A little Irish joke to get ya in the mood ...

A man stumbles up to the only other patron in a bar and asks if he could buy him a drink.
"Why of course," comes the reply.

The first man then asks: "Where are you from?"

"I'm from Ireland," replies the second man.

The first man responds: "You don't say, I'm from Ireland too! Let's have another round to Ireland."

"Of Course," replies the second man.

Curious, the first man then asks: "Where in Ireland are you from?"

"Dublin," comes the reply.

"I can't believe it," says the first man. "I'm from Dublin too! Let's have another drink to Dublin."

"Of course," replies the second man.

Curiosity again strikes and the first man asks: "What school did you go to?"

"Saint Mary's," replies the second man. "I graduated in '62."

"This is unbelievable!" the first man says. "I went to Saint Mary's and I graduated in '62, too!"

About that time in comes one of the regulars and sits down at the bar. "What's been going on?" he asks the bartender. "Nothing much," replies the bartender. "The O'Malley twins are drunk again."

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AWWWWW...So we finally got a night OUT of the house ... together! We were celebrating.

My talented, smart, motivated hubby took his California State Licensing test to become a Tile Contractor and passed the first time! From what I understand, that is a tough thing to do. But he did it!

This is something he has wanted since before I even knew him. But because of the costs and time and motivation, he never went for it, until now.

I knew he would pass. In fact, it never even crossed my mind that he wouldn't. I called my mom a few days earlier to watch the kids and told her what was going on. She said she would love to watch them, but to be prepared because these state licensing exams are VERY difficult to pass and that we could go out and comisserate if nothing else. I told her "Oh no, he'll pass, we'll be celebrating for sure" ... and we did!

OMG, we went to the Elephant Bar and they make a MEAN rasberry lemon drop you guys ... not to mention the mai-tini I am modeling for you here :-D

Hahahaha, now while I was taking pics of my totally girly-foo-foo drinks, DH kept saying "well how come you don't wanna take a pic of mine :-(" But he just had some regular no-frills thing, so next he ordered some crazy looking concoction here JUST so I would take a pic of him holding it!

So that was a great night.

Well, about two weeks later as we were waiting for his license process to finish, we got some unexpected news.

No ... I'm not pregnant. But it was just as bad as THAT would have been ;-)

With no warning, and not so much as a word from his own boss, my DH was laid off.

He called me Feb. 22nd at about noon and said "When can you come pick me up?". He had a company vehicle and they met him out at a job site and said "We'll drive with you to unload your truck", handed him his last paycheck, and that was that. No 'thank you for your hard work and sometimes 14 hour days', just a paycheck and kick in the ass.

And the REALLY shitting thing was, it was ONE FREAKIN DAY short of his ONE YEAR anni with that company. So he didn't get his full vacation pay. He barely got more than a normal paycheck!

Now, I think I handled this WAY better than the last time. Mostly because I knew we had a contingency plan in place. He had his Tile Installers license coming, and that was good, but then we found out it would take WEEKS to get his numbers and be able to work.

And I don't know if you all know what's going on out here in Cali, but the housing market is in a slump. It's a normal part of this cycle and won't last forever, but STIIIIIILL...

So we are holding up as well as can be expected, but we are back to a family of 6 with no income. It's not the end of the world, but to an OCD FREAK like me, it ain't pertty when I start wondering whats going to happen when the bills are due next month.

*I* have however, decided to do something about it! More on THAT tomorrow in my TAT!

So this one day in March we were bored lol. We hoped in the truck and this time took MY GIRLS to the snow! After having such a great time last time, I couldn't wait to go again!

So we drove up the hill bout an hour from us and found a great little spot off the side of the road. It LOOKED pretty packed when we drove up, and we even drove further to look for another spot, but ended up coming back here.

Once we got settled we found the PERFECT hill to sled down! AND we remembered our sled this time!! lol

While the girls were heading up the hill ... Lil Miss decided to start up the snow ware again ... and was quite pleased with herself ...

More TA-DA's! YAY! I scrapped a BIT this week, these first four pages I actually just put finishing touches on this week. The last one I think still needs ... something.

These came together pretty quickly, nothing fancy, and yet I like them a lot :-D

Now see this last one here seems to be missing ... SOMETHING. I don't know what. Any suggestions?! I might think about it and attempt to fix it some time this week. We'll see how much I will actually get done with the new set up we have at Rockwell Manor - MORE on THAT hopefully tomorrow *SIGH*.

I do have some pretty exciting {for me} news though! For my To-Do this week, I need to clear out a space in our garage for ... MY NEW SCRAP TABLE/SPACE!!!! IT's aaaaaaall MINE! I just have to clear out about eleventy hundred boxes of stuff IdontknowwhattheCRAPtodowith and then my DH will build my table/desk! I even has cabinets above the space I can use! I am so freakin excited! That is going to help me so much to keep the dining room table clean :-D

So for more people Scrappin on Sunday click here!

Well I finished a SUPER cute project this week ifIdosaysomyself!

I was getting together with a couple of gals Tuesday and I knew my hubby was planning something good for Valentine's Day, so I decided at first to make him a card. Weeeeeell, this card kinda took on a life of it's own :-D

I was just going to put a picture of us inside the card, then I couldn't chose which photo cause I loved them all so much!

So I dug out a hard back mini album that I got in the DOLLAR AISLE AT TARGET! It had 8 pages so I took my "L is for LOVE" sticker sheet from 7gypsies and got to work!

This is the first page and I placed the picture just so you could see us in the window :-D

Now throughout the album I used a couple different pattern papers and a couple solid colors, did some inking and OH I just LOVE IT!

Now ... um ... you don't have to READ the journalling there ... I didn't think to take pictures until after I wrote on it *BLUSHES* ... SO ... uhhhhh ... yeah ... you can skip that if you want :-D

SO the album was $1, the sticker sheet was all the embelishment and was $1.75, then there was the papers that came out of a pack on clearence at Target for $3.97 {and I only used a few sheets of the HELLA it had} so the album only cost like $5!!!!
The best part was how much he loved it, he teared up a bit. He's a very sensitive sweet guy, that's why I love doing stuff like this for him. And it really gets my creative juices flowing!
For my TO-DO's: MORE ... do MORE! Simple and easy to do :-D


This week's bonus question is what are my best org tips for my scrappy stuff? Recently I bought a few clear small containers that are stackable at the dollar store. They are deep so I keep chipboard letters in one, all my ribbons in another, one for flowers and misc bulky stuff, and one for misc other stuff like staplers, inks and adhesives. For my stickers and rubons and flat stuff like sticker letters, I use those plastic expandable file folders that I got in the dollar aisle at Target! I LOVE ME SOME DOLLAR STUFF!
Now for more peeps scrappin on Sunday, check out Sunday Scrappin! And BE INSPIRED!

*****CAUTION!***** THE SAP METER IS OFF THE CHARTS!!*****Proceed with extreme caution if you aren't into that kinda thing ;-)

Ya know, I have started this entry about 13 times and I still just don't know exactly what I want to say.

I keep hearing people say how Valentine's Day is a "Halmark Holiday" and that it's all just a bunch of crap. Part of me is curious as to how and who exactly DID start the tradition. The other part of me is just sad for the amount of venom this holiday can bring out in people!

I've never HATED the day, well unless you include the time in 5th grade that I gave Joel Laterri a very SPECIAL Valentine and he did NOT recipricate the feelings. Since then I have gone from frustrated tween, to celebrated girlfriend, to hopeful but disapointed wife, to what I am now :-D

I always looked at Valentines Day as a day to take time out and celebrate your love. In my first marriage that was more so because it took a lot of prodding to get him to do that kind of stuff so I really looked forward to it, even if he didn't do a lot, it was still a lot for him.

But this time around, things are different. We don't JUST celebrate our love on Valentines Day. We make a point of appreciating each other all the time, celebrating the day we got married every month, that kinda thing. But Valentine's Day is a SUPER special day to have fun with and get excited about!

Today after my hubby left he sent me a text message with a clue ... he said you're first clue is "tickety tack ... hehehehe" so I flew to the computer! Found a sweet letter telling me sweet stuff, then explaining how I will have 4 gifts but that I have to work for them ;-)

Since then I have found one present (3 cute little glass containers to collect sand from our favorite beaches) and another letter! Now I have to wait for another clue to lead me to the next :-D This is so much fun!

I got him a $100 gift cert to a spa so he can get a massage or facial or whatever he wants. Then the other day I started making a card but it morphed into a mini album of sorts ... that I still need to finish! It's so freakin cute though, I am so proud of it, and I know he will LOVE it! I'll probably share that on Sunday Scrappin!

To me, today isn't about Halmark, or Ghirardelli, it's about your love. It doesn't have to be about presents or clues, it's about loving and appreciating your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend for what they do for your life. It's about remembering and celebrating those things in them that you first fell in love with and keeps you together still. They may not be the most romantic person ever, but maybe that's because they work so hard every other day to take care of their family. Celebrate that strength in them. Celebrate whatever it is that makes you smile when you think about it.

Not all men are into Valentine's Day and celebrating it, but that doesn't mean you can't do it for them. Even if it's just a home made dinner, or some time alone with you. Tell them what it is about them that you love and makes you happy. Sometimes men need to be led to the water ;-) But who knows, maybe next year they will take the lead!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and celebrates someone they love :-D Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Well, I guess I didn't knock on wood enough ... a new sickness has invaded my house. This weekend Tween started coughing more than she had been, then there was talk of a sore throat and a stuff hurty nose. Then yesterday Boy came home and we were told he was thought to have Bronchaitis. Now Terrible Two is talking with a bit of a stuffed up sound. So far {KNOCKING ON WOOD} Princess seems ok.

But to combat the spread of the various sicknesses ON A HOLIDAY WHEN THEY ARE AAAAAAALL HOME, I have made the executive decision to sequester them all.

Tell me how this sounds like a death sentence ... because that's how they all look at me ... as if the firing squad has just been called.

I have sent Tween and Boy to their respective rooms - with their own TVs/toys a plenty/games/all manner of fun older kid stuff - and still they act like I've punished them. They usually aren't allowed to watch movies in their rooms and I'm letting them! I gave them JUICE in their room! I NEVER do that! And still it's torture for them. They don't even have to put up with the constant interuptions from Princess and Terrible Two!

I have those two either in their room or watching TV in the living room. Coloring, playing, coloring, eating and coloring some more - whatever it takes to keep them out of the other two's rooms and confine their germs to each other.

Funny how a child's nightmare could be an adults heaven.

I want to be TOLD to stay in my room. I want someone to bring me JUICE! I want to watch TV without having to share! I want to play with my toys without someone taking them away from me! I WANNA COLOR! I want someone to change my diaper and be at my beck and call.

Okay, maybe not so much that last one ... although ... the thought of not getting out of bed for hours even to go potty ain't SO bad if you think about it.

Well, ok yeah it kinda is, maybe I'm just REALLY tired right now and the thought of BED + HOURS = HEAVEN!

In fact, I hate to say it, even to THINK it, but it might be hitting me too.

I was FINE this morning. Quite ambitious and productive even! Especially for having so damn many kids here during the day. But now as I sit here with the sickness surrounding me, my head is starting to hurt, I notice a slight sore through, and a burning nose. And as I attempt to lift my cup of tea I thought 'Wow, this is heavy, I need a straw' - then thought 'K, it's half empty and my arm is shaking to lift it, perhaps this is a bad sign'.

It wouldn't be SO bad, if there weren't four more loads of laundry to do, four sandwhiches to make, naps to enforce, tax forms to find, calls to make, and bills to pay.

What really scares me, is that not only might the sickness be back and worse and attacking me, but that the 'man cold' isn't far behind. THAT is scarier than four kids home sick from school.

So as I batten down the hatches for the invasion, and knock on everything wood in this house, wish me luck, cross your fingers, and send me happy 'man-cold' free thoughts!

HEY! I'm back to Sunday Scrappin! YAY! I wanted so badly to post last week {AND the week before ahem} but just didn't have anything to share. My ta-da's were ta-nothing, and my to-do's were to-much! It was a little overwhelming.

Well this week, after the sickness left our house, and the houses of anyone I even TALK to, I had a friend over and we scrapped our little hearts out! I have a LOT of holiday pictures so a while back I bought the "Fall Stack" - it was 1/2 off! - so I decided I needed to BUUUURN though it! And burn I did :-D

Here are my TA-DA's!

This layout starts with my first attempt at "BOO'ing" and I had so much fun I had to take a picture of it ;-) Then continued with our pumkin painting! I LOVE these letters! The set contained both positives AND negatives in brown AND pink! The reverse side is pink! I LOVE them! OH and those cute little wooden pumpkins came in a pack of 10 and were on clearence for $0.50!!! YAY SALES!

These pages are from a trip we took into the foothills to our favorite wine club. The papers I got from a friend of mine who just needed the skyline, they were so pretty! So I tore along the top and put it on cardstock. It was kind of hard to get so many pictures on here without covering up something! That top page has IMHO the CUTEST TWO PICS EVER! My hubby and my daughter are just too cute ;-)

This layout was kindof just thrown together. It's Thanksgiving but not the ONLY Thanksgiving layout so I just threw the pics on, made it pertty, wrote stuff, and was done ;-) I love the ribbon and jeweled brads though, makes it pretty :-D

My To-Do's for the week are pretty simple: DO ... MORE. I have a few pages started but just not ... done. So I would like to scrap more, maybe get my scrappy chicks over again. Hope everyone is still healthy, we sure don't need that sickness up in HERE again!

Now the bonus question is HUGE this week. What are my fav scrappy sites? WOW, I just have SO DARN MANY! OK, let's make a list :-D

• My fav scrappy place for anything: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/
• My fav online scrappy store: http://scrapbooking-warehouse.com/
• My fav scrappy blog {besides my own ;-)}: http://www.scrappingservant.com/
• My fav store I would love to spend WAY too much money at: http://www.licketysplitscrapbooks.com/main.htm
• My other fav blog: http://3scrapbookingladies.blogspot.com/

SO! I was busy! How bout you?! Check out Sunday Scrappin! and post YOUR ta-da's today!

YAY TAT! I missed you last week! Not that I had anything particular to TAT about, but I missed you just the same ;-)

Well, I don't know if any of you heard, but there was this little thing going on round here called the BIGGEST BUNCH OF GIVEAWAYS EVER! Actually it was just a little winter give away carnival that went from cute to ulta mega crazy in about 49 hours. There were almost 900 participants giving away anything from a bunch of old coupons to digital cameras! Most of the giveaways were cute homemade things or gift cards. I only entered contests I was REALLY interested in. Because I didn't want to spend ALL of my time entering contests just to win a new hammer collection or something.

So I said to myself "Self, you should only enter this contest if you KNOW you would be over joyed! if you won" and I answered "Self, that is a good idea, we don't REALLY need this hammer collection, though it is quite lovely."

And then I checked WebMD to see if that was considered 'hearing voices in my head'.

After my sanity was confirmed for the moment, I went back to entering contests a plenty! I have NO idea how many I did enter, I can only tell you that my week's history cache actually made a popping sound.

HOWEVER! It was all for the good! BECAUSE I ACTUALLY *WON* stuff!!! I won something for ME! And something for my "lil sister" Rachelle! I am REALLY excited about both.

FOR ME: I found a website called Rosie's Whimsy and she was giving away this SUPER CUTE handbag! I mean tell me that ain't cute! So I entered and took a look around her etsy shop where she has the most amazing homemade stuff that look like you would find in a cute little boutique shop! These wall hanging pockets are just so cute and functional too! OH and this awesome pink and brown bag that is just so pretty! So you should go by her site and check out her great stuff, tell her hi for me :-D

FOR SHELL: {disclaimer......RACHELLE MARIE MCCALMON.......DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS BELOW HERE......AND I WILL KNOW IF YOU DO.......HEY! DON'T YOU CLICK IT MISSY!} I found Not So SAHM and she was giving away the cutest THESE well actually I got to go to her beautiful store and pick out the version I liked best! And I also got to customize them completely and they are going to be BEAUTIFUL! You should go RIGHT NOW and see all the gorgeous stuff she has! Like this! And THESE! I am so excited to give these to Rachelle! Her first baby is due May 23rd and it's going to be a sweet little girl. I just can't wait to meet her!

So those are my winnings for this bloggy carnival - I am a LUCKY GIRL! Both of these ladies are truly talented and I was so fortunate to win their giveaways! Thank you both! And thank you Random Number Generator!

And for more people Talkin About Tuesday! go see Lara at the Lazy Oraganizer!

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!