Mooings of the Mystical Moocow

Little Notebooks

2011-09-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

Here are a few little notebooks I made. Some of the pics didn't do them justice, but I'll share them none-the-less.

Back

2011-09-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

It's been forever since I've posted here, but I'm going to try to start it up again. The format has changed a lot, and it's 4 in the morning...so I think I need to revisit this later. I do want to start posting here again though.

Fairy Tale kit layouts

2009-05-12T19:08:00.001-07:00

These layouts were made using Fairy Tale kit designed by Marianne's Creations.

This is Shannon holding Vienna a.k.a. Hippy Chick.

This is Allie when she lost her first tooth.

This is Allie at 4 years old.

Smart and Sweet Girl layouts

2009-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

These layouts were made using the Smart and Sweet Girl kit designed by KakleiDesigns.

This layout is my niece Bailey at an amusement park.

My niece, Andria, as a baby.

My niece, Andria, about 2 years ago.

My niece, Andria, in Kindergarten

Andria's homecoming gown.

My nieces, Andria and Bailey, actually being nice to each other.

My niece, Bailey, posing for her t-ball picture.

A Kiss of Romance layouts

2009-03-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

These layouts were made using the kit A Kiss of Romance designed by Baby Cakes Scraps at Country Hollow Scraps. It was a lovely kit with so very many options.

This layout is of my niece, Bailey, playing with my guinea pig.

This layout is of my maternal grandparents. Sadly, my grandmother passed away a little over a year ago, but my grandfather has just celebrated his 90th birthday.

This is my maternal grandparents on their 50th wedding anniversary.

Block Alphabet

2009-03-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a preview of hte Block Alphabet I made. I have no idea how to zip files, but if someone can help me learn, I can post this freebie. There are 4 alphabets. Here you see the different colors. Each alphabet has upper case, lower case, numbers, and punctuation.

Whispers of March layouts

2009-03-21T14:17:00.001-07:00

These layouts were made using the Whispers of March kit designed by KakleiDesigns at her blog.

Riley right before she had her puppies. The poor thing would lay on her back and just BEG for belly rubs.

Oscar rolled himself up in his daddy's blanket, and I just couldn't resist getting a picture of him. He layed like that for a couple hours.

Riley got caught raiding the Beef Jerky bag. She LOVES her some badger meat *lol*.

Buck, my fiance's mother's cat, stretched out and posing for a pic at Christmas.

Allie, always the clown, playing with some of the craft candy canes we made this year.

Trish and Shannon playing with a bag of clothespins I have for various craft projects.

Bloom Poetry layouts

2009-03-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

These layouts were made using the Bloom Poetry kit designed by KakleiDesigns. Her blog at KakleiDesigns has a list of the stores she sells in.

This is Allie playing with a Der Der (you know, the inside cardboard of a roll of wrapping paper).

These are my furry feline boys. The multi-colored one who looks so nice all sleeping and sweet like that...well, let me just say that even though is name is Bob, I call him Satan Paws because he's very sadistic with his claws. The solid black one is my sweet boy, Bandit.

Allie getting wrestled to the ground by all the puppies. There's 4 puppies in all, and they can be quite determined *lol*.

Beary Valentine layouts

2009-03-13T02:11:00.005-07:00

These layouts were made using the retired "Beary Valentine" kit designed by Charly at Country Hollow Scraps.

Oscar and Riley

Shelley and Kurt

Trish and Riley

Intense kit layouts

2009-03-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

These layouts were made using the Intense kit designed by KakleiDesigns at Cool Scraps Digital.

There's nothing quite like a little laughter to take a beautiful picture.

My friends, Nic & Mo, a couple of wonderful musicians.

My sister dancing with our grandfather. This was taken about a year ago, I think.

frustrated

2009-02-28T01:36:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm waaaaaaaaaay past frustrated with this blog. It MAKES ME choose a template for the background instead of just letting me put my own background on there. Same with the header. My blog is well....it looks lame *lol*. I know some about html, but I just can't get anything to work. Now there's this stupid little "cutest blog on the block" thing stuck in my header. I give up because everything I try is just making it look more like I was too busy licking windows to fix my blog.

Anyone know how?

I want to have the main posts on the left....and then on the right third of the screen or so, have my little lists and blinkies and stuff. And I want my own header and background. I think my windows taste like strawberries though because it just won't work for me, and I'm a little out of my element here.

*slinks off to watch something warm and fuzzy*

He Has Risen layouts

2009-02-27T22:33:00.000-08:00

These layouts were made using the He Has Risen kit designed by Kalo Designs at Country Hollow Scraps.

Bailey, my niece, at her Baptism.

Baley and the pastor and his wife, at her Baptism. My sister made the dress.

My nephew, Tyler, when he was born.

books

2009-02-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to design a new background for my blog and make a few needed changes, but I needed to stop and make some more books. With being on a new CT team and then working with 2 designers, I needed to be a bit more organized. I figured I'd make a composition book to keep track of passwords and websites and posting rules and all that jazz. Here's a few books I just whipped out. They're kind of a bit generic because I just wanted to get the base stuff done. As I find a use for each one, then I'll add letters and what not to better signify the use of the book.

He Loves Me Too layouts

2009-02-24T12:36:00.001-08:00

These layouts were made using the He Loves Me Too kit designed by QueenBrat Designs at Cool Scraps Digital.

This layout is of Allie when she was four.

Oscar with his lil son, Cocktail. He's so good with the babies and can't wait till they're bigger so he can play with them...all rough and tumble wrestlin' in the dirt kind of playing.

This is Lil Bit. She's such a little charmer. She's just slightly bigger than half the size of the others. She already has a couple nicknames *lol*.

It's a Guy Thing layouts

2009-02-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

These layouts were made using the It's a Guy Thing kit designed by Twin Mom Scraps at Cool Scraps Digital.

Oscar loves his duck. He chews their feet off...I'm guessing so they can't get away?

Steven HAD to take these pics to mess with my sister and his brother. This pup is Vienna, the one my sister's getting.

Steven hard at work drawing up some plans to build something. Allie was totally engrossed in watching him.

Yule layouts

2009-01-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

These layouts were created using the Yule kit designed by EMS Arts at Cool Scraps Digital.

This first layout is Trish with her some new shirts she got for Christmas.

Before and after Christmas morning mayhem.

The girls made popcorn and cranberry strings for the tree.

Sweet Baby Girl layouts

2008-12-20T22:50:00.001-08:00

Here are my layouts using the Sweet Baby Girl designed by Twin Mom Scraps at Cool Scraps Digital.

This layout is of my niece, Bailey, the day she was born.

This one is the youngest in our household when she was still a wee little baby.

This layout is of our middle child when she was under a year old.

Living Without Water

2008-12-19T00:38:00.000-08:00

Boy I tell ya. You've all heard the expression "When it rains, it pours.". Well, it's been one hell of a week that came way too close to that saying for my comfort.

First, all our pipes froze leaving us with no water. Later that first night, Steven had gone down under the house and plugged the heat tape in. Well, that can take quite awhile to work, so we were without water for 2 days. Right after the water came back on, the hot water pipes froze...and again into the saga of no water. By this time, we're all kinda starting to get a little rank as this is day 3 with no shower. We turned on all the heaters extra high in the hopes that it would help. On day 4 with no hot water (but at least we had cold, right????), I decided I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't yet know how smart or how stupid this decision was, but I took a shower....a COLD SHOWER. It was 4 degrees outside, so that'll give you an idea of how nasty that shower was. I think I could have won the gold medal for the quickest shower ever. I was in there for about 4 minutes. In that 4 minute venture into hell (cuz it had definitely froze over), I hyperventillated and almost passed out. In my dizzy stupidity, I got out of the tub and slipped, hitting my leg on something (I still don't know what it was) and got a small cut. But hey, I was the only clean one in the house *lol*. Everyone else was pretty rank, but not me. In retrospect, I think I should have just blended in with the natives cuz when in Rome and all. I told Steven about the torturous ordeal when he came home from lunch. I even showed him my owie and everything (of course fishing for some pathetic sympathy). He was such a sweetheart. He went to work and borrowed one of the space heaters and put it under the house to help thaw the pipes out. I NEVER go down there because the big, hairy, gnarly spiders live down there, and I'm askeert. So that night (still in day 4), we get hot water back. I made the two little ones take a shower. The 2nd kid, who I usually have to make get out after 20 minutes, was out and dressed in jammies in 3 minutes. She said the water wouldn't get warm. A few minutes later, the two youngest came running upstairs saying they heard water running, but Steven and I thought it was the washer (yeah, being overjoyed at having water again, I started some laundry) so we just stayed upstairs watching Netflix on the computer. Little did we know that they were right. Steven went downstairs for something and came back up saying he heard water RUNNING. We both looked at each other and said "crap" at the same time. The pipes thawed out allright, but a valve blew and the basement was FLOODING. It's not a full or finished basement or anything. It has a dirt floor. Dirt floor and water. Starting to get the picture yet? Steven came back inside, a little wet and a little dirty. He couldn't find the shut off valve for the water main (sp?). So here it was midnight and I'm calling the landlord. He comes over and they both pretty much had to wade through a foot and a half of water. Now remember the space heater under the house?? That thing sorta imploded on itself and melted. We're very very lucky that the house didn't burn down or all the circuits short out or something horrendous. Today is day 5 in the Great Drought of 2008. We got water back this evening but still have no hot water. Hopefully the landlord can find the new valve in the next town over tomorrow. It would be really nice to wash some dishes as it took 5 people 5 days to use every clean dish in the house...and there are no take out places in town...so if we don't get water back tomorrow, I guess we're all having peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.

So we have all this drama going on with the water, right? Everyone's tempers are running a bit short because we can't do dishes or laundry or cook or shower (you don't even want the details about the bathroom). It's been a week I tell ya. This hits keep coming too. Tonight, Allie's hamster died right before she had to leave for their Winter Concert. She was heart-broken and had to go perform in front of a crowd. The poor thing. We are having the funeral for Sammie tomorrow, provided the ground isn't too frozen to dig the hole.

For the past month, we've been working out all the plans to surprise the girls for Christmas. We wanted to take them to their Grandmother's. Their Uncle and his fiance will be there. We've managed to keep it a secret so far. In order to do it though, we would have to take both cars because there's 5 people, two dogs, about 150 Christmas presents (most of them are small *sheepish look*...okay, so I went a little nuts this year), and clothes for a week. There's no way all that would fit in the car. Well, we're supposed to leave in 3 days, and his mom called him today telling him that part of the road we have to go on is closed and another part has made it mandatory to have snow chains. Well, we only have one set...so that means there goes the plans out the window. The only way I could figure to salvage any of it was for me to stay home and Steven take the girls. While it would kinda suck for me, at least the other 7 people involved would still get Christmas together. I told my sister what I was thinking. She said either all of us go or all of us stay. I didn't want everyone to miss out though. When Steven came home, I told him what I had thought of. He immediately said no, no way...we all go or we all stay. He had the same reaction as my sister. We talked about it back and forth, both having very valid points and neither one of us willing to budge really. His mom just happened to call and he told her. She said absolutely not was I to stay here alone. She's buying another set of snow chains for us so that we can take both cars and all of us go. How sweet is that? She's gonna order them and he just has to go pick them up tomorrow.

My Wish This Christmas layouts

2008-12-19T00:27:00.001-08:00

These layouts were created using the My Wish This Christmas kit designed by Jewels P Designs at Cool Scraps Digital.

This first layout is of the girls' stockings in 2007. We had so much stuff in there, they were too heavy to hang on the wall. The girls get a Christmas Bear from their grandparents every year, so we kinda put a bunch of stuff together in front of the couch.

Poor John Wayne hit the catnip a bit too hard Christmas morning. He crashed and had a nice little kitty nap.

This is Trish opening her fuzzy posters. She loves the things, and I managed to find some with horses.

Colorful Thankies layouts

2008-12-08T23:35:00.001-08:00

This was my first holiday season beginning with a family of my own. I've been incredibly busy with that, so it's taken me awhile to get these 3 layouts done. These are my latest 3. All were done with the Colorful Thankies megakit designed by Addie's Designs and can be found at Cool Scraps Digital

This first layout is of Allie and her Daddy, Steven. The kitten is Bob. I have no idea why she made the face she did, but it always makes me smile. She's so expressive in the faces and voices she makes.

This layout is of Allie again. She was playing around, and I just happened to have the camera handy.

This layout is of Trish and her kitten Seastar. Sadly, he simply never came back one day after going outside. He was so cute with her. He would hug her as she carried him around.

Pickaboo Layouts

2008-11-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

Both of these layouts were created using the Pick A Boo! kit designed by Arlene Toledo at Cool Scraps Digital

This first layout is the girls this year for Halloween.

This layout is the pumpkins they carved. The wolf was done by Trish. The hand was done by Shannon. The flaming face was done by Allie. Her pumpkin won second place in the carving contest.

Yellow Sweet

2008-11-17T02:36:00.000-08:00

These two layouts were done with the Yellow Sweet element kit designed by Elyane Araujo at Cool Scraps Digital

This first layout is of Shannon & Allie.

This one is of me...during my early years at school.

Groovy Baby

2008-11-14T01:41:00.001-08:00

Here are my latest two layouts. They were both created with the Groovy Baby kit designed by Shelley Moore and can be found through her blog and at Cool Scraps Digital.

This first layout is a picture of my niece and nephew while we were having dinner in the ballroom on our cruise to the Bahamas. The staff was AMAZING at helping to entertain the guests. They were simply wonderful with the children.

This layout is of my stepdaughters Trish and Allie. They were playing around outside, just being kids.

Gobble Gobble

2008-11-10T01:13:00.000-08:00

Here are my latest layouts for the Creative Team at CoolScraps Digital. All 3 layouts were made using the Gobble Gobble kit created by QueenBrat Designs.

This is my niece, Bailey. She is growing into such a wonderful young woman who I am very proud to know.

This is my fiance, Steven, and two of his girls, Trish and Allie. They were fooling around with some funny face glasses, and I just happened to have the camera handy.

This is the youngest, Allie, playing with her "brother", Oscar. Her laughter was contagious, and he was so happy getting in some good play time with his "sissy".

Carve It Up!!

2008-11-10T00:59:00.000-08:00

My girls all wanted to carve pumpkins for Halloween this year. The youngest two entered the pumpkin carving contest here in town. Sadly, the oldest was a year too old. Allie, the youngest, won second place!!! This was her first time carving a pumpkin. Her father and I gutted the orange globes and then they did all of the carving by themselves (had to per the rules of the contest). It was so much fun watching them...so much in fact that I forgot to take any pictures. I did get pictures of their pumpkins though.

Here is Allie's (the 2nd place winner). She's 9.

Here is Shannon's. She didn't place, but hers is still cute. She's 11.

This one is Trish's. She's 13. She wanted to enter the contest too, but was just one year too old.

Yay!!! I made the Creative Team!!

2008-11-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Wooooo hooooo!!! I made it to the final round of the CT Contest at CoolScrapsDigital. It's a very cool site, if scrapbooking is your thing. I've learned a lot through the contest and know I'll learn a lot more with being on the Creative Team.

Here are my two layouts for Round 3 of the contest. The first one presented quite a new idea to me, in that of using completely white space. I had never contemplated that idea before as I'm still new to the world of digital scrapbooking. I had a lot of fun during the contest, and I'm looking forward to being on the team and seeing what I can do!!

Both layouts were made using the Summer Funny ~ mini kit by Elyane Araujo.

WOOT WOOT x 2

2008-10-31T01:43:00.000-07:00

Yay. Okay, so...now I'm in round 3 of the digital challenge. Round 3 is tougher than round 2...it brought in a whole new idea for me....WHITE SPACE *flails and looks around for Georgie*.

Here are my two layouts for Round 2. They were both created using the Charming Virus kit by Kakleidesigns.

How many pancakes can you make in a day?

2008-10-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

I got this idea awhile back of wanting to make up a bunch of meals in one day and freeze them...you know, for good wholesome home-made tv dinner type things. I figured it would be better for all of us than eating all that processed crap all the time. My fiance makes really good enchiladas. He made 4 trays of them today. There are quite a few things that I make that they all like a lot. Today, I cooked for about 11 hours. I made 3 full-sized spaghetti dinners with sauce made almost from scratch. I made up a bunch of egg salad (can't freeze that, but they all love it). Then I got a bright idea to make up a ton of pancakes and freeze them. That way, it would be an easy breakfast the wee little ones (okay, maybe not so little) could "cook" for themselves in the microwave. They love to cook, but they are DANGEROUS in the kitchen. I had a couple bags of frozen blueberries and a GIHUGIC bag of pancake mix. What could go wrong, you ask? Well...after about 90 blueberry pancakes, I got the bright idea to try and make apple cinnamon ones. So I make a big batch that was supposed to yield about 50 pancakes. I cooked one griddle worth (6 saucer sized pancakes) and had to tweek my batter mix a bit. Cooked up 6 more after that but the batter was a bit thin, so I tweeked it some more. I ended up with over 100 apple cinnamon pancakes *lol*. It's a good thing, a very very good thing, that we have two deep freezers. They did turn out very very very good though. Quite a few of them never made it into the baggies *chuckling*. So....I cooked almost 200 pancakes today. I'll be happy not to do that again for a few months *lol*.

WOOT WOOT

2008-10-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Okay. I've plunged into the world of digital scrapbooking. Or rather, my sister pushed me into the deep end *lol*. She got me to enter an online contest where they give you the kit to use and the rules to go by. It works by round eliminations. For the first round, I had to submit two layouts....and then wait for the voting. Well, I'm really excited now because I just got the word....I HAVE MADE IT TO THE SECOND ROUND!!!! Yay. These were my very first two layouts ever, and they were good enough for me to make it to the next round. This is so cool.

I made these two layouts using the Sleeping Baby kit designed by Addie Designs.

Gone are the days

2008-10-09T14:23:00.001-07:00

So, my sister's NAGGING me to blog again. Okay, so I've been busy being busy and just haven't really had much to blog about. Or rather, there's been lots going on but it's stuff I can't yet blog about.

So I decided that just to shut her up, I'll put something on here. My poor garden. It's dead and gone. All the plants are brown and withered. We got a halfway decent yield for my first attempt in more than 20 years. I had lots of cherry tomatoes to eat. We got quite a few green beans and peas too. Oh, and the carrots took forever but proved to be quite yummy. The garden is a sad little skeleton out back now though. I almost feel the need to go rip it out so it'll quit looking quite so pathetic back there all brown and bent over and stuff.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to camp we go

2008-09-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the soundness of this decision, or how much hair I'll have left when I get back, but me and the middle step offspring are heading to camp tomorrow. We'll be gone for a week. It's an environmental camp the 6th graders get to go to. They asked for parent volunteers, so I said I'd go. I'm a cabin boss and will probably need to help out in the kitchen too. Wish me luck.

Cards

2008-09-09T09:01:00.001-07:00

Here's a few cards I've played around with. I usually keep my designs pretty simple, but there are a few that took considerably more time. I really like making cards.

This card I made with homemade paper that has rose petals in it. There's 3 pics for the card. It has a sleeve that the little card insert sets in.

Lions...raaarrrr raaaaaarrr

2008-09-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

I figured that I'd post a few of the things I've made over time. These are going way back in the beginning for me. They are all cut out by hand with an exacto knife. I made them either for swaps, to use myself, or sold on ebay.

??????????

2008-09-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

Who EVER heard of a post office running out of stamps?????? I mean, come on, this is America...land of plenty, right? I tried to buy stamps today, and the lady at the post office told me they were out. She said she was waiting on the postmaster general to send more and didn't know how long it would take to get them. This town is WAY TOO SMALL. I can't even buy stamps for pete's sake. I didn't even know the post office could run out of stamps....had never imagined such a thing happening....and then to not know when you'd have more. It just kills me. I need to get out of this dinky little one crippled horse town. *lol*

The White Weenie

2008-09-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Okay. *LMAO* I couldn't resist the title. You see....it goes a little something like this:

I'm in the middle of a project in the kitchen. I wanted to move the pantry cabinet (full mind you) to the laundry room and move the shelves that were in the laundry room where the microwave is so that the microwave stand could be moved to where the pantry sat. Doesn't sound so hard right??? It all has to be done in stages so that one area can be vacated and the carpet shampood because the moronic original owner of this house put carpet in the kitchen and laundry rooms. Who does that?????? I got the space in the laundry room cleared out and the carpet shampood yesterday (the shelves have now taken up temporary residence in the dining room with their contents all over the deep freeze and the dining room table). So off I go to move the pantry today....and that's where we find the white weenie.

How many times do I tell the kids things like "make sure that's closed before you move it" or "be careful, don't just grab that". Do you think I listened to my own advice???? That would be a HUGE resounding um...no. *lol* I went into the kitchen this morning, did up a bunch of dishes, and then looking at the pantry decided to take all the stuff off the top and move it without emptying it out. I took just about everything down, setting it on the stove and a nearby chair. Just about the only thing left up there was a harmless looking bag of flour. What could possibly go wrong with that, you ask? Well, let me tell you. One weenie dog and a careless grab of said bag of flour later, and I ended up with a used-to-be-brown-but-is-now-white weenie dog. *lol* I didn't know that someone had opened the bag of flour. I reached up, grabbed it, and swung it around to set it on the stove when it EXPLODED, showerring poor little Oscar who was at my feet as well as coverring the chair and stove. I miraculously managed to get none on me, but the poor little dog was history. He was a really good sport about it. Riley even ran in to help clean him up and of course discovered she loves the taste of flour and spent the next thirty minutes turning my kitchen floor into paste, weenie dog spit style.

So here's the pic of my little guy, all rolled in flour and looking just a little put out *lol*.

The pantry did finally end up getting moved and now safely resides in the laundry room. I've still to get to the paste that used to be the kitchen floor. I have to do that before I can move the microwave and then do the shelves in the kitchen. When all is said and done, this will have been a worthwhile project....I hope *lol*.

Wally World Nightmare

2008-09-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Don't ever go to Walmart on a Thursday night when you live more than an hour's drive away. It's not pretty. The youngest two had birthday money to spend, and they had been sooooooo good...so I told them that we'd try to go to Walmart last night if their dad got home from work in time. Mind you, it's over an hour drive one way. He got home and we left just after 8 pm. I wanted to just scrap it and wait until the weekend, but the girls had their hearts set on going. So off we went. We went to the dollar store (one of their favorites) and then went to Denny's for their birthday dinner (because that's where they chose). And then we went to Walmart. Since we live so far out, we always do our shopping for the entire month in one trip. Well, after last night, we decided that we will NEVER go to walmart again with just one car. Those poor girls were completely buried in the back seat. My honey was completely buried in the passenger seat as well. It was a nightmare. We were all tired and way past cranky. Everyone was fighting. And you know how time flies when you're having "fun"???? We left the house at 8, and it was past 2 in the morning when we got home. I didn't feel right making the girls get up at 6:30 for school, so I told them they could go in late or not go at all. I sent everyone to bed and then for the next hour, all alone I carried in over $ 600 in groceries and stuff. Then, I got the extreme pleasure of putting away all the refrigerated/frozen stuff. I didn't get to bed until right at 4 am this morning. All 3 of the girls woke me up at 7 something asking if they could go to school. *lol* They had permission to stay home, and they were all up...even the youngest one who ALWAYS drags her feet getting ready in the morning. I'm really proud of them for that. They all got up and went anyway, even after not enough sleep.....and there's not even a field trip or party today *laughing*.

Alterring

2008-08-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, here's one of my first attempts at alterring. I took some composition notebooks and made them into planners for the girls for school. They really like them, and I have to admit that I think they're cute.

My First Family Portrait

2008-08-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

We went and had pictures taken, and I'm so happy with them. This is my first portrait with a family of my own. I played around with them and really like some of the effects and such. I wanted to share them here.

From left to right, top to bottom: Steven, Jen, Trish, Shannon, Kathy (Steven's mom), and Allie down in front.

This is the same pic. I just used "sepia" in my photo editor.

The girls with their grandmother. Shannon, Kathy, Trish, and Allie.

Here I used sepia and a smudge edge.

This is my favorite one of the girls together. We got it this way. I did nothing to it. Shannon, Trish, and Allie.

Here's the same pic without the pink edge.

Me and my honey, Steven.

Here I used sepia and a marble frame.

Steven and his mom, Kathy.

Same pic with a black and silver frame.

What Color Are You?

2008-08-22T15:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I got this quiz off my sister's blog....and I actually took it.

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

And now it's your turn.

Trish

2008-08-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

And now we come to Trish, the oldest. She's in that typical teenage phase where she is angry most of the time and tries to push the limits on every thing every chance she thinks she can. She can be sweet and smiley sometimes, but it's kinda like Bigfoot...little to no photographic evidence that her smile exists. *lol*. She's a good kid though, but only when she wants to be. When she does want to be, however, she can be a very beautiful and caring person....and I love those moments with her.

Here's a pic of Trish with her kitten, Seastar. They were so adorable together. She would pick him up to take him upstairs to bed every night, and he would hug her and just hold on. He only did that with her. He loved her very much.

This one is of Trish and Steven playing with some funny face glasses. It's one of my favorite pics. I love the way she doesn't mind when he makes funny faces behind her and stuff. She plays and has a good time, and it's wonderful to see her being so free.

Here's a few shots of Trish playing with her little brother, Oscar.

Shannon

2008-08-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Shannon is the sweet middle child. She's very quiet and shy but has a wonderful sense of humor when she lets it show. She really is a sweety heart.

Here's a pic of Shannon cuddling with Seastar (Bubba).

Here's a little sibling rivalry for you *chuckling*. Shannon's playing with Oscar and his duck. It was hilarious to watch them. He loves his "Sissy".

Here's a pic of her cuddling with her Daddy on the couch.

Allie

2008-08-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm engaged to a wonderful man that has 3 little girls. Allie, or "Punky" as I've taken to calling her lately is quite the active little girl. She really is very sweet (when she wants to be) and quite the little actress/drama queen. I thought I'd share some pics of my family, so here's a few of the little monkey.

Here's Allie right after losing her first tooth.

Here she is playing dress up with a hula outfit we had gotten for her. She's such a little clown. I love how free she is with playing and how ready she is to always have her picture taken.

I love these next pictures. She was 4 when they were taken at Kmart photo studio. She's such a little cutie.

Spicy Badger Meat

2008-08-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

So these are my boys. Aren't they cute? Look at Oscar napping with his daddy and his ducky. That's how he prefers to take his naps now....on someone's chest...usually mine. Oscar was soooooo little there. He's a big boy now...very stocky. He's so cute because he LOVES beef jerky that we have now started calling "Spicy Badger Meat" after reading in a Daschund book that they were initially bred for hunting. We can ask him "where's the Badger", and he'll look for the jerky. *snickerring* It's very cute.

Rub-a-dub-dub Two babies in the tub

2008-07-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

*chuckling* Weren't we cute? This pic was taken right before she tried to push me into the water I'm sure.

I can see that my sister and I are going to start a pic posting war now *lol*. It's fun and amuses me.

When we were younger, our mother started this game with us. You know that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he gets captured by the Indians and they're gonna make stew out of him? He's hoverring over the cauldron, sticks a toe in, and makes a fuss about how hot it is. Well, my mom would run us a hot bath and we'd do that....make like Bugs in the stew pot with lots of hoopin and hollerin. It was so much fun back then. I'm really surprised my sister never threw carrots and potatoes in the water when it was my turn *lmao*.

War of the Weeds

2008-07-15T08:08:00.001-07:00

I spent about 5 hours in the garden yesterday. It looks SOOOOOO much better. We pulled out one weed that was about 4 feet high. All of them were taller than my knees. It was horrendous out there...a huge battle...little weed bodies strewn everywhere. I filled 15 five gallons buckets, packed to the rim with weeds. There was a very pretty ivy vine growing in the garden as well. I took some cuttings in the hopes of getting them to grow inside. I love ivy. I've always thought it was very pretty. The beans and 3 rows of peas now have sticks and strings. There's only one little section of peas left to weed...about a third of one row and then I can run the string for those rows too. So we saved the garden. YAY. We have 4 rows of corn, 3 rows of beans, 6 rows of peas, 3 tomato plants (cherry, big boy, and roma), and 2 green pepper plants (although neither one has any peppers on it), two rows of radishes, 1 small row of carrots, and what looks to be 1 watermelon or squash. Steven ate one of his radishes yesterday "in an effort to thin them out, yeah, yeah, that's what it is". *lol* We have tons of pea pods. Oh yeah, he ate one of those too. The corn is about 2 feet high, the beans about a foot, and the peas...wow....some of them are about 3 feet high. They're going to totally take off now that they're weeded and on strings. None of our mound stuff came up, so I'm going to plant some more seeds today or tomorrow. We still might be able to get something of a harvest from them before winter comes. I'm going to plant pumpkins too. The girls want homegrown pumpkins for Halloween.

and so it goes

2008-07-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the weenies are still irresistably cute, and the garden is still growing weeds very well. We've had two more ripe cherry tomatoes, and yep, I ate them both in secret today *laughing*. Truth be told, noone else in the family likes tomatoes, so they are ALL MINE. I waterred today, and I'm hoping to get back out there to weed here in a few because I really do want to save the garden. We have some really cute little pea pods already, and the corn is over a foot high....this all in two weeks since we started seriously weeding.

But you see.....I haven't gone back out to weed because there's always laundry and dishes and dogs to walk. Oh, and don't forget the PLAYSTATION. *lol* I've never had one before, so it's a new toy for me. We have Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (bought it used off ebay), and I LOVE IT!!!! I never thought I'd like a game like that, but it's totally sick (in a good way and incidentally a term I learned to use that way from the game). Steven, my fiance, just wants to be like Mike *lmao*. You see, we've been trying for a week to get the "Sick" score in the Hanger. You have to get 75,000 to get that career goal. We've been getting 20,000 consistently, but we just couldn't seem to get any higher than that. And then BLAM....last night I became MIKE *lol*. I totally nailed it and got 128,000 something. It was absolutely a beautiful thing to see. I tried to play again this morning in between cleaning both dog kennels, waterring the garden, doing 3 loads of laundry, and two sinks of dishes. Well, I'm back to sucking.....with a score of 2436 *laughing*. Steven has already laid claim to the playstation for tonight. He wants to beat my score. I've been teasing him all day that he just wants to be like Mike.

and the Garden Grows

2008-07-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

So.....in the world of gardening....who knew??? I'll just admit right off that this was my bright idea. With a family of five, I figured "Hey, let's plant a garden. It'll save us so much on fresh produce, and home grown stuff always tastes better. It'll be good for us to have a family project. The girls will learn about keeping a garden (shouldn't everyone know this?). " Those are all sound reasons, right? Well, "Let's plant a garden" is a whole lot easier SAID than DONE as the saying goes, but let me start at the beginning of this story.

We have a pretty big back yard. We decided to clear a large area for the garden. We figured we'd put it out back by the detached garage, thinking that would be the best place for it as it's the least travelled. So out we go with the hoe because we live so far out, it's impossible for us to rent a tiller because we'd have to rent it for two days and who wants to pay over 200 just to till up a garden. So we have shovels and rakes and 1 hoe and out we go. It took us 3 weeks of BACK BREAKING labor to get that ground cleared of weeds and rocks and nails and all sorts of crap that is anyone's guess who put it all back there. But after three weeks, and a gazillion bug bites later, the ground's looking good and clean and done up in nice little rows and mounds....so we decide to actually plant. The girls' godmother brought (brand spanking new from the store mind you) over two shovels, a rake, a garden bucket, and 5 little sets of personal small garden tools (a little spade/shovel thing and a rake), and a whole bunch of seeds. So, we lay all the seed packets out and "planned" where we were gonna put everything. We even drew a little diagram. Well, 3 seed packets later, we've used up half the garden space and only planted corn and beans. Now we're standing there holding about 15 more seed packets going "We need more space. There's no way we're gonna have enough room. Let's plant and then start tilling up more space (yes, still by hand). " We get the peas planted, and we're now out of space except for the mounds. So at this point, we have 4 rows of corn, 4 rows of green beans, 6 rows of peas, 1 pepper plant, 1 big boy tomato plant, and 1 cherry tomato plant. Now we're standing there looking at the seed packets, looking at the mounds, looking at the shovels and rakes and hoe.....and we all let out a collective SHUDDER. This is where the rationalizing starts *laughing* because we're all just so ready to try and clear more ground right? We decided to plant partial packages of each of the mound veggies/fruits, plant the carrots and radishes along the fence (because whoever lived here before us had a dog and there was a really nice long bare spot cleared from all the doggy running), and then wait until the next weekend to clear more space. It all sounded good, and we got that much done and then decided to wait until the next weekend to clear more space. Now....when we planted each row, we put food in first, covered with dirt, planted seeds, covered with dirt, and then waterred. It was a tremendous amount of work because of the lack of a tiller. But we were happy. We had our garden, all with it's nice neat little rows and mounds and the shiny new sprinkler going. It was very rewarding to watch the water spraying gently over the dirt. The next weekend, however, came much quicker than any of us were ready for. Our blisters and sun burns still hadn't completely healed. We decided to wait one more weekend. The next weekend came and went. *laughing* Nobody wanted to go back out there for round 2. So here it is a month later and we never did clear more ground. The garden has been getting waterred regularly....but the weeds have too. The garden is CHOKED with weeds, so I've been forcing the very reluctant troops to go weeding with me every weekend. We've almost gotten it looking presentable. The plants have trippled their size and are now bearing the fruits of our labor. We got our first edible veggie yesterday....a nicely ripened cherry tomato. It was quite delicious. Yum Yum. I really do adore home grown stuff.

The girls have been saving their apple seeds and avacado pits and basically just anything that has a seed or pit in it. They want to grow it all *lol*. When they bring me little bags of seeds, I point to the shovel and hoe...and they walk away. The other day, the youngest, brought me the seeds AND the shovel. Damn it. *lol* So, we planted her little apple seeds in a styrofoam cup in the kitchen window. If anything comes up, we'll actually try to grow the little tree and plant it. The winters get bitter cold here, but they grow cherry trees just down the road a pace....so I'm thinking the tree might live through the winter if we keep it in the house until it's big enough to put outside in the ground. And they all planted grass in little styrofoam cups they decorated. They all love their little plants now. It's really kinda cute.

Well, I'm off to go weed some more and try and whip the rest of the garden into shape.

Puppy Pound

2008-07-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so now we have 2 weenie dogs. Oscar and Riley. Oscar was such a little angel, never barking. Now Riley comes into the picture, who is a barking machine let me tell you....and now aaaaaallllll of a sudden, Oscar's just as bad as she is. She's teaching him all her bad habits. The go into little weener attack mode when anyone comes to the door. It's kinda funny for about the first 2 seconds *lol*. Oscar also now gets up on the back of the couch like he's a cat (thanks Riley) to which Bandit (the actual cat) is very DISPLEASED. When we give the dogs treats, Riley sits on hers and steals Oscar's...never really eating either one of them. She just doesn't want him to have one. She steals his toys, pushes him off my lap when he's having a "mommy nap", and steals his favorite blanky too. He's a quick study though and has now successfully stolen 3 bones back from her and pushed her off me twice. *laughing* Their antics really are quite cute...and now that Oscar's stopped trying to hump her with every breath, they're becoming fast friends. The sleep together during the day. They even eat and drink together without Riley hogging it all. We haven't tried putting them in the same kennel at night yet, but that will be soon. Oscar's kennel is pretty big and even with both dogs in there, Riley will still have more room than she does in her little one. We're hoping to fence a section of the backyard for them as soon as we can find some fencing to do so. We live in a semi isolated area. The hardware store in the next town over doesn't have anything and the same with Walmart. Oh, I do have to tell you.....Oscar never begged before either. Riley, however, can sit so damn pretty and hold the pose for days. Oscar is now doing it as well......because they've learned that we're WEAK and we'll crack before they do. I mean, come on, when you have a twin set of weenies sitting up on their hind legs, both tails wagging, and looking at you with desperate eyes......who can resist that?????

Thank you

2008-07-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone for your words of welcome. Look at me, having blogged multiple times today.

And thank you, Shelley, for helping me with the phrases and stuff to set the blog up. (See, we can be nice to each other too *lol*.)

Innocence of the Demon??

2008-07-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Now see, here I'm going to tell you all the COLD HARD TRUTH of the demon child I grew up with. I was such a sweet thing, as you can see by the pic. My sister, Shelley as the world knows her, was not so sweet. Again I refer you to the picture which of course has not been altered at all. You see, while she's sweet and loving and caring NOW, I know the truth of the child and there was no innocence in that devil baby *laughing*.

When we were younger, I of course was the sweet one. Still to this day, I'm often referred to as "the good one". My sister, however, well, let me just say that you should be sitting down for this because every single kitten squeezing, fork stabbing, wagon throwing word of it is the honest truth *swearing an oath on my cherished kitties*. We were typical sisters, fighting like cats and dogs every chance we got. A few times, we even invented things to fight about, as is the nature of rabid little beasts that have been caged too long. A few horror stories I still carry with me to this day...and I will share the terror with you here today.

When me and my sister were little, and she'd be mad at me for something, and when she couldn't catch me, she would grab one of my kittens and squeeze it till it screamed JUST to make me cry. And I did...every time for I loved my little furries. I still adore animals (except for spiders...if they invade my space, they are FAIR GAME for annihilation). We have a house full of critters here what with 2 cats, 3 hamsters, 1 guinea pig, 3 fish, 2 frogs, and a weenie dog. Oh, and not to forget the one man pig and 3 little she pigs as well.

Now for the fork stabbing portion of this miniature memoir. When I was about 10 and she was about 11, we were sitting at the table one afternoon innocently eating lunch. The only thing I remember from that lunch was the mashed potatoes. We had been fighting off and on that day, and she said something that made me mad while we were eating.......so of course it's only natural that I had to retaliate, right?? Knowing full well there would be retaliation and completely not caring, I picked up a fork full of mashed potatoes and flung it at her....hitting her right between the eyes. I laughed uncontrollably until the demon spawn let loose her immediate and infinitely worse revenge...stabbing me in the thigh with her fork. This is where I stopped laughing. And yes, while it hurt, I was determined that she was going to take the fork out, not me. So what do I do upon her refusal to remove the implement of sibling endangerment?? I stand up, step over to her, and proceed to pommel her screaming at her to take it out. My mother comes in to see what all the ruckus was about only to find me hitting her because they NEVER catch the first one who did it *lol*. Mom started pounding on me yelling at me to let her go, and I'm still pounding on her refusing to stop. Mom finally got us to stop and everything was kosher for about 1 or 2 seconds until I showed her the fork glaring back at us, still lodged in my little innocent leg. It took a few minutes to fully explain everything that had happened. I don't remember any further punishments either for myself or the leg wounding spawn, but I never threw food at her again. *laughing* It's hilarious NOW, but back THEN, not so much.

So, I've shared with you the kitten squeezing and fork stabbing parts of our past. Now one last story for today. See, there was this wagon wheel incident too, that I just must share because I feel like justice was served to me that day *snickerring*. Again, we were fighting and like would usually end up happening....if she couldn't catch me to hit me, she would simply throw something at me. I was pretty quick what with being pretty athletic and a tomboy back then, but every now and then she's find her mark with whatever thing she found to hurdle towards me. On this particular day, I was busy running away when she spotted the infamous bronze covered wagon book ends. She grabbed one and went to throw it at my retreating back, when justice struck hard and swift. Her finger slipped in between two of the wagon wheel's spokes and instead of flying across the room at me, it cut her finger and she dropped it screaming. Not that I would wish ill will on her, but I was damn glad at the time because that thing would have hurt like hell had it actually hit me *laughing*.

So, there's a little about my sister. And yes, I fully expect retaliation as she has stories about me too, but let me just say that NO, I did NOT smear catnip all over her parakeet that my cat killed while we were at school one day....nor did I pomel her every day. *lol* Honest. I was, and still am, the good one. Just remember that when you read her next blog.

From HERO to BUTTHOLE in 6 seconds flat

2008-07-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

So it's like this....

Last night my fiance, sweetie pie, darling, dear was my hero for giving me his last two cigarettes when he went to bed. How loving and caring and thoughtful, right?? That's the image of him I went to sleep with. Then reality struck this morning and he quickly went from being my hero to being a butthole, and it only took him 6 seconds to do it. You see, he has 3 children, all girls, all little monster mongrels, and I love them dearly. But oh how love is such a fleeting thing when you've had no nicotene for the 4 hours you've been awake. Now here comes the buttholio part. I called him to let him know I was going to go get gas in my car and then head to the grocery store in 108 degree HEAT to get some dead animal fleshy products for him and his little carnivores to eat....and what does he tell me????? He bought a pack of cigarettes this morning and took them to work with him KNOWING full well I was out and me and the children were caged together in the house. So of course I haaaaad to let him know he was a nicotene hording child endangerer *laughing*. Not so needless to say, the children are still alive and I now have my smokes and they have meaty things to eat that do not require cooking and therefore generating even more heat because I think my sweat is sweating.

um...MOO?

2008-07-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

Under duress and fear of limitless naggage from my sister, I'm starting this blog. I always seem to struggle with the getting started part of summing myself up in a little box, but here goes nothing: