I'm DREADING Tomorrow!

How do I tell this precious child that her kitty at Grandma's and Pa Pa's went to heaven?

I'm sitting here in tears at the thought of it. My heart hurts so much just knowing that her little heart will be broken. This cat wasn't just any old cat. This cat was her best friend. Allison was obsessed with this cat. This cat was obsessed with Allison. They had a special bond...an unbelievable bond. She always came to greet Allison when she arrived and Allison always ran to her as soon as she got there. It's all she talks about. She just told me tonight that she couldn't wait to go to Grandma's tomorrow so she could hold Pilchard. Yes, she named her Pilchard after the cat in Bob the Builder. This child is going to be crushed. She understands that heaven is a wonderful place and that our loved ones go there to be with Jesus. She maybe talks about heaven too much for a five year old. She talks about going there. She wants to go with me so we can see Aunt Carole, Pooki (my cat that we lost a couple of years ago) and Sheeba (my best friend's dog). This loss will be her first big loss. She is going to be lost without this cat. Pilchard occupied so much of her time at her Grandparent's home. She was her buddy.

God Bless you Allison's little buddy. May you find peace in the arms of an angel.

Golden Memories

They say memories are golden, well, maybe that is true.

I never wanted memories, I only wanted you.

A million times I cried.

If love alone could have saved you, you never would have died.

In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still.

In my heart you hold a place no one else could fill.

If tears could build a stairway and heartache make a lane.

I'd walk the path to Heaven and bring you back again.

Our family chain is broken, and nothing seems the same.

But as God calls us back one by one, the chain will link again.

Author Unknown

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OH to be 5 again!

This is a short and quick post because I wanted to share these pictures! Allison had so much fun splashing around in her little pool today. The only thing wrong with the pool is that it's not big enough for ME! Enjoy!







"I never knew how much love my heart could hold until someone called me Mommy."
-Unknown

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The Master Suite!

He he he! I would hardly call it a suite but here it is! I promised pictures of my home and these are the first ones I'm sharing. First let me say that I hate the color. Every room in our house has color on the walls that I picked out. Curtis wanted to pick the color of our bedroom and this is what he picked. I call it boring beige! I am planning on changing the decor in the room by next Spring and I think I may paint an accent wall to spice it up a bit. Maybe a dark green or maybe a vibrant red!

The items on the top of my mirror belonged to my Aunt Carole. I'm not real wild about them being there but they are some of the things she cherished and for right now, I like seeing them out.

Since our place is small we have to multi-use rooms and our bedroom also doubles as my scrapping area. The table is 4 feet wide and it doesn't give me much room but I am glad that I, at least, have a space to work. I'll share more detailed pics of my scrapbook station at a later date. I want to reorganize it better. Half of my closet is storage for my supplies as well and I would like to get them out of there too...at least some of them.

Do you see the 2 white dots on the television? Does your digital ever do that? Do you know what it is? I tried cleaning the lense but it still happens!

On another note, I love quotes and sayings so I want to start ending my posts each time with one of my favorites.

"If you change nothing, nothing will ever change."
Unknown

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10 Random Thoughts for Saturday!

1. Why does it have to rain on a Saturday? It's been nice all week and I thought I would be able to get the pool out for Allison today but that's not going to happen.

2. Why do the credit card companies insist on sending me offers in the mail? I've thrown out 7 this week already and today's mail hasn't even come yet. Don't they know I am not interested! I should just rip my name off and send everything back to them in their postage paid envelope!

3. Why is my daughter so odd? Her favorite movie right now is "Clash of the Titans" from 1981. Curtis was channel surfing one day and went past it and Allison yelled "STOP" and insisted on watching it. I don't like those kind of movies...she must have gotten that gene from her father!



4. After I'm done updating my blog, I'm going to start my laundry. I finally got all caught up with all of it and I don't want to get behind again. I may even set the ironing board up and get caught up on that too!

5. I'm excited that I am going to see the Dixie Chicks tonight at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. NO, I don't think how they have behaved is right but they do produce some great music and I haven't seen them yet. Anyway, the tickets were free because the Pittsbugh Penguins want my company to do some marketing with them. So, not to worry because if a riot breaks out, I'll be safe in the Penguins box!

6. If you have a Bed, Bath & Beyond near you, click on the link and sign up to be on the mailing list. They send out 20% off coupons all the time and it's their policy to take all their coupons...even if it's expired. The one that I go to also takes more than one at a time too! It's a happy thing!

7. The online Mother's Group that I belong to has been posting pictures of their homes. Mine is nothing great but I am going to do that tomorrow so I'll share some here too. I had planned on doing it today but with it raining outside, it looks too dark in here to take pictures. I like the natural sunlight.

8. I just got a copy of Allison's school supply list for kindergarten and I need to get that completed. I have already purchased some items that I thought she would need and I didn't do bad. We got her the backpack and lunchbox for her birthday from the Disney Store online. The lunch box clips onto the backpack so she will only have one thing to carry. I also didn't get her name on it for safety reasons. I didn't want a stranger to call her by name and catch her offguard.

9. What's for dinner at your house tonight? My friend and I are going to catch a quick bite to eat before the concert. Curtis is taking Allison to a co-worker's daughter's birthday party at CiCi's Pizza so I don't have to cook for them either...woooo hoooo! Speaking of dinner, how do you do it at your house? Do you plan your dinners by the week, the month, or do you look around and see what you have on hand to make for dinner that night? One of my goals for this month is to plan out our meals by the month...I think. Maybe it'll end up being bi-weekly. I've been writing down all of the dinners that I make and I have been seperating them into categories. Curtis will be home before me 3 days a week and I need to either use the crockpot or have something prepared in advance so he can just pop it into the oven on those days. I would love to hear how you do it!

10. Tommorow I need to spend a good portion of the day taking pictures and listing things on Craig's List and ebay. I need to have most of that stuff stacked in the basement gone by the end of Septemeber. I had Curtis put it all in front of my holiday closet so it'll give me incentive to have it gone in time to decorate for Halloween! Pin It

Bonus...2nd post in a day!

Every year we go to The Runway restaurant at the Butler County Airport for Allison's private birthday celebration with just us. We couldn't go on Sunday because her party was that day so we went tonight after her 5 year check-up. She LOVES going there because she can sit there and watch the planes take-off and land. We even saw the life flight helicopter come in tonight. We also give her a little present. It is the Enesco Growing Up Birthday Girl figurine. This year she asked earlier in the dinner if she was going to get the birthday girl. I kind of ignored her and then at the end of dinner, she acted so surprised when she opened it. She said "I've been wanting this!" It was so funny! Here are a few pics before I head off to bed!





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A Party fit for a Cowgirl!

Allison's 5th birthday and party were on Sunday, July 16th. We had a Western party. It was very hot and humid but we had a nice breeze going through the backyard so it wasn't so bad. I love theme parties and I had fun preparing for this one! Great job Allison for picking horses and cowgirl/boys! I think it was the best one yet if I do say so myself. I used light blue gingham material for the tablecloths ($1.00 a yard at Wal-Mart!), red and darker blue bandanas and red and blue balloons. I always serve a meal and we had sloppy joes, hash brown casserole, calico baked beans, cole slaw and pasta salad, cans of soda (Curtis put the cooler in her old fashioned red radio flyer wagon and it looked so cute!) and gintea punch. By the way, gintea doesn't have any alcohol in it, the "gin" part of the name is for gingerale.

I've probably shared too many pictures here but I couldn't resist. You should be able to click on any of the images to enlarge them. Thanks Stephanie for taking all the pics for me! I love you and appreciate all of your help!

Well, here is my cowgirl on our version of a horse. The kid's loved it! Heck, the adult women loved it! They were riding on it at the end of the party too! Those pictures are on my film camera. Maybe I'll share those on a later post...unless of course, I am paid NOT to do so. Hear that ladies! The kids played on the horse as if it was a ride at a playground. The saddle was my sister's and mine when were were little so it's over 30 years old.

We really only played one game with the kid's besides the pinata and all the kid's won a prize. I put 3 plastic cups on the railing and they used their 6 shooter water pistols to try knock them over. The guns weren't powerful enough so one of the other Moms, Nancy, "helped" them along. You can see her in the second picture! LOL...Allison told my sister later that day that "Mitchell's Mommy was helping the cups fall over." LOL....they don't miss a trick, do they? Oh, and that's me in the picture with my head cut off! Did you notice I have red bandana shoes on? I made my shirt to got with them. I used a red bandana and my Sizzix machine to cut the 5 (cause she's 5 years old) stars out and ironed them on using a fabric adhesive.


Our stallion pinata! We had to modify the pinata with a kit they sell so the kids could pull ribbons to try break it open. Allison didn't want to hit the poor animal!

All of our little guests. Going from left to right...Derek, 3 (my brother's son), Mitchell, 5 in 3 weeks (my friend's, Nancy's son), Mya, 5 in 4 days (sister to Derek, so she is my brother's daughter), Abby, 8 (my brother's girlfriend's daughter), Maria, 8 (dark hair in back is my God daughter) and Miss Emily, 10 (Mitchell's sister so she is Nancy's daughter).

Allison opening presents. Grandma Sandy (Mom to my best friend, Susan) got her these cool vintage cowgirl pattern p.j.'s....SO adorable!

Our annual family birthday picture. Can you see the tatoo on Allison's arm? She is obsessed with these things right now! She wanted this dolphin on her arm where Uncle Brian has his eagle on his! Lord help me if this is a peek into our future!

I'm really not sure what Maria and Allison are doing here but you can see the gift bags that all the kid's received. In them were a straw cowgirl/boy hat with red or blue trim, a red or blue bandana, a red, white and blue star lollipop, a snake pen, a star notepad, 3 plastic play horses, a horses coloring book, a box of crayons, a couple of toy water pistols and a star decorated cellophane bag with mini Reese cups and Hershey kisses in them. The bags were really cute. I used brown craft bags from a craft store and had my sister, Alesia, write their names on them ("Cowgirl Maria"), stamp some brown horses on them and tie raffia to the handles.

I'm probably going to get shot for showing you this next picture but I HAD to post this. It's not because I want to make fun of Curtis but that this reminds me of that commercial on tv where the Dad is seen through the window by a neighbor dancing silly to some pop music. Click here and hopefully you'll see the one I'm talking about. Anyway, there isn't anything Curtis wouldn't do to make his little girl smile...including looking silly on a pretend horse and letting us take pictures of him!

One last thing before I go...I have a Mom tip to help serving cake and ice cream easier. I took the tub of ice cream in the morning and scooped out the ice cream into big balls and put them into cup cake papers, put them on a tray and put them back into the freezer. It was so nice when it came time to serve the dessert, all we had to do was grab a prescooped ice cream cup and it was done. This was a BIG hit at the party with all the Moms.

Gotta run!

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I'm still here!

I'm still cleaning and decluttering but I decided to take a minute for a Jack and coke. Okay, okay, I'm not really drinking a Jack and coke at 9:18 in the morning! I probably could use one but I'll just settle for some of God's gin. That's water for all of you who still think I'm hitting the bottle. I learned that term when I was waitressing at 17. There was the sweetest little old man that would come in and sit at the counter and order God's gin. We didn't serve liquor and I know the first time he ordered it, I had a look on my face. He giggled and told me what it was. Hmmm, how is it that I can remember that memory from 24 years ago but I can't remember what my password is for my online banking????? I hate that you have to change it every so many days and are not allowed to use the same one twice!

On another note, Allison's birthday and party is on Sunday. I mentioned it before but we are getting more excited as it gets closer. I broke down and ordered a cake with stallions on it. I couldn't find a horse cake locally so I was going to make my own. After realizing that I may be taking on too much, I stoped at Kretchmar's (YUM!) in Beaver, Pennsylvania and ordered one. It's not exactly what I wanted (because I'm too much of a perfectionist)but Allison will love it. My sister is picking it up on her way to my house Saturday morning. Thankfully, my sister, Alesia comes every Saturday morning prior to Allison's party to hang out with her. It frees me up so I can get all my prep work done. All I can say is THANK YOU AUNT LISA!!!!

Gotta run!

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Just checking in!

Well, we ended up getting half the basement done and will be finishing the other half this week. We threw out tons! I cleaned out a closet that I hadn't been in for a few years...that felt great! I added some shelves to the area at the bottom of the stairs for party supplies and overflow from the kitchen. It's a small space but I got a lot in there! I also found a lot that I'm going to ebay and some of the bigger items that I don't want to ship for craig's list. I already have someone coming to get the changing table...yippee! Thanks to my friend, Carol, for turning me onto craig's list! I am working on the living room now. I started yesterday afternoon and cleared out about 20 or more movies of Allison's that she has outgrown, some cds of mine that I will never listen to again and I went through the drawer of warranties and manuals. You really should do this yourself. There were manuals in there for things we don't own anymore. I moved them to a 3-ring binger with sheet protectors.

I gotta run and get working! It feels wonderful to declutter and organize!

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Against my better judgement!

I can't believe I'm doing this! I'm thinking this will be motivation for me to actually complete and post pics when I am done. This is our basement before Curtis and I started on it! It is a finished basement but we mainly use it for laundry, working out (Curtis...not me!), storage and overflow from the rest of the house! This is the worst it has ever been! It's just crazy!!!




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Vacation...Simplify...Declutter...Relax!

Today is the first official day of my vacation! Yippee!!! I have 9 days off from my paying job! However, I have a plan! In the next nine days, I plan to SIMPLIFY our lives by DECLUTTERING this house so we can RELAX in our home! Where does all this stuff come from? This place seemed so big when we moved in but now it is wall to wall stuff! I think there are little fairies that enter while we are sleeping and dump stuff everywhere! Okay, okay, truth be told, I am a packrat! There! I've said it! Are you happy? I have a hard time getting rid of things. My Mom once called me her sentimental Cindi and boy is she right! I love things that have a history to them and tells a story, things that have been owned by loved ones, things that can instantly take me to a special memory or things that will help Allison have wonderful memories of her life. I know most of them are just "things" but they make me happy. I guess that's why I scrapbook...because I'm sentimental and it's my job to pass our legacy onto my daughter and my future generations.

Here are a few of those things around my home that are special to me:

This was my Ba Ba's (grandma) lamp that she had in her bedroom when I was a child. She passed away in 1978 and years later, I inherited it without a shade. It has been in my daughter's room since we brought her home from the hospital. Allison's middle name is Victoria which was my Ba Ba's first name.
The are pictures of Curtis and I when we where little. My friend, Nancy, and I were looking through some old pictures I had when we came across the one of me in the raspberry patch picking raspberries. She insisted that I do something with it. I ended up having one framed for my Mom as well for Mother's Day one year. A couple of years later when Curtis brought some pictures home from his Mom's, I saw this one of him and knew it would be perfect along side mine. It's fun to look at now and see who Allison resembles more. I think it's me!
I recently inherited this donkey planter. It was my Ba Ba's and I remember as a little girl, it was sitting on a shelf by her kitchen window with a plant in it.
This rooster was my Aunt Carole's. She passed away about 2 1/2 years ago. We were very close and I miss her terribly. She loved roosters. My Ba Ba loved roosters. My Mom loves roosters. Curtis' Mom loves roosters. I never got the whole rooster thing but my Aunt Carole always said that every kitchen should have at least one rooster. I hunted and she hunted and we could never find just the right rooster for my kitchen. After she passed away, my Aunt Lee gave me this ceramic rooster basket tureen. My Aunt Carole had made it in ceramics in the late 70's and it is the perfect rooster for my kitchen. He sits safely in the corner above my sink. I love my rooster and now I get the whole rooster thing!

Okay, that enough of my rambling on! Curtis and I are going to clean and organize the basement! Wooo Hoooo! This is the first step in my decluttering of this house!

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Happy Birthday America!

I wanted to share just a few pictures of how we spend our 4th of July. We really don't do a lot of celebrating. It's really a low key sort of day for us but we end it with going to watch the fireworks that the Big Butler Fair puts off. We actually have never been to the fair. We watch the fireworks from a field that is quite a distance behind the fair. We park along side a country road with dozens of other firework seekers. We take a blanket, lawn chairs and drinks and wait for show. I don't know who owns the field that we all sit in but whoever it is, thank you for being so kind to allow us to enjoy this family tradition. This was our sixth year. The first time we went there I was 12 days away from giving birth to Allison. Allison loves to hear the story of how she was in my belly the first year and now she runs around in the field catching fireflies before the fireworks. Did you know that the firefly is the state insect of Pennsylvania? Well, there's a little bit of trivia for you!




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