Today's To Do List.

I've missed blogging but I've had lots of things that have kept me busy. I hope to be back soon to share what's been going on in my life but until then here's my To Do List for today!

1. Laundry - will I ever get caught up?
2. Balance the checkbook.
3. Set up April's Budget.
4. Make a Progress/Incentive Chart for Miss Allison.
5. Go through a big box of papers/junk mail/receipts/etc. and put a system in place to avoid this from happening again!
6. Get papers ready for taxes.
7. Get Allison's old Spring/Summer clothes ready to take to the resale shop.
8. Clean the bathroom.
9. Organize the linen closet.
10. Clean the living room.
11. Clean the kitchen.
12. Clean out the refrigerator.
13. Plan this week's menu.
14. Work on some organizational ideas for Allison's room.
15. Have Allison read me some of a chapter book. (The pic below of her reading her first chapter book. It is #1 of the Magic Tree House series. The book is "Dinosaurs Before Dark." It is 68 pages and she sat there for 2 hours until she finished. I was so proud!)



I have to go get busy!
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Happy Easter!

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How Can...

one seemingly innocent 6 year old little girl make her bedroom totally unrecognizable?????

I've been busy decluttering, cleaning and organizing Allison's room today. I ran out of time and didn't get everything done before her bedtime. She did say that I could clean around her while she slept but I don't think that's a good idea!

I've decided that I'm labeling everything in her room. I am hoping that it will help her to keep her room clean and organized. I am using my P-Touch Electronic Labeling System. The machine I have is below. Miss Allison helped me make the labels and loved doing it! Even though it took longer with her help, my thought was that she may have more ownership of the organization if she helped. We'll see.

I have a question for all of you Moms out there...What do you do with all the stuffed animals? I had them on three shelves in her room but I took them down. Even though they looked cute, they ended up being dust collectors. So I put them in storage containers and put them on the top shelf in her closet. I wish I could get rid of them all but there are too many memories attached to the ones I've kept after going through them about a year ago. Please help me with a solution!

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A Surprise for Ba Ba!

My Mom's birthday was on the twenty-second of February. It was a snow day for us so Allison and I were held up in the house. She wanted to go and surprise Ba Ba but I told her that if we couldn't go to school or work, then we didn't need to be driving an hour to surprise Ba Ba. Thankfully, she agreed. We did agree that if the weather cooperated, we would surprise her on the Sunday after her birthday. Since the weather had been unpredictable, I decided to wait until Sunday morning to bake her cake. I had baked a cake for the fish fry at our church on her birthday but then couldn't take it because of the snow. I didn't want another cake laying around here saying "EAT ME! EAT ME!" if we ended up having bad weather. Several posts ago, I talked about this cool Wilton cake pan that I saw in a catalog. It is molded to make a cake in the shape of a giant cupcake. I found it on Amazon for $8.00 cheaper than anywhere else so I caved in an bought it. I had to order a book so the cake pan put me above the minimum to receive free shipping so I had to buy it. How's that for justification? Anyway, here is my first attempt at the cake. I did it in blue because it's my Mom's favorite color. The bottom is a darker blue and after I had it iced, I realized it needed more dimension so I added red food coloring to the icing and piped the purple stripes on it. It's going to take a little practice but just after making this first cake, I'm loving the pan!

Here are the grandkids singing "Happy Birthday" to my Mom. Left to right is Mya (my brother's daughter, my Allison, Ba Ba, Derek (my brother's son) and Abby (my brother's girlfriend's daughter). You can see the proportion of the cake better in this picture. It's much bigger than it seems. I cut seven slices out of it and there was still more than half the cake left.
My brother and his crew just came up for the cake and ice cream so they didn't stay for very long. After they left, I was able to take a much needed nap on the couch while Allison and Ba Ba spent some quality time together. Seriously friends, it's not me that she was happy to see when we surprised her at the door! In the picture below is Allison trying to teach Ba Ba how to use her little VTech Nitro Notebook. My Mom is tremendously technology challenged and it was so entertaining for me to watch this little lesson Allison was trying to give her. Little Miss Patient Allison breathed a couple frustrating sighs when Ba Ba didn't do what she was supposed to do when she was supposed to do it. Too funny!

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A Free Sample!

Occasionally I receive free samples in the mail. Some are okay. Some are good. And some are great! This one was great! It came in the mail yesterday and Allison loved it! I just checked out their site and they have Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate too! See that Nancy? Dark Chocolate! They also have 100 calorie packs that are new. They are Cheddar, Chocolate Caramel and Strawberry Yogurt. I like having the 100 calorie packs of snacks on hand for Allison. She likes the Oreo Thin Crisps, Peanut Butter Cookie Crisps and Chips Ahoy Thin Crisps made by Nabisco and the Right Bites Grasshopper and Right Bites Mini Fudge Stripes made by Keebler. She doesn't even miss the fattening filling! I'll have to keep my eyes out for the new 100 Chex snacks!

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I've Been Tagged!

I'm not sure what I did to my back yesterday but I am hurting bad today. I had planned on catching up on everything I wanted to share with all of you but that isn't happening all in one sitting. So in between trying to do laundry, cleaning and my other chores, I'll be back and forth today to share a snippet of what's been going on with me. Be sure to check back because you never know what you might miss of my ultra exciting life! HaHa....well it's exciting to me!

I was tagged by a friend, Kim, last week or so and I am just getting around to responding. Here is goes!

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.

C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: I was living in Ohio working for the same company I am now. I had a cute little 2 bedroom apartment in a 4-plex right across the street from one of my very best friends, Nancy. Life was good except I was very aware that my biological clock was ticking loudly. I had imagined I would have been a Mother before I turned 30 but 30 was a few years before this and I was starting to get discouraged. Boy, how life can change!

Things on my to-do list today: Laundry, cleaning, rearrange some things in my kitchen to free up some cupboard space, go through some papers I've been meaning to get to, update my blog and do a few other things I've been putting off.

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Quit my job! No, I don't hate my job but I would much rather be a stay at home Mom. I would buy us a cute little modest house in the country and spend my time redoing it room by room inside and out with all the cool things I would find from flea markets, antique stores and those cute little second hand stores you find in almost every little town in Pennsylvania. I would also buy Allison a dog and Curtis an old car that he can spend his free time redoing. Of course, I would also invest and secure our futures so I wouldn't have to work for anyone ever again!

3 of my bad habits: 1. Putting laundry off until it's overwhelming. 2. Letting the mail pile up before I get to it. 3. Taking on more than I can handle and then stressing about it. I'm stilling learning to say no!

3 places I have lived: 1. Pennsylvania 2. Northern Virginia 3. Ohio

5 jobs that I have had: 1. Waitress 2. Bank Teller 3. Restaurant Manager 4. Home Interior's Consultant 5. Restaurant Accountant

5 things people don't know about me: 1. I don't like blue pens. I only use black ones. 2. I go to the Goodwill store every Wednesday after I drop Allison off at school. I don't always find something I want but I love looking at all the treasures. In fact, I haven't found anything I've wanted for months! Maybe every one's Spring cleaning will fill their shelves with goodies. 3. If I could be in my bare feet all the time, I would. 4. I have perfect vision in my right eye and need corrective lenses for the left. Yes, when I wear my contacts, I only need one. Also my right eye is 1/4 brown and the rest is blue like my left. 5. One of my dreams is to own a floral/decor shop. I even have the name all picked out. Hmm, maybe one day!

Now I'm supposed to tag three people but the people I would tag have already done it. So, I am going to tag:

Stephanie and anyone who hasn't done it. Please leave a comment if you choose to do it so I can be linked to your blog.

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