12 years ago....

I married my best friend.

The one I laugh with,

the one I cry with,

the one I pray with,

the one I will love forever.

I love you, babe.

Grey's

I finally watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale [trying to catch up on the dvr...]

Tell me you saw it...

It was a complete surprise ending [at least for me ~ maybe I'm just completely oblivious].

I'm not afraid to admit that I bawled my eyes out at the end.

I always check on my boys before I go to bed, but tonight, I wanted to wake them up and tell them I loved them. Mark was already in bed, but I'm glad he wasn't asleep because I definitely would have woken him up. I had to give him a hug and tell him how much I love him.

For those of you non-Grey's watchers, you might be wondering what prompted all this.
At the end of the episode, Meredith was narrating.
Here's what she said:
"Did you say it?
I love you.
I don't ever want to live without you.
You changed my life...
Did you say it?
Make a plan.
Set a goal.
Work toward it.
But every now and then look around.
Drink it in.
Cause this is it.
It might all be gone tommorow."

Live in the moment. Make sure your loved ones know that they are loved.

I Guess We're Going Out for Dinner.....

Sock Chickens, Part 2

Remember this post?

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he needed sock chickens in the sandbox....

Last week after the sock chicken episode, I decided to sit out on the deck and help Evan with his homework there while the other kids were playing. I observed Ryan playing intensely in the sandbox. He was pouring and stirring and mixing and would get very upset if Nathan or C disturbed anything.

Then, I overheard him telling Nathan that he was mixing up the cheese with the breadcrumbs to put on the chicken. The "chicken" was 4 shovels lined up in a row awaiting their crumb coating.

This child tells us almost on a daily basis that when he grows up he's going to go to chef school and become a chef.

He loves watching shows like "Everyday Food" and "Rachael Ray."

And when asked what he was thankful for on Thanksgiving, his first answer was the refrigerator.

I'm beginning to think we have a foodie on our hands :)

It's Official....

Summer can begin.

I've had my yearly begining-of-summer pedicure.

The car is packed and ready.

We're on our way to the beach for our annual family vacation in the Outer Banks....

Life is good, but it's about to get better :)

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please note that all posts this coming week have been scheduled ahead of time :)

Magical...

This used to be my sister, Jill's, favorite word.

Everything was or had to be magical.

Her trips,

her parties,

her graduations,

her wedding,

her house.

I love that Jill thinks like this.

It's what makes her Jill. :)

She and her hubby, Brian, are in the process of making

their yard magical. Brian trash-picked a sliding board

and installed it into the side of the hill in their backyard.

And as if that wasn't magical enough, they put little steps
up the one side with bricks and flowering plants around it.

Isn't that the most magical thing for a 2 1/2 year old?

Nathan & Ava had a blast playing on this Saturday night...

Cheap & Easy

This is my mantle....

I cannot take claim for the creativity here. I stole all my ideas from my MOPS crafts coordinator, Karen ~ she is awesome ~ someday, I will dumpster dive with her!!! :) She was kicked out of the Pottery Barn Outlet dumpster once [apparently you're not allowed to actually put to good use something that they have thrown away as trash].

Anyway, most of the stuff you see came from the dollar store!!!!! Yes, I said the DOLLAR store! And the rest of it was pretty inexpensive [read: found around my house, on the beach, or at Walmart]

the greens....$1

the large glass hurricane.....$4

the sand.....$4

the candle plates....$1

the glass votive holder w/wire handle....$1

You can put this look together, too. Just gather various sized glass containers and fill them with sand. Then you can add shells, candles, votives, black & white photos, greens....whatever you want to give it texture and dimension.

I made the glass votive holder with the wire handle. The glass container was a parmesan cheese shaker for $1 at the dollar store [I bought 10]. All I did was get some wire and twist it into a handle and wrap it around the top of the jar. Filled it with sand, plopped in a votive, and it was complete.

Aren't they cute? And super cheap and easy....

I made a bunch and gave one to each of my sisters and sister-in-law on Mother's Day. I'm going to make some more ~ why not? ~ and hang them along my front sidewalk as decoration.

Mother's Day

Aren't these the prettiest flowers you've ever seen? My boys gave them to me for Mother's Day. And by "boys," I mean all my boys, including Mark. I should have known he was up to something when he asked me if any of my Cricut cartridges had a daisy. He only said he wanted to make something for the boys to give me, so I assumed he was putting together a card.

Not so much....he made these gigantic flowers and had the boys sign the leaves for me. Much better than a Hallmark....

All I have to say is, isn't my hubby crafty? I LOVE my Mother's Day bouquet! :) And it still looks as fresh as it did a week and a half ago :)

Later on, we went to my sister, Megan's, house for a Mother's Day barbeque. We celebrated my mom for being such a wonderful mom, mom-in-law, grandma, and person ~ love you, mom! And my sisters and I celebrated being moms ourselves. You know, motherhood is not at all glamorous, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love my kids and hope they know it :)

Sock Chickens

So, this is what I found when I went out to close up the sandbox for the day:

When I asked Ryan why he went upstairs,

opened his sock drawer,

carried all his clean socks downstairs,

took them outside,

and put them in the sandbox,

he said,

"They were my chickens."

Um, okay...

NSD

You might be asking what is NSD?


For those non-scrappers out there, it is National Scrapbooking Day and it is held on the first Saturday in May every year. Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with some fun ladies from the CKMB and scrap together in Lancaster. This year I didn't celebrate with an online crop or anything, but my sisters, sister-in-law, and mom got together for a craft night. We try to do this periodically and my craft of choice is scrapbooking.

I only got one 2 page layout finished and I have yet to take a picture of it.

I just recently submitted some pages to CK magazine, so I can't share them here with you yet. Here are some other recent layouts, though....

This page was a scraplift from my scrappy friend, Kristen's layout. I loved how she punched squares out of scraps, so I tried it, too.

On this layout, I used rub-on stiches from K & Company. I'd never used them before, but I really like the way they turned out. I think they truly look like real stitches without all the trouble ~ I'll definitely use them again....

Overheard Conversations

R: I'm done. Can I have a treat?

D: You're not finished yet. Couple more bites...

R: I'm not hungry.

D: If you're not hungry, then I guess you don't have room for a treat either.

E: I think he has a section that's just for candy.

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R: I don't like crust. Only on Sundays...

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R, after taking off his shirt: Look at my nickels!

Time Flies

This last week really got away from me....

I was up to my eyeballs in projects...

Mother's Day cards...



and Mother's Day gifts...

I'm trying to get my act together, but this week, it's a new project.

Now, I'm up to my eyeballs in this....

Gotta clean these baby toys and baby clothes out of here for our MOPS children's resale this Saturday. Hoping to make a little extra moolah :)

Baseball or Monsoon Season?

Evan's playing coach's pitch baseball for the first time this year.

He LOVES it! Officially, it's for 6-8 year olds, but he was grandfathered

in as an almost 6 year old at the beginning of the season. I know I'm his

mom and all, but this kid is a good baseball player. He can hit the ball,

he can throw the ball, and he's all business playing the field ~ squatting

down with his glove on his knee :)

Unfortunately, we've only played 3 games out of 6 due to rain. We only

play on Saturdays which have been quite rainy this season and they only

have one make-up day.

Rain, rain, go away!!

Will YOU take the Challenge?

Take a look at your photo albums and if you are a scrapbooker,
your scrapbooks.

How many pictures of yourself can you find?

If you're like me, you can probably count them fairly

quickly because there just aren't that many.

Why is that? Well, for me, there are a few reasons.

1. I'm usually the one taking the pictures.

2. I'm the one who uploads them to Snapfish, chooses the shots

I like and order prints. Pictures of me typically don't make the

cut. Dark circles under my eyes is probably number one reason

why, followed by unflattering pose [read:muffin top], unflattering

angle, or that in my mind, It's just not good enough.

However, I have been making a concerted effort to have more photos

taken of myself, not only "Just Me" but also with my hubby and my

kids. Even if that means I have to do the old "hold the camera out as

far as my arm will reach and take my own picture" technique :)

My friend, Emilie, recently set up a challenge on her blog through

flicker. The challenge is to make a greater effort to get in photos with

your kids ~ no matter what you're wearing, how much cover-up you

need, or how much weight you think you need to lose. The point is

that your kids don't notice and will not care in the future about those

things. What they will notice is that you loved them and what better

way to capture that than with a photo?

Here are some of my recent attempts...