My command central

First let me say, I couldn't get the pics to post any where but on top. Grrr. Anyway, One my favorite blogs is http://www.orgjunkie.com/. I always learn something over there, or get a great idea to do something with my own house. Like making a command central. This is where I will keep track of my families life. So above you'll see the calendar we use, it's on my fridge. Also is my grocery list, menu for the week and shopping list for stores other than the grocery store.

The next picture has my cookbooks, a file folder holder which has file folders (to be used for stuff the kids bring home from school, but have to go back like school picture forms etc, I also have a non spiral notebook in there for notes that I will need to write. Behind the file folder holder is my Family binder, that holds all kinds of info I want to keep on hand.

This is only part of command central. I have another area, it's a little cabinet that has some cubby spots that I keep phone books, coupons, extra blank envelopes. I also have in there a box with school stuff that the kids might need to do homework like: markers, pencil sharpner, calculator, ruler, dictionary, tape. I didn't post the pics because I didn't want them up on top too. :o)

It's September

And I’m still on vacation. We went to Delaware for a few days that was nice except for the trip to the ER, clumsy me managed to whack my foot into the step I was going up and it ripped most of my toe nail off, the ER took it the rest of the way off. Of course I just bought a pair of cowboy boots and cute pair of sketcher shoes that I can’t wear right now because it puts pressure on my toe. Went to my doctor today, she said it was starting to get an infection, she cleaned it all out. I have to go get my antibiotic and then go back next week.
Before we went to Delaware we saw Jimmy Wayne, Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley in concert. They were awesome. I think Brad Paisley’s shows are the best. It’s so much more than music. He always has these cool little animation things going on. And I’m pretty sure that he does that himself.
School starts in 6 days and I got a message from the school last night, saying that school would be starting earlier, so that the kids should be ready 10 minutes earlier than last year. That means they will be getting on the bus at 7am. Yuck for me, we are so not the morning people. Guess I better rework my morning/night routines.

It's been awhile....

blogging is harder then I thought. Plus I think the holidays were just plain hard and I have a short attention span!

It's the end of August, 22 days until school starts. In the next 22 days we have 2 concerts to go to Allman Brothers and Brad Paisley.

We are going to Delaware on our annual trip to Rehobeth Beach. And my new first ever laptop will be delivered. That's very exciting to me.

2008 is finally over

This christmas was very hard for me. The first one without my mom. There have been past years where she didn't come because she was worried she might catch a cold and for someone with emphysema she had to try and stay healthy. But at least I could have talked to her about the preparations and reactions etc. I can't call her anymore. And I can't tell you how many times I still start to pick up the phone and then remember I can't call her.

I broke down on Christmas morning, while getting ready. I'm glad the kids didn't see. It took me a bit but I finally got myself together.

And then again the next day at my inlaws. Everyone there was family, but not mine ya know. Know one saw that one either. I just didn't want to bring down any one else's holiday.

The picture above is from Christmas day, that's my dad, my 2 very tall nephews, one is 19 and the other is 14. And my kiddos.

It's Christmas Eve Eve. The kids are very excited, Julia I believe is on the fence about Christmas. She keeps asking me, so I believe this is my last Santa year with her. I've been debating whether to have the talk with her before Christmas or after. Since she seems to believe I think I'll wait, maybe just talk to her about the magic of Christmas. I have 3 presents left to wrap. My husbands, one of Julia's and one that finally came in yesterday.I have gift things to finish, which is mostly just cutting and gluing really. So not a big deal. I'm going to now post the Christmas getting to know you game, feel free to play it yourself:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real is always best
3. When do you put up the tree? usually 2 weeks before
4. When do you take the tree down? whenever the needles get really badabout falling off
5. Do you like eggnog? yes
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Barbie House and RV
7. Hardest person to buy for? the parents
8. Easiest person to buy for? Julia
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes-one for the kids to play with anda snowbaby one
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? will not answer
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually in November but if I see something good I grab it
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Kevin's aunt makes Krumkake -Norwegian dessert
16. color of Lights on the tree? white lights
17. Favorite Christmas songs?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yup
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? retail push of itall
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love Hallmark ornaments
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham and corn casserole
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Everyone to be happy and get alongIn case I don't get to blog again before Thursday Merry Christmas!

Busy Busy!

Things I'll be cooking over the next week:
Beer Bread - baked but need to cut it up
Cookies
Spiral Ham
Corn Casserole
a pie - not sure which one yet -bought need to bake

things I need to do:
Make a menu for the holidays - done
buy groceries for Christmas dinner -done
finish the 12x12 pages of the kids for gifts
finish the ornaments I'm making
wrap all the presents -half way there

Six things on my Christmas wish list:
a camera case
ipod cord for the car
Wii remote charger
new Franklin Covey Planner

places I need to go this weekend
nail appointment -done
grocery store done
Sunday School/church-done

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

that's because we are in the middle of a snowstorm, but then again it is Dec. 19th. I still have things to do, like wrap presents and finish some of the ones I am making up, but I think I have it under control. I'll probably start panicking on Monday night. lol

The kids didn't have school today because of the storm so I get a 3 day weekend and the kids don't go back to school until January 5th. Greg can't wait for Santa this year, he's been excited all month. The countdown is definately on.

I've been busy...

First if this is all out of whack I apologize. I know these cards aren't in any kind of order but the card above, the ornament card, the cirlce one and reindeer one all came from Dawn http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_stamping_thoughts/

The card below with the deer I got from http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/

The card with the rocket and the hippo are my ideas. And the the rest are patterned paper put on cards and I stamped a phrase and attached it. I found that on another blog. I'm making

a lot of notecards for the grandparents christmas gift this year.

Some people just don't think...

Aren't they cute? They are the creation of my department at work. And last week the cleaning person took it all away everything, including the wig on the left, the blonde one, that was my daughter's Sharpay wig from High School Musical.

It all went into the garbage.

Our house guest for the weekend and other ramblings

This is Gregory with Brown Bear Barney, he belongs to my son's kindergarten teacher, he comes home with a different student every weekend. He comes home with a change of clothes,
his quilt and pillow, his favorite books and a journal which you fill out with what Barney did with your family for the weekend. Gee do you think Greg is excited?

Weird weather this weekend. First Saturday (opening day of hunting season) it was like 60 degrees and poured. Jersey had tornado warnings. We had some crazy wind here too.


Today it was like 36 degrees with crazy whipping wind. Julia is finally feeling better. She's going back to school tomorrow. Yay! She's been driving me crazy.

I made some cards tonight, however my camera battery died so I'll try to get pics later this week.

Saturday is Gregory's 5th birthday. How the heck did that happen?

sickness...

my baby girl (who is going to be 9 in March) has been sick since Sunday. This girl never gets sick. She's missing the whole week of school. I can't believe it. Fever and cough, some throwing up not a lot. Kevin's sick too. Hoping Greg and I can keep away from it all.

don't know what happened...

to the words below, especially by Greg's picture, and when I went to fix it, I screwed alot up so I just spent 1/2 hr to 45 minutes fixing it. Off to bed now.

Wow where have I been?

Okay yes I've been missing, I've just been busy with life stuff, and then there was the snowstorm on October 29th that's above. I'm cough35cough and I don't ever remember snow before Halloween. It's been cold but never snow. Eek!

Over here on the left that's Greg being Mater for Halloween.
Below, that's Julia in our trunk at Trunk or Treat. I don't get crazy with decorating the car, just looking to have fun.

The first pumpkin is mine, I cheated I used one of those kits that you punch a bunch of holes in it and then play connect the dots.

That's Greg's Jack O'Lantern, he designed it himself.

That's Julia's Jack O'Lantern she designed her own too.

So in other news, the dealership is holding my car hostage. Well not really but it's been there since Tuesday. Guess when I break something I do a really good job at it. I miss my car, I love my car. The car they gave me is fine, however I'm tall and long legged and the seats in this thing are not made for the long legged person. Okay back to the regularly scheduled program.

Just took my Halloween decos down last night. Left up the fall stuff, I need to look for a few Thanksgiving items. I need to start working on my holiday gifts that I'm making and I was also just asked to make the invitations for a friends birthday so I need to work on that. The list is starting to make me nervous.

Okay, I've updated now and hopefully it won't take me so long to update again.

Be good!

Yes I fell off the blog wagon this past week. Okay let's see did anything exciting happen. Hmm probably not but let me think. And I've been meaning to post all this work but it hasn't happened so let's see what have I done. I moved my stamp storage around in my office. I've made a card since I did and it seems to work pretty well so far. Kevin was away hunting so it was me and the kiddos.
I've become obsessed with yet another author. Actually two; Kathy Reichs and Stephanie Meyer. Kathy Reichs started writing books, which has become the Bones series. And Stephanie Meyer has a series about a vampire family. It's quite interesting. I never thought I would be into vampires. But it's a great story. My friend from work borrowed the second book New Moon from her niece for me. If you are interested in finding out what others are reading check out www.goodreads.com, I like it because it keeps track of all the books you've read and gives you reviews of ones you are thinking about reading.

Okay what I was able to get done this weekend: clear some stuff in the garden, put up our Halloween decorations inside and out, cleared the island which was RIDICULOUS, caught up on some DVR'd shows.

I haven't been keeping up with 100 days of Christmas. So I just checked the blog and here is what's been posted since I last blogged on here.
Day 79-go through stocking stuffer box if you have one, look for things that can be stocking stuffers-I never remember to do this through out the year and end up buying things the last couple of weeks before Christmas. I will start a box/bag now to start filling
Day 78-check out dates for Christmas events-I've taken our daughter to see the Nutcracker before but we don't usually travel to far to see anything. We do however make sure we do a drive to see Christmas light displays
Day 77-play a game try a new game-Greg learned how to play guess who - suited to his age of course, but he likes playing it. We're missing pieces though. Maybe I'll put that on his birthday list.
Day 76-make popcorn balls-going to pass on this one
Day 75-take a walk collect some leaves and make leaf art-passing on this one also
Day 74-advent activity calendar-at Christmas time I have various Christmas books that I have wrapped in paper all in the christmas/holiday theme and we read one a night. Saving the Night Before Christmas for Christmas Eve. Each year, if I have a book that is two babyish for the kids, I give it away and purchase a new one.
Day 73-a project you've been meaning to work on-I swapped my seasonal clothes
Day 72-make an appointment for a Christmas picture-I'm going to have my friend take one so we coordinating dates
Day 71-check Christmas wrapping inventory-will do this over the weekend maybe tonight if I remember.
Day 70-make sure you are ready for trick or treaters-we usually miss them, my husband and I both go out with the kids on Halloween so no one is home, but just in case someone does walk up, I do leave the candy bowl on the deck table with a note that says "Help Yourself"
Day 69-pick a craft to do with the family for the holidays-I will look into something the kids and I can do.

Okay this weekend I have a stamp camp at my friend's house it's with a cute cupcake set from the new Stampin Up catty, I will try to post my creations once they are done. We also have other normal house things to do. I hope to get some pictures of the kids playing in the leaves this weekend.

Have a good one!

Update on Christmas Countdown

I left off on number 88 so here's the next few days...

Day 87-make apple crisp-mmm, how I do love Apple Crisp. However I am participating in a Biggest Loser Contest at work. This would not help my weight loss. lol
Day 86-Halloween party-we won't be having one of those.
Day 85: Start decorating for Halloween-while my fall stuff is up I haven't yet done the Halloween decorating. I will do this on Oct. 12th.
Day 84: Look for family's Halloween Clothing-my kids don't have anything right now. I do have a tshirt and sweatshirt.
Day 83: Go through gift list, are there people you can make a handmade gift for? I have already started this list. Just trying to figure out what I'm making everyone.
Day 82: Will the family be dressing up together? no
Day 81: Take a fall foliage ride-I get to do this just about everyday. I have a beautiful ride along Route 17 in the Catskills. It provides beautiful foliage.
Day 80: Start going through the catalogs that are coming for holiday gifts - I started doing this as well.

Monday Mumblings

Saturday was busy, Sunday I was lazy. Managed to get a few things done but not a lot, I need to find a way to be more productive on the weekends. I've included a few more pictures of my week in review album I plan on doing.

I was at a World Card making Day on Saturday so here is my pile of stuff to work on, Julia and Jessica playing the Wii, we dog sat for my in laws poodle, Percy. It's the 3rd time I saw this cute yellow caterpillar, I thought I'd take a picture of him, Kevin and Greg on our bed, things I had to return to the library and Blockbuster, the thermometer one morning, a cool shot of pumpkins, and my trunk after a visit to Shoprite.

Friday

If you've looked at my blog at all this week, you'll see I have mentioned doing an album called A Week in the Life. I've been trying to take pictures of all that we do this week. So I've decided to include a few from this week. I will continue to take pics until Sunday.

October 1st Already!

October 1st? How the heck did that happen? Geez. That’s okay. I’m doing alright, I think. I hope to put out some Halloween decorations this weekend. I’ve done fall, but now I’ll do my Halloween stuff.

Today at my work place is the Bake Sale I mentioned the other day. It’s to raise money for my friend who has Lupus. So far it’s going great.

As I said Monday, I’m participating in Ali Edward’s Week in the Life album. It’s fun and hard at the same time. I just hope I follow through and do these pages. See Ali’s blog link to the right to check it out.

So tell me if you’re reading this blog, what you think of any of the new shows that are on? What have you watched? What have you liked? Or disliked? I’m loving The Mentalist so far and Fringe. I think that’s the only new shows I’ve seen so far that I’ve really liked.

It's Monday again

I didn't get as much accomplished like I wanted, I'll blame it on the yucky weather.

Some of the blogs I read share their Menu Plans for the week. I shop on Fridays. So that's as far as my menu goes to.
Monday-hamsteak, french fries and vegatable
Tuesday-Longdon Broil with potatoes and vegatable
Wednesday-Pork Chops with french onions
Thursday-Spaghetti
Friday-pizza - I don't cook on Fridays

I'm trying something this week from Ali Edward's blog http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com we'll see how it goes.

I'm busy this week preparing for a bake sale at work. I have a dear friend who has lupus and there is a walk Columbus Day weekend in New York City that a few people from work participate in. I haven't made it to the walk yet, but I do give a donation and make goodies for the bake sale. We were really fortunate last year and made about $200. We have new tenants at our workplace this year. We are hoping they make that number go up. I'm making the following: Triple Layer Peanut Butter brownies, Coconut Bar cookies w/Macadama Nuts, Cheesecake cookies, mini monkey breads and maybe some Irish Soda bread. Doesn't that all sound yummy. If you want to check out the team I put a link to the right. 100% of the money donated goes to research. Check it out.

Catching up on the Countdown of Christmas

Day 100-make a binder-done

Day 99-print out calendar pages-done

Day 98-list of who you need to get gifts for-done

Day 97-budget-started

Day 96-family members wish list-working on it

Day 95-get out fall decor-done

Day 94-celebrate fall-will do next weekend

Day 93-Who are you voting for-I think it's a hard decision yet again! done

Day 92-Christmas Cards- I usually make about 30 and then buy store bought for the rest of the people. I actually try to buy my cards after christmas on major clearance sales. I checked and I have some but might need to buy another box or 2. And I have the ideas on the cards I'm making and I am just waiting for the supplies to start them. done

Day 91-I have a great little book I like to use for Sending my cards it's from Current http://www.currentcatalog.com/600189.html?AS=1&keyword=christmas+card+book - done

Day 90-Verify addresses for those on your christmas card list. I am updating this as well.

Day 89-Plan a family outing for fall. My family goes to http://www.danielpiercelibrary.org/pumpkinparty.html every year, it's great fun. - done

Day 88-Get your kids to pick a halloween costume. I always have to have their costumes ready early because the Pumpkin Party mention in Day 89 is the first Saturday in October. This year we are seriously saving money. My son has a John Deere toolbelt w/tools and a hat. So I'm going to dress him up as he says: "worker Greg" and Julia is going to be an Olympic Athlete. I have a sample medal from a High school coach that is red, white and blue so I thought. This will be an easy one. I do however need to get the sweatsuit in red, white and blue. That I'm doing this week.