My Cafe Mom 365

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T23:17:00.006-05:00

Abbey wanted to be a fairy this year and she wanted her build a bears to be fairies as well but we couldn't find outfits for the bears so last weekend we headed out to party city to look for something else. She found this adorable Mother Nature costume and looks so cute in it we just couldn't resist. Here are a few photos of before and after Trick or Treating.

Daniel took her Trick or Treating in his mother's neighborhood with his nieces and nephews, They all came back loaded down with goodies. It was nice day but the weather was a little too cold to stay out for long.

Second chair!!

2009-10-19T19:02:00.003-05:00

Abigail had her Regional Choir competition on Saturday and won second chair!!! She placed second out of about 160 girls (Advanced Soprano division 1) and is now (again) in the districts Advanced combined choir for JH and HS Choir members. One of the judges came out to tell us personally and was in tears over how beautifully Abigail sang. :) She said Abbey had the 6 judges so moved they all had to take 5 after her audition. Awwww that's so sweet. Before we had the results one of the judges came out and asked us to wait on the results because we were going to be really happy with the placement of one of our kids (4 auditioned for various divisions) We were very excited to hear that all 4 children placed: boys bass 12th chair, intermediate soprano 15th chair, and advanced alto 14th chair.

Peachy Keen Stamps blog Candy!

2009-09-24T14:09:00.002-05:00

Check out the fabulous candy up for grabs at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog! Good luck!!

http://peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-candy-good-through-oct-23-2009.html

Abbey

2009-09-20T15:45:00.008-05:00

This month just seems to be flying by. Our schedule has been jam packed. Thankfully we are finally settling in with the routine of School. I've even stopped following the bus to the HS. LOL Abbey's 13th Birthday camping trip went well ... even with the rain off and on. School functions, meetings and outings have taken a bite out of the month and quite frankly most of them were a waste of time. Daniel has been working 70+ hours a week so we hardly have time with him, that makes me sad and grumpy. Mother's almost daily doctor appointments are at least giving me a lot of reading time, I've finished 5 books this month. lol I'm hoping the rest of the month will move a bit slower and give us all time to catch up. Here are some photos from the month. Thanks for looking!

Abbey with Daniel at our favorite Karaoke restaurant to celebrate her "Almost" Birthday.
Abbey the some of the girls at her Birthday weekend camping trip.
Abbey looking so grown up at one of Mother's doctor appointments.
Abbey with her Summer reading project. They had to either make a book jacket or a puppet of one of the characters. Hers is Kira from Lois Lowery's Gathering Blue.
Abbey at her Choir skate party.

Abbey's 1st day of 8th grade.

2009-08-24T23:43:00.002-05:00

Abbey started 8th grade today. She was a little nervous this morning but ended up have a pretty good day ... basically they just sat around in homeroom all day. One if her best friends is in her homeroom class so she was happy. lol Tomorrow she'll start her classes at the High School and be bussed back for her remaining classes at the Junior High. All the back and forth makes me nervous, but I'll try to calm my momma bear over protective instincts and just wait to see how it goes. I can't believe my sweet baby girl is turning 13 next month!!! I'm not sure where the time went but oh boy it sure went by fast!! This year for her birthday she wanted something a little different and since you only turn 13 once we are throwing her a big weekend camping / birthday party at Garner State Park. We've arranged for three connecting camping sites and so far have a guest list of 8 little girls for the weekend and about 40 friends and family for the celebration on Sunday. Now the fun begins ... shopping for the party, making invitations and thinking about playing in the nice cool river!!! :-)

Abigail and Ella

2009-08-08T23:23:00.003-05:00

This adorable little one is my new niece Ella, she's my baby sister Elizabeth's new baby. She was 30 days early, weighs 6.3 and is 18 inches long. She's so tiny, like one of Abbey's baby dolls. Abbey was over the moon happy to have been allowed up to my sister's room to visit and hold Ella. Elizabeth's baby shower was supposed to be tomorrow. lol Ella just didn't want to miss out on the fun.

DT call for La La Land Crafts.

2009-07-31T01:58:00.002-05:00

Irina has sent out a DT call! Be sure to stop by her blog to check out the details. http://lalalandcrafts.blogspot.com/
Also, if you haven't entered her Blog Candy, click http://lalalandcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/07/winner-one-more-sneak-peek-and-yet.html to sign up. Good luck!
Hugs, Christine

Irina's Sneek peek!

2009-07-30T01:16:00.004-05:00

Here's a fabulous sneak peek from the animal line of stamps from Irina's, La La Land Crafts, Opening August 12!! How adorable is this little cow? Her name is Maya and she's part of Irina's new line of stamps at http://lalalandcrafts.com/ The artist of this line of animal stamps for La La Land Crafts is Aleksandar Alexov. Irina has some links for his work on her page. http://everythingpapercrafts.blogspot.com/ Doesn't this sweet cow make you smile?!! She's just adorable and you can enter Irina's celebration blog candy to win her. Just stop by Irina's new La La Land Crafts site and enter for your chance to win!
Good luck! Christine

Irina's New stamp store opening soon!

2009-07-16T01:22:00.004-05:00

This adorable sneak peek is Lala, she's one of twelve stamps soon to be released at Irina's new stamp store. La~La Land Crafts. https://www.lalalandcrafts.com/

Irina will release 12 stamps by two new artists in late August. Lala is by artist Kathy R. Jeffords. The second release will feature three artist. If Lala is any indication of the talent the stamp artists have, I think Irina's new store will certainly do well! Good Luck Irina!!!

Be sure to stop by her blog and check out her fabulous celebration candy, you can be the first to own Lala!! http://everythingpapercrafts.blogspot.com/

Celebration card

2009-07-13T00:34:00.003-05:00

Here is my Celebration card I'm posting for Crystal's 10,000 hits! Now that is something to celebrate!! Congrats Crystal.

Journey too 1000 with The Cuttlebug Spot!!

2009-07-12T00:09:00.004-05:00

BIG NEWS from The Cuttlebug Spot!!! http://thecuttlebugspot.blogspot.com/2009/07/journey-to-1000-starts-today.html

"Our next goal is to reach 1,000 followers and what better way to celebrate than to give away a prize worth $1,000! That's right, we're giving away a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops! And if that's not enough, we're going to give away a $50 Custom Crops gift certificate each Friday until we reach our goal!"

The Cuttlebug Spot is trying to reach 1000 followers by the end of July and to celebrate they are giving away a $1,000 dollar gift certificate to Custom Crops!!! All you have to do is spread the news and post your name on the link. So be fast!! Head on over to http://www.thecuttlebugspot.com/ , be one of their 1000 and try your luck at a FANTABULOUS prize!! Good luck every one!!

Abbey and Bebe

2009-07-09T02:04:00.005-05:00

This sweet little "My Buddy" baby doll has been in our family since 1985. My brother Joseph moved to Georgia, and he was so lonely over there that he would make the trip back to Texas nearly every weekend. So my sister Anna Marie bought him this My Buddy doll for Christmas ... to keep him company. Well, he still came home nearly every weekend but now Bebe, the doll, was coming too. LOL One day our father fell asleep with Bebe in his arms and Joseph didn't have the heart to take him back to Georgia. So he lived at Daddy's house with three girls that bought him baby clothes and sat him in the living room watching TV with Daddy. When Daddy passed Anna Marie took Bebe and every so often she lets him "visit" us. LOL When the kids came to spend the 4th weekend with us, we brought along Bebe. :-) I love these photos of Abbey and Bebe ... I have some just like this from when she was about 1 and almost every year after. When Bebe came home with us this past weekend, Daniel said I know why Roo likes to baby her dolls, you still do. :-) Yes, I do. lol

Abbey's card for Unscripted Sketches and a blackout!

2009-07-07T01:29:00.005-05:00

Abbey and I spent a bit of time in the evening playing in our craft room. She made this card from the sketch provided by Unscripted Sketches. Too cute!!! We had just taken this photo and were trying to decide what we wanted for Dinner .... when the entire neighborhood had a blackout. It was just before 7pm. Our electricity stayed out until about 1:20 am. Ugh boy oh boy it was hot! It was 103 when the lights went out and only dropped to 92 by 11 pm. Luckily Daniel and I both have a weird thing for collecting flashlights and lanterns so we had plenty of light in the house and some to loan to neighbors. Daniel was working so Abbey and I played Upwords and Mancalla a few times, ate sandwiches for dinner and drank a lot of water. lol I had her take a quick cool shower and then I put her to bed, really late about about 11, because it was just too hot to sleep. I sat on the edge of her bed fanning her with a large piece of cardboard until the electricity turned back on. It was kind of funny really, when it turned back on. I had been humming and then thought well, I'll say my prayers now, because I was getting really tired, and when I finished I was talking to God in my head and said God, I know this is selfish of me but the baby is just too hot and I'm worried about the elderly in the neighborhood. And as soon as I thought that, buzzzz! I could hear the AC kick on and the lights went on. :-)

Nicole's DT celebration candy!

2009-07-05T16:46:00.002-05:00

Nicole is giving away a collection of K & Company goodies ... It's from their Berry Sweet Collection. I love this oh so bright and fun set! Pop on over to her blog to enter for your chance to win! http://pinknickels.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-candy-alert.html

4th Of July

2009-07-04T02:47:00.005-05:00

My niece Jillian and Nephew Bryce spent the 4th with us, so I packed up some snacks and we headed to the park to take some photos. It was really hot, about 104, so we didn't stay long. We ended up watching a movie with their dad since my sister was at work and having dinner there too before heading back to my house. Out of ... oh about 130 photos, these two (with all three of them) were the best I got. My nephew is just not into standing still for more than a heart beat and no matter how many times I ask him to look at me, he just won't and all Jillie wanted to do was climb the trees. lol Still, they are ADORABLE!!!

Museum

2009-07-01T02:26:00.004-05:00

Since my sister Anna Marie and her children didn't go with us to the Museum last week so Abbey and I decided to pick up Jillian and Bryce and head over there today. I love this photo of the kids on the Hertzberg Circus Museum Elephant. I remember climbing on every time my baby sister and I would pass the Circus Museum downtown as we walked from one bus stop to the next to ride to her apartment. Sadly the Museum closed years ago but the Witte now has this adorable elephant at it's front doors. It just received a new paint job last week and luckily it's all dry and available for photos.

Crafting and Stamptacular Sunday Challenge

2009-06-27T02:11:00.007-05:00

Abbey and I spent most of the evening playing in my scrap room. She's quite the talented scrapper and is becoming more and more sure of herself when it comes to card making. Today she helped me do a bit of catch up image coloring. The canvas is for the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge ... Red, White, Blue and a Star Too. She's base painting the canvas we made into a little 4th of July decoration for her door.

Garner State Park

2009-06-25T00:58:00.005-05:00

Daniel, Abbey and I decided to beat the 100 degree heat and head to Garner for the day. We thought about camping but since Abbey wants to go shopping tomorrow she was quick to vote no on it. The first photo is of the two of them snorkeling, they are looking for fish to use as bait. eww. The second photo is of Abbey jumping off the swinging rope into the water. She loves doing this and it makes me so nervous that we now have a sign to signal she is okay after each jump. Yes, I'm over protective. :-) The last photo is of Abbey, of course. lol just being adorable floating around in the water.

Abbey and Holly at the Witte Museum.

2009-06-24T01:28:00.008-05:00

Abbey and I went to a movie this morning and then to Barns and Nobles to pick up two more books from her Summer reading list. She is just flying though them and in another week or so will be at the end of her list. The only problem with her reading them so fast is I have to read the books first because last year one of her books was about a little 11 year old girl who was murdered by her Uncle keep her from telling that he molested her!!! Good Grief! NOT a book I want my little girl reading. A few of the books on last years list were not books I'd recommend for a middle school child. Good thing the 8 we've read so far were all pretty good. Only 11 more to go and she can get back to her her own choices.

Anywho, The photos for today are from the Witte Museum. We had invited my sister and her children to the Museum in the afternoon so we left the book store and headed home for lunch and to call her. She decided they'd skip this time so we invited Holly, my other niece to join us. The girls had a good time and even let me get a few pictures taken. lol The first is a picture of Abbey outside the Museum acting silly. :-) The second is of the girls having a cookie break and the third is of my sweet angel faced Holly as we waited outside of her mom's shop to take them home. We had dinner at Elizabeth's and played Barbie dolls for about an hour. It was a nice day. I only wish it wasn't so hot! It was another day of over 100* temps. Ugh. Luckily tomorrow, Daniel, Abbey and I are heading to the river to play in the nice cool water.

:-)

The Heart Breakers.

2009-06-03T01:27:00.000-05:00

Today was the Talent show at Abbey's school. Abbey and her two friends, Lexie and Melody, danced to Listen to your Heart, techno remix. They called their group The Heart breakers. Abbey was the singer ... of course. lol This is a quick picture I took before they headed out to the stage. They were soooooooo cute and the kids loved it.

I'm sorry to say the video is pretty bad. :-( I was helping in the choir room I didn't get the best seat for the show and was stuck with some heads in the video and not enough time to program my camera for a decent video. Oh well, you can still see the three totally adorable girls doing their thing. :-)

Final Choir concert and awards night

2009-05-28T00:21:00.005-05:00

Tonight was the last Choir concert of the year and a small awards ceremony. Abbey received two medals, for her solos. And one very special red medal from The SA Children's Choir. The ones she's wearing are both for Outstanding achievement ... the most 1st place wins throughout the school year. The white one is from the school for her grade level and the other is from the school district for the combined JH and HS Advanced Choir. Only three red, white, and blue medals were given throughout the district. She is holding the red one that was for her being invited to join the San Antonio Children's Choir. As soon as I took this photos she took them off and shoved them in her pocket. LOL On the drive home I asked her if she was embarrassed to wear them and why she never put the red one on ... she said "Not really but you and everyone make a big deal out of it and it's like bragging" What??? Me, brag ?!?!?! hahahha YES, ME!! And it was a big deal. :-) Side note ... she was happy she got to wear her "Together We Sing" shirt for a second time ... the Principal wouldn't allow it for Spirit Fridays because she said it was teasing the other kids that didn't go. WHAT?? Seriously! I think that's where she gets the bragging thing from. Anywho, I'm off to admire fellow bloggers scrappy things.

Abbey

2009-05-19T22:25:00.005-05:00

Abbey has a week of free dress days at School, because she bought her Year Book. She's been excited about it for weeks. :-) I tried to remind myself to take a photo daily of her looking oh so cute! But things got in the way on Monday and by the time things were settled down she was bathed and ready for bed. So today ... I made sure to get one. She looked super cute in the adorable outfit she put together. She was a little disappointed when one of her teachers told her how happy they were she still dresses like a little girl. :-) Compared to what I saw at School today ... I'm thankful she still lets me help pick out her clothes. LOL

The Nation of Why Not. lol

2009-05-16T11:09:00.002-05:00

Abbey and I spent a few minutes ... well more like 40, a few weeks ago playing on the Royal Caribbean website. After filling in all the clues we had the chance to spin the prize wheel and this was what we won. A Crayola Crayon Glow Station. It's pretty cool and really glows in the dark.

Not me!

2009-05-04T17:54:00.005-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first Not Me! Monday post.

I'd never oversleep and miss Church, so yesterday never happened! I'd never blame low platelets and dehydration on over sleeping either ... well and not staying up until 3 to read had NOTHING to do with it!! James Patterson is so not worth loosing sleep over.

I certainly did not pass half my dinner to Abbey last night at my sister's house because I really really love Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets! :-) And before said visit to sister's house I did not tell Abbey to finish her homework in the car!! I'd NEVER do that!

At my Dr's office, this morning, I didn't tear out an article I wanted to finish reading and stick it in my handbag when they called my name ... no way that's so rude!

I also didn't ask the nurse to draw blood from my right arm instead of my left because I carry my shopping bags on my left and I knew I was going to be good and NOT head straight to Michael's after.

I didn't almost cry when my Dr said I needed an IV for dehydration because I just LOVE needles and I didn't get grumpy and really cry when he came back in after the IV and said I needed blood because my platelets were low. I sure as heck didn't say can we do this tomorrow because I all I really wanted to do was NOT go shopping.

At Michael's I didn't make faces at the lady that was picking her nose, well I tried really hard not to. UGHHHHHHHHHH

I didn't spend too much :-) Nope not me.

I didn't take my band aids off and say "No change" to my Daniel just so he won't worry.
I also didn't send him off shoe shopping at the mall after school with the Roo so I could play with all the stuff I didn't buy :-) ... they needed some daddy & daughter time. :-)

I"m not ignoring the oven's timer that's been going off for the last 2 minutes so I can finish this blog. LOL I don't think the bread will suffer much. :-)

What did you NOT do today??

I'm off to save the bread. hahahhaa

NISD "Together We Sing" concert

2009-05-02T23:54:00.004-05:00

Daniel and Abbey (her sweet cheeks are all rosy from the dancing) at the NISD Choir's "Together We Sing" concert. Over 800 kids sang and danced to some of Broadway's best musical numbers. They all did such a great job learning a dance to 9 or 10 songs in just a few hours. I took some video as well ... I'm just not that computer savvy and I need Abbey to show me how to share a clip with you all. :-). So look forward to that tomorrow. hahahha Have a wonderful and Blessed Sunday! Hugs, Christine Oh how funny, I just noticed Abbey is Daniel's height ... she was standing on the bleacher seat next to him. lol

I think we are fast becoming the CAT house!

2009-05-01T23:58:00.002-05:00

This is Omelette and her kittens Poached and Sunny.

This is a conversation I had with my neighbor lady this morning ...
Me: Hi (As I'm getting out of the van and a little startled she is now standing at my door)
her (I don't know her name): Where have you been??????!!!
Me: uhhhhh I took my daughter to school, is everything ok?
Her: NO! I've been waiting for you for an hour!!!
Me: OK, Well, I had to run an errand. Are you ok? Is my mother ok?
Her: I don't care! Take this. (As she shoves a box at me)
Me: Thank you, what is it?
Her: A CAT!!!!! Take it, it's sick or something.
Me: Oh no, what's wrong with it? Where did you find it?
Her: It was on your front porch and my dog was trying to get to it. (she is yelling this as she huffs away)
Me: Oh, well, Thanks.

Now I just adjust the box and go in because, well because she was very cranky and I was excited over a cat and scared it was hurt. I set the box on my bed and took off my heels and peeked in the box ... what do I see???? This sweet stray cat was giving birth! Thankfully she was not hurt like my neighbor thought but just needing some love, food and attention. Now I have to tell you this is actually the third time a stray has shown up literally on our door and given birth. That's how we came to own Golden and Waffle Ann her Kitten. Then came Spicy and her kitten Cupcake ... We had her fixed and gave her away to some friends of Daniel's and kept Cupcake. Our next was Vanilla Wafer with Apple her kitten, Vanilla was also fixed and given away. Apple stayed. When Daniel came home from work I kissed him and said "Guess what my love, we have a new cat and two kittens " he patted the sofa and said "Come here and tell me all about it." LOL He's a cutie through and through. Since we already own 4 cats it's just not going to work with more so we will let her stay here until the kittens are weaned then have her fixed and find them good homes. Abbey named the mommy Omelette and the kittens Poached and Sunny ... as in sunny side up. LOL We have a food theme going and it just couldn't be broken. hahhah

How high will they go?

2009-04-27T21:37:00.004-05:00

I went out to Girl Scout Council today and on my way back took this photo right through my windshield. I get so nervous driving under this crazy maze of Highways. There are actually tire marks going over the edge on the highest one. Yikes .... THAT makes me nervous!ugh! I'd hate to be under that when something flies off. There are even higher bridges in town but for some reason those tire marks make this one the worst for me.

Fiesta Parade!

2009-04-25T01:26:00.003-05:00

San Antonio is knows for many things ... The Alamo, our amazing river walk, Sea World, Fiesta TX, the Museums, world class shopping, roller coaster"ish" highways, and of course the Spurs but if you really want to experience San Antonio, you have to come during Fiesta week! There are so many things to see and do, including the Battle of Flowers day parade. We were lucky enough to get tickets right behind my baby sister Elizabeth and her family. Even though it rained for a good half hour before the start of the parade, Abbey, Daniel and I had such a good time cheering on the bands, picking out our favorite hoses from the groups as they cantered by, ooh"ing" and ahh"ing" over the beautiful Princesses, their amazing gowns and their choice of silly shoes, eating over priced goodies (funnel cake ... YUMMY) and waving till our arms were sore.

Abbey and I both thought this float was the best ... Daniel, of course, liked a space themed one. Oh and Abbey picked out another monkey to add to our growing silly collection.

I love a bargain!

2009-04-24T00:53:00.003-05:00

First I have to say I love how clean the Michael's on 1604 and Culebra is. I've never gone in and found it untidy ... Oh the goofy neat freak in me just loves that!

Anywho ... just today I was telling my Daniel that I wanted to move around my office/scrap area and I'd need to pick up a few things to reorganize some. So this evening while he took Abbey to the Fiesta carnival I headed to Micheal's and found this really cute MM desktop carousel in the clearance aisle for $8, the regular price is 39.99! I used a 40% off coupon and since everything else was on sale the discount was applied to this and I got it for about 5 dollars. Wowee. It's not damaged or anything but it does have a tiny little dirt smudge on the corner. I love a bargain! :-)

Star Trek!!

2009-04-21T23:44:00.004-05:00

So, today I was in the grocery store and I almost walked right past this FANTABULOUS banner promoting the new Star Trek motion picture. Long story short ('cause ya know I babble!) we 3 are HUGE fans of just about anything SciFi and let me tell you .... Star Trek is at the very tippy top of that long list of favorites. We are just way too excited about this new movie coming out this Summer and Daniel has already set it all up for us to see a midnight viewing at one of his very good friend's Theatre. It's a sneak peek family and friends kind of thing ... we've seen every SciFi movie that way and it's just great. No crowds, no line for pop corn and no waiting for a free stall in the ladies room. Hummm ... I guess that was still sort of long. LOL Anywho ... I bought all 4 promo packages of sugar loaded "apple" flavored, marshmallow, "fruity" loopy, sugar coated flake cereals, even though we don't eat cereal. Abbey's excited to try them all. I foresee an outrageous sugar high coming up this weekend.

1st place!

2009-04-18T14:57:00.004-05:00

These silly photos were taken after Abbey's Solo Choir competition. She won First place out of about 300 of the Advanced Choir kids. She was too excited to stand still right after and all those photos were blurry with kids jumping up and down. As we were leaving I saw this statue and she immediately wanted to sit on it ... of course! Luckily, because I was afraid of being caught! lol, it was not stable enough so she posed with it instead. In the second photo she wanted it to look like she had horns! She is giggling so hard right now as I type (of course we all know she is on my lap ... always!) She said oh and my handbag is on my horn, I'm ready to shop. hahahaha silly thing.

A week in review

2009-04-17T09:16:00.002-05:00

I've been neglecting to up load photos for my 365 since I've been having so much fun participating in blog challenges. So, I made another blog just for my paper crafting and will leave this one just for my 365 ... hopefully :-)

Top:

#1 The oh so cute photo of Abbey in the rocket was taken Sat at the mall before we headed out to a new Scrapbook store I found. I'm happy they let kids scrap since most of the stores here will only let them in the back if it is a Mommy and Me day. I know a lot of ladies probably like that but I don't.

#2 Easter Sunday at my Elizabeth's house. I took over 200 photos on Easter but I loved this one so much with Elizabeth's neighbors pretty flowers. I don't have a green thumb so everything I try to grow dies a sad death. :-( Although I do have to say my Poinsettia from Christmas loves me bunches and is sticking it out with me. It even still blooms. Yay!

Bottom:

#3 This amazing Noah's Ark mural was hand drawn and painted by one of the lovely ladies at my sister's Church where we have our Mom to Mom Bible study group. I wish I knew her name. The vestibule is round and three stories high. The painting goes around the whole room upstairs and down. It's just amazing and I find something new each week..

#4 Abbey relaxing in her computer room after doing her homework. She was watching Myth Busters and I took a photo of her watching the television but decided I needed to capture her precious smile for the next one so I told her don't move but look at me and smile. LOL She did :-) She looks like such a big girl in this photo ... what you don't see is her baby doll Zack, her build a Bears and her Easter basket on the couch next to her. LOL What a cutie!!

Basic Grey Challenge #30

2009-04-11T15:18:00.003-05:00

This week at Basic Grey the challenge is to take inspiration from your favorite chocolate goodies. I used their oh so yummy Bittersweet papers to create this chocolaty card for my sister Anna Marie. The photo didn't come out all that great because it's so overcast here today. Abbey and I had planned to take some Easter photos but the weather is just not cooperating with us ... so we are off to go shopping. :-) Thanks for looking, Have a great Saturday!

The Cuttle Bug Spot challenge #25

2009-04-10T14:14:00.003-05:00

This week at The Cuttlebug spot the challenge was to create an Easter treat container. Perfect timing because over at CafeMom Lizzie posted a challenge in PCJ to make this adorable basket. It seemed like an perfectionist's nightmare and I put off making one for days and days and days. Until another cafemom momma (Callie) gave it a go and it was just adorable so ... I tried it and it actually turned out really cute. Yay me! TFL, have a Blessed Good Friday.

High Hopes card challenge #25

2009-04-07T22:59:00.004-05:00

Happy Tuesday everyone. My day started off a bit crazy, including a very near miss car accident, missing my Bible study class, and being stuck on the highway for an hour and a half ...with nothing to drink and only half a chapter left in the book I was reading! ugh ... but, after a nice day shopping for spring clothes for Abbey and finding a fabulous new scrapbook store on San Pedro it ended up on a High note. LOL Get it High ... as in High Hopes Stamps ... hahhaa I crack myself up, I tell ya! I just love this sketch over at High Hopes Stamps and was thinking about it all evening. So after dinner I left the dishes to my sweet Daniel and headed to scrap! This is my version of their wonderful sketch. Thanks for looking. :-)

Cute card Thursday with Color Throw Down challenge

2009-04-04T16:11:00.003-05:00

I combined two challenge this week because they both had a call out to use bright colors. Cute Card Thursday asked for Citrus colors and the colors for the Color Throwdown were Pink, Turquoise, and Orange. So here is my card for the challenge. Thanks for looking, I had so much fun!!

I won!!

2009-04-03T23:29:00.003-05:00

Yay me!!! I won Stephanie's fabulous Anniversary Blog candy!!!! Whoo hooo!! Thank you so much Stephanie!!!

Mojo Monday #80

2009-03-30T22:41:00.004-05:00

I'm really loving the wonderful sketches over at Mojo Monday and this is my second week to give it a go. I love this new paper stack I picked up last week! The colors are so vibrant and pretty. I posted a close up of the super cute MM clear creations circle tag and their decorative straight pins ... so cute!!! I love how this card came out. Thanks for looking!!!

Shopping. :-)

2009-03-26T23:38:00.006-05:00

Shopping, lunch and an afternoon nap. It all started with a tape runner refill. lol I told Daniel I needed to run by Hobby Lobby to buy another tape runner refill for my tape gun and he said "Oh I'll go with you." :-) la la la la ... lol that's my happy song, I sang it in my head on the drive to HL. He bought me two Fantabulous paper stacks, tape, ink, a bunny ears craft, and 3 new sets of clear stamp ... two of which came with ink and a stamping block. Since Michael's is literally around the corner he suggested we pop in . LA LA LA LA!! Too bad punches weren't on sale. lol I left with two more super pretty paper stacks, MM Chloe's Closet decorative straight pins (so pretty!), MM Chloe's Closet clear creations, another bottle of Beacons :-), and a Fastenater mini. We went to lunch at one of his favorite Chinese food restaurants and then stopped to fill my gas tank before heading home. While I was taking out all my goodies and arranging them for a photo he popped in and asked if I felt like a snuggle and a movie ... Of course I'd never say no so I ended up taking a really nice 3 hour nap. :-) He left for work while I was still sleeping but he set the alarm so I wouldn't be late for Roo. Sweet sweet sweet!!!

Rock Band

2009-03-22T00:34:00.000-05:00

Abbey had a sleep over for her cousins Leticia and Kimberly on Saturday night and they played Rock Band until well after 10. Yikes! Late I know but they were having so much fun I didn't want to break it up. Well today after Church they were offered the choice between a movie or skating and all three wanted more time playing Rock Band. I was trying to get photos of each of them but they were too busy playing to pose for me. LOL So I finally had them stand together for one very quick shot. What a bunch of cuties!!!

Mojo Monday week 78

2009-03-21T21:28:00.002-05:00

Mojo Monday card challenge week 78. Since I had these pretty papers already out I decided to participate in another blog challenge. I love all the wonderful new blogs I've come across and seeing the amazing works of art from the oh so talented ladies all over the world.

Stamps and Smiles card challenge #7

2009-03-21T19:47:00.002-05:00

This is a card I did for the Stamp and Smiles blog card challenge.

2009-03-16T03:13:00.000-05:00

Photo for the day ... ATC card I made today for a swap on CafeMom.

Daniel took the van and cleaned it top to bottom! We put in 15oo miles on our trip. Wow!!

After school we took Abbey to have her eyes examined and yuppers she needs a new RX ... the Dr said her vision changed quite a lot in the last year. She took over an hour to find the perfect pair and in 10 days she will have them. Poor Abbey she gets her horrible vision from me. Happily her vision can be corrected to 20/20 with the new RX. I kind of freaked out about that since last time another Dr in the office told us it was not going to be any better that 30/30 Hummmm??? I had mine checked also and yes I need a new RX too. UGH, I finally found glasses I actually like and now I need new ones. I didn't find any I liked at that office to I'm going back to the place I found the ones I have to get them again. :-)

Daniel balanced the checkbook today and asked if I wanted to know the cost of our little vacation ... LOL I said nope! He laughed and said it was about 6 times more than what we set out to spend. Yikers! Well for one camping is cheap (17 dollars a night) and clean hotels are not(189 a night)! Not to mention you can't set up your propane stove in a hotel, so you eat out. That and my ring, NASA, all the shopping we did on the trip and this Sunday at the mall. :-) It's so nice to be spoiled!!!!

Home

2009-03-15T02:59:00.000-05:00

We had breakfast in a really nice Mexican restaurant, did some shopping and headed home. Since it was a long drive Abbey and I watched Cars, Charlies Angles 1 and 2 and slept some :-) When we got home we unpacked and I started some laundry. Sunday was our Spa day and boy oh boy was it nice!! We also did some shopping at North Star Mall and Abbey picked out a few new outfits for her build a bears. We had dinner Sunday night out and called it a day at about 9! lol I noticed Abbey squinting a bit so it's time for an eye exam again.

NASA day 2

2009-03-13T02:41:00.005-05:00

As you can see Abbey fell in love with this little fleece hoodie, her first, and she wore it basically everyday even though Daniel bought her one in just about every color. She and Gia the Build a Bear match ... too cute!

Funny story about the hoodie, Daniel bought me some also and as I was putting one on to make him happy I looked down and noticed what I thought was a skull!!! I said hey wait, what's on this thing and he grabbed me fast and hugged me to him and asked " What if it has a bloody rose and skull, would you wear it for me bride?" Ugh eeegads NO WAY I yelled in my head!!!! But I smiled and said yes ... but not in public. He laughed and let me go, I looked down and it was just some swirls with tiny little aqua beads on it. hahhah Abbey chimed in and said she wished hers had a pink skull with a plaid hair bow!! WHAT??? hahahhaa silly thing!!

Houston!!

2009-03-12T02:24:00.004-05:00

Houston was just as cold, well maybe not as cold but cold and wet. Since we were indoors most of the time it was nice. We haven't been to the NASA museum in a few years so we were happy to see it's changed from last time. Abbey had a blast and convinced us to change our one day tickets into year passes. I'm looking forward to her next long weekend so we can go back.

2009-03-11T01:52:00.006-05:00

I had to wait until day two at the camp grounds to get a photo because it was too dark when we first arrived. At the Diamond mine Abbey was the adventurous one and sat down on the sopping wet ground to hunt for diamonds. At one point she was flat on her tummy digging up mounds of mud and singing "Singing in the rain" lol Daniel and I sort of walked the mushy ground slip sliding around until our hands and feet were so cold it hurt. lol Diamond hunting was fun but we didn't find much more than Pink Quarts and Jasper. Oh well ... maybe next time. lol Abbey had a blast and was finally willing to leave but only because it started pouring rain yet again! Our camp ground looked like a mini river and sadly our tent was flooded the morning of day two so we took it down in freezing rain and packed up camp. That was when we decided to head back to TX and the NASA museum ... after a quick stop at a laundry mat to dry our gear and wash our muddy clothes. On our drive to Houston we stopped at a really cute Antique store and Daniel bought me a beautiful 1 1/2 carat diamond ring to commemorate our adventures in diamond mining. I asked if it was an early Birthday gift and he said no just a gift. I have to say I LOVE that guy!!!! Abbey picked out an old cradle for Zack. We stayed at a nice dry hotel for the night and started the last 3 hours drive to Houston in the morning.

2009-03-10T01:36:00.004-05:00

Photo #1 is of Abbey trying to decide if she needs to "go" before we leave the house. lol We had a late start to our drive ... and ended up reaching Arkansas about 8PM. Abbey was thrilled to get out and play for a bit before we got back in to finish out the drive to the camp grounds. When we left SA it was 76 ... when we arrived in Arkansas it was 47* by the time we settled down for the night at the camp grounds it was 32* and pouring rain! Fun!!!

Vacation

2009-03-09T01:28:00.003-05:00

Abbey and I ran errands for most of the day to prepare for our Spring break vacation. Our vacation includes camping out and diamond hunting. lol

2009-03-06T22:27:00.003-06:00

I was invited by Abbey's choir teacher to help chaperon the Advanced Choir group as they attended their yearly competition. It was a long day with many many flights of stairs, seemingly endless hallways and being moved from one hot room to another until they were finally allowed on stage to compete. They spent oh - maybe 10 minutes on stage and half of it was in silence as the judges wrote down their scores between songs. They looked so pretty in their long choir gowns .... I wish I had taken my steamer because most of the girls pulled their gown out of their back packs!!! Wrinkled and all they sounded amazing. They received a 2 , meaning they were above average. After they sang their rehearsed music they were moved to another oh so hot holding area before being ushered into a smaller room to perform a piece they had never seen or rehearsed. That part of the competition is called Sight Reading. Basically they have to know music well enough to read it and perform it. Their teacher had 4 minutes to guide them through the music without instrumental or vocal aids!! The whole time they practiced they had to do it in their heads, without tapping out notes or rhythms or they would be disqualified. After their practice their teacher is allowed to play 4 notes on the piano and then they have to perform with out her help at all. I don't read music and I haven't a clue what b flat or any other note sounds like but wow these kids were just amazing ... they sang the song so beautifully it nearly had me in tears. To me it sounded perfect, like one of the old Latin Church songs where it sounds like it's almost chanting ... sadly to the keen ears of the judges it was only a 3 ... meaning they were average. Oh well. Maybe next year.

First 5

2009-03-03T23:41:00.003-06:00

So there seems to be a fun new way to distribute RACKs ... I responded to Tylee's 365 post (I was #1, hee hee), she responded to Callies and now you can respond to mine. The first 5 to respond will receive a little goodie from me. As the play it forward goes ... it is a handmade item so poster beware ... LOL If you don't like my crafts - too bad. LOL I'm thinking bookmarks with a matching card & envelope. Sound good to you?? Ok them post away and start your own First 5.

3x3 card

2009-03-02T23:59:00.003-06:00

This is a 3x3 Spring themed card I made for a swap on CafeMom. I got to use my Cricut and I love how the little blue bird turned out. I also like how cute and happy he looks perched on the branch. I was trying to make the branch thicker but all I could do was make it longer. lol I'm still trying to figure out the sizing part. Now that I am looking at it ... I think I should have inked the branch a bit to make it stand out more. I was trying to make the branch look like it was in a tree filled with tiny flowers. The thing is ... it was so delicate that I was scared to bend or tear it. I have time to remake them so give me your input ... Thanks Bunches!

Card

2009-02-17T19:13:00.005-06:00

This is a card I made for one of the super sweet ladies in my Mom to Mom Bible study group at Church. She is so sweet and is always sending me cards and is just such a dear person, a real inspiration to me and I wanted to be sure she was the first one I made a card for with my cricut. It took quite a few tries (7), I'm embarrassed to say, to finally get the size right and the shadow to work properly. But ta da! lol I'm happy with it and I know she will like it. Now to make something extra special for my Daniel. :-)

Cafe mom swap

2009-02-16T00:17:00.004-06:00

I finished up this swap this morning and wanted to take a quick photo before I packed it up to get it ready to mail off. It's for a flash card swap on CafeMom. They had very simple rules for this swap ... anything goes as long as you use patterned paper, card stock and an embellie. I hadn't been swapping much lately but I'm glad I found a few quick and easy ones to give a go at. I also signed up for my first ATC swap a few weeks ago and I'm super excited to get them back, but it will still be a while since their December one is just now arriving at the participant's homes. I guess that's it for today. It was a lovely day with my Daniel and Abbey and a wonderful evening with my Elizabeth. I love Sundays!!

A spin around Wal-Mart.

2009-02-13T00:36:00.006-06:00

Today did not start off all that well but it sure ended fabulously! I couldn't sleep at all last night because I was having terrible cramping from the soles of my feet up to my neck, and every where in between. UGH It was due to some new medication, and I kept my poor Daniel up most of the night. We tried everything from heating pads, creams, soaks in the tub, back rubs and finally a double dose of Tylenol but nothing worked. So Daniel made an appointment for me this morning to see my Doctor and he gave me a muscle relaxer. I was still really stiff and in a lot of pain after so Daniel suggested a good walk around Wal-Mart to loosen up my muscles. Now who doesn't like a spin around Wal-Mart? Once there I was near tears and walking like I had a stick ... well you know. Anywho ... I was in so much pain that I really just wanted to go home but Daniel said pick something and it is yours. LOL Husbands, they know some mighty powerful healing words, I tell ya!! lol Oh, I said feebly, I need some sticky tape. So we shuffled, well I shuffled, Daniel pulled me along at a near jog, to the scrap aisle and what do you know!! **Wink wink** ... they sell the Cricut Expressions machine for much less than Michael's. Then I told him all about our own dear Christina and that she was a lucky ducky and WON a fabulous new Expressions from a marvelous lady online and how I entered as well. He looked me straight in my teary eyes (I was still in pain, seriously!) and said "Oh bride, why didn't you tell me you wanted this??" and proceeded to put it in the cart!!! :-) Imagine here a sad pitiful, painful frown turning instantly into a huge goofy, over the moon happy grin! lol Then I said well, it's a little pricey and he said shut up and kiss me. :-) La la la la .... that's my happy song! We did a little more walking in Michael's, Joann's and Hobby Lobby. :-). So here is my bounty for the day. La la la la. lol Oh and some more wonderful news ... Michael's now carries Beacons 3 in 1 craft glue!!!!! I was pretty happy over that great news, I've been super stingy with my last bottle. Now I have 10 more in my stash!! Whoohoo.

Fly Pen

2009-02-10T23:06:00.005-06:00

Today after my Mom to Mom meeting at Church I headed over to one of the strip malls by North Star mall and headed into Best Buy. I was looking for season 9 of Stargate Atlantis for Daniel and me but they didn't have it, darn! What I did find was this really cool thing called the Fly Fusion system. You use this pen with a sensor to write on special paper then download the pen to the computer and wow, everything you just wrote is now on the computer in your own handwriting!! Super cool!! The notebooks show you tons of things, like translating English to Spanish, working Algebra problems, helps with spelling, you can play brain teaser games, it has an MP3 player, you can compose music and even use it as a day planner! Wowee! So I bought some extra notebooks and half a dozen journals for Abbey and me. The journals are really cute and have these journal prompts to get your creative writing juices flowing. I've been having a blast with it, I think I may need my own pen thingy because Abbey loves it as much as I do and passing the pen was too frustrating for us. lol Oh and it was on sale too! Whoohoo.

Most Outstanding Performer

2009-02-07T23:14:00.007-06:00

Before you watch the video I have to warn you, I am video taping with my camera and I was just as excited as the kids were so yes that is me screaming like a fool. LOL But ya know "Oh my gooosssh!!" I was super excited!!! Now to back track a bit ... lol Today was the NISD One Act Play Festival. The kids at Abbey's school worked very hard and came in second place with Excellent honors! There were 12 Middle schools competing against one another and Abbey's school put on a very touching play called "Once on this Island". Abbey was Erzulie, the goddess of love. Her school was selected to go on in the main theater and all was going well until ... the music stopped and there was dead silence. I was so proud of them, not one of them broke character, they all patiently sat still and waited. The second the music resumed, 9 minutes later, they took up right were they left off. It was a very long but fabulous day. I'm off to bed because I can hardly keep my eyes open. Have a great Sunday!!

Sonic

2009-02-06T21:06:00.004-06:00

Ok, so most days I head to sonic to buy my daily "fix" ... Sweet iced tea, YUMMMM. I think it's the crushed ice that does it for me, since it really doesn't have to be sweet at all. Daniel offered to bring me a bag of crushed ice once but it's not quite the same. LOL So here is my photo for the day, the Sonic order board. :-)

Being goofy

2009-02-04T23:41:00.004-06:00

Abbey is playing "Eurzulie,The goddess of love" in her school's production of "Once on this Island". She was excited to finally receive her costume and even more excited to learn we get to accessorise her outfit as we see fit. To her that simply means shopping. lol The second photo is of some of the kids just being goofy after a long rehearsal. :-)

Ellianna

2009-02-02T22:28:00.003-06:00

This is Ellianna ... Abbey's Build A Bear all decked out for Valentine's day. Abbey NEEDED to take this photo for my blog today. I should have let her blog about it since she took the photo but thankfully she has been asleep for hours. There was some hoopla at school today when they went into lock down all because the police were serving a weapons warrant to a man that wasn't even home. Let me tell you when I heard her little voice on the answering machine saying "Mommy there's an emergency at school, you need to come get me speedy quick!" My heart sank even though I had already picked her up since I'm normally quite early to wait in the drive up line so I can read for a good 20 minutes.

The school really handled it all wrong but I'm too upset to get into it. Grrrr Here's to a MUCH better day tomorrow!!

Zacks party.

2009-02-01T00:01:00.003-06:00

Abbey and her little friends had a great time celebrating Zack'z 1st birthday. I loved making the monkey tails the most and pigging out on an ooh so yummy super duper babana split. I'm wiped out and oh~~~my Daniel just this second walked in the door from a business trip so I'm off to snuggle my love who's been gone since friday morning!! :-)

Pin the Tail on the Monkey

2009-01-29T23:33:00.004-06:00

I made this for Abbey's baby doll's Birthday party. lol It's for the Pin the tail on the Monkey game. The face was actually the front of the invitation and the background is a wipe off marker board I painted to look ... well to look sort of grass, sky and branch "ish". LOL I used a little blue star to pin point the spot the tail should go and I traced my breakfast for the banana. Abbey loved it. Daniel came home saw it and said, wow cute monkey. It wasn't until about Abbey's bed time did he finally ask what was it for. We told him Zack's birthday party and he laughed. He took a moment and said Ohhh I was wondering why we had a check written for 29 dollars and it said monkey cake, I thought it was one of your murder mystery books. LOL He's sooooooo used to me and my silliness it doesn't even phase him that we are throwing a birthday party for a baby doll ... and well it shouldn't really since we give her 3 favorites Christmas gifts and Easter baskets as well. lol. I'm just glad Abbey is still into all this. I have to say I was into baby dolls and tea parties well into my teens, lol ok, ok I still love it all. Abbey and I can play baby dolls or Polly pocket all afternoon and we still enjoy a nice "gossip" filled tea party on Saturday afternoons. Still, at the end of the year she will officially be a teen and all the silly things we do may no longer hold her attention.** SIGH** I really can't see it happening yet, Thankfully! I think I have another year or so of this magical time of innocence and little girlhood. Yet another reason to be grateful for starting this blog ... it will help me capture and remember this last year, nearly day to day of my sweet precious little girls journey into ... bum bum bum ... a TEEN! Yikes!

Family Night

2009-01-27T23:28:00.004-06:00

Tonight was Family night at Abbey's school. It was nice to see so many families there even though it was soooo cold and drizzling. One of the coaches was even in a dunking booth out in the freezing cold! And Abbey, the little stinker, wanted to have a try at it! I stood in line with her for oh 3 minutes until she said, I'm turning into a Popsicle, and we went back in. They passed out raffle tickets to the parents for participating in the activities and Abbey was excited because we won twice. A 10 dollar gift card to H.E.B. our local grocery store and another 10 dollar gift card to some restaurant, Friday's I believe. She immediately claimed the grocery store card. lol I asked her why she wanted it and she said because I never let her get junk food. lol Her idea of junk food is Special K chocolate delight cereal and Moo Tracks ice cream ... yummm!! I'm really not a mean mom, but my mother is diabetic so we don't buy sweets or "Junk food" as Abbey calls it unless we are having it that day. So tomorrow, Moo Tracks for dessert!

Zack's birthday in a box

2009-01-25T22:20:00.005-06:00

Abbey's baby doll Zackary turned 1 this Christmas and received this Birthday Party in a Box for his Christmas present. Since we've not had a free Saturday since then, his Birthday party has been put off until this Saturday. I found this super cute Monkey themed party kit at Michael's for about 30 dollars and couldn't resist it. This past week I found some adorable monkey hats and fun foam crafts for the kids to play at Michael's. Now all I have to do is order a monkey face cake and stock up on bananas & Chunky Monkey ice cream. :-)

Taking the SAT's

2009-01-24T11:46:00.003-06:00

Well, today is the day ... Abbey is at the HS taking her SAT's. This is a quick photo I took after asking her if it was ok. lol That is so not her real smile, she forced one for me, my poor baby!! Her little red pencil holder was stuffed with about 30 pencils, her school ID, erasers, her test ticket, the letter from Duke University, tick tacks to calm her nervous tummy and her oh so expensive 380 dollar calculator that Daniel bought for her the day we found out she was taking 11th grade math. She looks tired too. We were up pretty late snuggling and talking about not being nervous, because we both were, and I was afraid she'd be tired this morning. Luckily she woke up at first call, her wake up normally involves turning on all her lights, me stripping the sheets around her, taking away her pillow to change the case, bugging her to kiss me good morning, tickling her feet, tossing a cat up to greet her and threats of missing our 100 kiss kiss, but today she was up in a flash and bouncing around the house like nothing major was going on. Then at breakfast she didn't want to eat so she had a yogurt and one drink of chocolate milk. She babbles when she is nervous (I babble all the time. lol) and was talking about such random things it made me even more nervous. I tried to reassure her that this is just a practice really, since she has years and years until the real go at it. When we arrived at the HS she started wringing her little hands at the sight of all the Seniors waiting to take the test. It was funny though when a teacher came over and said "Ok mom you can go" she held on to me and said can she stay for 1 more minute and the teacher said "No you both need to leave now." Abbey said but I'm here to take the test and she said "Oh you're one of the smarties." She let me stay. Thankfully! The boy next to Abbey asked her " Are you really smart?" She laughed and said yes. Then he said "Oh yeah! I want to sit next to you." lol Then she was more at ease and even chatted with him a bit. Turns out his math teacher is the same one that come to the JH and teaches Abbey. He talks about her to his students so he knew of her. They have the same Honors English teacher as well. Still I was really happy when they told the little kids, 3 other 7th and 8th graders also taking the test, that they were taking the test in a different room. The relief on Abbey's face almost made me giggle. Before she went into the test room she turned and whispered "Can we have stuffed peppers for dinner?" I said yes and she let out a long breath and hugged me tight then walked in. There was a Daddy of one of the boys and he said wow they looked like they were being lead into the slaughter house. Awwwwww, they did. :-( So first thing I did after I left her there was head to the grocery store to purchase the fixing for stuffed peppers. Daniel said to take her out to lunch at The Olive Garden, her favorite place, and then to a movie as a kind of reward for being so FANTABULOUS!!! lol

Jeans

2009-01-23T22:26:00.004-06:00

I was putting some laundry away today and I realized I've gone a bit overboard on buying jeans ... I've been on a jean kick since mid December. For a girl that never wore jeans it's crazy! Ok, Well I did have a pair of "jean" like Capri pants. lol Anywho, The reason is, in December Abbey was invited to sing on a river barge with some of the choir kids, it was freezing cold (28* I believe) and Daniel was concerned about me wearing a skirt so we went to Catherine's to look for a pair of jeans and wow who knew they were so comfy??!??! So from one pair that night to 13 ... I've gotten to love them. So far I really like the dark ones, because they tend to look dressier, but the light ones are nice too for errands and such. I'm a bit prissy and the only jeans I can even remember owning were some Jordach jeans in JrH, that I think I wore once. lol They were the "cool" jeans back then and I HAD to have them. ** Ignore the nightgown under the jeans. ** lol Have a great weekend!!

Playing catch up. :-)

2009-01-23T21:08:00.003-06:00

I'm going to do a little catch up today. Silly me, I lent my camera cord to my friend Helena and then days later I was missing having it because I couldn't download my photos for my blog. Then my oh so brilliant Abbey said "Use my computer, all you do it take your memory card and insert it here." **BLUSH** ... I didn't know it did that!! LOL I am soooooo not a computer person, I'm happy to know how to send E-mail, view a few sites and download photos. She even showed me how to use more than one photo at one time instead of adding one at a time. Ok, enough babble! hahaha

So # 1, This was a huge packet of papers her drama teacher sent home on Tuesday to be looked over, signed and returned the next day for the play they are doing. The play is called "Once on this Island" and Abbey is, Erzulie, the Goddess of Love, it's so her! In a few weeks, they will be putting on the play at a local HS as part of a competition and then they will put it on at a school assembly.

#2, Abbey is taking her SAT's this Saturday and even though she claims not to be nervous (I am!!) she sat down Wednesday and sharpened 20 pencils for the test. One was sharpened down to about palm size. Poor thing, she is nervous. I think I'm starting to regret letting her do this. Ugh!!!! My tummy is all in Knots over this.

#3, Yesterday Abbey changed her baby doll Zack and her Build a Bear Elliana into new outfits and she left their "old" shoes on her keyboard. I walked by her computer room I glanced in and noticed them and thought oh did Anna Marie, my sister, leave Miles shoes here, then I looked closer and started to laugh, they were the dolls.

SWF party.

2009-01-19T22:16:00.011-06:00

Abbey spent most of the day in her Pj's looking adorable until Daniel came home and we headed out to dinner. When we came back home she changed to take a shower and put her clothes in the hamper and Daniel said "Hey little one, you wore those for an hour and a half." We both looked at him and said "Now they're dirty." LOL It bugs him a bit that we germ freaks. Anywho ... There was a scrapping party in a group I belong to from Cafe Mom today (Scrapping with friends)... Here are a few of the projects I worked on between Abbey having a day off from school, house work, laundry and a headache I can't seem to shake. I loved the envelope corner book marks, I'm a avid reader so book marks always come in handy, and the super cute cupcake decoration was too easy to pass up making. I also made a card for another groups card challenge. Thanks for looking! Have a great week.

Abbey and Holly

2009-01-18T23:47:00.002-06:00

Most Sundays, if all goes well, we visit one of my all time favorite people in the universe.... My baby sister Elizabeth. :-) Tonight and I took this oh so goofy picture of Abbey and my adorable 6 year old niece Holly. I decided to use it because it hits the nail on the head when it comes to these two little girls. SILLY times 2!! They were waving to the audience after their talent show (singing, cheers and dancing). The "crown" was from Holly's lunch at Long John Silvers. On the back of the crown she wrote: Princess movie 7:00 to remind herself that on the Disney channel was a new princess movie. Too cute! Notice how tall Holly is ... if they stand up straight Holly is about half a head shorter than 12 year old Abigail. Wowee! When I look at them I can see the two of us, they are so close and even play the way we did as kids .... running up and down the stairs, jumping on the beds, singing at the top of their lungs and putting on shows for the adults. Holly even has her mommy's same precious smile. Sundays are great days!!!

Cards

2009-01-15T22:53:00.003-06:00

These are some cards I made for a challenge in a cafemom group.

On the first one I punched out a little window to the stamped image on the inside, then framed the window by punching out the same scalloped circle from a larger scalloped punch.The stamp is really cute and reads "love Birds". I picked it up from the dollar bin at Michael's a few days ago.

On the second card I used my paper piercer to make the crazy circles around the center. The butterfly is really thin plastic with bling already on it. Super cute!
Thanks for looking!

The Science Fair.

2009-01-13T22:56:00.002-06:00

I used two photos because Abbey wanted her photo taken with her dessert. lol Tonight was the Science Fair at her school and because she won First place (Yay Abbey!!) among the 7th graders she was able to present her project at the fair. Along with her framed certificate and Blue Ribbon she won a 10 dollar movie gift card. She's already decided to see some vampire movie again. lol I have to admit it was a pretty good movie and I wouldn't have minded seeing it again, but this time Daniel gets to take her. Daniel's mom was able to attend the fair and even went to dinner with us. Normally, she is busy watching his sister's children and doesn't make it out to Abbey's functions ... But since his sister changed her schedule things worked out. bla bla bla ... lol I babble, can you tell??? hahaha Anywho, Abbey wanted Chilli's and yumm it was delicious. After dinner she ordered this huge dessert of chocolate cake drizzled in caramel, topped with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream and smothered in chocolate sauce. YUMMY!! Next time I'm just ordering dessert. :-)

Scrapbook page.

2009-01-12T23:17:00.002-06:00

Today I worked on a challenge LO for a cafe mom group I'm in. The aqua mat paper for the 3 inch photo is the last of a batch of home made paper I made about 3 years ago. I was kind of sad to use it but I'm trying to let go of my silly want to save all my "best" stuff. lol It's an illness. I love love love collecting and making pretties but I find it hard to use them. *Sigh* What does make me happy is I have the perfect photo to use for this LO ... it's of Abbey and Daniel playing Rock Band over the holidays. As for the rest of the day, I did my normal things ... flirted with Daniel for a good 20 minutes on the phone while he was at work (Next best thing to in person lol), paid bills, laundry, ironing (my favorite!), cleaning, scrapbooking, and checking out cafe mom. :-) I have a tiny headache but I can't head to bed yet because I have banana nut bread in the oven for my Mom to Mom meeting at Church tomorrow. So now I get to check out the latest 365 blogs.

Angel's Baptism

2009-01-11T23:33:00.002-06:00

I took this very quick photo of Abbey and her cousin Angel after his Baptism today.The sun was so bright and there were tons of extra people at the Church because of the service that I didn't have time to get a good shot. Even still they look adorable. After mass we went to lunch with the Garcia side of our family. Daniel's mom, dad, 2 sisters and their children ... 13 of them (3 were missing) and 3 of "Us" ... we are so out numbered. lol Well, I guess we are "them" too. :-) Anywho, we filled the back of the restaurant. The service took forever and the food was eww. I'd never had enchiladas with cold tomato sauce from a can smothering them, the Spanish rice was white rice cooked in tomato sauce with peas in it .... for a Mexican restaurant. they don't know how to prepare Mexican food. ugh yuck. Daniel is such a sweetheart and kept bragging about my cooking and how we had soft chicken tacos, refried beans, Spanish rice and guacamole last night for dinner. :) Abbey of course had eggs Just like her Papa would have. She can eat eggs for breakfast lunch or dinner. She reminds me so much of him it breaks my heart sometimes. Ugh ok before I get all emotional, lol I'm off to watch The season ending of Stargate Atlantis with Daniel and a bowl of popcorn. Yippee.

Abbey and Apple the Kitten

2009-01-09T23:01:00.002-06:00

I love this photo of Abbey and her little kitten Apple. They were snuggling a bit before bed and Apple was walking all over her purring up a storm. Then suddenly she climbed up on Abbey's chest, reached over and bit her bottom lip! Crazy cat!! Normally, Apple will leap from the bed over to anyone that walks in the room, for a quick trip around their shoulders and a purr that tickles like crazy in the ear. Tonight, however, she thought she'd have a quick nibble ... Abbey was giggling so hard and Apple was totally enjoying her snuggle before bed.

Michael's

2009-01-08T21:43:00.002-06:00

I did a little bit of shopping today. Yay. I was supposed to be looking for next years "Special" ornaments but I didn't find anything I liked so I bought a few scrapbook goodies instead. :) As for the glue runner, I just can't find one I'm happy with so this is yet another one to try and see how well it works for me. I think I'm just a glue tab kind of girl. I also found some super cute chipboard albums for a steal so I bought 10 of them. They also had this pack of mini Christmas stamps marked down from 20 to just under 5 dollars. Oh and the felt squares were too cute to pass up and for a dollar ...I had to get a few. Of course I never leave Micheal's without a few of their fabulous dollar stamps. Even though I didn't find the ornaments the trip to Michael's was worth it. Tomorrow .... Hobby Lobby!

My Scrap space.

2009-01-06T15:08:00.004-06:00

These are a few quick photos of my scrap area. I get a little crazy about how things are organized so once I start I can't stop until I have it just right. I think I reorganized this space and all the things in it 4 times. Some good things about these storage cubes are they hold a lot of things, store 12 x 12 papers with ample room, and the drawers are large enough for even my largest punches. If they came assembled I'd be happier. :)lol I have 3 more to put together ... So once those are up this space will change again and not look so cluttered. But not today since Daniel is off and I'd be crazy to take that much time away from us. Have a great day everyone!

Science fair project.

2009-01-05T23:02:00.003-06:00

So ok, it's a lousy photo but Abbey was too excited to sit still. Here she is with her Science fair project grade and letter to let us know she was selected to present her project to the parents at the PTA meeting next Tuesday with the 3 other kids that scored over 90 . Side note ... I straightened her hair this morning before school and she was really excited to tell me all her friends loved it, more so than the good grade and the upcoming presentation. lol

SAT's

2009-01-01T22:21:00.004-06:00

I decided to take a photo of one of Abbey's workbooks for the SAT's since it's been the focus of our thoughts lately. Duke University is paying for her to take her SAT's this January as part of their 7th grade talent search. She and about 70 other kids in the state have qualified to take it based on their math and science classes and grades. She'll be taking the whole test but they are mostly interested in the math portion. Since she is seriously a math whiz I know she will do well. At first we were hesitant about letting her take it at her age (12) in a room full of high school seniors also taking the test, (talk about some serious pressure!) but after taking to one of the representatives at Duke, her counselor, Math, Science and GT teachers we decided to let her have a go at it and see what happens. If she scores well enough she will be invited to attend specialty camps hosted by Duke this Summer and even start taking online courses. We are trying to make the prep for it all more like a game but sometimes I can see the stress it causes her and I wonder if I'm doing the right thing.

New year's eve

2009-01-01T02:32:00.002-06:00

Normally we ring in the new year at my mother in law's home with about 200 dollars worth of fireworks. Silly I know, but worse still is the fact that Abbey and I are pretty much scared to go outside for a good 3 hours while the neighborhood goes wild. And I mean wild ... I tell you their fireworks displays are almost better than at the AFB! It's crazy. Anywho ... lol That was the main reason we chose to stay home this year. That and Abbey asked to have a few girls for a sleepover / New years eve party since she received some fun sleep over books and games for Christmas. So here is a photo of Abbey (third from the left) and her friends after they screamed and played with huge sparklers for 5 minutes and woke up the neighborhood. LOL jk most were up. Thankfully!! It was nice to exchange new year greeting right on the dot with our neighbors this year ... a first in the 6 and a half years we've lived here. I'm hoping this will be the start of a new way to celebrate the new year .... toned down a lot but really nice!

Introduction to my 365

2008-12-31T00:58:00.004-06:00

My 365 project. I'm one of those people who take my camera everywhere. So this shouldn't be too tough to accomplish ... take a photo a day and give a little spiel about it. Fair warning ... 9 out of 10 will be of Abbey. :) I already know this will not be a daily thing. I have way too many errands, Dr. appointments, household chores, and playing mommy cab to seriously go into this as a day to day thing but I promise I will do my very best to post at least once a week and more if time permits. When I first read about it on Cafe Mom from one of the lovely ladies of Scrapping with Friends, I thought wow, super cool! How marvelous would it be to capture a whole year in day to day photos. We all make time and give it our best efforts to take those yearly special occasion photos but what about the days when our child just makes us glad to be parents and the times they look so cute reading, playing, sleeping .. what ever. The everyday ordinary things our families do to make us happy. For instance just this evening I went into Abbey's room to check on her cleaning progress to find her dancing around her soaking wet room with the mop in one hand and Apple the kitten on her shoulder. That was a moment I would have loved to have captured. Maybe next time.