The Day After!

Last night we went to Ichibon's for dinner with the family for Trey's Bday. We had 14 people and overfilled a hibachi table. It was great! He got Fried Ice Cream for his dessert and Morgan and Eleanor ate most of it. The kids enjoyed the Edamame the most and even Eleanor ate it with chopsticks!I can't believe we forgot to get a group picture! Dang... oh well, we'll all be together for Morgan's 2nd Birthday in a few weeks. She was a bit freaked out by the noise and the fire especially. She hung onto Mimi and Poppy for dear life! She got used to it though and enjoyed it eventually!

The chef was great and what a hoot and he cooked my steak and shrimp to perfection! I took lots of pics and got some good ones, but I won't bore you with them all! Just a few more! ;)

Oh and the "gang" consisted of Trey, Nick & Me, Mimi & Poppy (my parents), Nanaw & Papaw (Nick's parents), Kevin, Alicia, and Morgan, (my brother, SIL and niece), Grandad, (my Dad's Dad and Trey's Great Grandpa), and our best friends Einar, Mary and Eleanor.

When we got home Trey and his Dad put together some of his new Lego's. I went to bed around midnight and they were still up. Boys...

After school starts we'll have the friends Bday party. Most of Trey's buddies are out of town for most of the summer, so we'll wait and have another blow out in September! YAY....not! That's all for now! See ya later!

Happy Birthday Bub!

Today is my baby's Bday. He is 9 and I can't believe how fast it went by! It seems like this was yesterday.---------->

and this--------------->and now he's this-------->

and this too------------->

but I cannot complain, he is a sweetie and he's mine! Doesn't mean somedays I don't wanna pinch his head off, but he's a great kid and a great son! 143, Buddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREY! XOXO, Mom

Is it time for school to start yet???

Man, if I have to go through another day like today, I will end up in the loony bin! It is flippin 100 degrees outside and in since none of the kids that are running in & out all day don't know how to close doors! One thing they do know how to do is eat all my food! You would think they are homeless as much time as they are over here! I love that Trey has friends and they do keep him busy and not hollering for me constantly, but jeeze, when there are 6 of them, things happen. I was trying to vaccuum and it only took an hour (which is usually a 20 minute job) because people kept coming in and out. A neighbor just stood there talking my ear off while I had the vaccuum running! I left it going on purpose, get a hint, but she didn't! ;) and the door was wide open! I laughingly said, "you're just like the kids, go in or out"... but she didn't get it! I should have bet money when these certain kids came in they would be down in 5 minutes to ask for food, well it only took 2! Then once they came back from her house to ask for a bottle of water!?!?!? I said, "Don't you have water at your house?" I am PMSing so that is part of it and hopefully Trey's friends won't think I'm the Wicked Witch or something, but it's like this day in and day out! Oh, and get this... the Dad of 2 of them was complaining to someone that he only got them for a month in the summer, but on his day off, guess where they were?!?!? HERE! Hellooooooooo... spend some time with your kids! I had one of them for 3 days without him even going home! OK, that's enough, I'm sure you are tired of my piddly drama!

I did get all the Yard Sale stuff priced and boxed up and in storage. We decided to wait til after school started (if that ever comes!) and then it'll also be a little cooler! So we'll have it in Sept or Oct. By the looks of all my crap, I hope to make some coin!

I have not scrapped in ages! I'm trying to get going on our Myrtle Beach album, but I've been going thru 300 some pics and need to just order them instead of printing them myself. But... sometimes I like different sizes of pics and it's easier to print them as I go. I guess I'll have to pick the best ones and not print hundreds!

I'm hooking up with an old friend of mine who's going thru a rough time and we're gonna lay out by the pool and just talk and tan! Looking forward to that later in the week.

Tomorrow is my baby's Bday. Can't believe it, I'll post about that then. We are going to see my Gma with my Mom and niece, then all meet up for dinner at Ichibon's for some yummy steak and shrimp cooked on the hibachi! Trey picked it, he loves the cooks and their tricks!

Going to chill for a bit, check ya tomorrow! Thanks for hanging in w/me today!

Word of the day...WHY?

Well, I guess you could say I've been busy this week! I have been in Shaggy's (Trey's new nickname) room for the last few days from sun up til dinner! He has so many toys and crap, I couldn't stand it any longer! He has a 10x6 closet that was packed to the gills, and shelving along one wall that was overflowing onto the floors. Not to mention a few toy boxes and drawers full of mostly junk! So since his Bday is Tuesday and he'll be getting much more stuff, I had to do it! I started taking everything off the shelves and dusting. I had been collecting that dust for about a year, and was sad to see it go, NOT! Then only putting a few things back up. The others went in boxes for storage, Yard sale or donate. He is a packrat like his father and keeps old broken Mickey D's, Sonic and BK toys... WHY??? so they are gone to toy heaven by way of the big blue monster(dumpster). Have I mentioned I love big, black lawn & leaf trash bags, the kind you can't see thru?? LOL! So then it's on to both toy boxes. One has his rubber ball collection, why again?, and all his naked Build A Bears. Why buy clothes for these guys? They never stay on!
I also went thru all of his clothes in drawers and closet and weeded out stuff. He is in a 8-10 and had size 4 shorts still! I got under his bed, which is a platform bed and has great storage underneath, and threw lots of stuffed animals in the Yard Sale boxes, but also found the Pooh talking bear and the singing Caillou and a few toys that he had when he was a sweet 2 year old. Memories.... I did keep a few sentimental things. I also went thru all 4 boxes and totes of old schoolwork, my lands, why did I feel the need to keep all of that? 3 trash bags full of old paperwork. I kept things he had made that were special, but ended up throwing most away. So, long story not so short... I have made 2 trips to storage so far and have 7 bins for Yard Sale in my bedroom and still need to price 3 of them, mostly hiding it from Shaggy, or he'll pull most of it back and stuff the shelves once again!

So, why Shaggy? Well, he goes to a private school and has to keep his hair short, but during the summer I let him go without a haircut. He is trying to be a Sk8terBoi and wants long hair like all the gromms he is riding with, WHAT??? anyway, his hair has a curl to it and now it's beyond looking cute, it's just plain shaggy, hence the name! I don't have any recent pics, because his hair always looks like crap! I'll try to get one soon! and no I didn't take before and after pics of his room, WHY? hmmmmmm, guess I'm not a true scrapbooker after all that would have made a great LO! That's ok, it'll be there again eventually! Not too soon for my back's sake!

Going to price stuff and get it outta here before he wants to see what's in all those boxes!! see ya!

Well, Hello Dolly.....

Well, Dolly has made her way into the Gulf. So far we may get some rain and storms, but she isn't supposed to visit the Houston/Galveston area. We hope she doesn't have a change in plans later in the week! This is just a "get ready" for the rest of the season!

Today we went Bday shopping for my baby... my 9 year old baby! His birthday is next week, but we were out running around and he found the skateboard he wanted, so it's his now and he's out riding as I type. Where did the time go? It is true, the older we get the faster time goes... how is it that for the kids, it still crawls?

I also found "the" purse I have been looking for! The hot color of the summer is a butter yellow, and I found it! I wanted a big enough one to hold my camera when I wanted to drag it around, and to hold all my crap! I am really picky about handbags, I like one strap, because if there are two, one always falls off my shoulder. It has to have a phone pocket so I don't have to dig and if there is any metal, it needs to be silver because I wear mostly silver jewelry. I don't want much do I? LOL!

Not much going on here except I need to do some scrapping. So... that's my plan for tomorrow!

Tonight I'm chillin and since we had a big lunch at Red Lobster (Trey's pick) we're having leftovers for dinner! Love their Cheddar Bay biscuits! We had Lobster Pizza and the Peach Bourbon BBQ Scallops and Shrimp and it was all great! Haven't been to RL in a long time, but it was really good! Have a great night!

Welcome to the Jungle!

NOT! Took Trey & Morgan to the Rainforest Cafe today. Thought Mo wouldn't be quite so scared. She will try anything and is usually into just about everything, except for the gorillas there! She loved the gift shop and the games out front, but clung to me and Mimi the WHOLE time! Then when the monkeys and gorillas would start she would squeeze tighter. She never cried or really freaked out, but she did NOT like it! Here she is saying . "No monkey, no..." We ate then went out front to look at the beach and the other animals out there and she played around a bit, but she wasn't happy.

Trey & I played a few games then we headed home. Didn't even try to do the boat ride! Here's me and my guy by the "not real" monkey.... she kept saying, "Monkey not real!"

We wanted to get a few pics on the seawall of the kiddos, but it was SO hot and windy we just headed back home for a nap! Not me, the little one! Maybe when it cools down a bit we'll try again! Next week we're doing something in the a/c and without monkeys! Hopefully she's not scarred for life and terrified of chimps! ;)

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwnnnnn...

Man, last night was about the worst, longest, sleepless night I've had in a long time! Trey had a friend over and they were playing all night, then there was a gas leak somewhere and they decided to "release" it 50 yards from my house. It looked like a huge bunson burner in the middle of the street! But did I get a phone call from the power company? No, but my brother did and he lives 6 miles from me!! SO I went to bed about 10:45 to a roar out the door, and worried about blowing up in my sleep! Then for no reason, except maybe I knew I had to get up at 6:30, which I haven't done much this summer, I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I was watching my almost 2 year old tornado (niece) today and I thought I was tired... now I'm just plain pooped! At least the leak is capped, I hope to sleep like a baby tonight. Tomorrow, Mimi (my Mom) and I are taking the kiddos to Rainforest Cafe. She has never been there and neither has Morgan. Trey loves it, so we'll see how Mo does. It's a photo op though! See ya manana!

I've been tagged for the first time!

I was tagged by Linda.
Looks like a good one too, so get ready!

Here are the rules...Each player answers questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 or 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.

What were you doing ten years ago?
spending my last summer without a child
wakeboarding 24/7
still working in a salon

5 things on todays "To Do" list
1. go to the grocery store - done
2.go to Sam's - done
3. do laundry - doing
4. change beds
5. make kits

I'm addicted to:
scrapbooking
Diet Vanilla Pepsi
Goldfish - the snack kind
my computer

Things I would do if I were a MILLIONAIRE:
buy a new house
buy everything new for my house
give some to our church
put most away for retirement and college
travel

Places I have lived:
Friendswood, TX
League City, TX
Chagrin Falls, OH
Seabrook, TX

I'm tagging:

Jan
Rachel
JLB
Jana
Christie

Tired Sunday

I was a good girl and went to church even though I had to yell at my neighbors at 1:45 am. Just ticks me off that they can't sit outside and carry on a normal conversation, they have to yell and cackle. Mostly this one nasty chick.... that's all I'll say about her. I managed to go back to sleep when I first heard them at 12:45, but when they woke Trey up, I was pissed... out the door I went. I sure wanted to go blow an airhorn in their window about 7am, when I got up. Yes, I realize Saturday night is a party night for some, but for us, it's the night before we get up early to get to church, so stay in your house and be as loud as you want INDOORS! **Stepping down now** I so wanted to wake them up somehow today, but I'm sure it wouldn't have done any good, they probably were hungover and wouldn't have heard me.... I did get a nap before I had to go back for a meeting at 5pm, but no scrapping. I need to get back in the gym routine and try and make my cycle class in the am, but we shall see. I also need to take a road trip across Houston to pick up my printer. It is fixed! Can't wait to have MY printer back! Hopefully I'll have more stuff to show later in the week! Have a good Monday, well as good as Mondays can be!

Busy Saturday!

We had a busy day today for a Saturday anyway. Some friends from church, their little boy turned 5. He is so sweet and Trey loves him. The party was at the Skate Rink. At least it was in the a/c because it is so dang hot! Trey tried to skate and got ticked off because he couldn't do it within 2 minutes of putting his skates on. He tried roller blades first, then switched to skates but couldn't figure it out on either! So most of the kids ended up in the jumpy obstacle course thing. Which was fine too. Yesterday Trey & Poppy went to the museum and saw all kinds of fossils and geodes. They had a blast and got to pick out a rock and get it split to see what was in it. It was very pretty and purple! Trey is his mothers son, because I sent him with my camera and he took 75 pictures in about an hour. I gave him a hint about using a flash on things that are in a glass case. LOL! Most of the pics have a flashback in them. But he did really good! You can see how really big these things are! My goofy son.....nice pic!

Tomorrow is church and then scrapping. I hope! I bought some new adhesive for my ATG gun, it was out and I did about 6 LO's with a crappy runner and glue dots, for shame! Night all! See ya manana!

Scrappin My Life Away!

I have been a mad woman! I sat down the other night thinking I'd clean up stuff from my trip and started going thru my tote that I had packed. I pulled out a few kits I had put together to work on in Colorado and started a LO, then another, then another! 16 pages later, I'm almost done with my ScrapJammies book from the 2006 trip! Yeah, I know, it's about time! I kind of relived it making all these pages, it was so fun! Here is one LO from Gino's Pizza.
You can see the rest in the gallery at My Place at Scrapbook.com. I told Nick, next time I think I need to buy any paper, tell me no... remind me there are 2 totes full of kits and to use them. I don't even want to count how many! I have used 8 in the last 2 days, so I'm making a dent! Trey is going with Poppy to the museum tomorrow, so I will probably need to work on a few more pages! Why vacuum and do laundry? OK, here is one more! I even "crossed the crack" on this one!

Gotta get the boys in and cleaned up. Oh and my poor hubby, what a guy! Had to change the battery in my car today. It was so strange, he had jumped the lady's car next door two times in two days, and it was fine, no hint of giving out. Then today he is going to take the dog to the park and it won't start. Lovely.... he tries to jump it, but we have really crappy jumper cables and it won't turn over. He spends an hour in the heat and rain and nada. Finally borrows the next door neighbors cable and ta-da, it starts. Now I have a new battery! Thanks hun! Love you!

One more thing

I forgot to include the baby shower we had for Jenn while we were in Colorado! I found this lady in Colorado Springs, Thena, who owns Bella Cakes. She made the most fantastic, adorable looking and great tasting cake I have ever seen and consumed!! We emailed back and forth about what I wanted and she sent some ideas and then I trusted her to get what I was working toward. Saturday morning at the house someone from her company delivered the cake & I could not believe my eyes... no way this was going to be edible!! It was toooooo cute!! This isn't the best pic we took of it, but it'll do for now. It's a baby in a wooden barrel bathtub in the grass. There are bubbles water, a blanket or towel, a little bar of soap and a duckie floating in the water! The detail was amazing! We looked at it all day and didn't want to cut it. I called Thena to thank her and tell her how impressed I was and that we didn't want to eat it, but she told me we HAD to. That is why she made it!! She also made some duckie cookies since I told her ducks were kind of our mascot, we always give duckies as gifts! They were awesome almond cookies, we hated to eat those too! Those were easier to eat than the cake. So after looking at the cake all day, we decided to cut it that evening after dinner. We ended up cutting it in half and eating the bottom half, that way the top was still intact and Jenn could show her hubby. She was surprised and got some goodies and we had a good time! If anyone is or around the Colorado Springs area needs cookies or cakes for any occasion, I would highly recommend Thena! Wish she were closer so I could use her all the time! She has lots of pics on her website, so check it out!

BTW...my guys are still alive and well, a little bruised and beat up, but here! Hopefully they will grow out of that soon!

At it again!

I saw on Rachel's blog this quote: "Having one child makes you a parent; having two you are a referee."~David Frost. In my case it's having 2 males in the house. My DS & DH fight (wrestle)constantly and then the dog goes to flippin out thinking DH is hurting DS. So there's hollering, barking, slapping, crying, stomping off upstairs and me in the middle trying to smooth out hurt feelings. They are going at each other right now, it's chaos and it's late! I'm going to bed!

Monday & Good Times

Woke up this am with the full intention of getting back to the gym, but I also woke up with a horrible cold. Back in TX and thar she blows! I felt so good in Colorado... I would seriously move there if my whole family wasn't here! Speaking of Colorado... I have been putting off writing about my trip because I miss my peeps and it'll be too long til we're back together again! But I checked in on Jan and she had put a slide show together with pics of our trip. SO that got me to thinking and recalling some good times! I only took about 40 pics, most of the time I didn't even carry my camera, because why would one need 500 photos of the same thing? That's what happens when a bunch of scrapbookers get together! So Jan is getting all the pics and burning discs for everyone! What a peach! SO, Thursday, June 26th, DH (Dear Hubby) for you non-sb(scrapbook) types took me to the airport at 7am and I met Suzanne and we flew to Denver where Jenn picked us up bright and early. The rest of the day was spent running back & forth to the airport to pick up others, good thing she's 10 minutes from DIA. We finally got on the road to Manitou Springs and arrive at our humble abode for the next 3 days, The Keepsake Inn. It is a B&B on a hillside a block from downtown Manitou, and beautiful! We were greeted by Val our innkeeper and cook extraodinaire! We took a bit to get settled and get a snack and got busy scrapping! We had made a few plans, but it was going to be a relaxing weekend with no stress! We got to bed fairly early since we were on a different time zone and all the running had exhausted us! This is where Jodi and I bunked, the La Salle de Couleur room (you may have to scroll down some). Friday we all woke up to breakfast being made and it was scrumptious, every meal Val made was awesome! We decided today was the day to go see Pikes Peak. Only a few of us went because Jenn; who is 8 mos pregnant couldn't go, Jonnie lives there and wanted to go with her bf and some just wanted to scrap. We headed up the street to the Cog Railway. It is a train that runs up and down the mountain numerous times a day, round trip is an hour and 1/2 with 30 minutes at the summit. In the photo, l-r; Jodi, me, Lynn, Jan, Suzanne.It was awesome. When the tour guide was talking about how Katherine Lee Bates was on a trip there in 1893 and made the arduous trip up the mountain in a wagon (!) and when she rounded the corner a song came to her. She is the author of 'America the Beautiful' and as he said the title of the song we rounded the same corner and saw the view and I don't think there was a dry eye on that train! It was amazing and definitely beautiful! Wish I had pics to show, but I'll do that as soon as I get my disc! We got to the top and it was cold and wonderful, there was a bit of snow and ice in places. I admit, I like to think I'm in shape, but when we went down a trail, coming up I was huffing and puffing a bit! Here we are at the top:Coming down we saw a few elk grazing and deer were on the tracks at some point and the conductor had to blow the horn to get them to move. All in all we had beautiful weather, it was cool and clear and just very enjoyable. It had been raining down in town and we saw the prettiest rainbow when we got off the train. We got back to the house and got ready for dinner. We all went out that night to the Stagecoach Inn for some good home cookin! Then back "home" to work on a few projects. The next day we went to find a castle we had passed on the way up to the railway station. There were only 4 of us on this trip. It is called Miramont Castle and was just gorgeous. I wish I could have lived in this house back in the day. As we were paying to get in, there was a ghost hunter there too. The lady behind the desk explained that there were "visitors" there that day and if we captured any images such as "orbs" to share with her. She also warned that 'they' might play with our cameras...whatever! Nothing happened! After the tour, we had lunch at the Queens Parlour Tea Room. It was really good, though we wished we would have ordered 'High Tea' then we would have gotten served with the gorgeous tea pots and would have been able to wear the big hats! There was a family there with a little girl who was over the moon about "dressing up" and having a tea party. Too cute! We enjoyed the gardens out back, I can imagine what they would look like when everything is in full bloom! Back at the house Val had spaghetti cooking for us and we all had dinner together, it was delicious! Sunday we spent the day shopping in town and trying out the springs that are all thru town.

They are mineral springs and there are 9 different springs to try, but they all tasted the same, YUK, to me! Like flat Sprite. I actually spit it out... I was expecting cold mountain spring water..that's not it!! We did actually wade in a stream that ran thru town and it was ICE cold. There were kids playing in it that I'm sure have pneumonia now! ;) Later that day we headed back to Denver and got to a hotel by the airport as many of us had early flights out the next day. We got checked in and met up later with Jenn for dinner at a local mexican food restaurant, good food, good friends and GOOD TIMES! The worst part was saying goodbye. Next time I see Jenn, she'll be a Mommy, hate that I can't be there when Dylan makes his way into the world, but I'll see him in pictures and IRL in December! Caught another early flight back to Houston, and I swear as I was crossing into Texas airspace I could feel my head swell! LOL! Well, that's it in a nutshell, will post more pics when I get them!

Sunday, Sunday

See if you notice anything different about my blog!!! My links work!! Thanks so much to 'webfixer' at Blogger Help! I posted yesterday and he gave me a hint and it worked! WOOHOO!
Thanks dude! Off to grab some lunch and I'll be back!

Happy 5th!

Well, it's "the day after" and I'd like to find the numbnuts that was popping firecrackers til the wee hours of the morning! It has been another lazy day, just hanging around and trying to tweak this blog. I still can't click on my links, profile or comments. I guess as long as you can, that's ok, but you all know me and that's NOT OK ! ;) I did put a slideshow at the footer, it's my JBJ album. I don't want to junk my blog all up on it's 3rd day of life! Although that is one reason for this blog, to share my scrapbooks! I'll share the book we made in Colorado when I post about that trip. Probably tomorrow! Until then, take care! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Happy 4th!

Well, it's a rainy 4th for us, so far no swimming. I've been working on this blog and just hanging with my guys. It is supposed to clear up in time for fireworks. We have the best spot on the lake. The barge is right out in front of our marina, so we always have a great view. Hopefully I'll have some cool pics to share, so for now, enjoy your day and have a safe and Happy 4th!

Really??

Yes, I'm doing it! I said never would I do a blog... never say, "never!" I realized there are too many websites I keep up with and too many sites to upload pics or layouts, I'll never remember where I loaded everything! So, I'm going to keep it all here in one place! A warning though, it's not going to be the wittiest, coolest or remotely as interesting as some of the blogs I keep up with. Oh, and speaking of keeping up... I may not! Right now it seems like I have time to do this, when life takes over, no promises! OK? Now, off to work on the header and other "stuff." Check y'all later!