BOO!

He's here, Benjamin Oliver born October 18th. He's a sweetie. Congrats to my sis and her hubby.

Bring on the fall!

I'm lovin' the cool mornings. I am ready for the days to be a little cooler too. Maybe next week.

With the trees changing their colors and losing some of their leaves it's got me yearnin' for a change on my top as well. So, tomorrow I'm going to get a cut and color (and a wax of the ol brows and facial hair) Here's what I'm taking in for her to do:

Not quite this short. I've been letting it grow ya know. So a little longer version of this. Lots of choppy layers and great color to accentuate those layers. I think it will be a great autumn change. If it goes well I'll post a pic of myself with the new do.

I don't know if I'm brave enough to do a before and after.

Now if there was just some way to make my face and body look that young and tone with out breaking the bank. Oh and with out scary surgery. Yuck!

Laugh Out Loud

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:



Why did God make Mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.



How did God make Mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.



What ingredients are Mothers made of ?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nicein the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.



Why did God give you your Mother & not some other Mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.



What kind of little girl was your Mom?

1. My Mom has always been my Mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.



What did Mom need to know about Dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?



Why did your Mom marry your Dad?

1. My Dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My Grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.



Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.



What's the difference between Moms & Dads?

1 . Moms work at work and work at home & Dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller & stronger, but Moms have all the real power, cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's house.

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.



What does your Mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.



What would it take to make your Mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.



If you could change one thing about your Mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my Mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

She's so precious

We got to babysit for the first time the other night. She is such a sweetie. She's still having a hard time taking a bottle. She would much rather snuggle up to her mom and eat.

My boys could eat her up. I have to tell 'em to back off and let her breath.

Check it out

My oldest has decided he wants his own blog. So, we've been working on it. Go check it out!

House Guests?

My boys have spent the last several weeks catching, playing with and then releasing lizards. They have now somehow convinced us to allow them to keep some in an aquarium in the house. I'm still not sure why I caved on this one. I just made it very clear that if they got out that would be it. No more lizards in the house. The scary part is they are pretty sure they have a male and a female. I'm hoping there's no lizard lovin' goin' on after midnight. They have named them Elvis and Priscilla.

Brown and Blue Swap Swag

There was chai, one of my favs, chapstick, a spatula, a couple of towels, a great chicken magnet and see that little brown box? It had(notice it's past tense) some wonderful chocolate covered toffee confection in it. Super yummy! Thanks goes out to my swap buddy Stephanie.

Do you think he's smitten?

More, More, More

Finally, a name!

Miss Sophia Danielle Pearcy is officially on her way home.

Sorry, no new pics. I forgot my camera today. I'm a bad aunt. ;0(

Another Picture

Still no name!

Taaa- Daaa

Still no name. But she's just precious and I love her no matter what her name ends up being.

Happy Birthday

We have a new niece. My baby brother and his girlfriend had their baby girl this morning. I will take pictures after much holding. And post them as soon as I get back.

Recent thrift finds

I found these about a week ago. I love them. $4.



I found this today while thrifting with frugalmom. I love it. Even if it is huge! $6.

Blackberry Results

So, I went with the cobbler. It's yummy! I also made jam, mostly seedless.

Here's my favorite way to eat it though.

MMMM Berries

The boys and I spent about an hour outside picking blackberries. We have wild blackberries all along our tree line. Now I just have to figure out what to do with them. Hmm, blackberry cobbler, blackberry jam, hmmm, I just don't know. Any suggestions?

Drinking Water

Have you ever thought about your drinking water? Well, if not take a look at these pictures. These are the filters for our reverse osmosis water filtration system. Can you tell which ones are the new filters?

Filter 1


Filter 2


Filter 3

Our system is a five step filter system. As you can see filter 1 and 2 our just plain gross. The filters are somewhere between a year and a half and two years.

All that brown stuff is what's pulled out of our water on a daily basis. Think about that the next time you turn on your faucet for a little tap water.

Check This Out!

My friend gnightgirl is putting a call out to everyone she knows and everyone they know to help her soldier son in Irag. She's not asking for much. It's an easy way to help.

Please go take a look Toys for Troops.

One of my favorite summer things

Cucumbers in Sour Cream

Thinly slice 1 large cucumber; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt. Let stand 30 minutes. Then drain off the accumulated water.

Combine:

1/2 c. sour cream

1 Tbls. vinegar

1 to 2 drops of hot sauce

2 Tbls. chives, chopped

1 Tbls. grated onion or dried chopped onion

Dash of pepper

Pour over cucumbers and refrigerate 30 minutes.

The only thing wrong with this recipe is it takes too long. I want them now!

For a friend

This is my June post. So, there Frugalmom!

I love May

Burns my butt!

Hi, My name is Mim and I'm a resaler. I've been resaling for about 10 years. I am fortunate enough to live in an area that is saturated with resale shops. Pretty amazing considering that these many resale shops reside in a town under 15,000 in population. But here's the problem with resale shops, if you put stuff in them to sell you can really get screwed. Now this isn't true of all shops. But some shops are not so tidy in there book keeping and so stuff maybe doesn't get recorded like it should and people don't receive there money like they should.

Now one of the shops in my area actually has everything computerized. So, when I first starting taking my stuff there I was making a nice little spending income from selling my stuff. I'll admit that I usually ended up buying stuff at the shop. So, most of the time I would just get a credit towards my purchase. Pretty cool not to have to dig out the checkbook for a purchase. But recently this shop sold and the new owners aren't so great about the book keeping. I'm wondering how tough can it be? It's all computerized!

Anyway, I went in the other day because I had taken an item in a few months back and I knew it had sold within the first couple of weeks of being there but I hadn't received a check for it. So, I asked about my account balance and was told I had a negative balance because I hadn't had anything sell and my yearly fee had come due. So, I was told, Oh it must have sold after it's cut off time. Hmm, really? So, I went on to say that I knew it had sold early on and maybe they should check again. Then after much searching on the computer and hem hawing I was told that "oh, I remember now, it sold but then was returned because it didn't work." Reeeaaallly, because we checked and made sure it was functioning properly before we brought it in. Hmmm, well, I really don't know what to tell you. So, I said " How about I want to close my account thank you very much". I then got the run around that they didn't know how to make the computer delete my account so they couldn't close it out. But I wouldn't be charged the yearly fees that are going to continue to pile up in there.

So, That really burns my butt! It won't keep me from resaling but I will be more careful about where I take my stuff to sell it.

Life changes

So, I feel like I'm on some sort of journey. Trying to figure out where I'm headed. Some of you know that I like to know where I'm going, how I'm getting there and how I'm getting back home. I don't like the unknown. But that's exactly where I am at right now. My boys are both in school and I've been struggling with what's next. The good news is that I feel like I have a lot of choices(I like to have lots of choices). The bad news is... I have lots of choices, I'm not sure which direction I should be headed. I am trying to find my bliss. I like doing a lot of things. I'm just not sure which one of those things is "the thing". So, I'm searching and gathering information. I don't have any sort of time line so I can take my time. But I feel like I don't have time. That if I wait to long I will run out of time and choices. So, that's me right now, on a journey with an unknown destination. Scary!

What Character Are You?

I couldn't resist this one when I saw it. This is one of my all time favorite movies.



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

I'm a snapdragon?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Chickens?

So, ever since we purchased our "little piece of Heaven" I've been thinking about chickens. But I don't know much about them. Besides they taste really good when you bread and fry them! Ha, Ha, Ha! Seriously though, I've been doing my research and checking out sites like these:
Oh My Stinkin Heck, Memoirs of a Farm Wife, Roosterhen Diaries, Rurality to name just a few. I've been looking at chicken coops trying to figure out what will work for us and what everyone else thinks is the "perfect" coop. I've been researching types of chickens trying to find the ones that are good egg layers, as well as, looking for the niceness factor. I don't want to hate them once I get them. So, as usual, it's taking me forever. I take a while to make major decisions. So, if you know anything about chickens leave me a comment. I like choices, so I need lots of information!

Oh, how they've grown

They are four weeks now. One male is spoken for. All the rest still need good loving homes. Any takers?

Handmade items, we are a crafty bunch!

See what my husband finally finished for me! The holes are so my under cabinet lighting will show through when it's up.

And this is my craftyness. The first pic is of the bag before felting. It's hard to tell in the pictures but it was much bigger and less fuzzy pre-felting.

Puppies Day 14

They are at the eyes still shut, stumbling around phase. They are yawning and chewing on each other. They are too cute!

Here they are!

Day 1




Day 2


Day 3

Happy Birthday

Butter is a mama. We have 8 puppies. 8 puppies! They are 3/4 Lab and 1/4 Blue Tick. Right now they are just too cute. We have 3 brown and 5 black. Most of them have some kind of white on them somewhere. I'm not sure of the boy/girl ratio yet. If you would like to adopt a puppy just let me know. I was going to post pictures but for some reason I can't right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Weirdness?

So, there has been a meme going around for quite awhile and I've been trying to come up with five to six weird things about me that I can post on this blog. So far I've come up with one. One lousy weird thing. I'm thinkin' maybe there is more weirdness but I don't recognize it for what it is. I ask my DH and he couldn't think of anything. What's weird is I couldn't think of anything he does that is weird either. Quite possibly we have just normalized each other's weirdness. So, if you know me and think something I do is weird post a comment and let me know.

1. I hate the feel of cotton balls, it totally gives me the heebie jeebiez to touch cotton balls with any kind of firm pressure. Ugh, I've got chills just thinking about it.

February? All ready?

Boy, I don't know about you but it seemed like January went by too fast. Is this what it's going to be like for the whole year? Things need to slow down. I always seem busy and yet I never get anything done. Hmmm, wonder why that is? Some would say(my dh for example) that I don't manage my time well. Probably true. So, how do you manage your time? Is everything scheduled out or do you just go with the flow?

The Mundane

gnightgirl has issued a challenge-something mundane about myself?

Hmmm, well some would say *cough-frugalmom-cough*. That I'm unusually lucky or my karma is really good. I seem to have great luck with being sent things to test or getting free stuff from companies. I've had whole crockpots sent to replace cracked handles, I've been sent extra stuff from home parties(stuff that was not ordered, which I of course kept), I belong to a gardening club and have been picked several times to test out products, etc. I don't know if it's my karma or my survey answers or what. It does seem to happen a lot though.

Sick boys

So, as usual, my boys have contracted something. 102 and 101 temps, headaches, don't feel like eating. Great, so they will probably miss school tomorrow. Hmmm, I guess we have challenged immune systems.

P is feeling really bad, no doubt he is ill. G, well he may be sick but he's milking it for all it's worth. In hopes, I'm sure, of being able to miss school tomorrow.

I guess my plans for the next few days have been altered. Here's to a quick recovery.

Tagged

I was tagged by frugal mom.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you've never done before?

Have my eyebrows waxed

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes. My soul sister

3. Did anyone close to you die?

No, thank goodness.

4. What countries did you visit?

None in 2006. Germany in 2007!

5. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?

I don't think there is anything I need.

6. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

I can't think of anything significant.

7. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I don't think so.

8. Who's behavior merited celebration?

Gabe, my 5 year old. He's matured a lot over the last year!

9. Who's behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Hmm, can't say.

10. Where did most of your money go?

Taxes, Insurance, Retirement, etc.

11. What did you get really excited about?

My brand new orange wallet.

12. Compared to this time last year, are you, a) happier or sadder, b) thinner or heavier, c) richer or poorer?

same, same, same

13. What was your favorite TV show?

I love lots of shows....right now I think Ugly Betty. Oh wait, maybe House or Criminal Minds or Medium or, or, or.....too, too many.

14. What was the best book you read?

The Thirteenth Tale.

15. Is there someone or something you missed this past year?

Marcee, just not enough time spent in each others presence.

16. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

Uhhh...don't really remember. I was 34.

17. What kept you sane?

Chris and Marcee and Knitting.

18. What is one new thing you'd like to accomplish this year?

Finally loose this extra weight I'm carrying around.

19. If you could do one thing this year and not get chastised by or for it, what would you do?

Dunno

20. If you could meet one blogger in 2007, who would you want to meet?

Jenne http://jenneink.blogs.com/jennethink/

I've been overseas I swear!


So, I posted and then went to Germany for a week. Sorry. It was my first time overseas and it was quite an adventure. We saw two castles, a monument honoring Einstein, lots of small cars going very fast, many, many odd looking punks and Goths, Birds(remember the cow statues that were painted by artist and placed all over the U.S., like that only birds). We ate lots of yummy food. But now I'm suffering from jet lag. So, when my DH gets home I will post photos and tell my stories.

I'm actually alive

So, some of you may think since it's been almost a year since I last posted that I actually did have a brain aneurysm. Maybe your thinking I: a. Actually did die and so I haven't been able to post or b. Had some kind of damage done and couldn't remember to post. Neither would be true. I have just been so caught up in reading other blogs and knitting and life that I haven't made time to post. So, I'm giving it another shot. Hopefully this year will be better.

So, this AM I called the Dr. office to tell them how I had reacted to a RX for possible arthritis and oh by the way I've had a headache for 10 days. After further questioning I was told to go to the ER .....right away! The nurse said and I quote, "you are showing signs of a bleed and need to have an MRI done ASAP".

Now here's the thing, recently someone I know had a cousin, who while on the phone with her, suffered a brain aneurysm and died. So, I've been flirting with the fear of this for a month or so already. I get off the phone from the nurse and I seriously didn't know what to do for a minute. Then I picked up the phone called Chris and started doing what needed to be done.

So, yada, yada, yada I had a CAT Scan and everything looks clear. I have to see my Doc in a week and I guess then if I still have this headache he may order the MRI.

Update on library book.....

Parker's teacher looked the book over today and noticed it was marked 9.0 as a 9th grade level book. He's only supposed to pick ones marked 7.4 and under. So, he has decided that he probably shouldn't read it. But who's to say he couldn't pick one up marked 7.4 and it have iffy content. The Teacher apologized saying the librarian is usually on top of these things but must have missed this one. OOPS!

Parker.....

Last night it came up what library book he had picked at school. He usually doesn't bring these books home. He reads them at school. But he mentioned it because he had been asking us some questions concerning WWI and WWII. We had watched the movie "Valiant". So, our nine year old son had picked a book on POW's. Chris and I both had red flags go up. We are very protective parents, some say over protective. We talked to him about our concerns and he assured us he was old enough and mature enough for a book like this. We suggested he bring the book home so we could look at it and decide if he should be reading it. He got a little upset. I guess we, according to him, should trust him in knowing if it's okay or not. So, now he's bringing the book home. Chris went ahead and called his teacher last night. She didn't seemed too concerned but did admit that because of his reading level he has access to books that might not be right for his maturity level. She said she would look at it and make sure he brought it home with him.

So, my question is... When is it okay to let him see and read this kind of stuff? Is there ever a right time to enlighten ones child to torture and evil?

Gabe's Pirate Party...................

Well, since it’s almost been a month since Gabe’s Birthday, I thought I should post some pics of his party. We played pirate games such as: Walk the plank, X marks the spot and Dig for the treasure. Fun was had by all.

One Happy Pirate!


Mateys


The Map boys


The cake

Fears......

So, I have a son who loves horses and most anything to do with horses. He has a rustic cowboy/horse themed bedroom. He has had horse themed birthday parties. He has horse calendars and coloring books. You get the picture. He is however scared to death of the real thing. Like almost pee in his pants scared. I don't know if it's because they are so big or what. But he's scared.

So, today the local FFA at the High School sponsored a petting zoo and his preschool class got to go. Gabe was sooo excited about it. Until we got there and he saw they had a horse. So, we bypassed the horse and went on to the sheep, chickens, goats and pigs. He also really didn't want to get to close to the calf that was there. We went around twice petting and checking out the animals never getting with in spitting distance of the horse. Finally I said we weren't going around until he went up to the fence by the horse,who by the way looked to be one hundred years old, he said "Mom, you sure are encouraging me" and finally walked up to the fence. WooHoo! He did it!

So, I just asked him what his favorite part of the petting zoo was and he said he didn't know because the horse scared him too much. Finally he said he really liked the goats and his absolute favorite part was getting to ride on a real school bus. So much for animals.

Boys............

Why do boys wrestle? I don't think girls do this on a regular basis. Boys, however, seem to live for it. Anytime I tell the boys to go find something to do nine times out of ten I hear Parker say, "hey Gabe, you wanna wrestle?" To which Gabe responds,"Sure". And it's on and someone gets hurt and then they just keep wrestling. One of their favorite things to do is wrestle with Daddy. It's just a huge question mark for me.