Hump Day....

Sometimes when I have a day off at the beginning of the week, like this week, it seems to make the rest of the week longer......is it just me?

Did not get much accomplished today after work. Went to p/u Kota-Bear. Mom had p/uped Allyssa from school today. She took cupcakes for the class since it was half days now. My mom loves to do things like that for the grand kids and great-grands. She has always done it since Natasha started school. I remember she worked at my elementary school I am thinking it was Sans Souci Elementary. First grade maybe. Filled in for the nurse maybe. Correct me if I am wrong mom! I know you will. There was nothing cooler for a 6 year old (I don't think they had kindergarden in 1966) that for your mom to work or be at the school.

Came home after picking up Kota, changed her clothes, let Hanzo out in his pen for the late afternoon musings of a 3 month old puppy. He is so funny to watch. Just sitting there all straight backed watching the birds, listening for the noises..... Then we left for church, went by and let Vincent see Kota for a minute while heading for church.

Took both Allyssa and Dakota home and got home myself about 8:55. Headed straight for the shower, watched a few minutes of CSI on SPIKE channel, came in here checked my e-mails, blogged a little bit (evidence of that which you are reading now) and getting ready to head to bed.

What a day, huh!

Hope that they weekend I might get a scrapbook page done, haven't done anything in about a month but collect more patterned paper and cardstock, embellishments, and what-not, as if I don't have enough already........

I think that this is enough for today! I am getting quite tired! :-\

Hot, Hot, Hot!

The end of May and the weather is Hot, Hot, Hot. No sign of any possibility of rain until the weekend and then only isolated thunderstorms. Which means that we probably won't get anything, it usually goes around us. We hear the thunder get a few showers and that is it. Not much happening today. Went to work at 6:00 a.m. only to find out that our supervisor changed us all back to regular hours which is 7:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. I was off Friday and do you think anyone even called me to let me know............... The way I look at it is is the supervisor's responsibility not the co-workers, even though some of my co-workers in our section could have called or texted me to let me know, but it is one of those things that "I thought so and so would tell you" Duh! Hopefully I will find me another place of employment soon.

Oh, I also colored my hair on Saturday, I forgot to mention that in my things I did this weekend! The color is called Dorodo Neutral. Actually it is a dark brown. I have been highlighting my hair forever and it was time for a change. I might add some highlights in the near future but I am not sure yet.

It is 10:00 p.m. here and I am ready to hit the sack....even if I do get to sleep an extra hour in the morning!

Hopefully, I can get back on the internet again tomorrow night. Charter Comm. is coming out Saturday to switch me back to wireless $9.99 extra a month as opposed to 49.99 more a month if I added another modem, I think I will go wireless. Atleast with their wireless that guarantee signal and if if don't work they fix it, great!!!!!!!! Plus they are waiving the installation fee, adding a new telephone line, installation fee waived, will have a new telephone number for the home and in the end I am saving $20.99 a month! Can't beat that!

Well, gotta go for now!

Happy Memorial Day!

For of all let me pause for a moment to remember all of the men and women who have lost their lives fighting for our country. The younger generation these days I don't think have a clue as to what memorial day stands for.

I took this picture of Allyssa when she spent the weekend with us May 18, 19 and 20. This was the first time in probably a year that when it was time to go to bed she headed right to her toddler bed and went to sleep. She sleep all night in the bed. It actually sits right beside my side of the bed. She loves for her back to be scratched before she goes to sleep so I scratched her back and then she was gone. Her dance recital was that night and she was completely wore out. Dakota was with Natasha and Randy at Randy's parents house in Gaffney, SC.

I was off this past Friday for Allyssa's awards day at school. I am so proud of her. She received the following awards: Outstanding Academic Achievement in the following areas: Reading, Math, Science, Computer Skills, and Outstanding Overal Academic Achievement. Of course, Allyssa right now has no idea what all these awards mean. She just knows that she loves K-5 and does not want the school year to end. When we got back to her class her teacher gave out the "100 Club" award (for being able to count to 100) and then her teacher gave all the students a "funny" award. Allyssa got the future teacher award because she loves to play teacher. Which is true, we play it all the time. After all the awards were given out, there was a cookout with Hamburgers, Potato chips, baked beans and drinks. It was a very nice time. Mom, Dad and Natasha and Dakota was there for the awards ceremony. Mom has been very sick for the past week and did not have the energy to stay so Dad took her home. Natasha had to go back to work and I was left with Dakota to watch and try to give Allyssa all the attention since it was her day. My sister works at the school so she helped a great deal by taking Dakota back to her class (computer lab) with her.

Since Mom has been sick all week, we did not go anywhere Saturday. Dakota spent the night with us on Friday and spent the day with me until 2:00 when Natasha got off of work. Allyssa was at her dad's for the weekend. After Natasha got off of work, I came back home and peddled around. Vincent and I went to Corona (a mexican restaurant) for dinner. Yesterday we went to church, had lunch at TR's Oriental with Mom and Dad and then we came home. I cleaned up my truck, cleaned up around the yard. Vincent went to a friend's house who is letting us use a 10 ft. x 10 ft. cage for Hanzo to stay in so he does not roam around the neighborhood and in the road. He don't stay in it all the time, just when we aren't outside. We went to the store to get groceries and all the fixin's to grill hamburgers and then we watched the movie "300". Today we slept in a little, Vincent's has been cleaning up his office ALL DAY, I cleaned out the gutters on the house, talked to the neighbors a little bit, took a nap, and then I came in here and cleaned up my scrapbook room. One of my former neighbors, who comes by the neighborhood nearly every day, (she has a her own landscaping business and has clients in the neighborhood) sold her house recently and had brought a little shelf unit over to Diane's house. I asked her about it and guess what she gave it to me. I cleaned it up yesterday and brought it in the house. Put it in my scrapbook room for my rubber stamps and what-nots. Fits perfectly!!!!!! I cannot get anything else in here!

I have not been able to get on the internet lately. I was wireless and it was not working so Vincent routed me a modem. Well guess what, CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, says that we cannot have 2 modems on the same account and that I have to get a new line run for mine. Anyway to get extra $ out of people. So I have not been able to get the internet but in little spurts and right now it is a "little spurt" so I am trying to get everything in here. So if it goes for a long period of time again, you know I don't have a "little spurt"!!!!!!!

Well, guess I had better go for now, so I can catch up on all my favorite blogs. Chrissy, who have the most awesome pages! I have to check out Ali and Kal's blogs too. Hope my internet spurt continues for a little bit!

Later..........................

Check this out!

Ok, so I am heading home this afternoon after our "third Saturday scrapbooking" group finished and got almost home and remembered I wanted to go the The Scrapbook Company to see if they had any black and white paper and any of the Elsie Flannigan paper. Make a sudden right turn onto Edwards Road at the light and head that way. I have Allyssa with me, (didn't think about that when I made the sudden turn) and we head into the store. As we go in Allyssa asks if she can get some paper, I say ok, you can have 2 pieces, (of course, when she sees all the papers and colors she goes wild, does she have a little bit of me and my mom in her!!!!). She just randomly picks up 2 pieces of patterned paper, then she heads over to the cardstock, picks out 2 pieces. I let you go instead of telling her I told her she could only get 2 pieces. As I am looking for what I went after, she comes back over, can I get 2 more pieces, I say ok, no more. I am still looking for my paper which I have not found yet, so she heads out again, I have found some papers I am getting and she comes back over and asks can I get some more, I say 1 more piece Allyssa no more and don't ask me again. Here I am looking at the Basic Grey paper, and here she comes back and asks if she can get two more pieces and I say no. She says but you got all that paper and I say that is because I scrapbook more than you do (that was a good answer right, no one has to know that scrapbookers are as much collectors of patterned paper and they are memories!). So I tell her she can get 2 more pieces and that is it. So I get my papers, match up some cardstock to some of the pieces I have and head to the check out. Tell the cashier that one stack is Allyssa's and one is mine so she rings up Allyssa's and puts hers in her own bag and then rings up mine. $37.00 on patterned paper and cardstock, what??????????? And as we go to head out the store I realize that I had went through that store and randomly picked out GREAT looking patterned paper and cardstock JUST LIKE SHE DID!!!!!! So she really does have some of me and Mom in her!!!!! LOL Maybe we can sit down and do a page or two with it. And she even told me that I could use some of her paper if I needed to, what a sweetheart!

Sorry Mom, I know I told you I was going home to clean house, cut grass and wash the truck and I did do that as you read on down this blog, but I remembered at the last minute that I wanted to look for that paper!

We ate at Red Lobster tonight and was getting ready to leave when lo and behold I run into my LONG, LOST COUSIN Donny his wife Sandy and their son Bradley and his girlfriend Savannah. It was like old times with Donny, we never missed a beat, badgering each other about who left who a message last, but I was the one who called him and left a message last.

We are going to the lake tomorrow after church to ride the jet ski. Allyssa is going with us. The weather is nice and it is going to be a good day.

Came home from the scrapbook store, cleaned house, me and Allyssa cut grass, I did the weedeating, blew off the driveway, sidewalks, and front porch, we washed the truck, came in and took our baths, Vincent got the jet ski ready for tomorrow and me, Vincent and Allyssa head out to get something to eat. I am about wore out now. I could go to bed now. Miss Kitty is sitting up here in the middle of my desk, (safe haven from Hanzo, who wants to chase her through the house and bark at her, (his way of asking her if she wants to play, I guess) and she looks at him like he is crazy. Allyssa is right beside me, bugging me to get on the computer, Vincent is in his office, probably on the computer, he just got the Windows Vista program from his brother who works at Microsoft and I have to tell you from what I seen on his computer, I am going to get it too. It rocks!
I think that is it for tonight. :-)

Dance Recital Time!

The beautiful princess in black is Allyssa. This was parents' (grandparents') preview day at her dance academy. The recital is this Friday so they went over their recital routines. One routine for ballet, one for tap and the finale. The little girl beside Allyssa is her friend from school Emily Easler. Allyssa loves her dance class and has had a fun time this year. Not sure if she is going to take again next year. I think she wants to cheer. The next picture is Dakota enjoying the music from the sidelines! She was so good, the sat in mine and my mom's lap through the practice and then at the end wanted to get down and run around. The next picture is of my little nest of baby birds. There were (and I mean were) three but when I checked yesterday there was only one. I don't know what happen to the other two. There was no evidence of them falling out or something getting them. Unless a snake did it. We live in a subdivision and have not seen any snakes since we have been here, but I guess it is not unheard of. I really wish I knew what happen to them. I am not sure if they are mockingbird babies or another type of bird. The momma bird looks like a cat bird and she aggravates the daylights out of anything that moves on the ground, dog, cat, black birds.......I don't care that she aggravates the black birds, they don't do anything but hog the bird feed, but Hanzo don't know what the heck she is doing when she starts "cackling" at him and Miss Kitty just ignores her. Vincent is still at work. He worked his regular job, operating a crane and then went to his other job, repairing personal watercraft, (jetski), like Sea-Doo, Waverunner, etc. It is 9:30 pm and he is still not at home. I am getting ready to go get in the shower. Still working on my ideas for the "butt-ugly" scrapbook paper. I have made some progress, it is now out on my scrapbook table with a couple of pictures near it so I can mull it around in my brain for a bit. I forgot I was not suppose to get gas today because an e-mail was sent around trying to get people to boycott getting gas today to see if the prices would fall. And I had kept it in my mind all last week and then what do I do, but go get gas TODAY. I hate it when I do things like that! The weather is HOT. What happen to spring time. When the weather was so pleasant and you could open your windows and let the winter mustiness out and just enjoy being outside?????????????? I miss those days. It goes from cold to hot, no in between anymore. And spring and fall are my favorite times of the years :-0!!!!!!!! Well, guess I had better get in the shower.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!

This is Nick and Natasha. Nick was dressed up for his "8th Grade Prom" and yes that is a cane he has his hand on. These two are the reason I am a mother....these two are the reason I have gray hair at 47....typical teenagers at the time of this picture which was taken about 8 years ago, (that is just off the top of my head). He is 21 now and she is 24. I really miss those days. I got to see them everyday, know where they were and where they were going, when they were coming home, who their friends were and now I do good to see Nick once every couple of months or so. He works out of town and lives about 25 miles away, which really is not a long way away, but he is always so busy when he does get home for the weekend and this weekend he did not get home until Saturday evening. I see Natasha more only because I get the granddaughters 1 to 3 times a week. If I don't have them I don't hear from her. Sometimes you wonder what you did wrong in raising them that they don't call or come to see you very often when they move out. I don't know, I try not to think about it much. We (meaning, me, vincent, dad, my sister Deborah and her husband Randy and one of their children Zach) took mom to Olive Garden for lunch today. Waited 1 1/2 hours before we were seated, but the weather was comfortable, the men did not complain TOOOOOOO MUCCCCCCHHHHHH. Then came home and headed to Texas Roadhouse with Natasha, the girls, Nick and his girlfriend Ashley. Enjoyed the fellowship at both meals, enjoyed Nick and Natasha's continuous sibling humor. They are always cutting up when they are together, but they have always been that way and I miss it sometimes. Well, it is time for me to get ready for bed, it has been a long day and I have to head to my "great" job tomorrow! Still looking for an office job, hope one comes up soon. This is getting old! I really need to clean house one of these days, got the laundry done though! So atleast we have clean clothes to were this week!!!!!!! Thanks Mom for everything you do and for being there when I need a shoulder to lean on. I enjoyed out lunch and time together Saturday as I do each and every Saturday. I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I am living, my baby you will be!!!!!!!!! Sent that to Nick the other day when I texted him, he got a kick out of it!

I'm back!

It's been awhile since I have been able to get on line. Been having internet problems, switched from wireless to modem, a whole lot better. Lot of things was going on in my life but now I think I am back on track! For a couple of days anyway! Let's see, what has been happening. Last weekend, Mom, Alpha (friend of the family for ages!) and I went to Easley to Main Street Memories. Got some more paper (like I need it), and a couple of other things. Janice who runs the place was talking about some ugly paper that they had gotten in and we said it could not be that bad, so she goes and brings us each a sheet of it and challenges us to make a scrapbook page with it. We can use any thing else we want as far as embellishments but we have to use this whole sheet. Well, we ate out words when we see the paper and yes it is quite ugly, but where there is a will there is a way, so we accepted the challenge and I really need to get to work on it. Mom have you worked on yours yet? I know you haven't!!!! Chrissy, I am still trying to catch up on your blog and trying to get around to visiting your new unpubbed site. I did get around to seeing some of your pages on 2peas. Great pages by the way. I need to send you pictures of some of mine, but I have to MAKE the time to get the pics of them. Been sick with a head cold or something, Natasha has it and now Vincent has it too. It is not good when the dh gets sick, b/c they cannot do anything on their own and they whine, whine, whine!!!!!!! I have decided that men could not been mothers....and with that I am going to get off of here and finish making my tea! Check ya later!