Friday, April 29, 2011

I'm saailing aaaawaaaaay!

No, not really. I just couldn't think of anything else to title it as. (Yes, I know I broke like 6978 bloglaws.... why?)
Anyways! Yesterday we had some more storms roll thru. This time Bug was home. Before the storms even got anywhere near us, I ran down the plan of action with the kiddos. Monk acted like a pro! "Yeah Mom... I know... we put on these bike helmets, get in the bath tub and huddle together in a downward motion." Bug on the other hand didn't really know what to do, so we showed her a few times and got on with our day.

We went to WalMart to get some tape and exchange our digital scale for the candle company. It was about 8:30 when we got there. It was almost a ghost town! There were very few cars in the parking lot, and there was only one person in the "speedy check out" buying smokes. I chatted with the cashier, we joked about the upcoming weather and how people around here go crazy in any type of weather. Which is pretty true, but I think that this freak out was just a bit warranted considering we had 3 confirmed tornadoes in town (Up to F3s!) less than 2 weeks ago. One of the guys that I used to work with was posting on facebook about how he thought everyone was stupid for being so freaked out about the storm because it's spring and we always get storms. I reminded him of the tornadoes and he responded with "Well, they didn't hit me, so what do I care?" I was a bit astonished really.

Then we get a knock on the door. You know that knock... the "Police knock"... that was the one! I sort of froze a bit and then decided that I should answer it. I always get nervous when I hear knocks like that. I think it comes from a few things really. 1) We're in a military town... everybody HATES hearing knocks like that... especially when their loved one is deployed. 2) Sam is still considered active duty, and the thought of something happening to him at work scares the bejesus out of me! 3) Because it scared the bejesus out of me! It turned out to be the UPS man delivering our Raspberry and Strawberry plants! I still can't believe we got SO many!! Now we just need to hurry and make the final prep for the strawberries to go in the ground! ACK! Sam says he's going to work the ground by hand.... somehow I think he's going to peter out before he gets it all done, but he could surprise me! The raspberry bushes were sent in a dormant state, so, we won't be enjoying any raspberries this year, but next year we should get at least a few! (I hope! LOL)

The storm finally approached and it wasn't all that bad. There was a little bit of lightning and a lot of wind! We went thru a "live" drill, where we packed everything into it's spot (important family documents and house insurance info in a waterproof bag with us) and got in the tub. We only stayed there for a little bit, but it was a run! Of course, the dogs were another issue. We didn't want Lilly getting under one of the beds and be struggling to get her out in a REAL emergency, so we shut all the doors to the bedrooms. She decided that under the very bottom section of the table would be a fantastic place to hide. Good thing it wasn't a REAL emergency, I don't know that we would have been able to get her out of there! We finally decided that everything was going to be just fine, and I made taco salad for dinner. We sat down to eat and then the Heavens closed and it suddenly went dark and a DOWNPOUR came. There was TONS of lightning and it was amazing! About 20 minutes after that the Heavens opened again and the sun came out and there was a gorgeous rainbow!

Greys Anatomy was new, so I went to bed a happy camper!!

Prince William and Kate got married this morning, but I managed to get ready to go jogging and fall back to sleep! I have no idea how that happened! Anyways! Now the kids and I are going to go to Sams Club and buy about 685462168 cans of veggies! :-D I hope they all fit in my truck!!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter!!

Well, those of you that know me, or follow me on Facebook, know that I spent all of Saturday making a new Easter dress, and if you follow me on Facebook, you've also seen these pictures! (So sorry...)

Sam bought me a sewing machine for our anniversary last year. I told him I wanted it... I told him that I would use it all the time... that I would start making my own clothes, and Bugs clothes, and that I would even learn how to make him and Monk some clothes! (Do you know how hard it is to find patterns for guys?! Seriously!) Well, In the first year I had the machine, I managed to make a couple of coats for Dusty, make a couple pillows and make a Cat in the Hat costume for a friend of mines son. Other than that... it's not really been used. I feel kinda sad about this really. I have this perfectly good sewing machine just sitting in my closet!

Well, I finally bit the bullet and decided that I was going to make my own Easter dress this year! I got out my handy Chic & Simple Sewing and picked Sam and I picked one out. It was pretty easy! I can admit that I did get a little confused reading the directions on how to put the neck together. It does have illustrations, but, not really knowing anything about sewing, I didn't really get what it was saying. It still looks very nice tho! :-)


In all it took me about 8 hours to make the dress. 1 hour of it was just making that white neck sash!! ACK! It was about 12:30AM when I got to that, and I spent an hour just turning it right side out, and that was with Sams help! LOL I had to laugh in the morning tho. I magically woke up at 6:30 (yes... after 4.5 hours of sleep, I woke up without an alarm.) and decided that I was going to finish up the last bit while everyone was sleeping. There wasn't much left, just hemming the bottom and cutting all the loose threads. I couldn't get the stinking thing to lay flat while I was hemming, so I just used some bias tape and sewed it right up! Everyone really liked it! I'm still in the losing weight section of time right now, so, it didn't fit PERFECT, but, it did fit well. The only thing I would have liked to have changed was the arm loop for the side that doesn't have a tie was a bit too tight for my liking. Of course, I'm used to wearing t-shirts about 95% of the time, the other 4% I'm wearing tank tops, and 1% closer fitting clothes.

Monkey finally got his wish of having his mohawk up and wearing his new sunglasses. He was happier than a pig in poo!! He looks so handsome in his khaki pants and mint green shirt. His hair is getting really long as well! Our Associate Pastor and him have a pretty good understanding of he wants to be like him when he grows up, which is fine by me. Our Associate Pastor is so very nice, and very down to Earth. You wouldn't think by looking at him (and his 2ft tall mohawk) that he would be such an awesomely nice guy!

I asked Buggy if she wanted me to make her a new dress for Easter as well, and she said no, she just wanted her reversible dress sewed up. I'm not quite sure if it's meant to be reversible, but, it has a cute pattern on either side, and no tag, so, she can chose to wear the paisley side, or the polka dot side. She chose the polka dot side. (I think she might have it on backwards, but with no tag, there's no way to tell!! LOL)

Unfortunately, we didn't get a family shot, or even a me & the kids shot! We went to the early service (9:30) because Monk and I were helping in the nursery for the 2nd service. I was in with the babies (under 1) and Monk was helping in the 2-3 year olds. There were 11 babies in the nursery! Apparently in the 4-5 year olds there were 22!! ACK! I couldn't imagine that many in a room no bigger than a bedroom!! LOL

Anyways... I know you're dying to see a picture of ME in the dress... so... here it is!

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter! I'm off to pour some candles, and make another dress!! I also got a very nice silky purple fabric that I will use with the white to make another dress. I'll post again when I get it done! :-)

Friday, April 22, 2011

Earth Day!

So... I was going to write this great lil ditty about how we do our part to protect Mother Earth... but.. then I got lost in Laundryland. It's a terrible place I tell you! If you can avoid going there, I suggest that you do... at all costs! Tho, visiting Laundryland does make it considerably easier to not smell... and not be sunburnt! ;-)

I do want to take a bit to comment on ways that we do try to do our part to help the Earth.

  • We turn off lights when we aren't in the room.
  • We turn off the AC/heater when it's not needed.
  • We try to buy produce that is locally grown when we can.
  • We're starting a garden, and already have fruit trees and will be planting grapes and blueberries this weekend.
  • We recycle everything that we can.
  • We compost our kitchen scraps.
  • Sam has a hybrid car.
  • I don't drive unless I need to.
  • We donate clothes to local thrift stores, or resell them so they can be reused.
  • We don't use paper towels.
  • I shred and use our "junk mail" as packing for our candle company.
Those are the ones that I can think of right now. I'm sure that we do more, but, I just can't think of them right now. I'm sure had I done this post when I had it on my mind, it would have been a more informative post! 

What do you do to help Mother Earth?

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Oooklaho... wait... Nooorth Carolina where the wind.... wait... what?

So... as some of you know, there was a LOT of bad weather that swept thru North Carolina tonight. So far, at 10PM 16/April/2011 there have been 62 tornadoes in North Carolina, and at least 2 in Jacksonville. 

Don't worry, we're okay!! We live on the west side of town, more over towards Richlands, and the most severe weather was on the north side towards Hubert. 

There was some serious weather here tho... and there is more and more information coming out all the time as well... if you would like to read about what's going on here... click here for information!

It's already Saturday?! :-(

So, we all had a fantastic time with my sister visiting!! They got here about 9pm on Tuesday. I let the kids stay up until they got here because I KNEW that if I didn't, they weren't going to go to sleep anyways! So, they got here, and we did a lot of hugging, and kissing, and professing how big the kids have gotten etc etc. Then I made the kids go to bed so they could get up and go to school the next day. (Yeah, I know) I did kinda pull a fast one on Monkey tho. He had a doctors appointment at 3, so I went and picked him up at about 2. As soon as he comes out of the classroom he's running up the hall towards me saying "Are they here?! Are they here?!" I laughed and told him no that he had an appointment. He said "Man! I was hoping they were here already!!!" He's so cute!!

Wednesday we did some running around in town. We went to Toys R Us to get Monkey a K'nex Ferris Wheel that he had been wanting (I guess... because he never said anything to me about it!! LOL). This thing is REALLY cool!!

 When Monk got home he put it together in about 30 minutes. It's about the only bad thing in buying him stuff like that. He puts it together really quickly and then doesn't know what to do after that! I think I'm going to try and broaden his horizons and see if he can make something that's NOT in the instructions!

They also got Bug some Squinkies. For those of you that don't know what those are...

except hers have hair. They're like tiny Troll dolls! They don't really serve a purpose, and they're REALLY small (think plastic gumball containers that have those little rings in them). Of course... Troll dolls didn't really have a purpose either... and we even had clothes for those things!! Wednesday night we had hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. It was tasty!!! 

Thursday I let the kids stay home from school. Yes... I let them skip school. It's one day, and they haven't seen their aunt in 2 years, so sue me! We all went to Topsail Island and hung out there for a while.

I put sunscreen on Monks head, because he rarely takes his shirt off in the house, much less public! Turns out this was not going to work. He took his shirt off and his blinding white skin was exposed. I told him to go have his aunt put some sunscreen on him when he put his shirt up near our stuff while the rest of us (his other aunt, sister, and myself) were looking for cool seashells. Apparently it didn't translate well and he didn't get sunscreen. Then I thought she said he didn't have any on his belly... she really said BODY! He now has a pretty good sunburn on his back. I, on the other hand, bring the sunscreen, apply it to others, and magically forget myself...... every time! I have a sunburnt face and arms. My arms are almost brown now... interesting... no peeling.... yet! We have dinner at Mikes Farm, which is one of our FAVORITE places in all of the area to eat. We all came home and fell into bed with full bellies! 

Friday, the kids went to school again, and we did a little more shopping! My sister got a new pair of Dr Martin boots! MAN! I really want a new pair!! The only bad thing is, they don't have ladies, or sandals! :-( Then when the kids got home from school, we played a little Ultimate Band and went to Emerald Isle for some dinner at Jordan's Seafood

It was pretty good!! Our waitress was AWESOME! We ended up leaving her a pretty good tip as well. We went across the street to get some tourist goodies. My sisters got a couple sweatshirts and t-shirts. Sam bought Monkey a solar powered flower bug, and Buggy a couple of shirts, and he got me a couple of turtle things because he knows my thing is sea turtles (and sloths... but you don't find many cute sloth items...). 

This morning I woke up with the sun to get Bug off to go to the Great Wolf Lodge for her Girl Scout trip. They left at 6:45. Around 8 my sisters woke up and started to get everything ready to get on the road, and at 10:30 they left. :-( I already miss them, but I know that they have to go home and take care of their lives at home. I love you guys!

Maybe next year we will have to go up to Ohio and visit everyone, but I think it would be in August.... when it's warm. have you seen the weather for this time of year up there??? (High today is 55!! No thanks!! LOL)

Today, we've got to go to the Farmers Market again and then Sam wants to look at a gun and then we're going to clean the house. It's going to be an icky icky ICKY day today... so... we're staying in today! :-)

I ordered the wrong sized wicks for the candles... so I'm ordering more of those and then Charwood Candle will be fully operational! We will be selling our candles for $9. But, if you would like to pre-order, let me know and I will put you on the list!! 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

*heavy sigh*

I'm feeling a lil down today. Despite the fact that my sister will be here in like 6 hours, I feel like pooh. I have no motivation today. :-/

I keep checking the orders for the candle supplies. I wanted them here already. Yes, I know I don't have a teleporter, but dangit! I dunno... maybe it's the fact that I'm trying to get my family members to help a little more around the house and the one person that I want the most is just not picking up their end of the stick. It's hard to teach children responsibility when only half of their parents are showing them how to do it. I can admit... sometimes I'm not the best model either!

I hate having to be bossy and angry! But it seems like when I am... things get done. Nobody seems to want to do anything before I have to yell about it. The kids are getting better... Sam... not so much! He just doesn't care. I think that makes me even angrier than him not doing what I've asked. MANY friends say "It's just a guy thing." but I don't want it to be a "guy thing." Because that means that I've either got to learn to deal with my husband not caring if I'm upset... or I'm going to have to learn to not care myself. *sigh*

Case in point... I HATE being late. I was perpetually late when I was younger. I didn't care. I didn't even wear a watch (I still don't but I have a cell phone... )Now? It really bothers me when I'm late for something, especially if it's something that I want to do. This past Sunday, I was up at 7, Bug up by 7:30, Monkey up by 8. I told Sam to get up at 7:30 so he could go take a shower and we could get to church a bit early and whatnot. NOPE! He dinked around until 9:15, we didn't get in the car until 9:20 and church starts at 9:30! (And no... we don't live 10 minutes or less from church) He can't understand that I want to get to church early... so I have time to get to my seat, to chat to others, and really be ready when worship starts. Instead, we show up late, I have to find my seat in the dark, no time to talk to anyone, and worship has already started. FRUSTRATING!! His excuse is "It's the weekend, why are you always in such a hurry?"

*heavy sigh*

Is it seriously too much to ask? Am I just destined to always be late if I want our family together for things? I don't WANT to take 2 cars to church! It's wasteful and bad for the environment. He says he wants to be more green, he bought a hybrid car so he could reduce his carbon footprint, and to save on gas. but, I'm really failing to see where it goes any farther.

ANYWAYS!! I'm going to go finish cleaning up. I just heard the dryer stop. I threw the sheets and pillowcases in the wash so my sister would have fresh linens.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Rolling right along!

So, I failed again this week for Project 365! I stink!! I swear! :-(

Anyways! On to good news!

I got my new shoes. Sam gave me a $100 budget for running shoes. This is how much I paid for my Nikes, so, that's what he was expecting, especially since I told him that I wanted a pair of Brooks that were $80. Well, I went with my friend Keona to breakfast, and then we went shoe shopping. I found a GREAT pair of Adidas that I fell in LOVE with! They were grey, white, and light baby blue! They were comfortable, and PURDY!  Then I found a pair of Asics that I fell in love with the gel padding in it. They are one of the most comfortable pairs of shoes that I have ever worn. So, I bought them both. I got them BOGO 1/2 off, so, with tax and everything for both pairs of shoes I paid $95! I immediately called Sam and said that I had good and bad news for him. I then told him that the bad news was that I had bought 2 pair of shoes. Of course, his reaction to that "Why did you do that?! I told you that you had a $100 limit!" Then I said, "Well, the good news is that for both pair I paid $95 total." HA!!

We've bought a few things that we've needed for a while. We got some lawn stuff. We got some new hedge trimmers because our old pair broke. A pitch fork because Sam is starting a compost heap. We got some new mulch for the trees, and a few other things in the way of lawn care products. We also bought a couple grape and blueberry plants. We probably won't have any of those this year, but we should have some apples and pears! We bought those a couple of years ago and last year the apple trees produced a couple of apples, but nothing that really would have made anything.

Our biggest purchase was a new desktop computer! It's something that we've needed for a while actually. All we had was the laptop that Sam bought after his last deployment.... in 2007. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved that laptop, but, it was coming to the end of it's life! If you didn't keep it plugged in ALL the time, it would die within 5 minutes, it was barely running some of the programs that we needed to run. This one will be able to run the programs and then some! I did have a little hitch when we first got it home tho. I set everything up, I had to put a hole in the bottom of the desk because I didn't have anywhere else to put the stinkin tower! Then, I had to undo everything and redo it because I put it on the wrong side!! ACK! THEN! I couldn't get the wireless to work. I finally called Staples, which is where we bought it from, and they tell me that it didn't come with wireless ready!! GRR!! I had to break out my old trusty USB wireless adapter. Oh well! It works, and that's all that matters. :-)

OH YES!! I finally got to order the supplies for Charwood Candle! A week from Monday, I should be receiving all of my supplies and I will be able to rock and roll!! I've even already had my very first custom order! A massive 4.5 pound candle!! It's a good thing the customer is local, I don't know that I would have the ability to actually ship that! If you want to check out our candle blog you can do so here.

Things are winding down here for the evening, and I'm getting the kids off to bed, and then I will put myself into bed so that way I can get up bright and early and go jogging!

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, and that your week is just as great!! :-)

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Really awesome giveaway!

Amy, over at Positively Splendid, is hosting an AWESOME giveaway!!!

It's a Elmers Party and she's giving away these:


X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors
X-ACTO Gripster
X-ACTO Circle Cutter
X-Acto Precision Scissors
Craft Bond Tape Runner
Craft Bond Extra Strength Glue Stick
Craft Bond Glue Spots
Craft Bond Photo Corners
Craft Bond Fabric and Paper Glue
Painters Markers
Gel Pens
Elmer's Bi-Fold Foam Board

Uh... yes please!! Go enter... and if you win... share with me? ;-)

Click here to enter!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Make-up Drawer

So, today, in my adventures of spring cleaning, decided that I was going to clean out my make-up drawer in the bathroom. Considering it was one of the "big tasks" in the bathroom, I wanted to tackle it first.

Now... that makes it sound like I have a TON of make up. I really don't, it's just everywhere! So, what I did was this
1) took the entire drawer out of the cabinet
2) tried to figure out HOW I was going to organize my drawer and still keep it free
3) aimlessly searched around the house for a while
4) spied a USPS flat rate shipping box
5) folded shipping box to see if it would fit
6) jumped up and down with joy that it did
7) cut apart shipping box
8) super glued sections into box
9) painted box a pretty shade of green
10) waited not so patiently for the paint to dry
11) loaded junk back into drawer
12) marveled at my creation while husband asked "That took you an hour to make?" *insert evil glare*

And... that was about all I got accomplished today. It was a pretty big thing! Not really...

I did manage to get a before (after all the junk I was going to throw away was weeded out) and after picture! :-D

(click it to make it bigger)

Now, instead of digging around screaming "WE'RE GONNA BE LATE TO CHURCH!!!!!" I can quickly find exactly what I'm looking for. I'm quite proud of my little drawer divider, even if it is only made out of cardboard, super glue, and paint. 

Now all I have to do is put things back in the right spots when I'm done with them and I will be doing great! :-)

Monday, April 4, 2011

I'M ALIVE!! (sorta...)

So, I've been UA (for you non-military folk that's Unauthorized Absence) for a while. I apologize. I really do. But... life has been getting in the way of my blogging time! Quite a few things have happened since my last blog post!

1) I did, in fact, start C25K! Tho, I did skip this morning and now I feel like a total poop for not going. I did 3 weeks of the program and didn't skip any days, and then I miss this morning! *pout* To be honest, I THOUGHT I was going to be sick this morning. Not like, throwing up sick, but stuffy nose, sore throat sick. It turns out that it was only because of sleeping all night that my nose was stuffy and my throat hurt. As I lay there saying to myself "I'm sick... I hate being sick!" trying to battle dogs and hubby for bed space and blankets, I realized that I really wasn't sick and I was starting to feel much better, but, by that time it was getting to late to go running. :-( If it's not raining in the morning I will go, if it is, it looks like Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I will have back to back running days! ACK!

2) Monkey got a cell phone and we cut the house phone. Who really needs a house phone anyways? Other than Bug... who now doesn't have a phone number for her friends to call her at.. other than my cell phone. Oh well, I guess I don't mind too much. Does it make me question whether she should have her own phone? Sure! Does the thought of my 7 (almost 8) year old having a cell phone make my eye twitch and question my sanity? Absolutely!

3) We got a free paint sample from Valspar, and I chose a color close to the one that we will be using to paint Bugs room. It's really pretty up on the wall, but we've got a LOT to do before we can paint her room. I do have plans to put up a cork board so she can hang all of her papers and whatnot and not have tiny holes all over her walls. There are a few other things that I would like to do for her room as well, like put up a chandelier and other things, but, that's not in the budget right now.

4) My sister and her girlfriend are coming down to visit us in about 2 weeks! I'm SO excited!! I haven't seen them since Christmas 08, which was right before Sam and I got married, and the kids haven't seen them since summer of 09! Wow... crazy to think that I've gone that long without seeing parts of my family. I seen my mom and my other sister just this past summer, but I haven't seen my brother since December of 08 either. I guess at some point in time we're going to have to go to Ohio for a visit.

5) I have no idea which days are which on my P365. I'm a terrible photo taker, and I feel like a failure. :-( I'm going to restart it today

6) I'm a thief, but it's okay, I was told to steal by the original owner. (Yes... that sounds strange... LOL) We live at the end of a cul de sac. There are 19 houses on our street. We have the neighbors with the giant house, and then Mr Toms old place. Mr Tom lived across the cul de sac from us, and right beside our neighbor, which would make him our neighbor as well. Well, Mr Tom is an older gentleman, and he sold his house (which was GORGEOUS and I wish we would have bought it instead of ours) and moved into a nursing home. Mr Toms wife passed away right before we moved in (I think). Mr Toms wife always planted beautiful flowers all over the place. The new owners aren't taking very good care of the place, and currently aren't living there because there is no electric or water. Well, Mr Tom told our neighbor to go ahead and take any of the plants that she wants because they're going to waste because nobody is taking care of them. So, my neighbor and I went over there and pulled up quite a few flowers and a couple of Forsythia (I think... LOL) and planted them in MY yard! So... that makes me a thief. :-/

7) I still haven't finished trimming the Crepe Myrtle. I dunno how the heck I'm gonna reach the branches way at the top without tromping all the flowers underneath! I guess I will have to see if someone has a ladder I can borrow. Oh the joys of not having a shed! We're going to have to remedy that very soon! I'm tired of my lawn mower being outside under a tarp, and my gardening tools being in my laundry room! *grumble*

8) I am a parent of a Pee-Wee Football cheerleader. Bug BEGGED us to let her be on the squad this year. So, after a talk with Grammy and Panpaw Punkin-head, she had a check in the mail for the cheerleading fee. (Yes, we're poor... but we're working on that!) We signed her up on Saturday, and she even seen one of the girls in one of the other 2nd grade classes from her school signing up as well! She's very excited to get started. Maybe when we get all our debt paid off we can afford to send her to some tumbling and cheerleading classes! I'm sure she would love that.

9) We've started a "Family SOP" system here in our house. We just implemented it on Saturday, but, so far it's working well. My living room and dining room are spotlessly clean, and the kids rooms are pretty clean as well, and the kids/guest bathroom is rather clean to boot! That just never seems to happen, but it is! The only thing left to perfect is that kitchen. It will get there. I gave Sam the task of putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and I get to hand wash all the pots and pans.

10) I don't know what else to write about right now... but I will think of something, hopefully tomorrow, and be back! :-D