Scrapbooking

Guess what I got to do last night?  Well I bet you figured it out pretty quickly from my blog post.  I invited myself over to my friend Doris' house. I needed to get out! 

Now in the scrapbooking industry if you are a designer it is a faux pas to scraplift other designer's layouts.  But if you are a peon, like me, it is actually considered an honor to the designer to be scraplifted.  Neither one of these layouts are my own.  I shamelessly scraplifted Doris!

The first layout I did is a scraplift of this layout with a feel from this layout.

I didn't get to finish this second layout.  So Doris I only need 10 minutes at your house again to sew down Ashley's name and use your punch for one more bobbin.  Well I have to journal still, but I'm not sure what in the world I'm going to journal about.

Here is the layout Doris created that I scraplifted.

 By the way both layouts were created using Jeni Bowlin's September kit.

I have a tremendous amount of work to do, but I really just want to scrapbook or work on a project.

I've wasted most of the day, so I suppose I better separate and start some laundry and do some stinkin' dishes.  I also have to plan next week's schooling, but that won't get done until ... ahem.. get started until midnight.

4th grade

I can hardly believe my babies are in 4th grade. Here are a few pictures of Ashley from today. The boys will get their picture taken tomorrow or the next day after I get their haircut. Not so sure how different they will look since they both insist on having long hair. But I insist on seeing their eyes!

Well this year I need to talk to their art teacher about changing her name. In co-op the kid's History teacher is Ms. Tammy and their Science teacher is another Ms. Tammy. And we will be starting another Science class tomorrow and her name is Ms. Tammy. I thought that was funny so I suppose I need to talk Ms. Joy into changing her name.

Last Monday we went on a "field trip". At least that is what we thought it would be. We went to the Murfreesboro historical Canonburgh. We were supposed to meet there to do some type of art museum filming. We thought they would be doing some type of art. The Canonburgh part was closed on Mondays but we were still allowed to look around a bit. I thought this building was interesting. We didn't get any history lesson since it was closed.

This duck waddled right up to me and pecked on my shoe. Thankfully I had tennis shoes on or that might have hurt.

So we waited around outside for an hour. The lady in charge came out and said, thanks for being patient, etc. etc. I asked her if I had time to run to McDonalds and get my kids drinks. She said, Oh yes that should be fine. She said if they are ready for them if it would be OK to go ahead and use them? I said sure and off I went literally across the street to get drinks. When I came back 5 minutes later the kids were walking out of the museum and were completely finished. Apparently, all they needed them to do was walk through this tiny art museum and look at the art on the walls. They filmed them and out the door they went.

Well that was a waste of our Monday!

But in the next 6 to 8 weeks the kids "may be" on TV.

They will at least be on YouTube. Oooh Aaah!

Ashley my little designer

Ashley is in an upcoming play called Evertime. She is really good at staying in character. Anyway, when it was time to bring in possible costume clothing I quickly picked some things out. Her character is supposed to be in business attire black, grays or whites. They made it sound like they should kind of look like men in business attire. I picked out a solid white dress, one of the boy's suit jacket and tie. The director and costumer was pleased with how it looked, but Ashley was very uncomfortable. So they told me this and said, they really wanted her to be comfortable. So I asked Ashley what she wanted. She designed this outfit:

So being the best Mom that I could be I made it happen (overnight by the way). I made the jacket and bought the skirt and white shirt at a thrift store.

Ashley is thrilled!

She is so proud that she designed an outfit and is actually getting to wear it.

She said it didn't even look like a costume and she would like to wear it outside of the play someday.

The director and costumer think it is adorable.

I'm one proud Mama!

We had to leave the costume at the play, so I will not be able to get a picture of her in it until the first day of the play.

Birthday Cooking Day

Last Thursday, the kids had another cooking class. I would like to say it went well, but the boys were really acting up. It was a difficult menu and we (Ms. Helen and I) knew it would be time intensive. We had planned to have Steena come one time. She is a special friend to both of us and we thought it would be nice to invite her. So we thought of things that she might like. So Helen picked the menu. We made a cheese souffle. I have to say it was FABULOUS! Even though the kids didn't like it at all. We also had a fruit basket. Ms. Helen already carved out the watermelon and the kids cut up the fruit.

The hardest part was the cake that Ashley picked. She liked the way it looked, but I'm pretty sure she didn't know what it had in it or she wouldn't have picked it. It was a difficult cake to make. It had a peach filling, a marzipan layer, and fondant. We started the cake the week before and when we got there this week Helen already did all the layers and all we had to do was decorate it. Unfortunately, we didn't like the taste of it.

And since it was so close to the kids birthday Helen put in candles and we sang Happy Birthday to the kids. I just love those long candles!

The kids were really hungry after this cooking day. I don't think they liked anything. Mason and Ashley liked some of the fruit, especially the watermelon. But after how they acted, I decided we are only going to do this once a month, instead of weekly. The boys were just too antsy.

Happy Birthday Kiddos!

I'm on hold and I'm aggravated. It's bad enough when I call and am on hold forever, but when they call and it is not on my schedule it is super aggravating! I got a reminder call that Comcast is coming out to my house tomorrow. We made the appointment for Monday not tomorrow. I press 3 to "reschedule" my appointment and I have been on hold 15 minutes now. I'm sick of hearing, "Your call is important to us."

OK I've put the phone on speaker so that I can write this blog.

Yesterday, was my kids birthday. And they had a fun day! I made cupcakes to share at Aussie and Ashley's rehearsal.

Cori the director included Mason and had everyone sing, Happy Birthday to them.

The kids received money from Nana and Papa and they knew just what they wanted. If you know my kids you could probably guess what that might be. Hint: They've gotten one for every birthday since they were 3. Yep, we headed to Build A Bear after play practice.

Ashley got a Blizzard Ice Cream Bear. She named her Strawberry. She also got a little dog and named her Violet.

Aussie got the Champ Bear. He named her Sunny.

I love what Mason got! He got a dachshund and dressed him in a hot dog costume. And he named him Hot Dog. He also got a little dog to match and named him Chili.

It's really cute. The Build A Bear dogs have magnets in their mouths and the little dogs have a magnet on their scarves so that they can be held in the big dogs mouth.

While we were at the mall I used the bathroom there. The toilet kept flushing while I was using it- over and over and over at least 5 times and I wasn't on there for long. Anyway, even though I've never been to France, I was reminded of the "special" toilets they have there. I can't remember what they are called, but I'm sure it is similar to what I experienced. For the record, I didn't like it one bit!

After Build A Bear we went to Dairy Queen for a little cold treat.

I always say, "Mason I want to see your eyes." And this is what I get.

Greg stayed home from work yesterday to work on the kid's present from us. He worked all morning and then had to go to work for a meeting. Then when he came home I helped him finish it up. It's really a 2 person job, but he did great getting it as far as he did without any help.

And what could it be?

A trampoline.

I snapped a quick picture before we put up the net, but the trampoline does have a net. It is HUGE- much bigger than I thought it would be. It is 15'. Our neighbors must be a 12' or they have a bigger yard that makes it look smaller. I'm sure ours takes up over 1/4 of our back yard.

They love it!

I don't know why, but Ashley loves to wear long sleeves. It is stinkin' hot here! I don't know how she can stand it! But she does look pretty!

ALL of it under $1.00

I have tons of pictures from our vacation, but I just don't have the time to edit them and put them on my blog right now. It will have to wait until at least Monday.

I just learned of a kid's consignment sale that I want to participate in. So I need to be getting all those things together and tagging the items. I drop them off on Sunday afternoon.

But I do have time to brag just a little.

This is 2 Target trips:

1st trip:

2 Standard Pillows $2.50- used (2) Target $2.00 coupon.

Making them $.50 each

Sharpies on sale $1.00- used Target $1.00 coupon.

Making it FREE!

2 Packages of Papermate Pens $1.02 - used (2) Target $1.00 coupon.

Making them $.02 each

2 Scotch Tapes $1.00- used (2) Target $.50 coupon and (2) MFG $1.00 coupons.

Making them FREE with a $.50 profit each!

Total- Well TN tax is outrageous but it still came to a whopping

$.23

The check out girl got tickled when I said, "I guess I won't charge this. Or maybe I should I'd save another 5%."

My second Target trip consisted of 2 pillows, and 2 Papermate pens. That total came to $.19.

So everything above cost me under $1.00 at only $.42.

You are probably asking what is she going to do with those pillows? I actually need one more. But this is what I am planning to make.

Just sew 5 pillow cases together and stuff them with cheap pillows. I think Ashley will love it. I think the boys would like it too, but I can't justify buying 15 pillows. I feel like that would be cheating the system somehow. Well actually you can only print 2 coupons from each computer. So with 3 computers I would only be able to get 6 coupons anyway.

Then today I made my Publix run.

Splenda (B1G1 sale) $2.20- used $2.00 MFG coupon= $.20

3 Scotch Scissors $1.00- (2) $1.00 MFG coupon here and (1) $1.00 MFG coupon from Publix Smart Savings booklet.

(2) Paper Mate pens $.50- used Target $1.00 coupon

Making it FREE with a $.50 profit each.

(2) Bugles Choc with PB (Mmmmmm!) B1G1= $1.30 used (2) $.50 coupon in last Sunday's paper. Doubled making them $.30 each.

(2) Combat Ant baits $4.69- Used (2) Publix $3 coupons from Yellow Advantage Buy Flyer & (2) MFG $2 coupons from here ,making it FREE with $.31 profit each.

Oh and the penny item was the box of Publix Bran Flakes.

.

Grand Total with our outrageous tax...

$.51!!!

Unbelievable Target AND Publix under $1.00 together!

Can you tell what the picture is below?

I did it! That is NO unread emails. I finally cleaned out my inbox over the last two days. What a good feeling it is to finally be caught up!

Summer Fun

Yep three blog entries in one day. Yesterday the kids had a blast!

Mason just said, "I'm bored what can we do?"

I knew fully what we were going to do but I told him to let me think on it.

Meanwhile, Ashley and her friend went outside and filled up 2 pie plates with whipped cream.

Look at her maniacal face.

Now it's time to invite Mason outside.

Ready. Aim.

He was not an easy target. I had to hold him down.

Ashley's friend wanted in on the action. So Ashley was happy to oblige.

Then Ashley started running for her life saying, "I don't like whipped cream!"

Too Bad So Sad!

And even though there was only a little bit left she had to get me.

I handed the camera to Mason and took it like a charm.

Mason wanted to clean off so he got a cup of water. Ashley got one too, but instead of putting it on herself she threw it at Mason.

Oh man it's cold!

And then Aussie joined the fun. Smart kid put his bathing suit on.

They were soaking wet!

But they had the best time!