Need you

to send good thoughts and prayers my way.
I am sick=(

Deep in my chest it hurts, it hurts to cough, breathe etc.

Lord I pray for a quick recovery. You are the great physician and can heal me.
I need your strength and love to get me through tis day.

Parties are so much FUN!!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a great Blog Party.

You should check out the link for all the details.

You can win prizes, you can meet new bloggers, you can get more traffic to your blog, did I mention you can win prizes??

I'm in! I hope to see you there!

Wordless Wednesday

Getting savvy

So you all know that I have an iPhone.

But you don't know is that I am kinda behind on my technology knowledge.
I had an iPod shuffle, J put the music on it and learned all about iTunes and stuff, I never bothered to learn.

I have been wanting to listen to podcasts lately and trying to figure out how...since the speakers on the iPhone suck (seriously it is a major issue with iPhones...not dealt with yet)...so we figured out how to plug the cradle into our radio system upstairs.

And I finally used my iPhones, iPod feature today!

YEAH for me.

I highly recommend Mars Hill Church to all of you, the guy is hilarious, biblical and he knows how to talk those who may not feel so kin toward church.

Oreo

Cakesters are evil!

A Huge Secret

On the way home from school today, this is mine and M girls conversation:

Merci: "Mom have you ever had this really big secret and you just have to let it out?"
Me: "Probably...why?" (mind racing as to what this big secret could be)
Merci: 5 minutes of arguing with herself as to tell me or not
Me: "I am your best friend, you know you can tell me anyhting."
Merci: "OK... (she very quickly blurts out) I pick my nose and eat snow."
Me: in front seat trying not to laugh out loud, and relieved that it is nothing to worry about.

My children make my life interesting!

My suggestions to her: I will buy you a small pack of tissues to keep with you at all times, and just make sure the snow is clean!

Deaf?

Maybe you didn't hear me, Snow. I said to Go AWAY!
Spring is so close, so why don't you just give up and go away?
March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb, but we can change that saying, we really can, no one will mind, I Promise!

it is supposed to be in the 40's today, but we also have a winter storm warning, for up to 8 inches today. ICK.
I hope they are wrong!

Busy weekend. Lots of homework, grocery shopping, running around to do today so see ya soon!

Clean Air

The house I live in in pretty old. I can't think about what might be in our air ducts and the nasty stuff that is blown through our vents. What are all those particles floating in the air? Nobody knows, and who would want to?

I would love to get a really nice air purifiers. Just to have a peace of mind. But in reality there are better things to spend money on, in my opinion!
I hope when we move to a different home, they have recently cleaned the air ducts or have a new heating/cooling system with an air purifier attached.
To hoping.

The wish

Most people wish about moving south when the weather up North gets cold. None of us really like it, well I guess there are some weirdos=) Me and my blog friend keep joking that we are going to move to the warm climates. Maybe we should check out South Carolina land for sale.

I think I would be more apt to really do it if we didn't have kids.
I just couldn't take my kids away from their family.
And though I wouldn't miss the snow, I would miss the changing of the seasons!

Gardening?

Spring is so close, you can almost taste it! I am so ready for Spring. I am almost looking forward to getting the flower beds ready fro Summer. I am also thinking about getting some outdoor lighting for our front flower bed. I think it adds a nice touch. I love pulling up my driveway in the Summer admiring my hard work and seeing the fresh cut grass and pretty blooms. It makes me feel happy inside!!
I just can't wait!

Getting Old

Chances are as you get older your vision will get worse. Good thing it is easy to get stuff to help with this problem. I bet you didn't know how many low vision aids products were out there?

There is a whole website dedicated to low vision aids with many unique items.
It isn't just large print books anymore, folks.
The list goes on!

I recently realized that without my contacts I can barely see anymore, it wasn't this bad 6 months ago, and I am not even 30!

Go Away......

SNOW

Wordless Wednesday: What I did yesterday!

Monster Jam Slide Show

Here are the promised pictures form our fun night at Monster Jam!!

Bad Move

Since M girl was off school today and J finally went to work for the first time in 3 weeks or so (nice having your own business, huh!) I was trying to figure out what to do. I was planning on cleaning and organizing, and then in the middle of doing something I decided we'd get ready for the day and head to the mall. Yeah, well with all banks, government offices, schools etc off today that was a BAD move. The mall was so busy, and we didn't get out of the house until lunch/nap time and the stroller mysteriously vanished from my car, our time out wasn't the best. It wasn't the worst either, though.

Let me complain for a sec here.
Now most parent get frustrated about their kids not eating veggies and being picky eaters.
E boy IS picky, but dear the Lord, try to get him to eat a chicken nugget from Uncle Donalds Farmer (ROFL..this is what he calls McDonalds...don't ask) is like getting most kids to eat peas.
The kid just can't eat them, he won't eat hot dogs, he won't eat spaghetti O's, none of the easy stuff, just give me a break!!!
You know what he wants for lunch everyday?
Carrots and dip.
Ya wonder why he has not an ounce of fat on him and weighs less than 30 pounds at age 3 1/2.
Just eat some nuggets kid.

Maybe he is going to be a vegetarian??

Does everything line up?

When I view my new blog layout, things aren't lining up (on my PC, laptop and iphone). Meaning my posts don't start until after all the sidebar stuff. Drea views them fine, so I was wondering what it looks like to YOU?

Answer soon, so I can let Drea know what is going on.
Thanks.
(More interesting post to come sometime soon!)

New and Ended Up

So if you haven't seen my NEW blog look, you better check it out!
( I paid good money for it...LOL..well actually not yet, but there is still some work getting finished up.)
Anyway...you will never believe where we ended up Friday night.
Monster Jam.
Yep, we were hillbillies and went to the Monster Truck show=)
It was fun...LOUD, but fun. Different.
And we also learned to pay attention to where you park.
We were actually getting excited that we would be getting a new car.
(We only have 3 more payments and it's only a 98 so I am sure it is worth a little bit more than we owe).

Pictures to come!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend, ours was fun.

A Story about Lilypads

We all know how cute kids can be (and how un-cute they can be), but let me tell you about E boy being cute!
Even before I bought the awesome cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, I loved to sneak veggies into my kids food where I could.
Spinach is an easy one. I just chop it up fine and add it to lettuce.
I was making tacos and realized I had fresh spinach in the fridge, so I took it out, not remembering the kids were in the kitchen with me.
It was OK though.
Ethan wanted to know what I was doing so he came over to see, "Lily pads" he exclaimed!
"Like froggies sit on mommy."
Chuckling to myself, I agreed.
Yes lily pads Ethan.
And he never flinched while eating (not that it was even noticeable).

Sooo, today I thought I would capitalized on his excitement over eating lily pads.
Josh and i were having BLT's and E doesn't like tomatoes or lettuce, so I asked him it he wanted lily pads with his bacon and he was excited over the idea.
He ate it!


He is sooooo cute I love U E boy=)

Valentines Day Treats *Updated*

About 9 days ago we took the kids to Kalahari indoor water park. This was their Valentines Day gift from us! So here are some cute pictures from out trip!

**Since we told the kids this was there V day gift, E boy keeps asking to go back to Valentines Day...it is so cute...and he also calls is KalaharNi=)...he also wouldn't take his bracelet they made us wear for days***

Posing like tourists by the big elephant
(E loves elephants!)

Check out this candy counter...YUMMY.
Those big white balls with the pink...truffles..HUGE!

E by the elephant waterside at the toddle play area,
daddy and sis were at the big orange slide in the upper left.

check out the face!!!
Splashed by the water coming down the slide.

precious!

Today my hubby let me sleep in, he took M girl to school and E boy with him to get me these: (and no you can't see inside the box to see how many are left!)



How sweet!

**M girls school is having their party tomorrow, but this little boy in first grade brought M a big chocolate heart (I guess his mom came with him to give it to her!)...AWE. She said she doesn't even know him...haha. "he must love me or something mom" was her explanation to me! CUTE**

I totally stole this from someone else!
But it was fun=)

Lots of my Hubby

My husband works on roofs. So with the recent COLD weather and lots of snow, he has been home for lots of weeks now. It has been nice, with the occasional days I wish he was at work, but for the most part I have welcomed the extra helping hands and attention. We have had lots of shopping dates, lunches out with E boy and time to play video games together. PacMan being our latest addiction. I was pissed to find out that while I was slaving over our taxes he had the audacity to beat my high score, that I have had for days now. =(

Yesterday was one of the best days yet. We have had lots of snow the last week, Sunday and Monday leaving us stuck inside, so in yet another snow storm we headed out to our NEW Super Walmart (the first and only one around!). By the time we got out of the house (we had to squeeze in a couple rounds of PacMan first...lol), it was lunch time. We ended up at IHOP...stuffed french toast for lunch...YUM. We were both in goofy moods and really enjoyed ourselves. E was a bit crabby, but we managed. We had already scheduled a sitter for the evening for a church meeting, so when we found out it was canceled due to bad weather, we didn't hesitate in making other plans. We decided to go to the movies, since we had free tickets, and actually lost one between here and there=( Josh is very picky in his movie taste, so when he agreed to see Fools Gold I was ecstatic! It was a cute movie. A few "sex" scenes but very unoffensive ones. You didn't see anything, only heard sounds. There were girls in bikinis, since the movie is based around the ocean. But both girls were very small chested so it wasn't as in your face, ya know? They were beautiful women, but it just wasn't as sexual, I guess. Anyway, we were very happy with the low level of offensiveness. There was some violence, but we enjoyed it and thought is was very mild. We just really enjoyed our day/night out.

And guess what? I am 90% done with taxes!!! I turned everything in today, but one small thing I have to finish up, but the most time consuming frustrating stuff in D_O_N_E!!!
Now just pray we don't owe too much=) I don't think we will though. Having a new business we have lots of write offs!

Off to cuddle.

Tag and Goodies

Since I have been working my butt off to get stuff done around here, I am finding myself with some free time to sit here and enjoy my favorite blogs and to update mine.

1st:

I was tagged my FlipFlopMom

1) pick up the nearest book ( one of at least 123 pages)
The Power of a Praying Wife (trying to read it now for the 500th time)
2)Open the page to 123
OK
3) Find the 5th sentence
UH, HUH
4)Post the next three sentences
Defend him from those who rise up to do him harm (Psalm 59:1).
Fight against those who fight against him (Psalm 35:1).
In You, Oh Lord, we put our trust.
(This was part of a prayer you were supposed to pray for your hubby)
5) Tag 5 people!
Err...If you wish to play you are tagged! If you don't wish, than you are not tagged

2nd:

I joined the Valentines Day swap at An Island Life and sweet Jenna sent me some yummy treats: M&M's, Reese Cups, Fudge, a candle, and a Magic Eraser sponge (Love em!). Some yummy treats and some nice treats for around the home (because we women like that kinda stuff!) THANKS JENNA!!

3rd:

We went bowling last night (it was an adult only fund raiser event for my daughters school)and it was much fun. Thanks to Jason for his comedy and a few jello shots (hey they were for a good cause...LOL) we had lots of fun.

4th:

I am now addicted to PacMan and PacMan CE on XBox 360 (we downloaded them from the Live arcade). So addicted in fact I made my husband , which means the kids had to come too, run out on Friday night at 7PM (getting kids ready for bed time) and search for a joystick, so I could play my newest addiction more comfortably. It's fun you should, try....and did I mention I kick his butt=)

Please Excuse Me

We are home from our wonderful couple of days at Kalahari Indoor Waterpark!
SO MUCH FUN!
It was worth every penny=)
We got to bond with the kids, give ourselves a break from home life and bless our kids (It was a Valentines Day gift for the family!)
Ethan wants to know when we are going back to Valentines Day=)

Pictures to come.

I have been tagged, I have to catch up on blogs, comments, e-mails, Ebay, etc. So I will be gone a few days.

We met with our accountant today and I have to go through papers again and redo a few things, so I have lots of work ahead of me (again) Oh yeah I just remembered school too AHHHHH!

I can do it though it will just mean less computer time for me.

So please excuse me while I get caught up.

Booths

I have been wondering if it would be worth while for J and I to set up a trade show booths at a local trade show. Our company is very specific in nature and is a common thing most people need. J does slate roofing, NOT shingle, he works with slate, copper, different variety's of tiles and that is the bulk of what he does. There are only certain area's around here that even have homes made with those kind of material, so we aren't sure it would even be worth it for the amount of money it cost to get a booth.
I guess we will just stick to mailing out fliers in the neighborhoods with these kind of roofs!

Traveling

I would love to travel when the kids are older. That is our plan. Since we had kids so early, we will still be youngins when our kids are old enough to be left for long periods of time with family members. It will be so nice. Hopefully by then we will be financially sound also. I would love to go to a tropical, beautiful place ( I am not picky), I would like to visit the 7 wonders of the world, I would like to visit ancient biblical cities and see the cites where Jesus was, and I would also like to visit little not well known cities like Branson Missouri. And someday soon I would love to go visit my favorite blog buddies from New hampshire, but it must be in the Fall!

Funny Tee's

My husband is a fan of funny T-Shirts.

One of my favorites says "Sometimes I wake grumpy...Sometimes I let her sleep" HAHA I like it, because I am a grumpy sleepy person!

We love going to Steve and Barry's and laugh at all the shirts.
There are some pretty crass ones, that he won't wear but we still laugh at them.

One of my favorites that is always out of stock is
"Who are these kids and why are they calling me Mom (or Dad)"
I think my dad would love this one.

Check out this site for some funny t-shirts.
There may be some inappropriate ones but there are also some pretty funny ones!

Are you looking for....

Whatever you are looking for you can get one here!

This website has so much stuff I cannot begin to tell you about it. You can find decor in so many themes, you can get political things for you yard if you are a fan of supporting your favorite candidate.

You can get so many little odds and ends.

So if you have some spare time and some spare money check out this site. I am sure you can find something you want!

Comfy!

If you haven't heard about those wonderful, Oh so comfy : memory foam mattress that are everywhere. You really should try one out. Now you can find memory foam mattress toppers that you put on your existing mattress and they are much less expensive than the real ones. But if you really want to you can go spend the pretty penny to buy the real thing. They are very good for people with chronic back problems and other posture problems, so it may be worth it for your health.

Tee Time is close

For those golfers out there the time is coming. Spring is right around the corner and those golfers are getting antsy. Every golfer has a specific golf club brand they like. Some just cannot golf unless they are using that specific brand. Maybe you should suggest Cleveland golf clubs to your golfing friend. You never know they can be the magic ones they have been looking for!

I personally don't golf and probably never will, too expensive and time consuming...not to mention i am not even good at put-put or Wii golfing=)

They don't work

As we all know diet fads don't work. If they did, why would there be so many diets, diet books, diet pills, diet patches, and all that other diet stuff.

Most people who have tried know there is no magic solution besides, good food choices, portion control and exercise. It is that simple, yet we make it so hard. Well actually the food manufacturers make it so hard with all those enticing food they dangle in our faces.

Advance

Today as I checked my bank account I realized I wouldn't have enough money to make it until Monday when I would normally replenish the funds to our checking account. So, after our playdate I had to make an unexpected trip to the bank today, which lead me stop at Trader Joes to grab a few of my favorite things (frozen raspberries-so cheap, vitamins for the kids-they were out, decently priced organic milk, a few things Ethan insisted on putting in his little cart, a bunch of daffodil stem to watch bloom, some reusable bags-new styles, orange chicken-I've heard it is delicious, and peanut butter clusters-YUM).
We then headed to pick up M from school.

Regulations

Does it bother you that there are so many regulations for everything? Like if you want to build a home on a piece of land you have to have permits, inspections, environmental site assessment, I am sure the list goes on.

We have to deal with this in J's business. He has to register with the city he is working in, he had to get bonded, event hough he is already insured, and he has to get a permit in some cities. All this stuff that requires money just to do a little roof repair. It cost us almost $700 for one city, and then we have to pay that again in a year, nice, huh?

Annoying...Yeah!

Odds N Ends

I have been finding lots of stuff to do and not accomplishing much. Sound familiar?
Josh had the basement torn apart while building a new computer and I have found much to do down in that freezing chamber.

We had to say good-bye to Callie today, we will miss her...and no I didn't get sick of her. I was going to hold her for ransom or something like that but my brother texted me a sad face and told me how much he missed his baby. So we gave her back.
I really love that dog. I will definitely be getting a Boxer in the future.
Even Josh was sad to see her go, he like when she took him for walks every afternoon=) She is a strong one!



My E even took to her, and at her previous stay he did not like her at all, he is NOT a dog lover, but he got this big pouty sad face as she left. Awe.
Ethan did like her cage (only for when we left, cuz she is still a puppy who eats everything) , he had much fun playing in it and using it as his personal toy box.



Also I did that look a like meter thing some of you posted and Merci looks 19% more like me (I thought it would be more) and Ethan is a perfect match of both of us. (Just what I thought!).
I can't post it because I look horrible in my picture and never figured out how...haha.

Tomorrow after we pick M up from school we head to the indoor water park for an overnight getaway!

How FUN!

Check out my ebay auctions on the sidebar I have been working hard!

It's FRIDAY

Not that means much here. Josh hasn't been working for a few weeks, since the weather has been cold and yucky, so he has been around way more than usual. It has been great!

I am going to have to share some of the yummy food I made from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook (Jerry Seinfields wife wrote it). Wholesome and yummy=)
Merci was in shock when I revealed that there were sweet potatoes in her meatballs and carrots in her banana peanut butter muffin!

All we have on our schedule for this weekend in ice skating on saturday morning.
We don't even have anything to do for the Superbowl=(

See you all back here Monday!