Check this out!!!!!

Ok, it's not a SOLD sign just yet, it's BETTER!!

What's better than a SOLD sign in the middle of an absolutely awful real estate market???

A friend so talented I am almost speechless............Another blessing to add to my list!!

Petey Pie's, one of my all time favorite Etsy sites, and pretty much the only way I dress my little monkeys, has been written up in the Daily Candy!! Cool, huh!!

Now, I know what you are thinking!! How did I get so lucky to be friends with an amazingly talented cool person that can sew like that? I don't know, just lucky I guess!!

check it out.............Spare the Wad, Spoil the Child


And check out my little model......And Petey Pie's first true love.........

Recovery & Success............

BEFORE........



AFTER.........






Not too shabby.......Of course, I am absolutely exhausted!! The people started pouring in at 7:10 and didn't stop at all until almost 3.......WHEN THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT..........We even had them trying to buy empty tables and shelves!!
People will buy the darnedest things....Like OLD plant food for .50cents or a bottle of caulk for $1.00.

Best thing about the sale (besides it being over), learning how great friends are!! I had my friends and family step up BIG TIME! Ok, so I can add that to the list of blessings! Which I am trying to count on a minute by minute basis....

See below......




Say a prayer and hope my next post will include a SOLD sign...........stay tuned!

What was I thinking??????

Ok, why is it that for a "Garage Sale", you spend days going through all your personal belongings, have internal debates on items to be kept or parted with, more hours spent organizing, tagging, cleaning and displaying the items that will be parted with ONLY TO WATCH IT WALK AWAY WITH A STRANGER..................FOR A DOLLAR!!

Ha! Oh well, at least it will lessen the number of boxes being packed to move........Thank you, friends, for all of the wonderful help....Aren't friends great? I am blessed.........And I really hate garage sales.

Daddy's are great because.................

They can make you SMILE really big!!!



They are much better than Mommy at ROUGH HOUSING............



And work great as jungle gyms..............



Daddy's are also really great joke tellers...........




And even pretty good listeners..........



They dress really funny so we always have something to talk about...(picture is circa 1978 and upon further inspection, a Budweiser and Diet Coke are beverages of choice......back then and NOW)



And did I mention good joke telling? This one involved a fly being down......Not the kind with wings..........



Although this Father's Day didn't involve resting or relaxing, we did manage to squeeze in a little fun...........A beautiful evening at the park after a great dinner of Mexican!! I missed my daddy who managed to plan a trip on HIS special weekend but enjoyed watching the hubby be the best daddy my kids have.......HA........ok, the only one, but he is still GREAT!!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend...............And counted their many blessings!!

Happy Fathers Day...........

The day is just getting started.........

 

Better late than never..................

Our Weekend update.......I really have to get better at these. Know why? because I can't ever seem to remember what we did by the time Monday comes.....getting old stinks!
Anyhoo, Friday night involved a quick impromptu dinner with the Massie family and our little monkeys were pretty well behaved......Although the phone call the next day involving a little vomit isn't the best phone call but we managed to escape that one.......so, we'll call it an isolated incident!!

Saturday afternoon included a Grandparent visit, garage sale prep in the attic with a dear and loyal friend (even if she did rack up on some great hand-me-downs) followed by a fantastic evening out with friends..........

obviously minus my camera.............

If I had remembered my camera, here's the pictures you would be looking at......

4 great friends enjoying a nice evening and really great burgers.

Grandparents at home with crazy monkey's.

The same 4 great friends surrounded by tweens at the Keith Urban / Taylor Swift concert...consuming some icy cold beverages......there might have even been a little late night potty stop in a not so great location.

Another bar stop to meet some out of town family......YES, you read that correctly, these 4 great friends were going strong!!!

Since this "memory card" of my pretend camera has LOTS of space, You might have even caught a glimpse of myself "under the weather" come Sunday at a VERY HOT tennis match.....I can honestly say, it's been a long time since I have felt that bad...and I am TOO OLD for that!

So, sunday brought Aunts and Cousins and Friends and DELICIOUS COFFEE CAKE!! YUMMY.....Thanks Aunt MO!! It was so nice getting to spend some time with them and I probably begged A LOT for more visits! Might have been the goodies or the great company..not sure!!


Weekends fly by and before you know it, it's MONDAY! And this Monday was sports day at Ems' school........Thank you Aunt Trinia!!









Oh, and big papa made some calls.........Hope we didn't call anyone LONG DISTANCE!

Giving back..................

Well, the "Catch & Release" party went off without a hitch last thursday evening........The kids had fun feeding the fish (moms were optimistic that full bellies might prevent immediate consumption of new "smaller" fish) and nobody fell in pouring out their bowls......AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH happy days!! And as one fellow blogger noted, thank heavens I wasn't givin a dog......WARNING TO YOU ALL!!

 

You should be able to click on the picture to enlarge it.......not sure if i am loving the "collage" look but i like the easy loading of multiple pictures.....

Oh the best intentions..............

At the adorable "beach party" birthday we went to (see previous post) on Saturday....... The kids were sent home with a sassy little fish bowl......with fish......in the bowl.........alive.........to take home........and care for........and keep alive........




Flash forward to MONDAY......








Best intentions........All I did was clean their water.........I know, apparently I was supposed to have done something special to the water.....YEP, I get it, NOW, however I did NOT get it then........hence the floaters above!! Now, the reason for cleaning the water began with a fellow party goers brilliant idea of a "Catch & Release" party......you know, giving back to nature........free willy........whatever you want to call it, it was getting the fish OUT OF THE HOUSE!!
So, you can't show up to a party without appropriate attire....that goes for the fish, too, you know........So I decided to "HELP" the fish and empty the NASTY water that had accumulated over going "potty" in their bowls.....Well, I killed them.

So, like every great mother, I did a little improvising (lying) and explained to the 3 1/2 year old and 1 1/2 year old that the fishies were napping.......YES, with their eyes open!!

And then immediately ran to the pet store, spilled the whole story to the poor guy in the fish section (I'm not even catholic, but felt much better getting it off my chest) and came home with 2 NEW fish.........and special drops in case a water change needs to happen again before "Catch & Release" party........

Came home, had a very "Finding Nemo" ceremonial funeral for original fish.....








Flash Forward to WEDNESDAY............





Shit, here we go again....................

Beach Party...........Birthday style!!!!

Happy Big O N E Max & Alex!!!

It is always fun to go to parties given by really creative people!!

Let's start with the CAKE!! Can you stand how cute this is? And so very YUMMY!



And these 2 boys had lots of fun doing the taste test.............As well as the adults!!



Here is our THEMED present to the boys, I forgot to take a picture of the cute crab shirt I bought..........




Some more candid party shots...........









And this is an attempt to snap a photo of some party goers.......Looks fun, huh...

A pleasurable evening......with my favorite people!

The temperature was perfect tonight for a quick taco dinner on the screened in porch!
Big papa was feeling a little under the weather so he actually sat quietly in his highchair instead of his normal hibachi chef imitation with flying rice!!

We played pretend (acted like our favorite neighbors) and enjoyed a great evening.....where was my camera? charging, of course!!

Oh well.......there's always tomorrow.......filled with birthday parties, tennis and friends.....We are counting our many blessings!!

Stay tuned..................

Want to know how to get me to say "how high" if asked to jump??????

Just tell me you want to photograph my babies!!

Ems and I are off for a quick photo shoot...........Will let you know how they turn out!!

Some people work for food, some people work for nice things, I work to buy photographs of my babies.........Sad, well, maybe not so sad, but I LOVE capturing their every moment because time is flying by and babies they will be no more.............

I Heart Faces.............Happy Birthday!!

So this weeks challenge on I Heart Faces is Happy Birthday!!
Since I NEVER win these things, I just went with a few sentimental pictures from both of my monkey's first birthdays!!

You should go and take a look at the long list of adorable pictures other people have posted!!


And, YES, my hair is red!!!!!!

Run by Fruiting..................

Do you all remember the scene from Mrs. Doubtfire where Robin Williams is throwing fruit at Pierce Brosnan by the pool???????????

First thing that came to mind when an UNKNOWN person (my mom) calls and begins to tell me about being completely fed up with another UNKNOWN person (my dad).........

This story continues on about how thoughtless this UNKNOWN person was (my dad) and how sometimes in a marriage, you just get fed up..............

As the story continued about how completely fed up this UNKNOWN person (my mom) was, she proceeded to tell me that she had finally snapped! Yep Snapped!

And when I say snapped, I really mean snapped!

This UNKNOWN person (my mom) grabbed the closest thing she could find, a large bag of oranges recently purchased from the grocery store and began hurling them at this other UNKNOWN persons (my dads) head!!!

That is right, you read this correctly, she HURLED oranges at him.............Now, since this UNKNOWN person (my mom) loves her home, she managed to stay in enough control to not shatter any close by accessories...........And I believe actual contact was made to this other UNKNOWN person (my dad).......

Why do I know that actual contact was made? Because this UNKNOWN person (my mom) got to chuckle every time she would grab an orange from the fridge and see either a dent or an open gash on the orange..........

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH True Love!

I guess after 41 years of marriage, everyone deserves a little "Run by Fruiting" now and then........Although, I may think twice the next time I ask for marital advice!!

Love you guys!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_hnREjAiHc