Elf yourself

Can you tell I'm a little slow at work!!!! This is hilarious, I've made like 10 of these!

elfyourself

Family Cookbook

We recently visited my family in Florida for Thanksgiving. While there my Aunt said she needed to type all my Grandma's recipes. She's collected quit a few over the years. I offered to type them for her since she has so much other stuff going on, with taking care of my Grandma, working and everything else. So then we thought we could make a cookbook with all her recipes and give them to immediate family members. After even more discussion on the subject we thought we would do a family cookbook. Have everyone submit 5-10 tried and true recipes, along with a memory you have about eating that recipe or cooking it, a family story, or even a photo. This sounds like a great idea, alot of work if I go with adding photos and stuff, but it will be worth it. I hope I can get it done in a timely manner, like in less than a year!! Also for a reasonable price! My cousin, Jesse already submitted his "famous secret chili"...can't wait to try it and all the other ones to follow!!

Wordful Wednesday - A pedi for Dad!

Yesterday the girls found some of their nail polish and wanted to paint their nails. So I let them. Then they wanted to paint mine, no problem. They did my finger and toes, they did pretty good I might add, only getting a little paint on the skin. Well, they didn't want to stop there. They asked there dad if they could paint his nails too and he said no way. They said well how about just your toes. They were so convincing that he needed this done that he agreed, reluctantly! They were very serious about their task at hand (or foot) they made sure he had all three colors, pink, purple and glitter polish. Very cute. His toes look very pretty for a man. I'm sure before he had kids never, ever pictured himself getting his toenails painted by anyone! Well, the pictures below prove just how much dad will do for his little girls.

Here's Kayla working on Dad's pedi!

and Chloe too!

You can just see the concentration on Chloe's face and Kayla's hand cracks me up, so girly!

For more Wordful Wednesdays, visit Angie at angiescircus

Kitty-sitting!

We are going to Orlando next week for Thanksgiving to visit family and spend a day or two at Disney. I called my neighbor to see if her daughter, Cara can take care of our two kitty's, Harley and Buddy, plus feed the fish while we are gone. She's done it in the past and I would usually bring her back a t-shirt or something like that. I was thinking about paying her this time, since she's 12 now and probably would like to make some extra cash. I don't even know how much babysitting, kittysitting, anything like that cost nowadays! I was thinking maybe $5.00/day which would be $35.00. Or give her $25.00 and bring her something from Disney. I'm going to discuss it with her mom first to make sure that's okay with her. I think I'll ask her to bring in the mail too. I think $35.00 is fair or is that too cheap.

Her tasks would be:

Feed them

Give them fresh water.

Clean their litter box (that itself deserves cash!)

Let Buddy out and in during the day so he can have his daily adventure.

Feed the fish

Play with the kittys for a few minutes

Bring in the mail

I'll talk to her mom tonight and see what she says! I might be way off!

Buddy and Harley

Singing Out Loud!

I recently won an Sansa Fuze mp3 player. I have to say I absolutely LOVE IT! It is so extremely easy to use and I rarely leave home without it. I take public transportation to work and it's so nice to just put on headphones and drown out all the bus babble!

The only hard thing is trying to sit still when a great song comes on. I don't want to look like some weirdo tapping my foot or dancing in my seat or belting out the words while sitting on the bus with 50 strangers!! Even when I go for a walk with my music by myself, it's hard to refrain from singing out loud. I love singing out loud! It doesn't matter that I am a horrible, horrible singer and 1/2 the time I mess up the words. It's just fun! That's the plus about driving you can sing at the top of your lungs and no one hears you or really even sees you and even if someone does see you at least it's only a few seconds, so who cares!

On my commute this morning I decided to come up with a list of my 10 favorite songs at the moment that I'm rockin' out to on my Sansa Fuze and wishing I could just sing out loud!!!

1. In this Life - Delta Goodrem

2. come on get higher - Matt Nathanson

3. It's Not My Time - 3 Doors Down

4. i'm yours - Jason Mraz

5. better in time - Leona Lewis

6. the time of my life - David Cook

7. hot-n-cold - Katy Perry

8. gotta be somebody - Nickelback

9. Born to be My Baby - Bon Jovi (really anything Bon Jovi!!!)

10. Bottle It Up - Sara Bareilles

Not necessarily in that order. What are some of your favorite tunes now? And are you singing out loud??

Wordful Wednesday - Cruisin'

Kayla has this new thing where as soon as she gets in the car she climbs up front, puts on my shades and turns the key forward so the radio comes on. I usually just leave my keys in the ignition so I always know where they are. I'm going to have to take my keys out now, because sooner or later she'll figure out how to start the engine and they'll really be crusin!

Sunday morning I was upstairs in my bedroom and I heard bass. I'm thinking what the heck is that, then it quickly dawned those little stinkers must be in the garage, in my car. So I ran downstairs and discovered them on an imaginary road trip jammin to Low by Flo Rida. I think a video camera would have done this more justice, it was pretty hilarious!

At least they know to buckle up for safety!!

For more Wordful Wednesday's visit Angie over at angiescircus

Photo Contest - FUN with FOOD!

5minutesformom is hosting a contest called Fun with Food! The winner receives a $500.00 gift card compliments of Prego for your local grocery store. This is a picture of Chloe, I love the expression on her face..."hey quit taking my picture and clean me up already!"


Stop over and join in the fun and good luck to ya!

Little Angels

Since the girls go to a Catholic pre-school they don't dress up for Halloween. Instead the pre-schoolers dress up as angels and parade throughout the school, visiting several classrooms. Then they had a little party. All the kids looked so cute in their costumes, I wish I could have stayed to take pictures. But since I don't have my "clearance" yet I couldn't volunteer. I'm working on getting my clearance so I can attend a few parties this year. I had no idea so much was involved to be able to help out, classes, background checks, etc. But I guess it's a good thing, everyone wants to make sure the kids are safe.

I think those halo's were really bugging them since they kept falling off. I'm not even sure if they wore them during the parade. Probably not!

Moon, moon, moon shining bright...

I took these pictures last month during the full moon, obviously. The sky was so dark and the moon was so bright, even though it was around 7:00am. They turned out okay for never attempting a moon picture before.

C is for Cookie!

Thanks again to my dad and his military connection he was able to get us tickets to the

USO/Sesame live show. This was such a fun experience for everyone involved. The kids got to sit right up front in all the action. And there was alot of action, non-stop singing and dancing for about an hour. All the characters even came down at times to connect with the kids. The girls absolutely loved it!

Kayla got a special hug from Cookie Monster!!

Rosita

of course ...Elmo and Cookie

Wordful Wednesday - A little lipstick?!

The girls found this lipstick and decided to go to town!!! They did ask me "am I beautiful" of course I replied "absolutely"!!!



For more Wordful Wednesday's visit angiescircus

Kennywood Park

We went to Kennywood Park last month courtesy of my Dad. It was military families day and since he is retired Air Force he got us tickets to go. We hadn't been there since the previous year and although the girls had fun last year, this year they had a blast because they could ride more!

Here is Shawn, Kayla, Chloe, and Pap pap waiting to ride the Mouse Bounce. This

is the 1st time the girls ever rode this.

Their Dad told them to keep their arms up. Here they go, up, up...

Here they come down, look at their little faces. Kayla's even keeping her hands up, what a trooper!!

Shawn and Pappap think this is pretty funny!

Whew!!! They are done and believe or not they said they liked it and even rode it again!!

Pappap's girls

Kayla's not really choking Makenna even though it kinda looks that way!!!

Pap pap pretty much let's them do anything they want. Things my sister and I never would have gotten away with, but I guess that's the benefit of being a Grandparent!!!

they are too much...

Can someone please tell them this is for their baby dolls and it's not meant for them!!!! Unbelievable!!

Pneumonia strikes

About a week ago Shawn was complaining of a cold, then by Wednesday he said he had the flu because he was achy. Thursday he came down to tell me he was having trouble taking a deep breath and he wanted to go to the hospital. We first went to Medexpress but after they did a chest x-ray they said he was too sick for them and needed to go to the e.r. He went to the e.r. and they did another chest x-ray along with a breathing treatment. They said it looks like pneumonia and after his breathing treatment he can stay at the hospital or go home. When I talked to him after the breathing treatment he said he wasn't feeling any better. I told him he should just stay at the hospital then. Because if you can't breath why would you come home. Apparently during the night he was trying to get help from someone and no one would help him, he kept asking the nurse to call the doctor but he never came. When the am nurse finally got to his room around 7am they had to call rapid response then he had to be put on a ventilator to breath and he was moved to ICU. I have to get more details on this situation because the rapid response could have been avoided if someone would have checked on him through the night. The ventilator was doing 100% of his breathing and they said his chest x-ray was 100% worse than the night before. He was on a ventilator for 2 very long days. When they took him off his O2 levels were in the 80's and they want them in the 90's so he been on O2 since they took off the ventilator. They dropped the O2 down to 60% yesterday and this morning it's now at 30% so he is improving. His chest x-rays still look really bad but that will take time to improve. They might move him out of ICU today to a step down unit. Hopefully he will be home this weekend, but I'm sure it will take months before he feels totally normal again.
Thank goodness for my mom and dad they took the girls camping this weekend so I could be at the hospital. And thanks to my friends and family that have offered to help out with watching the girls or with whatever else we need. We really appreciate it.

Surfing allowed!

Last week sitting at work one of my co-workers (a guy) suggested we have a contest on who can gain 10 pounds the fastest. Well being in an office of mostly women we all looked at him like he had 3 heads. But he was on to something since we are a little slow (bored) now the suggestions just kept coming.. like who can sit at their desk without a jacket on all day since our office is like the frozen tundra, that would be impossible, denied! Wear clothes inside out, denied. Have a conversation with someone in the office you don't normally talk to, denied. Walk backwards to the restroom, denied...yeah we must be bored! I said no internet for a week we can only check our emails and go online if it's work related. The five of us that were having this conversation agreed! Which I couldn't beleive. We all put in 5bucks and whoever caved 1st would be out. Let me just say it was quite the challenge. I actually had to call information for a phone number instead of google-ing it! I really can't remember what it was like not to surf the internet. I must have been a lot less informed before internet! Well, yesterday was the last day and NOONE caved, needless to say noone won any cash either! mmm...I wonder what our next contest can be! Maybe who can get the most WORK done at work!!!!

Pre-school update!

I'm knocking on wood as soon as I write this, but yesterday went wonderful. I knew as soon as I would post their dislike for school they would change. My mom dropped them off yesterday she said they walked right into the classroom and told my mom to wait outside for them and that was it! Yesterday was RED day so they read Clifford the Big Red Dog and colored a picture of Clifford. They told me they ate strawberries and pretzels and sang songs. I really hope this is a sign of good things to come for them!!!

i don't like preschool

How can 3 years olds come up with so many reasons NOT to go to preschool. It starts as soon as they open their eyes on a school day.

1. I don't like preschool
2. preschool yucky
3. I'm too little for preschool
4. go to preschool later
5. go to preschool when I'm five.
6. they don't put lid on my cup
7. I stay home today
8. I stay at Bubbies (grandma) today
9. I don't like my school shoes
10. Leave book bag at home

Shall I go on...no!!! The poor kids are so anxious about us leaving them at school, I guess they think we aren't coming back. I've read them the Kissing-Hand and a couple other books about school, they weren't buying it. This morning they watched The Wonderpets (they LOVE the Wonderpets) about the baby blow fish that was scared to go to school. And they said I go to preschool too. My mom said they were fine all morning and even while they were waiting to go into class. As soon as their teacher opened the door they started crying. Mrs. K. grabbed Kayla and Mrs. M. grabbed Chloe and off they went. My mom was spying at the window and they were fine, in a matter of minutes! I think they are totally playing us at this point to I don't know stress us out!!! It's day 8 of preschool and they might be on their way to actually like preschool...I sure hope so.

my gram

This post is dedicated to my grandma Theresa. My gram is 88 years old has been dealing with cancer for some time. The cancer has spread to her liver. She is now living with my aunt (her daughter) in florida so she can have around the clock care. I know that it's bad now, I guess she isn't eating and it hurts too much to get out of bed. My aunt told my mom that my gram saw my grandpap who is in heaven and an angel. He told her ssh because the angel was sleeping. I guess he is waiting for her.

My Grandma is the best Grandma ever. Her and my grandpap moved down to Florida after I graduated highschool. While she lived near us it was a great time. My sister and I would have sleep overs, go to church with her, make cakes she always said we were lucky their were only two of us since there were only two beaters to lick! She always had a candy dish in the dining room that me and my sis loved to sneak candy from. Although I'm sure we really weren't sneaking it because she knew when the dish was almost empty that someone was eating it. We would always watch her put curlers in her hair at night or file her nails or put cold cream on. She is the best cook and she loved to cook. We would go to her house every Sunday for dinner and usually there was a house full of people. My grandpap would play his organ and we would all dance in their living room and just have fun. She is always laughing and smiling and loves to be around her family, she has 3 sons, 1 daughter, 3 daugther in laws, 1 son in law, 9 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. She has dimples just like me and the girls. She would dressup like Carmen Miranda and lip sych a song, i can't remember the name, it was very cute. I really wish I had half the positive attitude that she has, I wish I would laugh or smile just a little more like she does. There so much more I could say about her but I'll leave it at that. I just hope she is comfortable and not afraid to go when she's ready. I love you Grandma.

My gram and Aunt Diane