The Countdown Begins

In one week

One week from now, my family and I will be waiting at the theater for the midnight premiere.  I am so excited!  We are a Harry Potter family.  Even the little kids know Harry Potter.  I can't wait til they are old enough to read the books, I'm sure they will love them as much as the rest of us have.

Next week also begins birthday week!  My birthday is Tuesday, one year closer to 40 - sigh.  Then Saturday Gabe will be 15!  I can't believe he will be that old.  For his birthday he decided he wants to take some friends to the midnight Harry Potter movie then have them stay over so they can play Xbox all night.  At least it will be easy for me.  All I have to do is buy movie tickets and a kitchen full of snacks.  Birthdays definitely get easier the older they get.

Are you planning a trip to say good bye to Harry, Ron, Hermione and all of the Hogwarts gang too?  Make sure to take kleenex, I'm sure there will be some tears involved. Well, maybe only if you are a sap like me ;)

Have a great day!

Let's Review

So, since my last visit in

September

Work, work, work

Brody turned 3

Work, work, work some more

Gabe started High School Soccer, on the Varsity Team

October

Work, work, work

Soccer at least 4 nights a week

Work, work, work some more

Celebrated yet another anniversary with my Hubby <3

November

Work, work, work

Start planning for Christmas, finish up soccer, take on more hours at the store

Work,, work, work some more

Thanksgiving at my house, less than a week to plan, shop, clean, and cook - fun times!

December

Work, work, work some more

Plan, shop, hide, wrap, clean, bake, package, cook, label, decorate and all the other good things that come about at Christmas

Work, work, work some more

*Try* to make it through Christmas day without passing out from exhaustion

January

Work a little less ;)

Spend most of the month trying to recover from the holidays

Spend the month trying to keep all the bills paid after the holiday spending

February

Work, work, work more than the last month

Freeze my butt off in the arctic weather

Work, work, work some more

Valentines Day, and 2 hours out with my Hubby for dinner

March

Work, work, work some more

Gabe started managing the High School girls soccer team and being a line ref for recreation soccer teams (yay! his first paid job)

Work, work, work some more

Lindsey joined Girl Scouts just in time to complete their cookie sales, and Brody started a soccer tots class - you know, just because I didn't have anything else going on. :)

So now you are all caught up on what's been going on with my life. I've been wanting to get back to this, but this is the first time in over a month that I've had more than 1 day off a week. I'm exhausted, but at the same time I love my job. I've been promoted to full time, so I guess thay like me too (haha). I'm also going to try to get back to my WIWW posts. When I work I have to wear a uniform - black pants, socks, shoes and either a black polo with the university logo or a long sleeve button down with black tie. I'm getting really tired of all black. It's time for Mom to do something for Mom! Now if I could just find someplace to escape to for a weekend where I could just sleep and relax, life would be almost perfect, well, at least for me.

See you soon!

I've been a little busy

Hi again! I know, not the best way to start a blog, but I promise I have good reasons ;) Life has been pretty crazy here lately, but mostly for good reasons. The day of my last post I was offered a new part time job. While I love my retail job I just wasn't able to get enough hours to help us get by. I had decided about a month ago to see if I could find something that I could work along with my current job. I really lucked up when I found out about this one. I am working in the catering department of my local university. The pay is great and I'm getting enough hours that we will be able to breathe at the end of each month after paying all the bills. I am still working the retail job, so that has made things a little crazy. The first week and weekend I worked was freshman move-in. It was also floor set at the other job. From Friday morning until Sunday afernoon I worked a total of 31 hours and got about 5 hours of sleep. Fun times let me tell you! Luckily that craziness is over and things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting used to the new routine. That means I should be able to give more time to my little blog.

Now let's back up just a bit and let me tell you about all the fun stuff going on at home during all the work madness.

Lindsey's birthday was August 20. My princess turned 5, and was treated as royalty all day. She had requested a chocolate cake just like Gabe's except she wanted it to have pink frosting, sprinkles and Tinkerbell. The night before her birthday I baked her cake. I, of course, didn't start baking until about 10:30 at night (most projects around here are like that!) and by the time the cake came out of the oven it was almost midnight. As I was taking it out I noticed it hadn't risen very well. Then I noticed it seemed kind of heavy and the texture wasn't very cakey. When I got them onto the cooling rack I realized something had gone really, really wrong.

Um, cakes aren't supposed to look like that, right?

That, my friends, is what happens when you forget to put the 1/2 tsp. of baking soda into your cake mix. Who would have ever thought that 1/2 tsp. of baking soda could make such a difference. Before this I sure wouldn't have! By the time I had figured out what went wrong it was after midnight, I knew if I started another cake that I would be up half the night baking and cooling and icing and decorating and just the thought of doing all that in the middle of the night almost made me cry. Thank goodness that Harris Teeter is open 24 hours and has a pretty good bakery. I ran there, praying the whole way, hoping they had a chocolate cake with chocolate icing that would be plain enough for me to decorate. I was extremely lucky and found exactly what I needed.

An hour later I had this beauty, with all the requirements:

Chocolate with chocolate icing - check

Pink icing - check

Sprinkles - check

Tinkerbell - check

Not bad for a middle of the night scramble, right?

The best part was that she loved it and never knew I hadn't done it all myself. You won't tell her will you?



Five days after that was the first day of school. It was a big year around here. Lindsey started Kindergarten and Gabe started High School. I can't believe that I have a child in high school! How did that happen? Didn't he just start school like 2 years ago?

So far it's going really well for both of them. Gabe made the Varsity (!) Soccer team (more time now being used for practices and games 2-3 times a week) and likes his classes. He is having to get used to having more homework, but so far I haven't had to nag too much. Lindsey is loving school. She was very dissappointed this past weekend that it was a long weekend and a short school week. She wakes up every morning ready to eat breakfast and go to school. I am so happy that she is like that. I just pray it stays that way.


She was so excited that this was the best picture I could get of both of them. I couldn't keep her still!

Don't you just love the pink shoes? She ended up with two pairs of pink school shoes. I guess it's a good thing she loves all things pink.

So I'm going to try to post more now that things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm getting into a routine.

Hope you have a great week!

I think I've created a monster

I love my iPod Touch, it's like my lifeline most of the time. I keep my calendar on it, check my email, keep up with facebook and work on my solitaire score. But here lately it seems my youngest child, my baby who still gives me hugs and cuddles, has developed a love for it that is all his own. He is obsessed with it! He can actually work it better than Lindsey can. Luckily he hasn't figured out my password to download apps yet (but believe me, he's tried). I have now started using it as a bargaining tool. If he does something that I want him to then he can play with it for 5 minutes. The five minutes doesn't always work, but at least it gets him to clean up toys or take a bath.

Just look at that face. I told you he loves that little gadget.

And as soon as he gets ahold of it, he gets to work.
I guess the little fingers do just fine with the touch screen.

His favorite app is the flixter app. You can go on it and watch movie trailers. He's a movie fan, just like his Mom.

I'm not sure if this is the best thing for him to be playing with so much, but as long as it keeps the fights over toys to a minimum, it works for me.

Have a great day!

Scenes from a Kitchen

Hello again! I thought I would give you a little peek into my life. Yesterday after Brody finally decided to take a nap (he's 2, and really good at it) I made lunch for Lindsey. After she sat down to eat I realized that it was a perfect time to take some pics of the house. But, of course, I had been dealing with a 2 and 4 year old who couldn't agree on anything all morning, and nothing had been done. I did manage to load and run the dishwasher early in the morning, but that was the extent of my cleaning. So don't get your hopes up yet, here are just a few little glimpses.

I've mentioned before how much I love my coffee. I have accumulated quite a collection of coffee cups, but this is my favorite. I got it at Dillard's the day after Christmas, I think I paid about $2.00 for it. That's just another reason to love it!

The kind of "healthy" lunch that my kids love, animal shaped chicken nuggets and cheese puffs.

See, she actually sits and eats when she gets these kind of gourmet meals.

Now this is some of my DIY Dollar Store Art. Pretty cute, huh? See that one on the left, you know, the crooked one? Believe it or not, it gets straightened at least once a day. I just can't figure it out. If they weren't hanging above the pantry doors I would totally think one of the kids was doing it just to drive me crazy.

And just to keep it real, this is my kitchen and how it looks pretty much every day around lunch time, whether it's been cleaned or not. Look at your own risk!

So there is your first glimpse into my home. Exciting, wasn't it? I promise, soon I'm going to clean, hide all the toys, arrange all my little decorating pieces that the kids like to play with and take some real pictures. I'm sure you wait with baited breath. . .

Have a great day!

P.S. I'm linking up at The Girl Creative. Check it out and check out some new blogs.

Birthday Cake Time!

Today my oldest "baby" turned 14. I can't believe he is this old. He will be starting high school in the fall. (sniff, sniff) But on the good side, he is becoming a wonderful man, and if I may say so, quite handsome at that.



This was taken this afternoon after I put the finishing touches on his birthday cake. Each year I let my kids pick any kind of cake for their birthday. He always picks chocolate cake with chocolate icing. The past few years he has added to his requests. This year we ended up with chocolate cake, chocolate icing, mini candy bars and chocolate covered strawberries.



Don't you just feel the insulin shock coming on just looking at that picture? I guess as long as he was happy with it, then I am completely satisfied.



And Lindsey was thrilled too. She has decided that she wants the same kind of cake, but hers needs more pink and Tinkerbell (teehee!)



I guess we will just have to see how that goes when her birthday gets here. Gabe had a great day, got lots of money (the gift of choice for 14 year old boys), and went to a baseball game with his friends. And just because it is his birthday, and I am about to start tearing up again, here is my favorite newer pic of him. This was taken last month at the 8th grade prom.



Isn't he handsome? Happy Birthday to my sports lovin', video game playin', 24 hour non-stop textin' and all around great kid, I Love You!