Friday Fragments 1.30.09

My Friday Fragments are so late today....but I am a busy girl these days.... lol

• I've gone to the gym for 5 whole days in a row! YEA! I don't know if I'll make it on the weekends but everyday during the week is awesome for me! Now how long does it take to make the pounds come off??? lol
• Speaking of the gym...they have this Treadclimber machine. It's like a treadmill and stair machine in one. I really like it. It gets my heart rate right up there and really kicks my butt!
  
• I made some homemade brownies from scratch off the back of the egg substitute carton. BIG MISTAKE! They were awful! I threw them away and decided it's worth an extra WW point to use real brownie mix and substitute the eggs & oil. Much better!
• Can you believe it's just about February already? Where has the time gone? It was just Christmas!
• Do you have any secrets for folding king size fitted sheets? I can't do it and they just end up in a big freakin' ball in my linen closet. Someone must have a nifty little tip for me!
• Our dream of having a little cabin in the woods is a wee bit closer. Yippee Skippee!
• Where are all the blog readers? I'm not huge but I used have comments and visits pretty regularly...they are next to nothing these days. Where are you???
  
• Come visit next Tuesday....I'm having a giveaway from Color Me Company!
  

Sassy Sparkle...add some bling to your wardrobe!

I got the cutest shirt today....a Swirling Hearts rhinestone shirt from Sassy Sparkle! The shirt was wrapped nicely in tissue paper and then placed in a nice white gift box...it would be perfect for gift giving. When my daughter saw the shirt, she was so excited because it would match her new earrings....and she wants to wear it every day until Valentine's day. (I think that might be a bit much, huh?) The dazzle and sparkle on the shirt is amazing!!!!

These shirts are a great way to add some *bling* to your little diva's wardrobe. Diana has lots of styles to choose from sayings....to pet designs....holiday designs... there's even a shirt for you Twitter Addicts! What about a bling tshirt for your little princess' birthday? Or your blog name in sparkle for Blogher? Have a little cheerleader? You can bling out a shirt for her!

With almost all her designs you can choose what you want sassed out....adult & youth tshirts (long or short sleeves), dresses and even infant creepers! Choose your size and your color too. Diana uses only the best....Swarovski Crystals. You can choose the rhinestone colors on a lot of items for a truly custom item!

Each shirt comes with complete care instructions...the rhinestones are very sturdy so I doubt you'd ever have a problem. And the tshirt sizes seem very true to size.

I think her shirts are great and would definitely purchase many of her designs for my daughter, friends or my nieces! Go visit Sassy Sparkle and support a work at home mom! Enter code mayhem to save 10% off your order...but hurry the code expires 2/28/09!

My brush with fame...

....well not really. I just got a picture & autograph. Back in 2004, I went to see Barenaked Ladies in concert. (LOVE THEM!) Gavin DeGraw was opening up for them. The chick in front of us was a huge GDG fan and chatted me up and somehow sucked me into going to stand in a long line to get his autograph and picture taken. (I think it was because *I* had a camera and could email her her pic!)
Nice, huh? This is the closest I've ever been to a celebrity. Wait...I did get autographs from the band White Lion in high school (we couldn't find Cinderella). Yea....I'm so cool!

That's it.

Now it would have been great to have had my pic taken with Ed Robertson...that would have been cool.

What celebrites have you ever met?



PS. This is my 200th post!!!

So done!

I'm so ready for spring to be here. I don't want to see any more snow. I know that's not gonna happen anytime soon since it's only January but I can dream.......

• I want to see my pretty bulbs coming up: daffodils, crocuses and tulips.
• I want to see my forsythia bloom.
• I want to smell my lilacs.
• I want to hear my husband moan that he needs to cut the grass again.
• I want to smell the grass cut.
• I want to feed my fishes again.
• I want to go spend money on more flowers for my gardens.
• I want to see my hummingbirds come back.
• I want to see the swallows looking for places to nest.
• I want to be able to sit on my front steps in the sun.
• I want to be able to send my kids out to play...without making sure they won't freeze.

Come on....isn't winter over yet?

Friday Fragments 1.23.09

• I joined the gym this week. Stop laughing...I really did! I've only used the treadmill and bike so far but I have an appointment next week to learn how to use all the weight machines. And there's a scary eliptical machine thing that I'm gonna try to use!
• I'm also taking my first spinning class today...spinning for beginners. I'm scared to hell to do it. 45 minutes on a bike. Lord help me! I'm there right now as you read this I'm sure.
• My daughter is driving me insane! The past few nights we've had a tear factory at bedtime for various reasons. And constant whining. We're having a girls day on Saturday...hopefully more attention will help her (and me!)
• We bought a new mattress and it was delivered yesterday. I'm hoping nights of tossing and turning are behind me and I can finally get a good night's sleep. Oh wait...my husband snores...so it's not gonna happen unless he's not next to me! ;)
• I've been working hard all week trying to get all our finances organized. I'm gonna get all my bills in track and pay down/off my credit card. No more credit card charges!
  
• Keep checking back...having some giveaways coming in the next few weeks!
  

Go visit Mrs. 4444 leave a link to *your* Friday Fragments!

Before kids?

This weekend, we were very fortunate to have no kids for Saturday and Sunday. (Big thanks to my sister Amy!) We had some great plans for Saturday night...dinner with friends and then back to our house for a party bash get together. But....what should we do in the hours before dinner? What will we do on Sunday?

No freakin idea.

What the heck did we do before kids? All those hours in the day not occupied by watching over little ones. I really can't remember! I know we didn't just sit around on our asses watching tv. But what exactly we did...I have no clue. I also didn't know what we should do with ourselves during our free time.

What did we do? Hubby and I went to TGI Fridays and had some cocktails and appetizers. Chatted. Got giddy. Then we headed to the mall and did some non-shopping. Then we did something we hadn't done in awhile. No, not that you dirty dog (that was later). We just drove around and checked out some new developments, houses we liked...houses we didn't. By then it was time for our "planned plans". (which was lots of fun, btw! p.s.:buttershots are quite yummy!)

On Sunday morning, we did get to sleep in a bit later than usual. But the house was just so....

QUIET

I miss how the kids would come jump in our bed with us Sunday morning. Missed the rounds of "good morning mommay!" I missed the sounds of the kids playing. Missed our Sunday breakfast. Missed our loud, lived in, kid filled house.

It's nice to have a break once in awhile...but I wouldn't trade the chaos for anything.

Sunday Scoop: Digital Scrapbooking

Today's Sunday Scoop lists my favorite scrapbooking sites! I've been pretty addicted to digital scrapbooking since it's so quick to do compared to a usual handmade page. I've done a few pages and posted them online here. I really need to get going and get the kids books caught up. I think I'm up to EJ's 5th birthday? He'll be 9 this year. And poor Lucas has hardly anything! Maybe once I get my new craft room done, I'll get more done!

So here's my list....I'd love for you to leave a comment with your favorite sites!

Pineapple Plantation Designs

Scrap Orchard

Pickleberry Pop

Digital Scrapbooking Place

Scrapgirls

Shabby Princess

And this site is the best...lists all the free Digital Scappin stuff on the net! DigiFree

The Soap Monster

There's a monster in my house. A soap monster. This monster, I assume, eats the soap in the bathroom. The master bathroom only. I've never seen this monster. All I know is I always put a new bar of soap in and before I know it, it's down to a teeny tiny sliver once again. Apparently no one else who showers in my master bathroom knows where the soap is. I'm doomed to attempt to bathe myself with minute pieces of soap until I put a fresh bar in.

The soap monster annoys the heck outta me. But apparently just me.

Friday Fragments 1.16.09

• We're starting potty training with Lucas. The other day I told him to go try and do poopies in the potty. He came running out "come see what I did!" I went in and he showed me his poopies in the potty. I said "Next time, I need to wipe your bum before you pull up your pants!" His response: "oh crap!" hee hee. No pun intended!
• We are kidless tomorrow night! No kids for 2 whole days. Dropping them off in the morning and picking them up the following afternoon. Going to do dinner with friends then have a little gathering at our house--can you say Par-Tay?. We might even go out alone for breakfast on Sunday morning! Woo hoo! Are you jealous? ;)
• It's freakin cold here in Massachusetts today! Dh's thermometer in his car said -3 this morning. I certainly hope the kids won't be going out today at recess and you can bet your grandmother that I'm not going anywhere today. (well except for Paint Class tonight!)
  
• I'm going to join a gym next week. I'll do the month to month thing even though it's more money. Because I know I will quit after 3 or 4 months!
• I'm trying to design my daughter's pool party birthday invitation. I found & downloaded this free set from Scrap Girls to use...but my creativity is lacking. It will come to me...probably while I'm in the shower and then I'll forget. It always happens!

That's it for this week....put up your own Friday Fragments!

Bedtime is my nightmare!

Bedtimes around here have become a nightmare for me and stresses me out to no end. The kids used to be great...all in bed by 7, no peeps out of them. Well not no more, people. All those friends & family that used to be jealous can sit back and laugh at me now (while their kids are perfect bedtime angels now I'm sure).

Lucas won't stay in his bed. He gets down, opens his closet door for light and plays. Tonight I shut off the closet light and just sat at his door until he stayed in bed. "Turn my light on mommy!" "No, not until you stay in bed and stop talking." "I not talking." "See? you were just talking!" "No, me not! I not talking!" Argh!

The older two have decided that once they go to bed, they can keep getting up every 2 minutes.
"I have to go the bathroom" "My leg hurts" "I just saw a star out my window" "The cats won't leave me alone" "Lucas is out of bed again" "Can you download a song on my mp3 player?"

Seriously.

I. can't. take. it. no. more.

This is why I'm thinking about taking up drinking.

Works for Me Wednesday 1.14.09

Wow, I haven't participated in Works for me Wednesday in forever! I never feel like I have anything *unique* to share! And still don't honestly! But....I'm going to tell you about a website that I love.

Picnik!

It's a great site for photo editing and best of all it's FREE!!! I love it because it has 2 things I use most for my blog pictures: Vignettes and watermarks. I can put a lovely vignette around my photos (darker edge) and also watermark them (put transparent text on them so people can't steal them). There's also a boat load of other features such as auto fix, removing red eye, making photos black & white, teeth whitening, collage, resizing and so much more. I also love that I can link it to my Facebook account and it will post pictures for me.

Definitely go check it out...it's fun to just play around with your pictures and try all the features!

Toilet Paper: Over or Under?

Ok, twice in the past week this topic has come up...once in real life with friends and once as the question of the day on Blueviolet's blog. I never knew it was such a hot thing to talk about!

Toilet paper: is it over or under when you put it on the roll?

See...I need my toilet paper to be over. It just looks nicer that way. If someone else happens to change the tp (and that never happens, believe me) and puts it on "wrong", I must change it around.

My dh, who's in the poop pumping business says it's a fact that you use less toilet paper if it's under rather than over. I tend to believe him but I still did a little investigating. Most sites I visited said that yes indeed, you use more with the over and less with the under. I'd really like to know if there is a "scientific study" on this or not! Maybe I should write Scott's and ask???

(and yes, I always use Scott's TP. I can't use anything else! I'm a wadder so I must use 1ply and Scott's is the best!)

What about you? Over or Under?

Why? Why? Why?

Argh! We've hit the WHY? stage with my 2yo. Everything I say to Lucas gets me a Why? in return.

Close your eyes and go to sleep. Why?
Come on, time to get dressed. Why?
I'll be right back, I have to go pee. Why?
Don't bite your sister. Why?
Stop licking my butt. Why?

I honestly can't remember the other two getting into the Why? stage...but I'm sure it's just selective memory.

Or the fact that I can't remember yesterday.

Mmmmmm.......

Well, Blueviolet has a great little game going on...She has graciously give me the letter M. (thank goodness because can you really find 10 things beginning with X that you like? Geez!)

Here's a list of 10 things I like beginning with the letter M (and it's not as easy as you'd think it is!).

1. Maddie. Yes, my daughter. I like her most of the time. When she's not whining or pouting or having a fit. ;)
2. Mondays. I like it because my kids go back to school and my 2yo is in daycare. So I have FOUR whole hours to myself. Lovely.
3. Muffins. Blueberry to be exact. With Cinnamon topping. And lots of butter. Oh...so NOT a weight watchers item.
4. Mustangs. I have always loved 1968 Mustang Fastbacks. Love them. Some day I'll buy one to cruise around town in. We'll get all the looks on Girls Nite Out!
5. Meat. I'm a meat n potatoes girl. Always have been. Always will be. Give me a big fat ribeye any day and I'll be happy. Once again, not too WW friendly!
6. Music. I love my new iPod. I love being able to have all those songs on one little thing. One little thing that I will lose over and over again, I'm sure.
7. Money. Who doesn't love money? Would be nice to have more of it to pay off my debts.
8. Michaels Craft Store. Good thing I don't have more of #7 because lots of it would go here!
9. Magic Punch. Oh so yummy. You must make this at your next gathering! Big hit at my parties...whatever version I make!
10. The Mentalist. My favorite new show of this year. Simon Baker is just so yummmmmy to look at. Ahhhhhh.....
    

Friday Fragments 1.9.09

• My priest made me laugh at our bible study thing we do while the kids are in ccd class. Our theme was "bread" and he was calling the little holes in bread "yeast farts". hee hee
• We have a birthday party this weekend. Not just any old birthday party....a POOL birthday party. The kids are psyched! Me....not so much because I need to find their bathing suits and a float for Lucas.
• I'm so excited for this I'm going to shout: I START PAINT CLASS AGAIN TONIGHT!. So happy to be taking class again! I took classes last January thru May when the teacher took a break. The teacher Jess is awesome & so much fun. You can see some of her work here.
• I'm peeing orange kool-aid. Well, not actual orange kool-aid but it surely could pass for it! I'm on some medicine for my bladder issues (I know you all want to read this!) and it turns my pee orange. Good thing they told me beforehand! I'll spare you all the bowel issues.
• And lastly...more snow is expected for tomorrow. 6+ inches and they are hinting at a foot of snow in our area. I can't say that I'm sick of snow yet because I like looking at it. I just don't go out in it (unless the kids are begging me to go out with them then I must oblige). Plus..when there's snow on the ground, the kids are out of my hair for a bit and I get just a wee bit of peace & quiet.
  

My office/craft room

I've begun the awful task of cleaning out my office/craft room. I really should have taken a before picture of it because it was overflowing with crap. Lots & lots of crap. It became the dumping ground when I cleaned the rest of the house and didn't have a home for things.

But it's finally getting cleaned up.

I've spent 2 days throwing out stuff and organizing things. And I've started using the computer in the office once again instead of the laptop in the kitchen.

I want to completely redo the room. I want to have one of those fancy craft rooms that you will all drool over. Ok, so now I'm dreaming in la la land but it is getting a makeover. Why the sudden urge to redecorate? I saw this desk in Office Depot the other day. I love it. And want it.

So, with any luck...that desk will be mine! I want to keep a countrish look. Any paint colors to suggest? Any other ideas for my room? What would your *Ideal* craft room have??? Give me your ideas readers!!

Working out

I need some motivation. I've started doing my workouts again. It's so hard to get back into a routine!

I'm aiming for at least a mile a day to start and I'll focus on a body part each day. So my schedule is looking something like this:

Monday: 1 mile & belly
Tuesday: 1 mile & arms
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 1 mile & legs
Friday: 1 mile & belly (again!)

I'm trying to figure out when the best time for me to workout is. I think it's the morning...then I get it done and over with! I've done the afternoon the past 2 days and it really hard to get going.

What about you? Do you have a routine?

Wordless Wednesday 1.7.09

You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

Weight Watchers

So...I'm hopping back on the WW program. I've been off it for about 10 weeks and man, does it show. I was starting to lose my belly and now it's all back again. I seem to put the weight on there lately. And I don't like it! WW has some new Momentum program so I am excited to see what that's all about. My friend Michele is still going so that's a plus. Hopefully I'll match her 20lb loss!

Friday Fragments 1.2.09

The first Friday Fragments of the new year!

• Static electricity is rampant in the house this time of the year. The other night, dh got up off the chair, gave me a kiss and also a HUGE shock on my lips. It really hurt so bad! But it was also funny as hell!
• I mentioned something about church to my dh and my 2yo said "me go too?". I told him "yes but he has to be good" His response? "ok, no biting in turch...no biting any people's bingers". ha ha. Yea...no biting fingers in church!
• Mark your calendars...Nip/Tuck starts again on Tuesday night! Woo hoo! I love that show...and hope the cheese factor isn't there like is was a few seasons ago. I just like watching Christian and his um...yea......you know.
• Snow, snow, snow! Got snow on New Years Eve and more coming for this weekend I think. The kids are psyched! (and can use their new sleds) They also get rides on daddy's snowmobile!
  
• My friend Michele got a 3 month gym membership and I think I'm going to join her! Better to workout with a friend and they have babysitting!
  
• Thank you to all my friends and family (and all my bloggy friends) for your kind words during my miscarriage....it really means alot to me.
  

Sad news...

I know alot of you were wondering how my appointment turned out on Tuesday. Unfortunately, on Monday I started miscarrying and my ultrasound on Tuesday confirmed it.

It really sucks.

We've told our family and friends already. And we told the kids. That's hard to explain to them that mommay is not going to have a baby after all.

And now I've been in so much physical pain since Tuesday...pretty bad lower right abdomen cramping/pain. I'm assuming it's all related but I really want it to stop. Because it hurts. Bad. I've been living on ibuprofen and Tylenol with Codeine the past few days.

Mentally I'm doing ok. Just sad. It's a new year and we might try again in a few months. We'll see...

Thanks for all your concern & comments...it really helps. =)

(oh....and my house is a mess. it's amazing what three kids and a husband can do in a day without me up & about!)