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.

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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!

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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!

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Halloween Treats for Classmates!

This year I signed on to be the Head Room Parent for Allison's class. What does this mean? It means I am in charge of the 3 holiday parties they have throughout the year. I know. I know. You are probably thinking ... WHAT was she thinking when she volunteered for that one?? Well. When I signed on to this Motherhood thing, this is one of the things I looked forward to...participating in her life at school. The only thing I didn't think about was having to come up with more ideas for the party. If you are a regular reader to my blog, you know that I enjoy making or putting together treats for her classmates for their parties from Allison herself. This proved itself to be a little difficult this year because I had to come up with ideas for the party and an idea of what I wanted to do from Allison. I can only come up with so many ideas at a time. So with that being said, I fortunately came across Jill Scott's blog, Controlling My Chaos, some time ago and became a regular reader. She has the cutest ideas and fortunately for me, she had an awesome one for Halloween. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was what I wanted to do and then to make things better, she did the graphics for her readers. THANK YOU JILL! It was SO easy and I had everything I needed on hand except the border punch but as you can see, I did it without it and it still came out cute! Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge it. As usual, I blanked out Allison's last name to protect the innocent...or guilty. I never remember which one she is. :)
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A Night Out with Reba & Kelly!

A little over a year ago, Reba released her duets CD. Since I love Reba, I picked it up and played it in my van. Allison soon became to love it too and asked if she could have my CD to play in her CD player that she listens to every night at bed time. I share everything with Allison but I wasn't agreeing to this one. It was MY CD and I am sorry but I knew if I said yes, it would become HER CD. I wasn't giving in on this one. She is persistent and didn't give in so my best friend, Susan, bought her one for Christmas. She loved it! She has played it for months and knows the words to every song. I had decided that if Reba ever came to Pittsburgh, I would take Allison to the concert. Reba is currently touring with Kelly Clarkson in a "2 Worlds 2 Voices" tour. They had so much fun on their Spring tour dates that they they decided to do it in the Fall too. Thankfully Pittsburgh was on their list this time. I found it before it was announced on the radio by stalking ...er I mean watching Reba's website. I was so excited that I called Susan to see if she was with us on this one. We used to do all the country concerts together in our younger days...not that we are that old now but you know what I mean. Anyway, she was game so we decided to make it a girls night out!

We had an awesome night! Our seats were on the side and SO close! I guess it pays to buy your tickets the minute they go on sale. Of course I had to dress Allison in authentic Western attire and she looked so cute! She received so many compliments which I think made her feel so special. She was just too cute in the pink cowgirl hat! I hope you enjoy the pictures. The couple from the stage are blurry but you can still make them out. You'll have to click on the picture to see a close-up of Allison's shirt. It has little red horses on it. Too cute!

Us waiting for the concert to start.

Aunt Susan and Allison in their seats before the concert.
This is Melissa Peterman a.k.a. Barbra Jean from the Reba television show. She did the opening comedy routine and was hilarious! We laughed so hard. Allison loves her Barbra Jean character so she was excited to see her at the concert. It was a nice surprise for us.

As you can see, she was on the edge of her seat! Okay. Maybe it was because her hat wouldn't allow her to lean back but she did like the concert.

Wooo Hooo! It's Reba!

Doesn't she look GREAT for 53?!?

My little cowgirl in her new Reba attire in an adult size small which she will wear for years because the child t-shirts didn't have pictures on them just the name "Reba" in fancy writing which kids are visual so why don't they have a picture????? Okay, enough of my rant! It does look cute on her, doesn't it. It worked out fine after I tied it at the side so it wouldn't be past her knees. Poor baby. When I was taking this picture a girl came up and asked if she could take a picture of her and with her because she was so adorable.
One last pic of the girls on their "Girl's Night Out" at the Reba concert!

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