sunday night

i feel like i'm pretty much caught up or at least everyone has something clean to wear to start the new week with until my wonderful 15 year old son comes downstairs to inform me that he has nothing clean to wear tomorrow. and its only 11:05PM!

oh well, i'm going to bed. he's been told before to tell me this stuff a little earlier in the day.

frump girl returns

read thru my blogs this morning +i'm having pioneer women withdrawals. she's updating her website/blog. i feel like i could use an update. starting to feel like frump girl again. did get a hair trim the other day but it didn't d0 anything for me, just made me even frumpier. my roots are way grown out. need a tan. didn't go for my run like i was suppose too. starting to feel like i have nothing to wear except for my unisex sweatshirts + sneakers. wanna get rid of frump girl!! my hair isn't this long anymore but this is me with wavey hair+ blonde hair {funny!}+ reddish hair. really liking the style though.



doing this makeover thingy made me realize that i have a big forehead. not as big as tyra banks but its pretty darn close. and i wish my stomach looked like this:

shopping to be done later. jcrew outlet is calling my name! ok, enough on me being frump girl. i'm still waiting to hear back about the kelsie house or any house for that matter. what a slow process this has become. open house this weekend so hopefully that will jump start something. in the meantime, i have been "decorating" the new crib. want these for the master bedroom for the summer + love these dishes. they can be found at your local ikea stores.

going for a more modern vibe. makes me want to leave most of the old stuff behind but don't think mike would go for that. not that our stuff is bad but isn't it a rule somewhere that a new house= new stuff???

haters stay out!

every morning i go to my daily blogs to see whats new in the world {their world}. to see whats the newest +greatest. to get a dose of daily laughs or inspiration. or just a happy warm fuzzy feeling to start my day with. this morning i went to a blog that i haven't read in awhile only to find that she was left with hateful + mean comments. my heart went out for her. the blogger took it like a champ + gave back with her wicked sense of humor but was it really necessary in the first place? what i cant comprehend is if you don't like the blog or don't agree with the person writing it- just leave the blog+ don't come back. its that freakin' simple. the blog wasn't written or started for you in the first place.

on the flip side, its nice to know that there are kind + considerate people being united together by blogs and they want to make others feel good. like on the wonderful world of wieners. someone kind+ generous sent a gift certificate to hallie's son who is in the air force. not only did it make his day but it also made hallie's knowing that someone was thinking of them + that her son was happy. something so simple + easy made someones day! now you dont have to leave gifts to make someone's day. usually a comment or two about how the blog inspires you or that it made you laugh will do the trick. there's enough depressing +hateful things going on in the world- why have to bring it in the blogging world too?? haters need to stay out!

easter weekend recap

saturday afternoon i got a special treat and got to spend the day by myself. mike+ham +friends were suppose go paintballing while kaylee got to spend some quality time with nana. {mike's mom} but with the park being outside + our crappy cold indiana weather, it got canceled. mike +kaylee still went to nana's house so i went to one of my favorite gift shops in middlebury and got my female parental one of these for her belated birthday present. rest of my day was spent looking around at the farmers market + target for more easter egg goodies. came home +ran ham over to a friends house. yes, this is twice in one week that he has gotten out of the house!! my evening was spent getting easter eggs around for the big hunt sunday morning + easter baskets made.

this is kaylee looking for easter eggs sunday morning. she was pretty happy with her strawberry shortcake pencils+pens+socks+ really happy with her hello kitty umbrella.

this is ham's easter basket. he also got some fat cash. mike made pancakes + bacon for breakfast+ he even cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.

went over to my parentals house for the big easter feast+ easter egg hunt. after the egg hunt +gorging ourselves with chocolate, ham decided to pick on me+mike +kaylee. it was kinda fun. mike held him down+ i got to give him spankings. they had to sting a little because my hand was stinging. after ham picked on us + a cousin, my female parental decided to try and put the smack down on him. all she gave him was a few scratches + for him to say she fights dirty. she did hold her own. {using that thigh master did come in handy for her} came home and went for a mile run {it felt crappy}+ did a few sit ups. hate that i am in no shape to wear a bikini for our up coming vacation so i've decided that i need to pull the big gun out and start doing my 3 mile run/walk. just wish the weather would cooperate with my exercise plans and be a little warmer. today its suppose to get up in the 30's- can i get a big woo- hoo!!

look what the easter bunny brought me!

just kidding! pretty sweet though huh? my male parental came over and wanted to show ham his new ride. he had his eye on a black corvette and when he went in to buy it, this was in the show room. its only got 7000 miles on it and its a 2005. only two previous owners, both doctors. he says "its an old man's vette. but more luxurious." i'd say so! if anyone deserves anything nice +grand, it would be him. he's worked hard for his money. i love that he + my oldest brother {aka "the golden child"} are good examples for me to use on ham. when we went over to see the golden child's house being built on the channel about 8 years ago, that's when i told ham- see what happens when you stay focused+ get good grades + keep your priorities straight? you can build your dream house + have nice cars+ take vacations. so far its been working........but we still have 3 more years of high school then college- YIKES!!

on the prowl

monday evening mike +i plus kaylee went and saw 3 houses. ever since finding the kelsie house this is all that i have been dreaming about- really. like that night, while dreaming, i can hear in my mind the debating about new house vs. cottage grove house and last night at 1:25am after looking at the alarm clock. the word 'house" ran through my mind. here's an update on the house situation:

the kelsie house that started this whole thing, well, we are back up offer. someone else beat us to the punch. now the seller claims that even though the wife loves the house, the husband doesn't and he will try to do what he can to back out. {doesn't make sense but i have come to find that as i get older, most people don't make sense} they have till end of april to close. looking back, we wasted time with our thumbs up you know where waiting. waiting to meet up with our new realtor {she did have the flu}, waiting to meet up because mike said saturday will be just fine instead of meeting thursday evening. friday evening, the seller emails me saying that she had put in a 2nd counteroffer to this couple + was waiting to hear back from them but they probably wont take it. in the end, our 3rd +final offer was accepted BUT the other couple had accepted her counteroffer so that is why we are back up offer. it SUCKS! and it makes it just that much more complicated.
here are the other contenders so far:

yellow creek house = more for mike +kaylee
full finished basement w/full bath+ large bedroom for ham. new house + $$$ for appliances + large yard for pool +space for kaylee to play+ right side of town = one heck of pool + $$ for mike's basement {bar, plasma tv's, ping pong table etc...} + masterbath is large + has large walk in closet. not too close to neighbors either. has great laundry area too.
cons: small masterbedroom {toilet right next to tub + didn't like shower area in masterbath} + all the bedrooms too close together + more houses going in+ the main level didn't feel as big as what we are living in now.

this is the cottage grove house = more me +ham+ kaylee:
curb appeal. large yard for pool + still have some space for kaylee to play. nice subdivision, big master bedroom+ bath+walk in closet. floor plan is open. other bedrooms are really big + so is the other full bath. cost is in the middle of the 3 contenders. great driveway, garage has both hot +cold water set up. one owner home + they took immaculate care of it and it shows!!

cons: wrong side of town {we like where we are, close to everything + dont have to wait for trains}, some simple remodeling- like taking down wall border + $$$ for pool +basement.

with the kelsie house all it needs is a kitchen remodel. though once the pool +basements are complete with the other houses, they might just be better than the kelsie house. but the kelsie house has everything we need right now + its on the right side of town. so as we sit here and wait for the final outcome, mike +i plus kaylee are on the house hunting prowl.

lame-o momma in da houuuse!!

i can admit it- i am lame. after watching jon & kate +8 last night and reading some blogs this morning i see what a lame-ass mom i am. i didn't do anything special for my kiddos for valentines day or st. patty's day. in fact, i didn't even acknowledge that it was st. patty's day yesterday. i just hope the leprechauns don't hold it against me. now i did get the kids a few treats for valentines day {its not like we don't ever have any goodies in the house, we always have chocolate!} but did not go all out like kate did. she made heart shaped breakfast and lunch. had goodie bags for each of them and had a scavenger hunt with a tub of goodies for them to find at the end. on the blogs- well some mom's went to the trouble of making leprechaun footprints to be found all over the house, milk +cookies got turned green, furniture turned upside down + lucky charms thrown all over the place {the silly leprechaun did this} while another mom had a scavenger hunt for her 2 kiddos and they got buckets of goodies waiting for them! so with easter fast approaching, hopefully something creative will come to mind but if not at least there will be an easter basket waiting for them. easter has always been one of my favorites growing up. new dresses+ new shoes+ a feast of deliciousness+ butt-loads of chocolate and other fine sweets. couldn't get any better than that!

a long weekend recap

friday was a slow start even though we had a lot to do. we went out to lunch for some soup + salad at olive garden. never can go wrong getting their soup +salad for lunch. made a quick stop at lowes for some items to finish the house with. came home and went to work. pantry door is all finished though i do have some touch up painting to do. don't like the doors- they are plain and boring but mike thought we would have to cut some off the fancier ones. what does he know???? the weather was fantastic for once so i had kaylee go outside for some much needed fresh air. she had a great time going down her slide!

saturday was mike's 31st birthday. it was a lot tamer or lamer than last years bash. {i threw him a big 3-0 party}. this year we didn't do much. we were meeting his parents at hani yori's. our favorite place. its a japanese style restaurant where they cook the food right in front of you. the only place ham will not complain about being seen with us in public and both boys will eat their veggies there. besides us 4, there was mike's parents + brother and uncle eddie, step-son conner +daughter taylor. it was a good time.

that's me+the birthday boy {i'm not that tall, i'm wearing 3" boots}, at hani yori's and that's mike, our favorite chef. i introduced my mike to hani yori's when we first started dating and we would go pretty much every month if not twice a month before kaylee was born and we got to know mike the chef. he's super cool and we try to ask for him whenever possible. it just happen to work out that we got him to cook for us. mike +i were suppose to go out later that night but i ended up getting a stomach ache! :o( there wasn't suppose to be any gifts this year since we are going to HAWAII but I ended up getting mike one of these :

and made him this:

thats a turtle cheesecake and its real yummy.

sunday was spent in the house doing nothing and it was nice not having to clean the house or do laundry. {though now i have to make up for it!} ever since we thought about putting our house on the market i have non-stopped in keeping it clean. i ended up going to target and got kaylee some new shoes- 2 pairs and some summer dresses. shoes were on sale for 10 bucks each and the dresses were 5 bucks. makes it so much better when i can't get a stain out of it!

old red barn co

isn't this a beautiful quilt? you can win it by leaving a comment at old red barn co. i haven't had a chance to check out the blog or shop yet but i'm on my way right now. i found this site from just me and my little world blog and tell them i sent you!!

october road

season finale was last night and let me just say it was pure awesomeness. i even shished my husband when he asked if this was that whatchamacallit show. do not talk to me unless its a commercial!! love this guy too. bryan greenberg. he can be found on my side bar on yes you can playing guitar. pure hotness right there. {i've been told that i have weird taste so if you don't follow me that's ok. every ones entitled to their own opinions} anyway, great season finale and i love that they didn't leave an obnoxious hangover like some other shows do. just enough to spark that i wonder whats going to happen now.........hate it that its over for the summer?????

and i'm super nervous. we're suppose to find out today if the seller has accepted our offer. my esophagus is really tight and i've got shortness of breath. no butterflies or knots in my stomach, just a weird feeling when i breathe. i need to go and clean some grapes + strawberries..... i'm still deep breathing!! i'm that nervous which tends to be a good thing when i'm this nervous but i don't want to jinx myself so.........

update on ketchup estate

someone had put in an offer. she says she's going to refuse it - way too low! makes me kinda nervous. was pretty excited but having it digest a little......stomach is in knots.

good news: we meet up with her {the seller} and our realtor on saturday to make an offer. also, we have 2 inquiries about our house just from the FOR SALE sign in the yard.

and we have someone coming to the house, hopefully this weekend to put up the doors that handy man mike is man enough to say he can't do it.

now i know better

i had finally convinced mike that he IS a handy man and that he CAN do minor home repairs. so the other night we went and got all the stuff needed to do our home improvement projects. put a new door up in ham's room, another closet door for our room and bi-fold doors for the pantry. he took half a day off of work to show me that he ISN"T a handy man and that he CAN"T do home repairs. he was working on ham's door and everything was going well until it came time to put the hinges on. he chiseled some of it but not enough to get the hinges in right so there isn't a gap showing when shutting the door and its hard to chisel straight and even. so before he got even more upset, i told him to just quit and we will have to hire someone to do it. it shouldn't be too expensive since we have everything here. so right then and there i realized that as much as i want too, i can not change him into a handy man.

3 things in pudding?

i wish i could remember exactly how old hamilton was when this happened. i'm guessing he was in 3rd or 4th grade and he had a substitute teacher for awhile. it was her last day and she brought in dirt pudding for the kids and handed out recipes for everyone. he must of loved it because it was either that night or some nights later, around midnight, he came downstairs and whispered "mom, mom? and i said " what?" he then asks me "whats the 3 things in pudding?" and to make sure i am hearing him right, i ask him again and he whispers "whats the 3 things in pudding?" and my natural grumpy response for being woken up at midnight- "are you kidding me? go back to bed." and he did. the next morning i ask him about it and he says he doesn't remember
anything but that's ok because i do and i will never, ever let him forget!

Dirt Pudding

oreos (bag + half) crush, set aside

1/4 cup butter or margarine

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup powder sugar

(cream above together and set aside)

3 1/2 cups milk

2 (4 oz. ) pkg vanilla pudding or chocolate

(mix above 2 together till slightly thickens)

add 8 0z cool whip to pudding mix (i like cool whip to be slightly frozen)

combine pudding and cream cheese mixtures together

layer cookies and mix ending with cookies on top- gummie worms optional

baby cankles

how cute are these? its by baby emi jewerly found on tangled and true blog. {mike came up with "cankles" when a babys ankles and calf meet up} look at kaylee's in the 3rd pic. hard to believe that was almost 3 years ago!

in other blog news

i haven't checked out to see whats been happen' n in blog world today like i usually do every morning.

#1. finally got to meet our new realtor and let me just say that we are very happy with her. she seems to be interested in our house and the house that we are wanting to buy. she also seems to be the nicest person on earth. and we will have FOR SALE signs tomorrow in our yard! i am ecstatic! {is that right? i have lived in America for 31 years and you would think i would get this thing called english}

#2. i have had my nose in this computer like it was a novel. i have been reading "black heels to tractor wheels" by ree {confessions of pioneer women} who was first suggested by cathy from bits&pieces. love both of these women. i had to start the whole story from day 1 and have finally caught up. she's telling her tale of how her and her husband met and fell in love and the whole sha- bang. its sweet, charming and funny to boot. and yes, i have wayyy too much time on my hands. thank god i don't have a needy 3 year old or 15 year old to deal with!

ok, on to other blog news just in case someone will actually read this. i'm slowly coming out of my shell and starting to share......

at life at 123 house, bree is doing a favorite spring things swap! she has all the info on her blog. as from my previous post, i'm addicted to swaps.

oh and did you notice that i figured out how to do the little name thing and you can click on it and it will take you there except the green favorite spring thing- it wont take you to her post.

i have another blog to post but still working on how to add pictures. i'm still trying to learn how to post my mobile onto the flickr group posting too but i am dead ass tired right now. sorry if i offend anyone with the language but at this moment that's how i feel. very sleepy!! see, its not the same.