the family arrived on thursday afternoon ! yay!

thursday night we grilled some dogs and after dinner, went to the pool for a couple of hours and then got out the sparklers and with some close adult supervision allowed the little boys to have some fire work fun.

yesterday , it was Sean's day again, which included a trip to the bat factory and time at the batting cages. this after lunch at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Louisville, their lasagna was good (not as good as yours mom) and so was the spinach tortelini that Ken had.

todays agenda includes breakfast at the farmers market, biscuits and gravy, YUM! and taking the kids to paint pottery.

something i have always wanted

ok, so its probably not what you would have picked out with a CSN gift card but i have ALWAYS wanted one of these, i always thought ot would be so awesome to have my own continental breakfast cereal dispenser.....

and now i have it! well, in a couple of days i will anyway.
this clock/kitchen timer is the other thing i picked, i thought the timer would come in handy to help The Boy in getting ready for school in a timely manner, we will see how that goes.

i spent HOURS trying to find exactly the right thing to buy with my prize "money" after searching aimlessly for a long, long time, i was relieved and excited to find 2 things i thought worthy of my prize "money".

I write like
James Joyce

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

three analysis out of five said "James Joyce". i dont think i have read any Joyce. maybe i should.

its super simple, click the green link on the badge, paste in your latest blog entry or sample of your writing and click analyze...voila, you write like....

what does yours say? leave a comment and let me know!

who's the big winner?

ME!! thats right. now how to spend it? which got me thinking of getting gift cards as a gift.

do you have trouble deciding what to buy with your gift cards?

i always feel like i have to make just the right choice because when its spent, thats your gift. so why is it harder to pick out your own gift? if the gift giver had just bought you something you would be thrilled to death with whatever you had received. now, dont get me wrong, i LOVE gift cards, LOVE them. its just so hard to get THE thing and not feel like you missed something. like the thing you really, really could have used escaped your mind at that crucial time of making the final decision.

with this little peek at my sometimes indecisive pea brain, i ask you....with 70 bucks, what would YOU pick? CSN stores

who's the big winner?

i almost forgot!

go here visit Tricia for a chance at a 70 dollar CSN gift card!!

cabin fever

i figured out that it is possible to get cabin fever in the summer. to a lesser degree of course.

since its been upwards of 95 degrees for the last, like, 3 weeks, and now its pouring down rain, i havent really left the comfort of air conditioning very much. let me just say , it doesnt feel like summer in indiana, it feels like summer in Dallas, TX. so much so that when i complained that my tomatoes werent growing, Ken said "well, ya tried, if they dont grow, you can always go to H.E.B (grocery store chain) and buy some." ok, kids, i havent laid eyes on an H.E.B store in about 8 years since i left Ft. Hood, Texas. but apparently its hot enough for Ken to think we actually ARE in Texas.

i really want to sit out on my porch, i want to go for walks downtown, i would just love to sit at the playground and watch D play. i want to drink lots of HOT coffee.

anyone out there experiencing mid 80's? send them this way.

go away!!

the ants are trying their best to take over my kitchen...again! i thought i killed them off with a little cocktail of sugar, borax and the snack that smiles back. but they fooled me, they backed off for a couple of weeks until i got lax and began to leave little bagel crumbs lying about then they kicked it up and attacked on the other side of the kitchen, where i might least expect them. so im back to feeding my goldfish crackers to the unsuspecting pests.

and while we are on the subject of unwanted pests, does anyone know how to get rid of a backyard full of gnats?

in-cog-nito

how does a barette making craft evolve into this?

well, it all started when D thought the lime green bow i had just stitched would make a great mustache.
then got a little sillier as i cut a mustache from a scrap of felt and taped it to his lip. it didnt stick very long. so i went in search of printable mustaches. but lo and behold, the printer WOULD NOT do its job.
in the end we found that a repurposed food box colored black made the perfect mustache masks.
an un sharpened pencil held on with a bit of duct tape worked well as a handle. now its masquerade time.

what i did on my summer vacation

my birthday always coincides with my annual fourth of July trip to ohio to visit marci and her family, they got a new member this year, their new baby girl is 3 months old. so i got to play the doting aunt. it has been determined that Auntie Monica is too cold for the baby's liking and although she liked playing with me and smiled at me, for cuddles, i just am not warm blooded enough.

we took the kids to the Franklin Park Conservatory on saturday, it was a great big family affair that took up almost every available space in Marci's mini van. it was the last week of their blooms and butterflies exhibit. D and M got to hold a butterfly, very exciting.
is she about the cutest thing ever?
are we telling jokes? i like jokes.