Two Happy Finds!

It's that time of the year again when the furnace gets turned up and I take hotter showers to stay warm. This of course provides me with dry skin! I know I'm not alone. Everyone seems to complain about it and my hand lotion on my desk at work seems to need replaced more frequently at this time of year.

I don't know about all of you but I am picky about the lotion that I use.

When I put lotion on myself I don't want it to feel greasy or oily. So many of them advertise that they are non-greasy but then I find it's just not the case.

I also don't feel like it if it leaves a thick film on my hands or body like I'm wearing a glove.

Applying it every half an hour because I'm dry again is not my idea of a good lotion.

Heavily scented lotions aren't my thing either. Although I love some of the frangrances at Bath and Body Works, I can't stand to smell them all day long. It actually makes me a little nausious and messes with my sinuses.

So as you can see, finding a lotion that I like is hard for me.

I've been using Vaseline Total Moisture Dry Skin Lotion for years. It works and I like it but this year I bought a couple of different ones to try. I had some coupons for them and KMart was doing their double coupon thing up to $2.00 so I figured this was a good time to try some new ones. I bought two. One hand and one body and did I luck out! I love them both. A lot!

The hand lotion I bought was Nivea Smooth Indulgence Hand Cream. It took a couple of applications for it to absorb into my hands because they were really dry. Our soap at work has strong anti-bacterial stuff in it and your hands are dry immediately after you wash them. This hand cream is a blessing. Not greasy. Not oily. Not stinky!

The body lotion is prescription strength without a prescription. It is Vaseline Clinical Therapy. It's available in unfragranced or lightly fragrance. I have the lightly frangranced one because I didn't know until I started to write this post that they had it in unfragranced. They are right. It has a really light scent to it and it's a nice one. This is the second day I used it after a hot shower and it lasted all day! Really! I'm telling you the truth and I'm not greasy, oily or sticky!I love it!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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Curtis has an Enemy!

Yes. That's right.

My sweet, lovable, easy-going honey has an enemy.

I know! It's crazy!

For those of you that know him in person probably find this hard to believe.

It's true.

I wouldn't lie!

Whenever he comes near this enemy, his stress level goes up and his palms get sweaty.

I'm sure his heart starts racing too!

It's actually quite frightening!

Do you want to see his enemy?

Here's the enemy!

Okay. Stop laughing!

I'm serious!

He hated my electric can opener so I got this Pampered Chef one.

I think he hates this one even more!

He can't open a can with it.

He resorts to a screwdriver and raw power.

I'm speaking of his biceps.

Good thing my man has some guns!

Have Fun!

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Menu Plan Monday ~ Nov. 24th!

Since things are starting to back in order around here, I thought I would help it along by posting my weekly menu again. I find that doing a weekly menu helps to eliminate some of the weekly stress of "What's for dinner tonight?"

After you see what I'm cooking this week, click on over to The Organizing Junkie and see what others have planned for their meals this week.

Also, if you are in need of a good Winter soup recipe, stop over at my cooking blog, From The Heart of My Kitchen, and check out my recipe for Italian Wedding Soup.

Here's what we are having this week:

Monday - Stuffed Shells, Green Beans and Texas Toast.

Tuesday - Tuna Noodle Casserole.

Wednesday - Baked Potato Soup in the crock pot with fresh baked bread.

Thursday - 2 Thanksgiving meals at both of our families. I'll be taking Sweet Potato Casserole to Mom's and a dessert to Curtis's.

Friday - Allison is at Grandma and Pa Pa's all day and I'll be working late so Grandma is cooking for Allison and Daddy.

Saturday - Turkey Pot Pie with leftover turkey from Mom! I'm using my Chicken Pot Pie recipe and subbing turkey!

Sunday - If there is enough turkey leftovers, we'll have Hot Turkey Sandwiches with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy and Corn.

Have Fun!

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32 Days Till Christmas!

Can you believe it?

There are only 32 days left until Christmas!

Are you ready?

I'm not doing too badly actually. I have most of my presents purchased and just waiting for a couple of items to come in stock so I can pick those up. I need to finish my handmade gifts but I have all the supplies so I'll get started on those in the evenings the first couple weeks of December. I even think I may wrap some of the gifts that I have purchased this week.

Wouldn't it be nice to get them all bought, made and wrapped before Christmas??? I think I'm going to set a goal of December 14th for it all to be done. That would be awesome! Let's see if I can do it? If I get all of the gifts and decorating done, I'll just have to worry about my baking the Sunday before Christmas. Speaking of baking, doesn't these cookies look yummy? Our church had a bake sale this weekend and you should have seen the goodies! There were pies and cakes and breads and cookies and fudge and nut rolls and the list goes on and on and on! I brought home this plate of sweets and a little plate of chocolate and peanut butter fudge.

One of my friend's Mom makes the best peanut butter fudge. It melts in your mouth!

Hey Nancy! Do you think Sis will give up the recipe????

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"Home" Is Where Your Heart Is!

Jen over at "Santuary Arts at Home" posted a "I made it with scrapbook paper party!" on her blog. It got me thinking that although I haven't scrapbooked in FOREVER, when I did, I enjoyed the creativity of it. It was relaxing to me so I think I need to get back to it...soon!

So here is my contribution to Jen's party.

I made these "HOME" letters a few years ago for my Mom's country kitchen. They were relatively easy and when I gave them to her, she loved them and asked where I bought them!

(Remember, you can click on the pictures for a closer look.)

I started with Darice wood letters that I picked up at our local craft store and painted them with acrylic paint. I then roughly cut out scrapbook paper slightly larger than the top part of the letters and glued the paper on with plain old decoupage glue. I did not decoupage over the top of the paper because I wanted the look of paper not a glossy or shiny finish. After the glue was dry, I used a fine grit sandpaper to sand the excess paper off of the letter to give it a weathered look.

I finished them off with a little embellishment on each letter. I just picked what reminded me of home. Gingham always reminds me of the country, the bluebird reminds me of my Mom's bird feeders and love of birds, the daisy reminds me of the wild daisies growing in my Dad's field where he keeps the cows that we used to pick as kids and the brass barn charm was an easy pick because it reminds me of my Dad's barn. I don't know if you can make it out but there is part of a rooster on the "O" which is why I picked this paper. My Mom loves roosters.

I picked the word "home" because it has special meaning in my family. When my Ba Ba (grandmother) would return home to her house, she would walk in the door and sigh "Home" because it was the place she enjoyed most. So in our family, home is really where your heart is.
I challenge you to find your inner creativity and make some letters for your "home."
Think of the words...Love (for Valentine's Day), Family, Friends, your child's name for their room, Joy, Noel, Peace (for Christmas), Boo (for Halloween), Thanks (for Thanksgiving), Dream (for a child's room), Snow (for Winter).
If words are more than you think you can handle, how about your family initial? It's one of the big things in decorating these days to display your family initial.
The possibilities are endless!
If you find your inner creativity, be sure to email me and show me what you've done.
I would love to see it!
In the meantime, head on over to Jen's blog to see what else you can do with scrapbook paper!

Have Fun!

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I've Been Flattered!

Last week I received two blog awards from Jill at her "Controlling My Chaos" blog. You remember her. She's the one where I got the great Halloween treat bag toppers from for Allison's class. See, I knew you would remember her. Anyway, she flattered my ego and presented me with two blog awards. I know! Isn't that cool? And here I thought my family and friends were the only ones interested in what I had to say! Since Jill presented them to me, I think it would be bad blog etiquette to pass them back to her. She is, however, one of my top favorite blogs. She always has a wealth of information and good ideas to share. I love her sense of humor and can totally relate to her sarcasm and wit. Although her brother may not find her funny, she cracks me up! I'm certain if we lived in the same city, we would be great girlfriends.

Thanks Jill! I'm honored!

For this award:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

Okay, here is my list of my 5 Fabulous Addictions:

1. Iced, Sugar Free, Fat Free, Hazelnut Lattes from Sheetz...although I did have a hot one yesterday because it's cold and snowing here!

2. Taking pictures.

3. Looking for new decorating ideas for our home. I'm needing a change and new ones are coming in 2009!

4. Organizing, decluttering and simplifying. I'm on a mission to rid us of things that we don't need or use and utilize every inch of this home before I redecorate next year.

5. Blogs and blogging...duh!

Here are the rules:
1. Write seven strange things about yourself. They interest us all!
2. Tag six other people at the end of your post.
3. Visit everyone that you have tagged and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.

Although I am an open book and you probably already know everything about me, here is my list of Seven Strange Things About Myself.
1. My eyes are blue but one quarter of my right eye is brown and only my left eye needs a corrective lens.
2. If I pull into a parking spot and my van is crooked in the space, I will back-up until it's perfectly straight.
3. If I come home at night and I take my bra off, it's not going back on and I am not going back out for anything! Once it's off, I'm in for the night.
4. I love going to Goodwill and finding treasures to repurpose. The only problem with that is I have too many projects to do and there isn't enough days in the year to do them!
5. I like peanut butter on apples. I don't think this is strange but Curtis thinks it is.
6. Speaking of food, I LOVE bacon and ketchup on white bread sandwiches! My Mom used to make them for us when we went on the school picnic every year. Curtis thinks this is strange too.
7. I love to read cookbooks!

Okay, Now I'm supposed to pass these on to a total of 11 people. Jill said she's a cheater so she passed both awards on to six. I'm not big on cheating but I'll call it being a rebel and pass both on to six too!

Congrats Ladies! You are my 6 in no particular order!

1. Linda at Reminisce...and this and that. Her blog reflects her love of life, family and God...and if you are lucky when you click on her link, you'll get a glimpse of her adorable granddaughter, Emolyn.

2. Nora at ndg A very busy Mom and wife who manages to find time to be creative and make some awesome things...all while going back to school.

3. Deb over at Garage Sale Gal. Okay. Do I need to say more about why I like this blog? If you still need help knowing why....read the title of her blog!

4. Benita at On Eagle's Wings. I've "known" Benita for several years. She's a talented scrapbooker and been doing awesome at shedding some unwanted pounds. Way to go girl!

5. Kim at Life is a Highway. She's another scrapbooking gal I've "known" for several years. She's also a Mom to four and lives in sunny Florida who I just may surprise one day with a knock on her door!

6. Sophia at Sentiments by Sophia. Her blog is one that I check every day. She's a Mom to 6 and a Grandmother to 2 and makes the most of every minute of every day. I don't know how she gets it all done all the time!

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What is it about Medusa?

Seriously friends. Does any of your daughters love Medusa? Please tell me that my daughter is not the only one that finds beauty in her hissing serpant covered head. Please tell me that your daughter has a bust of Medusa in her room too! There has to be some other Mother out there that is freaked out by her daughter's interests like I am sometimes freaked out by mine. I'm learning to go with the flow of Allison's likes and dislikes but this is just too weird. We picked up this "lovely" lady last week at Michael's craft store. It was one of their Halloween decorations that they had for 80% off. She saw it and immediately fell in love with it. She asked if she could have it for her room. At first I said "NO WAY, NO HOW" but I've learned over the years that she is her own person and things like this make her happy. So after some coaxing from Allison, I gave in.

I did suggest that we paint it pink, purple or a bright green to make it "fit" into her room as best we could. She hestitated at first but then thought it might be an okay idea. Time will tell what color, if any, we end up painting her.

Any votes out there in blogland?

I don't know if painting it will make me less freaked out by her or not but we'll see.

I really need to move it up to Allison's room because I think she's starting to come to life! Right now it's on the counter and I swear she trys to freak me out when we are the only ones up late at night.

Just the other night, I walked into the kitchen and this is what I saw! Do you see her?

Doesn't she look mean?

I don't think she likes me!

Seriously. She has two sides. Aren't we lucky? Did you sense the sarcasm in that?

And of course Miss Allison LOVES the scary side!

Yup! That's my Princess!

Allison and I keep playing a game where we each turn her around to the side we like....okay...I mean the side I can tolerate.

I can't even imagine what she likes about this face!

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Our 1st Mom's Craft Night Out!

This is my best friend, Susan. You've met her before here on my blog. We have been friends since 4th grade...which of course was just about 10 years ago. ;)

Even though we talk on the phone frequently, we don't get to spend a whole lot of time together. She lives back where we grew up. It's about an hour from where I live. Yes, I'm a little jealous that she's minutes from my Mom and Dad but that's a whole other blog post.

Anyway. Susan and I have been wanting to do a craft night for YEARS. Just a night to forget about our Mom responsibilities and spend some good quality time with some of our favorite women having fun and being creative.

Well. Last night was the night that our 1st "Mom's Craft Night Out" came to realization!

We decided that we are going to do this once a month at Susan's house. Since I am the "crafty" one of the bunch, I will come up with the craft and do all the prep work for it. And of course you can't bring a bunch of women together without food, so we are going to rotate who brings drinks and a snack each month.

I decided that we would make holiday glass blocks for our first craft night. I have always loved them but never found the time to make them for myself. This was the perfect opportunity. They came out awesome and the Moms loved them. They loved them so much in fact that they want to do more for next month!

There were three styles and here are two of them. You'll see the third style towards the bottom of the post.

Here we all are with our finished products. Left to right are: Cindy B., Susan D., Marsha (sitting), Sandy, Jeannie, Susan C., Dawn and me, Cindi C.

This picture is a little blurry but I had to post if for the Moms that were there. As you can see we are all laughing in this picture. There was this one phrase that was said that night that was repeated over and over again so to get everyone to have "non-posed" smiles I shouted it out and everyone started laughing. This picture with us all laughing is a true reflection of the fun we had that night. Cutting the ribbon and getting it ready to make the bows. Can you tell that all three of us really didn't feel comfortable with this picture!
Here I am teaching them how to make a bow. I was worried about this step because bows can be intimidating to some. Thankfully, a couple of them already knew so that helped make things easier. Did you notice I dressed for the occasion? My earrings and necklace are also snowflakes and so were my socks! I know. I'm weird....that's probably where Allison gets it!
Look how good they are doing! I'm so proud!
These were the troublemakers. We are still debating whether we are going to allow them to come back again. Susan (the one on the right) did say she would bring food....so maybe if we separated them, it would be okay. ;)
Here are more pictures of the finished products without the lights lit. They are so pretty. I can't wait to use them!
These were the most popular ones. The lettering in the picture came out really light but it's a darker blue and matches the ribbon perfectly. A couple of the Moms had planned on giving them for gifts but they are rethinking that now.
Ladies, I can't wait to do this again with all of you! You truly are a great bunch of women and I am blessed to know each and every one of you!

Curtis, Thank you so much for drilling the holes in the glass blocks and encouraging me to do something for me. I couldn't have done it without you! I love you!

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

~Albert Schweitzer

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A Christmas Gift EVERY Husband Needs!

After I dropped Allison off at school yesterday, I did a little Christmas shopping.

And before you go judging me, I'll admit it right here, right now....YES, my child is privileged.

She gets door to door service every day to school in her black limo.

Okay it's really a black mini van but if you flatten it out, I bet there is enough there for a stretch limo.

Well maybe a short stretch limo.

Anyway, not like I have to justify myself to anyone BUT I take her to school everyday because it fits into my schedule. You see as soon as she is at school, I continue on my way to work. I know. I know. I only work three days a week. I bet you are asking why I do it the other two.

Well, I'm a busy woman as you know.

On Wednesdays, I have a standing date with the items at Goodwill right after I drop her off.

Stop laughing! I'm serious!

If I'm not there, I get a phone call wondering where I am.

Okay, now I'm fibbing through my pearly whites but you know what I mean. We all have our own addictions and the Goodwill store is one of mine.

Hey, it could be worse. I could be at the corner bar enjoying a breakfast margarita!

Okay now! I have to move along. My taste buds are starting to salivate with the thought of a Margarita! He he he. If you really knew me you be laughing at the thought of that. Although I love margaritas, I'm lucky if I get one a year!

Yesterday while I was shopping, I found myself behind a car in the Target parking lot with this bumper sticker on it! And before you ask, NO, I didn't jump out of my van, I mean limo and take a picture of their car. Geez! I do know how to practice some restraint! I found this pic on the Internet.

So. Of course I laughed. Who wouldn't?

Seriously.

Do you think it was the husband's choice to put this on his own vehicle?

I know it would be the last thing that Curtis would put on his car. Not because he didn't love me but having this little sticker on the car would leave him wide open for teasing from any and all of his male friends and co-workers.

It would not be pretty.

Since I was behind this vehicle in front of the Target, it stopped and the husband left his wife out so she didn't have to walk from the parking lot.

The wife appeared to be in her 80's and then my thought turned from laughter to "Oh, how sweet!"

I then realized that he probably did put the bumper sticker on his own car.

I can only hope that Curtis would be proud to display one of these on his car when he feels he can stand the ribbing from the male species.

I won't hold my breath!

If you are interested in giving one of these bumper stickers to your man for Christmas, I did a Google search for you. Just click here and pick the online store of your preference.

P.S. I'm really excited because Jill over at Controlling my Chaos gave me two blog awards. She's one of my favorites so I consider this quite and honor. Hopefully, I'll be able to stop by later today to show them to you and pass them on. If not, I will definitely do it this weekend.

Have Fun!

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A Monday Morning Survey!

I have a long day ahead of me today but I wanted to stop by and say "Hello!" before I get started. I'm sitting here enjoying my breakfast of Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats in their new Blueberry Muffin flavor with fat free milk. They are yummy! I think they have become my favorite cereal. Okay. Now that you know mine, let's get a little survey going here.

Leave me a comment and let me know what cereal is your favorite!

Hey! While you are at it, let me know what your favorite breakfast is too!

Hmm. What is my favorite breakfast? I guess I would say it would have to be dippy eggs, bacon, crispy hash browns and wheat toast with butter and jelly. What are dippy eggs, you ask? Well they are eggs over medium. We, here in Western Pennsylvania, call them dippy eggs because you can dip your toast in them. You can even order them like that in a restaurant and they know what you are talking about.

This is Allison's favorite breakfast. Pancakes and sausage. She could eat it every day. In fact, she does most days. This particular picture is of her breakfast at the Pancake and Sausage Breakfast at our church last Sunday. She made me take a picture of her Mickey pancake with my cell phone. She wouldn't eat it until I did. Seriously friends. This child has issues. I'm not kidding. What person in their right mind takes a picture of their pancakes?

She may be cute but she is odd!

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Bad Blogger with a Busy Schedule!

I've been a bad blogger. Very bad. I've started 3 blog posts over the last month. They are still in draft form. Why haven't I finished them? Who knows? Maybe I couldn't find the words. Hey, stop laughing! Maybe I ran out of steam in the middle of them. Maybe I had to be somewhere and had to stop. Maybe Allison wanted something. Maybe my mind wondered. Maybe the dryer called my name. Maybe I've been Christmas shopping. Did you know there are 46 days left until Christmas? Ya! How about that? Anyway, I've been a little busy and to tell you the truth a little overwhelmed. I'll try to be a better blogger. That's the best that I can promise.

Speaking of busy, how do you parents with more than one child keep up? Kim, do you have a secret?? If so, you need to share! Anyway, each month I transfer the month's events from our paper calendar onto a laminated magnetic calendar that I keep in plain sight on the refrigerator. I made it a few years ago and it is a blessing. I can see everything at a glance while doing something else in the kitchen. I color code it to who has what to do. Curtis & I are responsible for our own things and we both take care of getting Allison to where she needs to be. Our calender has been way too busy for us the last few months! As you can see, there is nothing on Mondays. Monday is my long day at work so I am away from home for 12-14 hours. I can't possibly schedule anything else on that day! My other work days are Tuesday and Friday so I try not to schedule anything on those days either because my commute adds 2 hours onto my work day but sometimes, it's necessary. Below is our calendar for November. It's crazy! I know there are families out there with more on their calendar and for those of you, I admire and bow down to you. I'm not complaining. I'm really not. I'm just trying to justify to myself why I've been a bad blogger lately. I've just been busier than normal and having trouble balancing everything I want to do in my life.

So yesterday, was a family free day. Grandma and Pa Pa picked Allison up at school on Friday because they had a 1/2 day of school. They kept her for a long overdue sleepover. I thought I would get tons of stuff done on Saturday with having it all to myself. I was wrong. I just wasn't feeling motivated. I missed Allison a lot and was sad about her being gone. My to do list is so big right now that I am overwhelmed about that too. I also think my "friend" is coming to visit soon so that also played with my mood. I did get some things done but not as much as I would have liked. It was also kind of hard when these next two pictures were happening around me!

Princess was sprawled out on Daddy's chair being so lazy...

and then I would go upstairs to find Simba crashed on Allison's bed!

Didn't they know Saturday was supposed to be a work day! They sabotaged me! It's their fault I didn't get things done! They made me be lazy with them!

Well. Not today!

I have my list and I'm going to get it done after C.C.D and Church if it kills me!

Have Fun!

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A New Do and A Very Special Letter!

It's been time for a new hairdo for a long time. The girl that used to do my hair quit where I used to go. They told me that she was going to be a stay at home Mom. However. They told my mother-in-law that she was doing hair someplace else. We tried to find her but were unsuccessful in our search. So in the meantime, my hair had gotten very long. Too long. It required too much time to style and I don't have that kind of time in the mornings. Us Moms are too busy for that! The best thing about my hair being long was that I could put it in a ponytail when I got home from work and on the weekends. That part was easy. I decided that I would go back to the lady that used to cut my hair over 8 years ago. She's very good but when my schedule changed back then, it changed to where we had the same days off. I know you are thinking there had to be a way but the salon she works at is over by my parents...and they live an hour from me. Well. Now she is working Wednesdays. Wooo Hooo! Which is my day off. So while Allison is in school and goes to day care after school, I can venture back home, visit my parents, get my hair done and do a little shopping without having to worry about having to get back in time to pick her up! Yesterday was that day and this is my new short "Mom Do." I love it! It's a lot like I used to wear it years ago and can I tell you something? It took me about 3 minutes to style today with the hair dryer. No curling iron. No fussing. No tweaking. No gallon of hairspray. Next I need to work on my color. Please don't look at it! My maturity is showing!

Two days ago, Curtis and I received a very special letter in the mail. He waited for me to get home from work to open it. I'm glad he did. It was so sweet. I knew they were learning to write letters in school but this was a wonderful surprise. She even decorated the stationary...although I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. :)

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So Much To Do!

Besides posting a blog entry yesterday and running to the bank to make a deposit, I did NOTHING yesterday! In my defense though, I had a sinus infection/headache thing going on. So I pretty much relaxed on the couch and only got up to take more drugs and give in to the chocolate urge to raid Allison's candy bowl from Halloween. Oh! I did make her dinner too. I'm not that bad of a Mom that I would let my kid starve because I was sick. She was an angel yesterday and ate quite well too. God Bless that child! Speaking of that child. This is a picture of her with her Halloween smiley cookie from Eat'n Park. If you are not from this area, it's a local restaurant that gives smiley cookies out to all the kids at the end of their meal. If you are wondering why I took a picture of her with her cookie. She MADE me do it! I swear! She posed with a cookie! Either I take too many pictures of her that she thinks taking pictures of everything is normal or my kid is just strange. I'm kind of leaning towards strange!

Anyway. Although I'm still a little stuffy, my headache is gone and it's a new day. A work day to be exact. I have a huge list and I am posting it to help me stay motivated. Here's what I need to accomplish today.

1. Turn all clocks in this house back 1 hour.
2. Set up November in my budget binder.
3. Balance checkbook and write out any bills that are coming due.
4. Put November's calendar on the wipe-off one on the fridge.
5. Make masters of budget worksheets for a friend so I can drop them off on Wednesday when I am over by her house.
6. Print a couple of pictures and get them in the mail.
7. Write out a thank you card and get it in the mail.
8. Order a supply online for our "Mom's Night Out" craft night.
9. Stop by Lowe's and pick up a supply for our craft night.
10. Organize my list of what I still need to get for the kits for craft night.
11. Stop by Target and pick up a Christmas gift that's in the ad this week.
12. Clean the kitchen including detailing the refrigerator and stove.
13. Clean and rearrange the entrance way.
14. Clean the bathroom.
15. Work on my new repurposed hall closet.
16. Do Laundry. (Will this ever NOT be on my to do list?)
17. Pack two bins of clothes that don't fit Allison anymore to take to the resell shop.
18. Clean out van.
19. Go through Allison's school papers from last week and sign off on them.
20. Watch Desperate Housewives.
21. Watch the season finale of Army Wives!

And if I have time....
1. Post a recipe on my cooking blog.
2. Explore a website that I signed up on.
3. Plan this week's menu.

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Halloween Happenings!

As most of you already know, I make Allison's Halloween costume every year. She decides what it's going to be and then I figure out how I am going to pull it off. This year was very easy. The only problem I had was finding a white sweat suit. As you can see, I wasn't successful in finding one so I improvised and she ended up being a brown calico cat. This was probably better since it was wet outside and she managed to find a puddle. :) If you are interested in years past costumes, click here for last year and here for all the previous years.

We always take Allison trick or treating back where I grew up with my Goddaughter, Maria. It's fun to hang out with my friends and visit the people that we trick or treated from when we were kids. They all still live there...I love small town America!

Here is our little ones. Don't they look adorable? I swear Maria has shot up 3 inches since I saw her in July! She looked me eye to eye and my shoes had two inch heels on them! She is outgrowing the "child look" and growing into a beautiful young woman. I'm sure the boys will be knocking on her door soon! Get ready Uncle Ron! You are going to have quite a few boys to scare!

Here they are 3 years ago in 2005.
They grow up so fast!

When we got back to my Mom and Dad's, we emptied the bags onto their table. We didn't go to very many houses but BOY did she get the loot!

Anyone want any candy???
As I mentioned in my last post, I am the head party parent for Allison's parties at class. Yesterday was her Fall Festival party. I took my camera but I did not take one single picture! I was having too much fun with the kids. They are so cute. I can't wait for the next party!
We started out with "Ghost" bingo and the winner had to yell out "Boo" instead of "Bingo." It was too cute. They get very excited and competitive. Next they made spiders out of Styrofoam balls that were cut in half and painted black. They put in the eight legs and put eyes on them. We then used them for the game "Put the Spider on the Web." They had a lot of fun being blindfolded and yelling at each other to turn "left" or "right." We also had them make smiley face foam leaf magnets to take home. I had one more craft planned but we didn't have enough time. I left if for the teacher so she can have them do it when she has some time. They are fall book markers with leaves and turkeys on them.
I also planned a snack of "Witches Brew" and "Spider Web Cookies. The punch was too cute and I wish I would have taken a picture of it! It was purple grape juice and club soda but then I put in green grapes to simulate eyes and apples cut up in little bits to simulate teeth. One of the other Mom's froze water in plastic gloves and we floated the ice hands in the punch. They all got a big kick out of drinking the "Witches Brew" with hands, eyes and teeth in it! As far as the snack goes, you all know that I am the cupcake queen. I LOVE to make cupcakes. However, when we were discussing what I had planned, the teacher hesitated on cupcakes and said she preferred cookies but she said either would be fine and it was my call. Since I am doing all three parties, I didn't want to make any bad feelings with the teacher on the first party so I went with her preference of cookies. I searched blogs on the web and found "Spider Web Cookies" from fellow blogger, Christie at These are a few of my Favorite Things. Let me tell you, Mom bloggers have the best ideas! Thankfully, I was able to take a picture of them since I took it before I left for the party. I loved how they turned out and the kids thought they were too cool! I even got several comments in the hallway on my way to the classroom from the other Moms who were there for their kid's party.
Thanks Christie!

Have Fun!

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