date! So after doing whatever I could, I finally checked the mail and gathered the rest of the mail from the various hiding spots throughout the house. YEAH YEAH I KNOW - NOT the most productive thing to do, but I got through Christmas with all my hair {and sanity} intact, so I call it 'stress management'.

To my suprise things were not nearly as scary as I had feared. And I got all my online and phone call bills paid {and there were A LOT}, organized all my ins and outs in my spreadsheet, went to the bank, mailed off all the checks to all stupid places that are throw backs to the stone age and only accept checks and still had time to read blogs before DH came home.

I know, I amaze myself sometimes.

So today I think I might reward myself with some scrap time. Or some LOST seasons 1 or 2 as I HAVE FOUND THEM ONLINE AND FREE thanks to my BFF who knows my love {read addiction} to the best story ever told. No, I really DONT think that's reaching. I think i'll find a way to combine the two and it shall be good. And there will be joy.

So HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I hope you all had a great beginning! And enjoy much progress and happiness! Thank's for coming by!

Well as my first post of the new year I am doing a list, not because I don't love you all but because my house is TOTALLY out of order, so is my checking account, and there is a STACK of Christmas pictures callin my name. SO LUCKY YOU GUYS!!!

There is this cute lil bloggy carnival thingy over at Musings of a Housewife and I thought it would be fun {and not as overwhelming as trying to post all my New Years pics} so go on over there and check out the other lazy - I MEAN - LISTY chicks like me :-D

Things I Love RIGHT NOW...

1) I love that our family is having a healthy and happy start to 2008, and I acknowledge how lucky we are.

2) I love that my hubby is back at work...not to say I don't miss him, but 4 days with him home is a LOOONG TIME my friends.

3) I don't have to get the kids ready for school each morning at the butt crack of dawn. and yet I AM SOOOO HAPPY that in only 4 days they will be back in school and out of my hair - I MEAN - enriching their brains with the knowledge and experiences only public school can provide.

4) I love that I already have supplies and now pictures to get going on my scrapping, and that I found a fellow scrap addict to be up with until the wee hours of the morn.

5) I love being able to keep in touch with my best friend via instant messanger since she moved to the other side of the world - or may as well have ;-)

6) I love that the holidays are over and I can ATTEMPT to get things back to normal, or that I at least have no more excuses not to TRY.

7) I love that I finally set up the kids's rooms better and they LOVE playing in them! And that they are upstairs :-D

8) I love where we live. We've been talking a lot lately of how different things are, we are, having moved to the new house and our new town. I just can't even explain how grateful I am for it.

9) I love being content and happy. I am truly happy with almost everything in my life. I haven't always been able to say that. And I don't mean that things are perfect because there is no such thing. But I can honestly say that I am happy with my life. I think it's a point of view I have come to embrace, not just a positive attitude or looking for the bright side, but honestly believing that I can't just keep waiting to be happy. You don't always have tomorrow. That may sound morbid, but it just reminds me that I need to be happy with what I have NOW, and if I'm not, then I need to make it happen.

10) I love that both my husband I have the same 'make it happen' attitude. We've been looking back on the last year a lot lately, and we just keep coming back to that. There have been a LOT of opsticles, but we both have the attitude that if we really want it {whatever 'it' is}, we will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Not to say that we don't need help or support - because WE DO! But we just sort of believe that together we can do just about anything! awwwww.... ok /sappy talk ;-)

And so that is my HAPPY LOVE LIST or whatever ;-) and tomorrow I shall post and talk about our most recent holiday and trying to keep 3 kids ages 5-10 awake - and ENTERTAINED - until midnight! Thanks for coming by!

From my crazy house to yours ... HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!