Laid back weekend

It's been a blahhhh weekend here. Lots of chilling, not much else. Trying to get my sleep patterns back the way they should be. Getting mentally prepared for tomorrow. That's about it. Bedtime!

In a Scrappy kind of mood

I signed up for a card swap somewhere around 3 months ago. I just couldn't seem to get motivated, though. Tonight I finally finished. Whoooopie!! They're going into the mail tomorrow (I forgot to take pictures), and I feel like I've got a monkey off my back. Don't know why - I love playing with my paperstickyfoldystuff, but for some reason I just couldn't find my mojo. :(

Now that those are finished, I have a page all ready to be assembled, and it's one that I'm actually excited about! I'll try to be sure to share a photo of it when I'm finished.

We got a LOT of things done today that needed to be done. We shipped one package today, have two more ready to go out tomorrow, all my Avon is invoiced, just waiting on the shipment to come tomorrow. I've got his life insurance application thingie ready to turn in, got a sweet rebate form ready to mail. Needless to say, I can now see the top of my desk. Yeee haw!!

On another note, my sweet honey and I are making plans for a mini-getaway to celebrate our anniversary in a couple of weeks. I'm SO excited!! A whole weekend with my honey sounds SO wonderful. I'm thankful that he likes to work, but I miss him when his hours get so long.

So that's life at the moment.

Two major blessings this week:
1. Peter got a great review and a halfway decent raise. Makes the paycheck look much nicer. :)

2. I was putting something in the oven the other day and the lid slipped off. I thought I had enough room to just reach in and pull it back where it needed to be and I managed to get my knuckle right on the preheated element!! It hurt, but I ran cold water over it and it never even blistered. It is turning brown and scabby, but it's totally dry, and should be healed very soon. To me, that's a miracle, and I'm VERY thankful. :)

*Smile*

A Dog Day

No, not a dog day of summer, just one of those days when I feel like this....

So after at least a month of pretty good days, today has been one of THOSE days. The kind where I don't even want to be around me. Peter was a sweetheart this morning and took the two older girls to do some errands - thank you, Honey! Val and I hung out and nibbled on Jelly Belly's. The quiet was sweet (while it lasted). As much as I love the girls, there's just some days when I want to hear absolutely nothing. Hence, I've also been avoiding the computer. Ughhhh.

A huge portion of my irritability is the lack of sleep. Not just sleep, but quality sleep. I'm averaging about 5 hours a night again, and that's broken sleep. Double ughhhhhh.

My mantra today? - It will all be better tomorrow.....

Hopefully. :)

Smiling

Usually I try to avoid the camera at all costs. I don't think I'm very photogenic at all, not to mention that since I'm a scrapbooker, it's usually me behind the lens. The other night we went out to celebrate a big occasion, and I handed the camera to Faith, simply as an afterthought.

THIS is how the photo turned out. I'm really pleased. Too bad we couldn't get Princess Emma to smile along with Nene. Thanks for taking a nice photo, Faithy. :)

Ads vs. Reality

This is pretty cool. On the left is how fast food chains would like you to believe their food looks. On the right is the real way it looks when you get it.

*NOTE*
I wouldn't recommend clicking on any of the links at the bottom if you're easily offended. :(

New horizons

Last night, while visiting with Lori and Mom, we started talking about genealogy. Since we come from an Amish background, all of our genealogy is done for us. All we have to do is pick up a book and we can trace our roots all the way back to the 18th century. I realize how totally cool that is - most folks have to work on researching their ancestry. We can trace our forefathers back seven generations, at least. How cool!

Anyway, while talking about it, I made mention that I'd really like to trace Peter's ancestry. He started giving me information, such as his father's birth year, then his grandmother's birth year, and we're pretty sure that his great grandparents were slaves. So now I need to go to his hometown and start researching. I have two names, his father and his paternal grandmother. I'm hoping that he'll talk to his Mom about her ancestors while we're there. I think it would be awesome to be able to present him with details of his ancestors.

Fifteen years together, and I'm still learning things about him and his family, such as his grandmother's name. His mother has siblings I've never heard of, and every once in a while, a name will crop up that I recognize. It just is so intriguing to me to NOT know, since our family is so blessed to have our history written down for posterity. So in addition to being the scrapper in our house, it looks like I may also be the family historian for the Davis clan. Of course, that is depending on how much I can actually find out, since his paternal history only goes back 4 generations as we know it.

So keep your fingers crossed that we can actually find something out. Looking forward to the challenge now....

New photos!

Since it's been a while, it crossed my mind today that I really need to upload some new photos. These were all taken yesterday. The girls are growing so fast, it almost takes my breath sometimes!

The Three Amigos

Don't you just want to pinch her little cheeks?? You just KNOW I'm going to scrapbook this photo!!

Blahhhhhh! Monkey wore this outfit last winter, and now Val's getting to wear it. It always makes me laugh and want to say "blah, blah, blah". :)

A very UNhappy Val. She so did NOT want to have her picture taken. Silly girl...

Sweet Sisters.

We're letting Hannah's bangs grow out, but in the meanwhile, they're a royal pain in the neck. So a few weeks ago, I couldn't find the clips I normally use while she's here, and just grabbed a ponytail holder and put her bangs up. No problem, right? Well, THIS is how she came to me yesterday morning. She just thinks it's the bees knees to have her very own ponytail right up front and center. She's so funny!

Bad blogger....

So I've been slipping - sorry about that!!

Life is GOOD, folks, life is sooo good. :)

Changes are happening, and I'm (finally) feeling more myself. I'm happy and excited by each new day again. Some things have been taken care of in the past week that have made a HUGE difference - you just can't beat that!

I've actually been playing in my paperstickyfoldystuff again. Yay, me!! I made five cards the other night while Lori and Florabeth were here visiting. It's so nice to all be in the same room and be able to do different things.

Tonight Lori, Mom and I went to a card class. We made 16 cards from one sheet of 12"x12" paper. We came home with some lovely cards and neat ideas for cards we'd like to make in the future. I also came away with two stamp sets. Of course, one of them is SHOES (not that I like them or anything), and the other is one I've been eyeballing for a while now. I'm excited!!!

On another note, our baby girl has FINALLY decided she's ready to walk. Not only walk, but beat up on her sister. Guess what they say about paybacks is true. LOL She gets around quite well, but her preferred mode is to walk barefoot. She's not really happy about trying to walk in shoes, but she does when she has to.

Hannah's gotten some quality time with her Nana over the past week. She hung out at home with her Mommy today, but that's cool. She went to a crop in Birmingham with me last Friday night, so I'm sure she needed a two day break from us. LOL

Amber was such a good girl today - I just have to brag on her. She came to me this afternoon and said "Nene, I'm tired. I lay down now, please?" How on earth can you refuse???? So she went and sat on Peter's lap and took a nap with him. Such a sweet girl...

Peter's been taking a little time to be at home more. It's SO nice to have him here. He just doesn't know how incredibly much I miss him when he's working so many hours. He is such a sweetie, and makes my heart smile.

So that's what's going on in our world. Not exciting, not incredible, but it's life, and best of all, it's MY life! Nothing at all to complain about... nothing at all.

Be good and say "I love you" to those who matter the most. If you see someone, smile - it may be the only one they see all day.

*SMILE*!!!

A Day Out

We don't have many days where we can just GO around here. With Peter's wonky schedule, we have to plan things weeks in advance, and even then, it doesn't always work out. But yesterday, we got to go visit a very dear friend and recharge our batteries a bit.

Terri and I were close friends in high school, and when my daughter was born, I asked Terri to be her godmother. We had all sorts of adventures together as teenagers. We lost touch with each other when I moved away in the very early 1990's, and didn't reconnect for around 13 years. Our phone rang at Mom's one day, and when I answered, it was Terri! We met for lunch, and it was as if all the years had just fallen away. We haven't been able to get together as much as we'd like over the past few years, but that link is always there.

So yesterday, we made the trip to Arab to visit her. It had been a year since we've seen each other, which is just sad when you think about it. There's not that many miles separating us, but time and schedules just don't work the way we'd like them to. But we took all three girls and just went up to spend the day. On the way up, we stopped at another friend's house, but didn't get to stay that long. (We'll do that another day!)

She fixed a fabulous lunch and we visited while the girls played with her daughter. And boy, did they play!! They had toys strewn all over the place when we left. The girls did put some of the toys away, but she wouldn't let them do much. :) The baby hung out with us, and helped us eat our lunch, although she'd already eaten. We talked and looked through old photos, revisiting a few of our old memories of high school days while Peter took a short nap. We all had such a great time that we lost track of time and were late getting the girls to their Mommies! But Peter and I came away feeling refreshed and recharged. That's what friends are for, isn't it?

Thanks for the wonderful day, Terri. Muahhhhh!

Terri and I. She's the pretty one on the right!

Peter was napping, but Val decided she was going to get into his lap, even if he didn't help her. And she did, too!

A sweet moment. I tried to get a picture of her playing with his whiskers, but she moved, and I missed my shot.

Not sure what this thing is called, but it's a mask and when you talk into the mouth piece, it distorts your voice. Hannah thought it was pretty cool, but I'm just glad it stayed at Terri's house!

Hannah and Ayla playing dress-up. Hannah was a "stepmother" (she's got a fascination with Cinderella at the moment), and Ayla was a ballerina.

Two sassy divas! Love the maribou slippers and feather boas. Aren't they just too funny?

Where milk really comes from

Hannah and I had quite the conversation last night. She came bounding into the room with excitement just shining on her face. I wrote down our complete conversation so I can have it for scrapbooking later. :)

Hannah: Nene, do you know where milk comes from?

Me: Where?

H: Cows!!

Me: No, it doesn't! It comes from ELEPHANTS!

H: No it doesn't. It comes from COWS!

Me: Uh-uh. It comes from elephants. Just ask Faith!

H: Nuh-uh, it comes from cows. My Mommy told me so.

Me: Your Mommy was teasing. It really comes from elephants.

H: No it don't! Elephants don't have those squeezy things on the bottom!

Me: (laughing too hard to respond)

H: Milk comes from COWS. Elephants just come full of water.

By this time I had recovered my breath enough to ask Peter for my scrappy idea notebook and a pen and was furiously writing all this down. She's just way too stinkin' funny sometimes! She makes my heart smile, though, and that's worth it all. :)

Silly Little Girls

So far, this week has been a good one for all of us. The girls have been in fine form, exhibiting much imagination and silliness. Of course, the camera has been called into use quite often the past few days. A few examples:

Who needs to discipline the children when they'll do it themselves?? Don't know where Hannah came up with this idea, but she taught Monkey, and it looks like they did a good job of it!

We got this box last night and since I've got such fond memories of playing with boxes as a child, I left it out for the girls to play with today. They've had MUCH fun with it, as you can probably tell from all the creases on the sides. Monkey decided she wanted to take her nap in the box, and since she fit, I let her! Couldn't resist taking photos for posterity, though. It's a good thing she's so tiny - she fit perfectly!

She's making progress!!! We got her to take a few steps on Monday, and a few yesterday, but today she just stood there. It's really just a matter of time before she takes off, and then are we ever going to be in trouble!! She just looks so proud of herself here. Love this baby girl!!

On another note, something really funny that she did a few minutes ago (funny for me, not so funny to her), is chew on her thumb. She's teething and her thumb is always in her mouth when she sits down or is sleepy. So I was holding her and she had her thumb in her mouth, drool running down her arm, saturating my shirt, and all at once she started screaming and crying. Since I hadn't moved, but was simply typing on the computer, the only thing I could figure was wrong was that she BIT her thumb!!! It's really funny to watch her when she does this, since she does it at least once a day. Seems like she'd figure out not to bite down, since it's gonna hurt! She's just too funny, and always keeps us in stitches.