This is Tammy signing off...

Well folks....since today is technically D-day for me (will be out of town tomorrow on a field trip with Austin...how cool is it that I get to go on a trip to a Chocolate factory for my birthday...sweet!)

Have been spending all day doing laundry, ironing, cleaning the house, getting teacher gifts done (YIKES!! Almost forgot with everything going on) and hopefully tonight I will get most of the packing done for our Disney trip...getting excited! Oh, and we've just been invited to a cookout at hubby's brother's house, so may go to that (hey if I don't have to cook this close to vacation I'm up for that)...yet still have a lawn to mow since I haven't been able to do it the past couple days because of rain. May end up paying the neighbor to do it if we don't get that done....oh well.

Well hope you all have a great week...pray that we get there and back safely, that we don't forget anything major, that we are able to relax and that we come back with many, many memories.

So since I probably won't be able to get back on here by the time we leave on Wednesday, this is me signing off until next week...MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!

Feeling Scrappy....

I know I have plenty of other things I should be doing, but today was just one of those days where I just HAD to play in my scrap room...and I actually got some stuff done! Here is the product of my productive evening thus far:

Ideas for these layouts came from here and here.

So what big plans do you have for the weekend??? With gas prices and hubby working we of course are staying home, going to my nephew's birthday party tomorrow (is it true that he's 16?? Maybe I am mistaken). I will otherwise be spending most of my weekend making my packing list for Disney and start packing...can't believe it's almost here...seems like it happened so fast!

Well whatever you plan to do may you have fun, spend it with family, and take lots of pictures!

~Later Taters.

Just had to share this....

A wonderful little blog friend and crafter who is BTW awesome with doodles made this little doodle for me...check it out:

Not sure if you can see my boys names among the flowers, but they're there...so cute! Thanks Stephanie...check out her awesome inspirational doodles here.

Got my hair cut today...thought I better before the trip.

Well that's all I can think about sharing today...have a great day!

Party a success!

For those who have been curious....the surprise 40th birthday party for hubby was a success...though he thought something was a little fishy (so he says) he had truly no clue and not only that, he was impressed that I was able to pull such a feat off...which in all honesty is a feat since I couldn't send invitations through the mail for fear that he would find them so it was a lot of e-mail and phone calls as many of you know. Here are a few highlights of the day:

Boys are almost done with school...and Disney trip is in about a week...getting excited and extremely nervous...don't feel quite as prepared as I was for our last trip....hoping to spend some major time this weekend preparing and packing....boys are of course super excited....Colton keeps asking if today is the day we leave for Florida...so much fun!

Had a wonderful prayer and worship time this morning....really needed that today...Well I've run out of things to say at the moment...More later I hope. Have a great week!

WHAT?!?!?

All I can say is WHAT?!?!? I'm in utter shock and disbelief....need I say more. Melinda...you rocked girl...you are the American Idol and I can't wait until you get that rockin' record deal and show them all! (Make it a Christian album too...I think that would be AWESOME!)

I know that just because you win American Idol doesn't necessarily make you a star...look at how many people that have won American Idol and are still out there, household names...and have made it totally big...other than Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood haven't heard too much from the rest personally and I hear more from Chris Daughtery than I do from Taylor....I'm just glad that AI was able to allow Melinda to be in the spotlight and shine like the true star that she is...without AI who knows if we would have ever heard from her....Can't wait to hear more from this girl!

Happy Mother's Day

Hope you had a nice Mother's Day weekend...mine started somewhat early. Friday night my nice neighbor's somewhat tricked me by saying they were going to take me out for a girls night out and instead they came over to watch the kids so hubby and I could go out to dinner...It was so nice for a change to go out to dinner and not have to worry about the kids. We even got to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather we've been having which was especially nice. Picture is of the flowers hubby bought me Friday night.

Mother's day was nice...went to church as usual and then went out to lunch with neighbor's and their mom and dad. We ended up going to Z-town initially to go to Golden Corral, but the line was all the way out to the parking lot. We ended up at Red Lobster where we waited almost an hour to be seated and then proceeded to wait another hour for our meal...not exactly the most pleasant experience, but the food was good.

Reflecting on Mother's Day....being a mom is defintely not for the faint at heart...it is a job...and despite it all I wouldn't trade it. I still wonder how my mom raised 5 of us....God bless her is all I can say!

Well got a busy week...trying to hopefully plan a surprise 40th b-day party for hubby this weekend. Wish me luck!

Coltie...

Got his 5 yr. old shots today....he was a real tropper though he cried for the last one, he was great for the first two. I can't beleive in just a few months he's going to be starting school. sniff sniff.

Been a really busy week this week...have lots to catch up on...hope you are having a good week!

Busy, busy

Very busy week this week...at least it's turning out to be that way anyway. May is always such a busy month...

Just had to share this though... Picture of my nephew with my sister's fiance after he won the gold medal in the 100cc run and 6th place ribbon for the softball throw at the Special Olympics. We're so proud of you Treyce! Great job!

Well better get moving...don't want to stay up too late...been doing way too much of that lately.

Beauty

Worked on this in Photoshop tonight....been trying to toy around with it here and there, haven't messed with it in a while until I came across this picture and just had to play with it a little:

Picture of course of me and Coltie taken almost a year ago...used the new Ali Edwards quote brushes I received with my new Ali Edwards kit.

Been kind of stressed lately...like on edge...not entirely sure why unless it's been because of my lack of good sleep...did not sleep well at all last night, but it's starting to thunder and rain right now so as soon as I'm done here I'm going to bed because that is my favorite type of sleeping weather...I sleep like a baby when it's raining.

Well I thought I had a lot to post, but I'm just too tired...I'll post more later. Officially ONE MONTH until Disney...whoo-hoo!

Another Milestone Met...and I'm finally done!!!

So...met another milestone in my family this week...my sweet little Brennan had his first experience with trying to "run away" yesterday. He was having a fit I guess over his Gameboy DS (he was having trouble getting through a level on his Super Mario game I guess) anyway I was trying to help him calm down but he was giving me a lot of attitude and in the end I took the game away from him...after all it's just a game (obviously not to a boy though)...needless to say unbeknownst to me he snuck out of the house and went over to my neighbors where they found him on their back porch when they got home...I guess he was even planning on packing a bag, but decided against that at the last minute. So I guess now the fun begins huh ;-) Thank God for good neighbors who understand my boys BTW.

OK...for those who know me..you'll understand the rest of this post...

Since pretty much oh I'd say about October I had been working on an afghan...finally finished it last night...as many of you know besides scrapbooking, I also LOVE to crochet...another creative outlet for me...I'm not one to just sit and watch TV...if I'm watching TV, 9 chances out of 10 you'll catch a crochet hook in my hand. (Multitasker at work after all)...

This afghan is something I mainly worked on while waiting to pick up the boys from school...it was a great portable project since I had to make oh about 836 of these little squares! Great way though to get rid of my scrap rolls of yarn BTW...and to be honest I could probably make another one with all the scraps I have! So after months of labor here it is:

Well I'm off to find my next project :-) Have an awesome weekend!

Found this...thought it was cool.

Found this on another blog I was purusing tonight...check it out...and do one for yourself.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

He's Ready...

Can't believe this time is finally here...signed up my baby for kindergarten last night...he was SSSOOO excited...he actually thought that he was starting school and couldn't wait to get to the school....of course with his "Here I am" attitude. (grin)

Of course he was all excited about school until Brennan burst his bubble and told him he had to get shots before he started school...of course he's NOT excited about that...but he will be getting his shots May 8th...and I'm sure he'll be fine.

As each day goes by right now I feel like my babies are slowly slipping through my hands and first of all I thank God for blessing me with these little bundles of energy...I wouldn't change it for the world. I know there are days, but when I think about the whole package...it's really all worth it. Yet, it's sad...they are not meant to be here forever I know...(which is a good AND bad thing)...they are only here for me "teach them the way they should go" and then allow them to take what was taught them and make a life of their own. So I will cherish the moments I have on this journey...through memories, through my scrapbooks, through my journals...and hold them in my heart always.

May you take a moment today to cherish the life God has blessed you with.

So much to talk about....

So much to talk about since I was last on here...where to start...hmm..this may be like another one of my rambling posts so forgive me...

Well...went to a play on Friday night with my neighbors...met my neighbor's co-worker...he was really good in the play...impressed.

Saturday...had to clean my bathroom carpet because one of the girls had a little accident Friday night...so when I drag out my carpet machine I usually do as much as I can on a full tank of "cleaner". So I did my bathroom, the chairs in the dining room (which were going to get done next month anyway since the girls will be gone), and my back porch. I even had the boys helping me Saturday with my "spring cleaning" and they actually helped out cleaning the back porch for me, washing windows, cleaning walls...it tickled my heart and we were actually having a good time...it was nice. I also pulled weeds and mulched my back garden...by evening I was whipped.

Also my very good friend (we've been friends since 6th grade) came to visit for a couple hours on Saturday. It was nice.

Traveled to see Pastor Dean and Rachel and Pastor Lisa on Sunday at their church. It was so nice to see them again...and not only that, they invited me to sing on their praise team. It was like old times and though I don't think I did them any justice (they tend to sing a little low for me), I SOOO enjoyed doing it...and I know God smiled cause I was making a joyful noise anyway. They had a missionary speaking at their church and they were so awesome. My hubby was even moved to tears, which I won't even go on that dynamic...but they were really good...they are missionaries to the Indian Reservations in Arizona. Then we had a nice international lunch at the church and then went to a park to visit so the kids could play and we wouldn't get interrupted while we visited...was a great time.

Got home in enough time to go to my Praise Team practice...and I'll be honest....after traveling I really didn't want to go to practice...I was so tired and had a slight headache to boot, but I went...I was 15 minutes late, but I was there...and it was a good thing cause it was just Joann, Michelle and myself. And we practiced anyway and you could just feel the spirit of God while we practiced...it sounded so great (not that I'm bragging about myself...please), but it really did sound good. I was uplifted and I left with a smile on my face and I wasn't quite as tired.

Today I watched the girls of course and got my laundry done and got dinner and fed the kids and had the dishes washed before my 6:00 meeting...I was boogying. Right now I'm trying to get some e-Bay done so I can get some $$ for Disney (taking a break at the moment of course) and hoping to get a church calendar started, some minutes from my meetings typed up...we'll see how it goes.

My baby gets signed up for kindergarten tomorrow ....can't believe this is finally here...wow...also I'll probably sign him up for Safety City tomorrow too...it's a week long thing that teaches kids about dialing 911, stranger danger, fire safety, gun safety and respecting street signs, crossing the street properly...my other two boys went through it...can't believe that it's Colton's turn...suddenly I'm really starting to feel old.

Got our dinner reservations made for Disney....YIPEEE.





Well I better get back to work...

Unfortunately the reality of today...

Just received a distrubing phone call...I had seen on the news about a school in Columbus area was put into lock down this morning...nothing disclosed as to why.

Then I just received a phone call from our school's superintendent that an e-mail threat was sent to an area school (assuming it was the school in question) and that our school district was not one of the school's involved and that our children are indeed safe and that we shouldn't be alarmed (unfortunately receiving a call like that scared me to death and I'm literally shaking). Unfortunately that is the reality of today's society...getting calls like that make homeschooling maybe not such a bad idea...

Keep Virginia Tech in your prayers of course with what they are dealing with and for those sick people who think that scaring people and taking lives is funny or a sport. Pray for our country, pray for peace...pray for our children.

Here is a website I found showing those who fell victim to this senseless shooting...check it out here...my heart goes out to the families. Just goes to show that you never know when your time is up...make sure your life is right cause you just never ever know.

Life today...Randomness

Here I am...hubby is back to work after a week's vacation (much needed for him),

The guy who is taking over the supervisor job at the P.O. passed his test!! One step closer of getting hubby out of that position and back to normalcy..somewhat.

Brennie is away today on a field trip with his class to the zoo

Still cold here in Ohio...we did have maybe an hour of warm sunshine yesterday though...it was nice...would like to see more of it!

Will be heading here on Friday to see a play that my neighbor's co-worker is in about Mark Twain and Teddy Roosevelt.

Here is one of the layouts I made after my No Scrapbooking fast:

Will hopefully be heading to Columbus this weekend to visit our old Pastor and his wife. They are preparing to leave the church they are at now and looks like they may be heading even further away so we thought we would visit before God leads them in a new direction.

Just a comment....there is such a difference between girls and boys...and I don't mean the obvious. Enough said.

Currently my boys are carrying grades of all A's and one B...so stinkin proud of them...especially with Brennan since he's been struggling so much...so stinkin' proud!

Still trying to figure out restaurants to go to for our trip...hopefully get hubby to work with me on that tonight.

So I have been half watching Idol...still...if you have been reduced to watching this awful season as well and actually watched Tuesday night...who do you think is going home?? Still hoping Sanjaya goes, but wouldn't be upset if Chris goes home too. Heard a little of LaKisha's and wasn't impressed with what little I heard...IMO she made the ultimate AI mistake...singing a song by a winning AI contestant...you just don't do that...you're only setting yourself up for disaster.

I am so blessed to have what I have...though there may be struggles and things that even I can't control (can we REALLY control anything anyway??)...I am blessed...hard working hubby, great boys, a home, gifts that God has given me. He is so good to me!

Taht enough randomness for now. Have a great week!

It's Official!!!

Guess where we are heading the end of next month?? It's official....rooms are booked...air travel has been made...unfortunately we have to fly out of Pittsburgh instead of our usual airport, but for a savings of $ 500.00 we'll drive to Pittsburgh! I'm pretty excited...kids are pumped because we are going during this:

They are so excited about seeing the Star Wars characters and all...I'm happy just for them. Daddy I think will be happier once he gets there...the idea of plunking down that kind of $$$ always makes him sweat a bit, but I think once he's there and sees the fun his boys are having he'll consider it all worth it...hopefully ;-)

Today we went to the library and saw this...our local library bought a liscense so they can show movies...so once a month on a Saturday morning they show a family movie...for free, complete with snacks even. Great way to have a family day all together without spending lots of $$...and I'm all for family opportunities without the pricetag! (We can save that money for Disney). Charlotte's Web is such a timeless, great movie. This new version is just as great I think. I remember when I was a teenager and my little brother (there's 16 years between us) used to watch the animated version of this movie over and over and over. Him being the tough guy now would probably be embarrassed to know that I said this all over the internet, but hey what are big sis's for anyway...sorry Luke!

Went and had dinner last night saw this with the neighbors...HILARIOUS!! I laughed most of the movie...hubby especially liked the credits with Ty from Extreme Makeover...Dad, I don't know if you've seen this movie yet, but this is one that has your kind of humor in it...I think you'd like it. This movie just had me in stitches...it's been a while that a movie has made me laugh this much...saw another movie from our Netflix called The Illusionist...recommended by my sister and Netflix gave it a gold star rating...unfortantely I wasn't as impressed...pretty predictable to me and the movie moved kind of slow...that's all I'm going to say in case you haven't seen it yet. Just goes to show you that we all like different things (or that I shouldn't take my sis's advice for movies...just kidding sis ;-) )

Well I think I'm just going to finish up on some laundry and kind of take it easy and maybe play with the boys...too cold and rainy to do much else. Have a great day!

Brennan Update...

For those in the family that have been asking...here is the Brennan update:

Went to the doctor yesterday (btw did I say how much I LOVE and respect my doctor...he's awesome!) He pretty much told me what I kind of already knew...that his sniffing his hands & neck twisting is a nervous condition...his way of coping in high stress situations. So doc gave us these options:

1) See a child psychiatrist and put him on meds (which the doctor and I agreed was NOT an option)

2) Talk to his teacher and see if there is a way to correct any problems he may be having (kids picking on him, stressful situations)...in all honesty I think the teacher is the problem, but I won't go into that here.

3) Homeschool him.

We take him back in a month to see if the situation worsens and just check up on him. So what are we going to do?? Not entirely sure yet, but if it was earlier in the school year I would probably pull him and try to homeschool (though the thought of that scares me a bit), but with only 6 weeks of school left I'm not sure that it would be all that beneficial pulling him like that and then trying to acclimate him to doing "school" at home...the thing I want most is building his self confidence and the thing I want most to avoid is hurting his self esteem...I don't want him to think that he's different or that he's stupid (which he already tells himself that)...I want him to think that even though he may be different in some areas in his life that God made him special and that he's great just the way he is. What I'm thinking of doing is keeping him in school until the end of the year and then try and work with him at home with homeschooling books during the summer...that way I can see how he acclimates and how well I do with it. Brennan is just the type of kid that doesn't do well in big crowds and social situations. I'm not going to condemn him for that because I'm kind of the same way...I was a lot that way when I was younger. God has kind of forced me out of that shell over the last few years :-) So your continued prayers for Brennan will be much appreciated and also for me and hubby as we make decisions about what to do.

And just a note...the snow is gone, but has been replaced by rain which is supposed to last through the weekend....come on spring...we miss you!

I'm Dreaming Of A White....Easter??

Yes folks...I woke up this morning to a white Easter...snow was on the ground. So much for spring I guess. I always say God has a sense of humor...I think it was just God's way of reminding us how with the death and resurrection of our Lord and the sacrifice He made for us...if we accept Him as our Savior, He will make us white as snow. Interesting how God tries to get His point across though isn't it??

Hope you have had a happy Easter...our family just took advantage of some relaxing, naps, and just enjoying each other...and I even got to scrapbook a little today!! HOORAY!!

Many blessings to you!

Thank you for your sacrifice...

I Will Give You Rest...

Hanging on to this scripture at the moment...

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:27-29

Long night last night....Colton is sick. Temp. of 102.2 Just got back from the doctor. He has a cold and an ear infection...possibly strep throat too. Luckily Austin is feeling better though other than a slight cough.

Momma is tired...thank goodness for Tim Horton's English Toffee Capp...wouldn't be functioning at the moment.

So I have the couch bed unfolded, movies are playing, boys are watching, boys are home until Tuesday. So I'm coming to you Lord. My prayer is that You would grant me the scripture above after I get my pile of laundry folded and dishes washed in the sink...Lord just give me a nap...I'll be happy with just a nap. ;-)

Thanks for all the prayers too folks about the last post...you are all so awesome!