TOo Many SUBjects to SUmmarIZE in One Title

That's what happens when you wait too long between posts.  ;P

First, let me talk a little about my pinterest life.  I made THESE.   Go look at a picture of that site.  They are caller Baked S'mores.  I didn't take a picture of mine, because I ate them too fast.  YYYYYum.

Then I baked these....

Why yes, yes they are that delectable.  HERE is the link to the recipe.  They would be awesome for breakfast.

Let's see what else.  I've been doing my usual back and forth and all around town.  The girls are now enrolled (and all paid up) for the dance recital at the end of the year.  D is still working the overtime to pay for all the costumes and fees!  (I am only half kidding about that.)

On the girl scout front, we are still selling cookies, and we are also making a basket to send to some troops that we've "adopted".

I'm also working on cleaning house all the time.  Like literally all the time.  This week I've done two loads of dishes a day.  I organized my spice drawer.  I cleaned of the junk counter.  I've swept, swept, swept.  I reorganized a couple of cabinets.

The think I haven't done is lost any weight.  I'm hovering around 130 and that is unacceptable.  And also not surprising at ALL.  Did you see that picture up there???

D really is working lots of overtime.  And I won't complain about it.  There are people looking for work and we have been very blessed with his job!

I made some necessary appointments.  Dentist, yuck.  And gynecologist, double yuck.

I am still doing the cookbook committee.  The good news is I think once it's done it's going to sell like hotcakes!  We have over 400 recipes.  Can't wait to see it in actual print!

Also I am still on the nail polish kick.  It's taken over for my creative side.  (I have to postpone CTMH for a while since our house taxes are over $4000.  I feel like I should tighten the belts.)  I really wanted some of this Lynnderella polish, but it's harder to get than a good nights sleep.  Check out some samples HERE.  I mean I can not even believe that someone can make a polish in that high demand and then not have the wherewithall to be able to handle the customers.  Stunning really.  I may devote a post to it some time.

I am so tired.  Just all of the time.  Like now.  Why the heck am I still up?!?  Night-night!

Let's Vent, Shall We?

Yesterday my partner in crime informed me that she was picking her daughter up from school because another kid (another first grader) had walked up to her on the playground....unprovoked...called her a bitch and then hit her in the head with a book.  Hard enough, mind you, to leave a raised bump.

Can you believe it??

Can you believe that the kid is getting no punishment??

Do you know why?

He walked up to her in the office afterwards and said "I'm sorry for hitting you so I don't get punished."  That makes no sense does it?  Well this child is a special needs student who is being integrated into regular classes.  I don't normally have a big problem with that if the student is not violent.  Last year there was an autistic student in the Kindergarten class.  Occasionally he had loud outbursts, or flapped his hands, but never did he hit another student.

I just don't know what to make of this.  I am just as upset as if it had happened to Little d.

Need to go take care of house work....

In no particular order...

here are some pictures from last month or so.

Kids playing together on the dining room table with Play-Doh.  Very little Play-Doh was eaten.  I consider that a success.

Ground Beef and Ground Round were sold to auction.  They're in a better place.

Girl Scout cookies are on sale!  You know you want some...

Little m at Grandma Hawes' house on Christmas day.  Posing as usual.

Littel d on the day after Christmas opening gifts with my family.  Notice all the ornaments are off the tree.  Most are higher up.  Some are in the toy boxes....

Little md decided to hide in a 'fort' while I moved furniture to sweep in the kitchen.

We have a paved driveway now...yea.  Yea yea yea!!!

Enjoying Disney movie with popcorn.  Everyone once again getting along!

We are enjoying the long MLK weekend.  It's cold outside, but nice in here.  Wish D was off to enjoy it with us, but tomorrow morning he will be!

Thinking about starting up that new blog, trying to decided if it should be all crafts or just paper crafts....

The littles

Little d:  started a trend in first grade of wearing her bangs over to one side with a clip.

Little m: has decided to be on dance moms.

Little md:  hates my hair touching him when he lays his head on my shoulder.  Tonight he went into my bathroom and brought me a hair scrunchi so I could put it back.  All on his own after I asked him if he thought I should cut my hair so it wouldn't bother him.

Love Them.

Hello New Year

This year has been wonderful so far.  We have processed plenty of deer meat, had pretty lovely weather (except for the cold wind blowing outside right now), had no poked eyes or broken toes (haha).

I think I mentioned some goals.  Most pertaining to organization or finishing things around the house.  I have a couple more. GET IN SHAPE.  Oh.  I guess it was just the one.

I am so blessed in life.  I can hardly believe it.  It's nice to be surrounded by people you love.  And who love you.  Even if some of them are a little demanding and short.  No mom.  I'm not talking about you.  tee hee.

Okay just a little check in so I don't get too out of the habit of blogging.  Off to watch a little more of Water for Elephants...(who knows maybe even finish it) and work on a new crochet project.  (granny ripple found HERE)

935 Showing of Breaking Dawn

I haven't been to a movie at any time in a very long time.  But the last time I went to a 9:30 showing I was dating someone. And it wasn't even D.

But my mom really wanted to go see Breaking Dawn and hey, who am I to stop her?  tee hee

It was a great show.  And L got to come along (we also went to the last one together--during the day).  It was so fun.  Our theater is really comfy too.  The chairs lean a little back with really nice cushy seat and head rests and there's plenty of legroom.  Plus the way it's set up you never get stuck not being able to see over someone's head.  Definitely not like the theater I grew up using.  Anyway--it was a fun time!

The movie was good too.  Except now I have to wait for part two to come out.  Boo.

Tonight is New Year's Eve.  D and I have no party plans.  I'm hoping the kids go to bed at a decent hour so Little d gets back to her school routine.  She has to start back Tuesday.  Not looking forward to that!

Hmm.  I guess I could have some resolutions this year....get in shape?  Sure.  Hopefully lose that last 15 pounds that drives me nuts!  Hmmm.  Relax more and enjoy life.  Uh.  Have more patience!!  NOW!  ha.

I definitely have a to-do list.  (But I'm not sure it qualifies as a resolution.)  It goes a little something like this:

• get scrap room organized 
• decorate the house (this is dependent upon us selling the old house and getting some moolah to buy new furniture.)
• get the tile work done in kitchen and bathroom
• get vent hood installed in kitchen
• get pot filler faucet installed in sink
• turn Little md's room into Little md's room
• do some landscaping
• plant a successful garden
• do some meal planning, freezer dinners
• build a couple of bunk beds
• re-wax the floors
• get bookshelves finished in hallway and living room
• get glass front installed in kitchen cabinets
• do all the touch up paint
• paint the front door
• new wardrobe  (this is dependent on me getting back to at least 115)
• be a successful CTMH consultant...

I'm sure there's more.  I'm going to revisit this whole list in the future--at least that's the plan.

Eeesh.

I can't believe how much I am wanting to get back into CTMH.  I mean I was seriously pissed at the company when I left.  I guess I got off on the wrong foot by thinking that I would get a 50% commission since that's what a friend told me that's what Mary Kay's commission was.  I was thinking 'wow, stamps are almost $25 a set...that's about $12 a sale.'  Um, wrong.  The commission was 22%.  Tax was 8.75 in the city, shipping here was 6+%.  That's a commission of about 7%.  Not alot of incentive to push the products.

Ah but anyway.  There were other things too.  But the truth is...the clear stamps were awesome.  Light years ahead of rubber stamps.  A recent foray to a Stampin' Up workshop reiterated that to me.

So here I am, planning, researching, and 'pinning' ideas for workshops.  And here's something.  In my researching, I looked back through my past posts labeled CTMH.  I had some kinda neat workshops.  I wish I could have had more customers who wanted to buy the products.

I am thinking I will do things differently this time around.  I am going to do smaller workshops--meaning less projects per session.  I am also going to try to be more of a seller.  My partner in crime (my school mom BFF) is a graphic designer and she is fully on board.  I have appointed her my marketing director!  Also I want to be able to do workshops here at the house.  This will make it easier on my schedule.

I am getting excited about it.  I have quite a long list of things that need to be done first.  I have to organize several areas of the house.  My first project is the girls' room--just because it is a hot mess in there.  Next up the office/scrapbook room.  Okay truth be told that is even a hotter mess, but I can't focus on that stuff until I have the girls set up.

I almost forgot the other thing.  I am thinking about opening or starting up my other blog.  I have another blog that I started LONG ago, but never posted in.  I had originally thought it would be a place to sell handmade products by the women in my family, but etsy kinda took off and really that's the only place people would go to by handmade stuff so I decided to just hold off on that idea.  I also thought of doing some fictional writing there, but I didn't do that either.  ANYWAY.  My point is if I use this other blog exclusively for CTMH I can link it to FB or Pinterest without worrying about all the personal stuff that is in THIS blog.  

Alright now I'm just babbling.  Off to search the internet.

Christmas-licious

We have been having a lovely Christmas break so far.  Saturday Santa visited our house and the girls received My Twinn dolls and various other goodies.  Little md got a Toy Story couch and tool set.  My parents gave the kiddos (a ridiculous amount of) toys included little remote cars and makeup.  My mom has this crazy notion that she needs to spend the same amount on each grandkid even though I tell her they will never know how much is spent--silly Mimi.

Sunday I took the girls to POC for Christmas with the big Hawes clan.  It was a nice day and my uncle bought a bouncy house for the kids to play in.  They loved it!!  D and Little md stayed home because md's cough.  Although he was doing much better by the time we left.  Note to self:  re-gifting for Chinese Christmas must be acceptable??

Monday we had Christmas here with H and L and Little Miss Perfect.  I think I am going to rename my niece Little a.  Because sometime close to Valentine's Day we will have another Little Miss Perfect, and I can't be using two of the same monikers here.  And the new Little Miss Perfect will be Little e.  Have I mentioned how extremely excited I am to have TWO little nieces.  (Okay I know technically I already have two nieces, but since they are D's brothers kids, it just is different.  These two belong to my brother.)

This year with this group we drew names and picked a theme.  The theme was LIVE.  Thank goodness there were no small pets given!  The gift had to somehow tie into the LIVE theme.  For example both L and I gave each other books because paper came from a tree and that's alive--and because we are both cool like that.  H and my dad got power tools because they come to life when you plug them in...you see where I'm going with this??

Today we are chillaxing.  Well, some of us.  D is at work.  My dad and H are working outside on water well stuff.  I am planning on cleaning (myself and the dishes and laundry) when the water comes back on.

I am hoping to start on reorganizing the house soon.  I need to makeover the girls rooms.  Hopefully getting a new bunk bed type system.  And since I am really contemplating started CTMH again, I need to to figure our the scrap room.

Ok off to search the internet for bunkbeds...

More Glitter Nails and An Apron

Seriously lacking in creativity in the title of this post.  On the upside you know exactly what you're getting.

Yes I am still obsessed with the glitter nails.  I did pale blue today with the tips sprinkled in chunky silver glitter and then a dash of fine silver glitter.  It looks very pretty in person.

As a followup gift for my mother in law I made a handprint apron of the kid's hands.  It turned out adorable.  Well their prints are adorable, my fabric paint writing is not as cute.

Okay I'm done for now.

Ballet Cuties

I decided to upload a few pictures of my adorable ballerinas.

Little d is getting so big.  She's just now getting her two front teeth back in and she's in the process of trying to grow out her bangs.  We'll see how that goes...  Here she is minutes before their little recital.

Little m did wonderfully.  This is the first time she's been in front of strangers to perform.  I was so proud of her. She acted like she's been on stage all her life.  Reminded me of Little d's first Christmas school program.  This is a picture of her right before her performance.

I made their red, green, and white tulle tutus after seeing this tutorial on Pinterest. I mostly followed the instructions.  Not to tough.  They looked absolutely adorable.

On a side note, after my doctor appointment today I ended up with a steroid shot and antibiotics.  Fluid behind the ears and possible bacterial infection causing the prolonged laryngitis.  Yea me.

Christmas And Coughing

It's that time of year again. I am actually not to stressed right now. I've already completed the inlaw Christmas. Which is infinitely easier with Little d being able to take Dramamine. Plus we don't HAVE to spend the night over there since we can actually travel during the day. And since it always falls on a school weekend, that makes me super happy.

I have gifts bought and I just need to take a few minutes to sort organize and wrap them. This weekend I caught up on laundry and am catching up on dishes.

The down side of this last week is that I have some type of cough/laryngitis thing going on. I pushed through last week and now I think it's catching up to me. I literally collapsed on the couch this afternoon attempting to shake off extreme fatigue. Here's how last week went...

Monday I attempted to fun all my errands and get all the supplies I would need for the week/parties. I think I was mostly successful.

Tuesday Little d had her little Christmas dance recital that was so adorable. I actually recorded it and posted it on YouTube, but I don't think I'll link to it here, just on FB. BTW it took about 8 hours to load the two minute video.

Oh I forgot most of my spare time Mon-Wed was taken up making deer/hog sausage with my dad. It turned out great, but the processing was W O R K. The grinder had issues! But now we have meat for a while. I digress...

Wednesday, Little m had her dance recital and was also so adorable. It too will be uploaded, maybe by tomorrow morning...

Thursday, pretty much all day I spent making these:

{for some reason blogger is only showing html so I don't know how to move that photo at the top to this spot right here. awesome sauce}


Which were adorable and time consuming. Plus my mom helped by pretty much getting the party craft project (a paper plate wreath) cut out and bagged for 36 students. Yes did I mention that the other first grade class didn't really have room moms, so my partner in crime and I did both classes' party.

Friday, we had the school party at one and then came home and got ready for the Girl Scout Caroling and Christmas party. Both were fun for the kiddos. And a relief I think for the adults that everything seemed to go off without too much of a hitch. (Excluding the drama that one mom caused over the three dollar cost.)

Saturday I cleaned all day long. I did four....that's FOUR....loads of dishes and who knows how much laundry. Being that busy all week means that chores fell WAAAY behind.

Meanwhile I have this cough going on. I am not running fever, but it is annoying. And pretty much lost my voice on wednesday and it's not returned. Little m was up most of the night with her own cold, and Little md spent a good deal of the night restless. That means guess who was dead ass tired today. I did manage to get two loads of dishes done, and another load of laundry. (Are you keeping count that that is 6 dishwasher loads of dirty dishes in 2 days. And guess who is still not finished??)

Oh my Little d is whining about me typing and not rubbing her back to sleep...off here!!!

Guess what I forgot to post about last time?

My tenth anniversary. It was December 1st. I was literally sidetracked when something shiny caught my eye. (remember the glitter nails hehehe)

ANYway. Guess what I am contemplating? Re-joining CTMH. Ugh, I know. Eating words right this freaking minute. It's just I think I could do the workshops here at the house. And I clearly don't already have enough going on.

We put the tree up tonight. We are using colored lights this year (our white lights finally bought it, and we had 10 brand new boxes of colored lights on hand). I also bought some really cheap glittered plastic ornaments. Read: unbreakable. It is not the prettiest tree I've ever put up that's for darn sure. :) Next year maybe we'll get a new one.

I think I've done most of my Christmas shopping. I said most.

Wait did I just gloss over my anniversary again?? I guess it's because we celebrated with the Dallas trip so it doesn't feel like it just happened yesterday. Ten years, though. That's a milestone. Can you believe that I made it all this time married to this man and didn't know until just today that he loves candy corn? I guess he's trying to keep it fresh...hehehe!

Ok...I am too tired to post more, so I'm just gonna close for now--

Glitterrific

I am currently hooked on Pinterest. Please someone schedule an intervention. NOT.

If you are familiar with this website you know that glitter is featured prominently. I realize now that I am a fan of glitter. Glitter letters on burlap Christmas stockings. Glitter on shoes. Glitter on glitter. Aaaand glitter on fingernails. Here's what I'm wearing now...baby pink.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a pin of a set of nails painted with Mercurial nail polish by Lynnderella. Let me see if I can find a link to the nail picture...ok click HERE to see the phenom nails. So I made a decision to try to get some nail polish. No. Don't even try. She's closed shop until next year.

Next stop. DIM (do it myself...duh) I tried it on my toes first. I did one at a time. First I painted with gray polish. Then I immediately sprinkled it with silver glitter. Then I gently pressed the glitter at the tip so it wouldn't hang over the edge and I gently pressed the top of the nail to make sure the glitter was stuck into the polish well. After I did all the nails like this, I painted over them with a thick coat of clear.

I absolutely loved it. The online polish cost $12 a pop (and the minimum order is five bottles). I used my OPI polish (but any brand would work). And the silver glitter was cheap craft glitter (89 cents--according to the label). I was so thrilled (and psyched to be wearing it to the Dallas game) that I couldn't wait to try even more colors.

Here's what I found out. The polish is not indestructible. By any means. It chipped away fairly easily, but it was also easy to fix. In the hotel room I simple painted the chipped tips with gray again and hit them with the glitter again. You couldn't even tell there was a touch-up. Also I really would like to find a super thick top coat. I am going to try to stop sometime at my local Sally's Beauty Supply and see what they have.

I thought that maybe a fine glitter might work better. Against chipping and also so that the nails don't feel so rough. Today I dive-bombed Hobby Lobby. I got Christmas presents, craft supplies for school party and ..... wait for it.... GLITTER!! The pink you see in the picture is a fine pink iridescent craft glitter over a baby pink Revlon polish. The picture really does not do it justice.

I can't wait to try mixing glitter for a custom Christmas mix.....stay tuned!

Gotta go back to school again!!!!

Any fans of Grease out there? That's where I stole the title. I hate most of all the day back to school after a vacation. I miss Little d. I hate getting up early. I don't like anything about it.

Today I should be doing dishes. And grocery shopping. And cyber shopping. I am not doing any of the above. I did make some phone calls this morning. And I worked a CCD thing.

Calls: Paid a far overdue medical bill of $22. I swear we didn't receive the other notices. Also checked on the major Christmas present order (they sent an email that something was wrong, but the order has already been processed so the email was in error). That's 20 minutes I'll never get back.

CCD thing: I am subbing for a class of 4th through 7th graders while the real teacher is out mourning the loss of her husband. For starters I don't know why you would put 4th-7th together in a class. Second they are heathens. In every since of the word. I actually kicked a boy out last class because he would not stop hitting and talking to another boy. Hitting. Girls hitting boys. Boys hitting girls. Boys hitting boys. Boys playing DS. Seriously disgusting behavior. So I wrote up a contract for them to sign this morning. They will sign it or they won't stay in class. If they break the pledge they have to get a parent to sign a note or come sit with them in class whichever I deem appropriate. Uhg. Just disgusting.

Okay I'm going to do a load of dishes. Just disgusting also.

THE Game!

Well I can say that going to the Dallas game on Thanksgiving was one of the most exciting times ever!! I had an absolute blast!

We left around 1245p on Wednesday and after hitting traffic, didn't arrive at the hotel until almost 7p. That is a loooong time in the car. Fortunately D and I were cracking each other up and having fun the entire time. We superquickly got ready and headed out to eat--we were starving. We drove about two seconds down the road to Saltgrass. If you have never eaten there...oh my goodness. D talked me into ordering a filet mignon. It was too die for. Absolutely the best steak I have ever eaten. And they served it with these super thin onion rings. Ugh. We were so stuffed!!

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (waffles were great) and then hung around for a while and got ready for the game. We left the hotel at 115p and got to the stadium around 130p. Our parking pass put us about fifty feet from the front door. (I don't know how close, but we were really close.) After a brief pat down, and search, we were in....the...most...awesome.... stadium....ever.

We had amazing seats behind the goal post.

There were scantily clad cheerleaders.

There was fire.

There was a W in the Cowboys column!!

Seriously. Best Time Ever!