A favor to ask!

So I know some guys who have a great band called State Fair....would you vote for them to be able to play at a a big event called TomFest

Go here and cast your vote, you will need to type in their name on the form,they are not featured yet.

This is a huge Christian music event, show some love for fellow brothers!

Drama

Family drama is killing me!
I did get my whole room wiped down and dusted
(the ceiling fan was icky)!

Off to get the kids a nap, me a shower, house tidies a bit and off to a few fun things tonight!
Dave and Busters without the kids is one of them (except it is with the family)!!

TaTa

Have a wonderful weekend

WOW

I can't believe how much I have got done today!!

I pushed myself to get my rough draft done last night so I could actually acomplish stuff besides school work.

Merci is feeling pretty well, still a little under the weather.

I woke up and began preparing some Jambalaya in the slow cooker to take to a friend who just had a precious baby girl.
I also make some fruit and yogurt popsicles.
I then got the kids ready, myself showered and ready, out the door by 10:30 so I could stop and get some coffee before I picked up my Mary Kay order, then off to Malley's candy and ice cream store for the promised ice cream if the kids promised to behave for the rest of the errands
(YEA RIGHT...why do I bother).
Then to babies R Us to pick out a baby shower gift, realized the high chair we were gonna get was at Target, so I wasted my time stopping there. I did pick up a cute basket to put some other gifts in. Then off to Target to get the high chair, that was already purchased...UGH.
Picked out some other stuff, hope the other chipping in approve.
The tot he grocery to get a few things (this is nap time and E gets bad withing minutes), home to a huge temper tantrum, he finally falls asleep.
I clean the MESSY kitchen, put the gift together, make 2 kinds of cookies (the pouch kind) for the meal I am taking, make some phone calls, decide to make muffins for company in the morning, have to cook and puree spinach for them (don't ask...I will let you know how they turn out) clean the kitchen that got really MESSY again. Decide I should roast some chicken and veggies just in case the Jambalaya is too spicy for the nursing mom.
Package up the chocolate for Michelle who won a few weeks ago (yep, I am a slacker).
We then go outside, finally a bit warm, vacuum and clean out car, and now I am here typing this.
I have to leave to deliver meal, pick up my mom and got to my brothers house for my pottery class.
PHEW

See ya later!

Just what I needed

...and extension on my paper, till tomorrow night, instead of tonight at midnight.
Thank God.

I do hope to be done tonight though!

::In case::

In case you were wondering, our Easter was better than I thought.
Teaching the little kids at church was fun and running here and there wasn't so bad either.
Merci is still a bit feverish, but hanging in there.

I am still in my PJ's and it is 2 PM.
I have been working on laundry, occupying the kids, feeding the kids, cleaning up here and there and writing my rough draft research paper for my English class (only on paragraph 2 of a 4 page paper).
Us moms have so much to juggle, how the heck do we do it?
If this is an A paper I will be most surprised.

Off to eat some more stale peeps and write more of my paper!
Wish me luck.

The day is done

What a crazy day we had.
Today was the big moving day. Not for us unfortunately, but for my grandmother.
She is getting older and needed to get out of her huge 4 bedroom home, that she has been in for 47 years (that is A LOT of years!)
It is hard to say bye to that house for all of us.
All of our holidays were celebrated there (sadly tomorrow is the first holiday NOT celebrated at her home).
We had a lot of helping hands so the move went well. All the big stuff is out and minor, misc stuff is left.
(I will be helping take stuff over with my Jeep throughout the week)

Oh did I mention, we had about a foot of snow awaiting us this morning?
Uhggg...But it actually wasn't all that cold out, so it was fine.

Now on to tomorrow.

I am teaching children's church (E boys class, a class I normally don't teach), but I am very excited.

We then head to Josh's family's house and then to my mom's house.

I have about 5 bags packed of all the stuff I need to take these places, I am exhausted and I am not sure tomorrow will be any less stressful.

HE is Alive and I will be joyful in knowing that=)

Happy Easter you all.

The joys!

Today was M girls first day of Spring break, and I need a break already!
I am usually a very blessed momma, my kids rarely wake up in the nighttime.
Between the 2 of them I was up 4-5 times.
Not sure what E's problem was, just whining and not telling us what was bugging him.
Merci woke up with a fever,and then brought her stuff into our room to sleep, but didn't go back to sleep. she was talking, writing in her diary etc.
She could have done it in her own room.
Geesh.
I had a huge list of stuff to get done for easter etc. Tomorrow is moving day for my Grandma, so we will be busy.
Well when we were out Merci got feverish again, and has been complaining of a sore throat for a few days, and since a not came home from school saying a few cases of strep were reported in her class, I figured I would take her in to rule it out.
After calling our Dr. we made arrangement to get a cheap visit (currently have no ins).
It ended up she didn't have strep. Which is good, but probably means she probably has the flu, which there is nothing we can do for, so here is hoping to a quick recovery and no spreading of germs to any of us, since we have a long weekend!

~Have a great Easter~

What is it?

What is it about the ocean that makes it such a sough after place?
Such beauty, such warmth...UH and here I am stuck int he snow.
I wish I could buy a large oceanfront property, and invite all my friends there in the Winter.
It would be so much fun.
I know many of you have suggested going somewhere warm to get away from this crappy snow most of us are getting.
So...who is in???

What man wouldn't want one??

I am not sure there are too many men out there that wouldn't include a home theater room in his dream home. I know my husband drools over the home theater seats we see at stores. And what women wouldn't want to get a good deal on the components for that room??
That is why you need to check out:
discount home theater seating.

Then you can both be happy, and fro the savings you may get him to buy you something nice!!
A little compromise never hurt anyone.

Maybe

Maybe someday I will have the money to trade commodities to make more money. And when I do have the money to do so I will hire a very reliable, reputable commodity brokers.
Until then, I suppose I should just be happy with what I have!
And in the mean time I can learn more about the commodities market, so when I do have the money I can be well educated on what it is I am doing!

Could it be?

Could it be, a weight loss pill that works, and works well??

Orovo detox
is the new diet fad people are talking about.

I get so frustrated with all the talk of diet pills, workout videos etc.
I have 10 pounds I would really like to loose.
I am so sick of the extra weight and I want to be my old tiny self.

Every new pill, diet and video I want to try, yet I know, the best way is to watch what I eat and.
exercise.

This pill sound pretty cool though, I may be tempted to try.

An excerpt...

... from my little notebook, not really a journal, I keep tit in my purse and write grocery lists, to do lists, my thoughts, etc.

Yesterday morning J let me sleep...til 10. He even brought me home BK...Mocha Joe=)
Right after I woke up I ate read E man 4-5 books and then continued to play with him-
we played dominoes (stood them up and let him knock them down over and over)-we learned some letter-did some "school" books. The computer was NOT my first priority like usual (yeah me!!)
We ate lunch, actually sat down and ate lunch (very rare...he usually doesn't eat), he was allowed to play for another 10 minutes and then up to bed we went...no fuss, not fight...peaceful...Hmmm, see what happens when his little love tank is full.
As I was checking out a fellow bloggers blog, I saw that todays Bible reading started with Deut 8, so I began to read. It was exactly what we have been proclaiming and sensing for our lives this year...and then I realized the dream I had this morning:

I had a dream that we moved into some friends house. They were moving to a better home, yet this home was beautiful. They left a ton of stuff, stuff that we liked and would use-treasures. And then we went out back and there was this river flowing thought the back yard...which I was annoyed about because I couldn't let the kids outside by themselves. But....

What the heck it went along with Deut 8 and it was what we have felt the Lord has for us this year. I am so excited and so grateful God is leaving us little bits of HOPE along the way.

His rivers of love and provision are flowing for us=)

First Day of Spring my BUTT

We got a wonderful Spring surprise yesterday-1-2 inches of SNOW. How nice. (totally sarcastic).

I am so ready to get outside. The snow is worse because Spring is here, the warm weather is so close I can almost reach it.
My husband needs to work, we are running out of money and that is stressful.

I am done complaining, for today.

I am excited about Easter.
I love stuffing eggs for our family Easter egg hunt.
I love making the baskets up for the kids.
My husband and I decided that celebrating with baskets etc is fine, because it is kinda hard to get young kids to understand the real emotions and miracle about Jesus dying on the cross and rising again.
We do do the resurrection eggs, which goes through the whole story, doing that and quizzing our kids on the meaning of Easter is all we can do, we are planting seeds.
We do not focus on the Easter bunny, but we did take E to see him.
But why not celebrate the new life we have by blessing our kids!!

Looking forward to ham and potatoes=)

Are you bored?

If you ever sit around wondering what you can dot o stop the boredom at home or at work you need to head on over to check out some great online contests.

Break the Vault offers plenty of online contests for you to win.
The amount of the prize is determined on the difficulty level.

On Monday at 12:00 noon EST and new contest will be posted, each day after that at noon EST a new clue will be given, this will keep going until someone gets the correct answer.
The first person who gets the answer will then be award the prize for that contest.

The more traffic to this site, the bigger the prizes, so get the word out!

You can guess as many times as you want and it is FREE to you.
I am excited to check it out.

Wordless Wednesday : He knows more letters than I thought!

Flaunt it Friday...err..Monday

I was really excited to take part in Flaunt it Friday over at Taken with a Grain of Salt:

I am a few days late, but...Hey! We have been in our rental house for about 5 years, when we moved in, it was really outdated and not my style, after years of living in it like that we finally did put some money into it.
We have painted every room, except the kitchen (too much work involved).
I am finally loving my home.
I love what the paint did to this place and I like most of our deco and furniture.


So I will quit rambling and show you one of my favorite decorations in my home.
My other favorite is a mural on our bedroom wall done by a super talented artist friend.



I am not sure I like the drawer unit, but it was my great grandmothers and it isn't bad, I would just prefer something more modern, but I will be grateful until then.
I do love the storage it has!
Oh, and the top of it usually is piled with junk, but I cleaned it off (moved it to another table just for you!)



My wonderful husband took and idea I had and built this shelf for me!
I change the deco on it randomly.

The WINNER is......

Michelle B.

I had Ethan pick the name out of a pan (and when I asked him to help you should have seen the look on his face!)

Thanks to all of you for visiting!
I hope you all come back soon.

Michelle I will get your chocolate out asap.
Let me know some of your fav's cuz I haven't gone to pick stuff out yet!
Also e-mail me your address.

THANKS for stopping by!!

It's Friday

not that it means much around here. Just another day.
No plans this weekend...actually we will be playing Monopoly tomorrow night at my uncles house. like 5 boards of monopoly. I have never played but I always hear about the fun they have, so we are joining in this time!
Should be fun.

I did go to the mall with a friend.
Our boys are only a few weeks old and love each other so much.
We took them to see the Easter Bunny.
The funny thing was that neither of them, knew who he was.
HAHA.
Ethan was refusing to see him, until he saw he was giving away candy=)

We all just ate dinner, turkey burgers and strawberry, banana fruit bowls.
Now we are all sitting around doing our own thing.

I still have to post pics of my curtains and I also started a pottery class and need to show you what I made the other night.

Be back soon!

Naked Naturals

I had the wonderful opportunity to sample some naked naturals shampoo and conditioner.

I was very excited to try new shampoo. I am always looking for something better to help my hair stay healthy. When I opened the package I immediately notice how thick the shampoo was. Some shampoo is so runny you wonder how it could even clean your hair. The thickness of the shampoo really caught my attention. I love the fact that is all natural and doesn't contain some of the harsh chemicals other shampoos do. It cleaned so well. I didn't feel any weird residue or sticky feeling to my hair, which I do with others.
Sometimes I even have to wash my hair two times to get it to feel clean...NOT with Naked Naturals. One application and it was clean..I could tell.
I loved the smell, so soft and pleasing.

If you are looking for a natural shampoo, you might want to give this product a try!


Naked Naturals is something I would purchase to use for myself. As soon as I get rid of what I have, I will be trying out this shampoo and conditioner (Yeah for a $1 off coupon) for a long period of time...I would love my hair to be 7x stronger as they claim.

The company philosophy is great and I think their product is too.

Wordless Wednesday

We bought these
Resurrection eggs
from our local Christian book store.

I am excited to start the devotions with the kiddos.
Each eggs contains a mini thin that has to do with the resurrection story.
There is also a devotional to go with each egg.
I am excited to teach my kids more about how Awesome God is and the wonderful story about His resurrection.

PARTY!!

5 minutes for mom is hosting



Welcome to MY party!

What is a party without good food right?
My favorite kind of party is when some people bring dessert and some bring appetizers!
That always means there will be lots of good things to eat.

To welcome you to my blog I will be giving away some of our areas well-know chocolate from Malley's Chocolates
I am thinking some Malley Oh's and some Nutmallow, but we will see what I decide on when I get there, because they have lots of great stuff!
***You need to sign up here!***

FREE CHOCOLATE, just for visiting and getting to know me.
How cool is that?

I love to give gifts so, here is a chance for me to do so!

Now let me introduce myself:
My name is Donna, and I have been blogging for a LONG time.
About 4 years. I copied some friends and I am still here today.
I am a Christian, I love Jesus.
I stay at home to take care of my kids full-time.
I have a 7 1/2 year old girl and a 3 1/2 year old boy.
I just turned 27 on March 4th, and have been married for 7 years.
I am also taking some on-line classes at our local community college, just the basics, until I decide what I really want to do when I grow up!
(I want to be a midwife or a social worker)
My husband has his own business, this is his second year on his own, and things are going GREAT.
He works on slate roofs, he also does tile and copper work, not shingle roofs.

If you want to know more, come back or read some old posts.
I try to post on a variety of things.
I really hope to make some new "blog buds"!

You will also notice random "paid" posts, sorry, gotta support my Target habit somehow!
It isn't too bad though, I always try to post a personal post after the paid ones so you have something good to read when you get here.

I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Some of my favorite prizes being given away are

#78-50 custom photo cards from Polka Dot Bumble Bee
#132- A great book from Becoming His
#114- $20 from Lush from After a Cup of Coffee...or Two
#53 skin care goodies from Skin Care Girl

Promote

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You can use Buzzfuse to drive more traffic to your site, if you are one of the top buzz items of the month you get PAID! And there are also extra bonuses for the best in a few different categories!
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I am excited to learn and use all the different options at buzzfuse.
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What fun way to find interesting stuff and a great way to promote your works!

My only day

My only day this week at home.
Yesterday and every other day this week we have something to do. Which is fine, but makes me want free days.
I like to roam around the house and clean only what I feel like cleaning.
Today that seems to be our room, mostly consisting of folding, sorting and putting away clothes and the hallway linen closet. Stuff has been thrown in there long enough, time for some de-cluttering!
Folded towels nicer, a de-cluttered the various baskets, threw away all expired unidentifiable meds, and have a whole bag of garbage already (grocery bag).
I should go pick some stuff up at the library,and get a new filter for the humidifier, E is starting to get chest congestion.
Got new curtains for the kitchen yesterday, almost 5 years here and I have never had any.
3 panels for less that $15 made the decision easy.
2 valences for big window one roll up cloth shade for the small, would like to check other Walmarts for more roll up shade ones (striped). I like them better. The valances have a floral design and stripes, I am not into floral, it is cute, just not my usual choice.
We will see how motivated I am.
(I will post pics for your opinion later)
It's noon I should shower=)

Bragging

I want to to brag on my kids. I usually tell the bad stuff, the annoying stuff.
So I thought I should let you know how proud of my kids I am.
For about a week now, they have been playing SO WELL together. Some fighting and bickering, but very minimal.
They like to build forts in various places around the house and play, which usually results in a huge mess by lugging their stuff to all parts of the house, but I am trying not to let that bug me (trying is the key word). Today they were playing Easter egg hunt, recently I brought out the Easter stuff and they found the eggs. It was cute though.
E boy also likes to watch M girl play her Ninten Dogs DS game.

I am very impressed and encouraged that sibling rivalry doesn't last forever, and that maybe we are doing something right as parents to encourage our kids to like one another.

ANNOYED

I just got back form taking M girl to school. And to say I am annoyed is an understatement. I didn't expect school to be canceled the roads aren't too bad. The main streets anyway. BUT since we live in this place we know all about snow and how it comes EVERY year and we just have to get on with life. BUT when you can barely get into the school driveway and the school doesn't make any effort to shovel for the kids, that is when it gets ridiculous. Now my daughter doesn't go to a public school, she goes to a chartered school, and supposedly they want to be looked at a more prestigious than a public school. Then why don't you make the outside look like it too???? Buy a snowblower (tax write off) and snow blow the dam entrances. We have two entrances and the whole back was closed, so the whole school had to go through the smallest entrance in an already SMALL, overcrowded shared parking lot with a grocery store.

If I wasn't so lazy and not such a wimp I would have walked into that school and expressed my feelings, but since I am lazy and a wimp, I drove my cute little 4 wheel drive Jeep home, and here I am typing away!

Check out SIMPLE for a wonderful giveaway from

It Came

The snow came, it snowed for over 36 hours. We have a few feet of snow.
Airport closed, no mail, churches closed today, CRAZY.

We still headed out to dinner last night and one couple came with us. It was a nice relaxed night. YUMMY Mexican food.

With a 4 wheel drive vehicle and fearless husband driver the roads aren't much of an obstacle.

Lost an hour of sleep last night, but in reality the kids slept in, we didn't get out of bed till 9..I mean 10.

I just want to go shopping with my birthday gift cards, darn it.
I have to use my free Cold Stone ice cream coupon within 2 days or it expires, I better get to it, I cannot let it expire.

Sitting around today, not sure what to do.
Sick of TV and computer.

My son is so cute!

I am rambling so I will be done.
Bye!

I wish

we would have hired a few years ago when we purchased our Jeep. We had the Jeep for a Scranton personal injury lawyer whole 3 months before the engine blew. Yep the engine went kaput on us, within 20 minutes of driving. If you know anything about cars you know an engine just doesn't blow within 20 minutes of driving it unless something is really wrong. Oh and did I mention the Jeep wasn't drove for 2-3 weeks int he 2 months we had it??

What a mess. We contacted all the people we knew to contact BBB, the people we bought the warranty from, you name it we called. We didn't win. We had to pay for the darn new engine and if we would have had a lawyer maybe we would have gotten somewhere.

One thing we didn't have

Last year we find a great deal on some luggage at a local discount store. Josh really wanted to purchase a few pieces and I didn't. I have always used duffle bags to pack stuff in. He won and talked me into buying some and now I am very glad we did get real luggage. My mom also bought some for the kids for Easter last year because we were taking the kids on their first trip via airplane. So now we all have nice new luggage and it is so much better to pack stuff.

My bathroom

We have done 2 pretty big renovation projects in our bathroom in the past 3 years.
First it was the walls, I won't go into the details but they were BAD. So my wonderful handy husband did a textured plaster on them. I like it! And then just a few months ago we had to rip out our tub surround and redo the walls in the shower, we decided to do ceramic tile. It looks so very nice. Not sure why I never posted pics, but it was a stressful time, so maybe I just didn't feel like re-telling the story. So anyway, the only thing that needs to be replaces is the toilet (it isn't bad, but it would be nice to have a new one ya know) and the bathroom vanities.
It is wood and it is just not modern .
Since we rent, we will not be replacing these things.

Serioulsy

This better be the end of the snow.
With a blizzard warning tonight till tomorrow.
I will be pretty sick of the snow really soon.

Oh yeah, I am kinda ticked cuz dinner was scheduled with my friends tomorrow night, I really hope it isn't as bad as they say.

Me, J and kids will be stir crazy before long.

Just in

Below is the newest comment from M girl after E boy smashed he finger:

"Ow...OW... (getting really upset now) the biggest OW I can say"

LOL!

Josh and I thought that was pretty funny.

The date is wrong=(

On all of these cute pictures, from March 5th.
M girl had a snow day!! So we were off sledding at 9:30 Wednesday morning and then enjoyed breakfast out as a family!
The rest of the day was very LAZY.
J even watched Waitress with me.

My Day

started off with the norm...getting M girl ready and taking her to school.

I then came home to a still sleeping hubby and son. Woke son up, rushed him out the door to my grandma's to help her get a start on packing. We did a good job! You do accumulate a lot of stuff after 40+ years of being in a house.

Came home took a nap, was woke up by my hubby and a new laptop in my face. Am I spoiled this year or what???

We then did some stuff around here...like mopping the kitchen floor so we don't stick to it anymore, and then headed to Olive Garden for dinner...in the middle of a freezing rain storm...the ride home was a little stressful (I was driving...and 4 wheel drive still makes it scary in 2 inches of sleet).

Now I am getting some use out of this shiny new toy...I love it...so NEW and I don't have to beat on it for the screen to work (yep, I seriously had to beat the other one).

And now I will be heading to bed, because I am still getting over being sick. And since I am now an old lady 9 is pretty late=)

Night Night!

Today

I am 27.
27 is old to me, the oldest I have ever been.
I pray God opens doors that he never has for me this year.
I am looking forward to this year.
I have grown, I understand more.
My eyes are open wider, my ears hear,
my heart is wiser.

I am 27!

A Spring

I woke up with a Spring in my step as the sun shone in my window and I heard the birds chirping.
Close to 60 degrees today! An inch and a half of snow gone overnight.
A great day for shopping!
Until I realized I wasn't feeling as hot as I thought.
I got a few goodies fro myself, but now it is time
for lunch and a nap.

On the up

I think things are finally getting better. After over 24 hours of a 101 fever, it has finally broken.
I was miserable. Thank God my husband was home to take care of me and the kids the past 3 days, I don't know how I could have done it.

Now back to regularly scheduled life.

*English annotated bibliography and working thesis due today by midnight.
*Birthday dinner fro ME tonight (got better just in time for the important stuff!)
****My Grandma's house has been on the market for almost a year and it finally sold this week, so we have lots to do to help her get packed and find a new home to live in by April 3. Since she has been living there for 40+ years it is a good thin we already did the bulk of the cleaning out of the attic and basement etc, so there isn't too much more than the stuff she will be taking to pack up.***

Be back soon!