It's Spring Break!! Lord Help Me . . .

So today is Ashley's first day of spring break, not starting off very well, I had to take her & Abbey to my WW's meeting this morning and both were showing off a bit. Ah well, I'm still glad I went! I was down another 1.8 lbs. That puts my total to almost 16 lbs!! I'm doing pretty well, everyday in a struggle. My love for food & cooking can sometimes be my worse enemy. One day at a time :)

In other news we made lots of trips to Broadlawn park this week, they have a nice mile long paved walking trail there as well as a nice playground for the kids to play on. They also have Frisbee golf goals, a basketball court, a volleyball pad and a a great creek for little boys to play in :) I've been walking, Jake, Ashley and Abbey in her stroller come along, Jake and Ashley play along the way, Here are some pictures from the look-out they play on :)

Jake surprised me twice this week :) My first surprise was these beautiful flowers :)

The Second surprise was this...

I cannot even being to tell you how excited I was about this one. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! I've been wanted one forever, now I can relax on the couch (or as much as you can with children around) drink coffee and do my computer thang :) woohoo!!! I really am married to mot Generous man in the world :)

I started a new knitting project. It's the Central Park Hoodie It's supposed to be made from wool, as are most knitting projects like this one. I did the math and found that I'd be spending over $50 to knit it, so I'm giving Hobby Lobby's very soft "I Love This Yarn" yarn to make it with. We'll see how it turns out.. but here is what I have done so far.

I've made quiet a few new recipes recently and posted them to My Recipe Blog if you haven't already checked them out :)

I have a new helper when it comes to my knitting :) Until next time!!

It's Finally Friday :)

I hope You had a great week :) I had a good week. I got some goodies in the mail from QVC. I'm still waiting on one more package... but here's what I've gotten so far :)

This week Ashley's school was having dress up theme days. Thursda was crazy hair day, this is what we came up with :)
I posted some new WIP on Ravelry this morning, I'm working on the Fulled Lopi Tote, and the Minnow Knits Sugar & Spice sweater now for Ashley, I may make a bigger one for Abbey after I finish this one since she has outgrown the one I made for her :) I'm also working on the Yarn Harlots basic sock recipe. I hope this works for me and my Chubby feet! LOL!!! Here are some photo's of my WIP :)

Our weather has bee slight insane here in Oklahoma the last couple of weeks. Summer-like one day and winter-like the next, This week it got even crazier when it was 70 degrees on Monday and we got Snow on Tuesday, a bit Warmer again on Wednesday, and big Beautiful snowflakes on Thursday... this time, the flakes stuck... and Ashley and Jake got to make a snowman!!!!! So exciting for us. Here are some pics of that.

Nothing special planned for the weekend, Jake and I are hoping for some alone time though. We haven't been without kids in quiet awhile. I'll have to sweet talk Mom for that :)

I have lots of knitting and catching up on my shows planned for today :)

Until next time :)

Random Day :)

It's been awhile, Bad Mandi! No excuse though, Just didn't feel up to blogging much! That and nothing very exciting going on really :)

My Aunt church served our family lunch the Day of Grandma's Funeral. That was very nice of them. Everything was good. The funeral was graveside. It was nice to see everyone. The service was nice. Down the road from where Grandma was buried there is a Tiny Chapel that has been there for years. We stopped there on the way home. I'd like to take Jake and the girls out one day since they've never see it :)

This week is a Theme week at Ashley's school, Yesterday was hat day, I decorated up a hat for her to wear, even Abbey got in on some of the Hat action :)

Abbey has finally started walking around by holding onto things, she pulls herself up now and then... but Jake and I HAVe been working with her a lot more :) She's cute and onery altogether.

We've been having alot of problems with Ashley, Backtalking, whinning when we ask her to do something and telling me No alot. We're going to try to think of some fun ways to aproach her and help her to learn better. I hate punishment & for her it doesn't seem to work. So maybe rewards would be better. I don't know yet... but we're starting out with a Rules List to show her.

I had my knitting meeting last night, we've moved them from the library to Starbucks. It's much more fun there, The atmosphere is right for knitting :) I'm working on socks, afghan, felted purse & a scarf :)

Well, I guess that's all for this time.

Until next time :)

Gladys Athealia Mize

She was a Daughter, A Sister, A Mother, A Grandmother, A Great Grandmother & A Great-Great Grandmother. She was a Knitter, A Crocheter, A Quilter, A Cook, A Homemaker & A Nurse. But most important of all to me She was my Great Grandmother & My Girls' Great Great Grandmother. A Beautiful, Strong & Loving Woman.


Gladys Mize

Web posted February 24, 2008


Graveside services for Gladys Mize, 96, will be 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 at Rollins Cemetery with the Rev. Ron Elmore officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Harvey-Douglas Funeral Home.


Born Nov. 15, 1911 at Purcell to Charlie and Nancy Coffee O'Dell, she died Feb. 23, 2008 at Ardmore. She married Ruben M. Mize on Sept. 2, 1928 at Mangum. He preceded her in death July 25, 1969. She was also preceded in death by her parents, daughter, Bernice Thompson, two brothers, three sisters, one grandson and five great-grandchildren.


Gladys was a former member of the Home Extension Club and a former nurse's aide at Elmbrook Nursing home. She was Baptist.


Survivors include her daughters, Norma Jean Langley and her husband, Alvis, Springer, and Betty Jo Wood, Ardmore; son, Jessie "Sonny" Mize and his wife, Ina, Ardmore; grandson that she raised, Keith Forsythe, Crescent; 16 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; and 32 great-great-grandchildren.


Visitation is 6-7 p.m. Monday.


Condolences can be sent online at www.hdoughasfuneralhome.com.

Valentines (Luv) Day!!

I hope all of my friends had a special day that someone made you feel loved sometime during the day. It was kind of a rough day for me, Abbey was not feeling well. She cried a lot. But after she got better everything was great!

Ashley got her Valentine when she got home from school...

Abbey got her valentine at Wal-Mart :)

Jake found his valentine in his car after work but I forgot to take pictures :-0! He got a $15 refill on his starbucks card, a 6 pack of his favorite beer a mixed package of rochere' chocolates :)

and this.... this is what Momma (aka me) got :) O so pretty, I love it!!!!!

Not a lot exciting going on around here, both of the girls are getting much better everyone is still coughing though, It lingers, My poor MOM has been down with it for the last two weeks. We got to see her yesterday for the first time in a week which is very unusual for us.

Here are some pretties I'm working on :) My next pair of socks & a pretty dishcloth.

Been watching some new shoes, I'm SOOO badly missing my old ones though because of that darn strike!!! argh!! Big Brother started, It's going to be an exciting season! LOL!!!

I'm behind on American idol.

Jake talked me into Watching a show called Breaking Bad, It's about a high school chemistry teacher that finds out he's got cancer and doens't have long to live and starts doing some unusual things to secure his families future.. The first episode was quiet interesting. If you get the chance I suggest trying it out.

I'm sick for reality shoes.. So I'm watching Bret Micheals Rock of Love 2 and I have The Flavor of love recorded to watch as well :)

Jake and I are also watched Celebrity Rehab which I LOVE.

We're alos LOVING this season of Lost. What a fantastic show!

I have lipstick jungle recorded but I haven't watched it yet...

I also saw that Dexter, which was only on Showtime is now coming to CBS the lead actor was one of my faves from Six Feet Under so I'll def be giving that one a try :)

Hrmm.. That's all I can think of for now, I'm heading out for baby feeding :) Speaking of which Abbey is now broke of her bottle :)

Bye for now...

It's here...

You know what it is... you've had it... if you have kids your kids have had it too... yucky Flu! Ashley started getting sick on Sunday coming home from My Mom's house, Then Tuesday Abbey started snotting and coughing everywhere... 3 days of fighting it was enough for me so we took the girls to the ER last night. It was so full in the waiting room there was barely a place for us to sit and people who came in after us were standing. 3 hours later the Dr saw the girls and we went on our way with medicine even, Thank you Doc for saving us the pharmacy trip.

So I've been home for over a week, I have serious cabin fever I'm tired of wiping snot and cleaning puke and this is what my kithcen counter looks like.....

I'm dreaming of child free trips to Hobby Lobby, Child Free Knitting meetings... even child free trip to Wal-Mart (now that is bad, i hate wal-mart) LOL!!

Enough of that.

I have been knitting just a little bit. Yaay! haha! One of the pros of being stuck at home, Knitting & more Second Life :) LOL!! So here is what I've finished....

My first real pair of socks... I'm pissed though because I had to change balls of yarn in the middle of the secon sock and because of the way the coloring is on the balls of yarn I started in a light section and didn't notice until it was much too late... so you can see it here, But I'm still proud of them, I still love them & I'll still wear them!!

This is the felted bootie kit that I bought at L&B yarns on Norman the day Jake and I shopped while waiting for his Dad's plane arrival... they turned out so cute!

Let's see.. what else has been going on, I don't think I mentioned that while Jake's Dad was visiting we noticed the toilet leaking around the bottom by the floor... easy enough right? The seal needs replacing, we buy a seal life the toilet up replace the seal and put the toilet back right? NO! They pulled the toilet and the floor was rotten. So we had to replace that section of the floor so we wouldn't fall thru it. LOL! Not fun.. and now until we can afford some flooring to put down in there part of our bathroom floor is plyboard. Not pretty. Oh well, It matches the rest of this house now I guess.. LOL!!

I think I've covered about everything.. Sometimes I wish I HAd something more exciting to post about... a wild adventure... a cruise we went on a vacation to Hawaii and then I take a reality check and realize that this is MY life and I do Love it :) I am blessed.

Houston...We had Some Company :)

Been a busy week, I have lots of goodies to share!

Thursday we went to Oklahoma City to pick Jake's Dad up from the Airport, When he walked through those terminal doors I didn't even recognize him!!!! He's lost over 110lbs and he looks fantastic!! While he was here we talked alot about the changes he's made in his eating habits and everything. He even encouraged and got me to buying and eating more veggies and Salad's and got me started on a daily multi-vitamin!!! He really has changed his life. It was uplifting to have him here. Jake left this morning to take him to the Airport, He will be missed.

I had my very first 2 week weigh in on Monday. I started following WW's 2 weeks ago Monday. So weighed in on Monday and I'd lost 9.5 lbs! In Two weeks!!!! I'm excited about that, but I know that I have a long way to go... My short term goal was 50lbs. so I have 40 more to go :) I have more than that to lose, but short term goels are better :)

Last Thursday Jake and I Headed to the city a bit early so we had some time to do a little shopping before picking his Dad up at the Airport. We were able to get Abbey's birthday present bought. We bought her a rocking unicorn :) I was also able to make a stop at a wonderful LYN in Norman, OK called L&B Yarn Company The girl working was veyr friendly and very helpful, The store was beautiful and of course full of beautiful yarns, I bought me a baby bootie pattern and the yarn for that and of course some more sock yarn.. I need to get busy so I have cute socks for my new Mary Jane Burkies! LOL!!! Here is a picture of my goodies :)

Abbey's birthday Party was Saturday evening, We had hot dogs and cake, punch & Ice Cream. Our house is so tiny and it was PACKED! There was barely enough room to move!!! But it was a great party, Fun to have friends and family all around us to celebrate.

On Sunday we had Maddie's Birthday part. She turned 5. I had made her a few more pages from the last year to add to the scrapbook I gave to her last year on her birthday and Ashley gave her a Hannah Montanna Doll :) It was a cute party, at the YMCA and they swam but Ashley was afraid to get in the pool because it was so big :-P I really need to get her out more often.

I did finally finish the Ballband set I'm making as a surprise for a special friend of mine, I just need to get hte buttons for the towels when I head to Hobby Lobby this month :) Then I'll be mailing the package out :)

Okay I guess that's it :) Until next time...

Company is coming....

...and what does this mean for me? Cleaning, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, sweeping, laundry and STILL not feeling that it's good enough... I'm too damn picky and this house it too old to make it look what "my" idea of perfect is. My life is perfect... the only thing I wish for is a decent house to clean and invite people into.. soon, we're dreaming and planning.. very soon I Hope...

I'm doing fantastic on WW's so far!! I haven't went over points, It feels good to not be pigging out all the time. I'm scared because I know my TOTM is on it's way and my hormones are so all over the place during this time, I hope I can keep grip on myself.

The company coming is Jake's Dad for Abbey's birthday this weekend, We're headed to the city tomorrow to pick up a gift for Abbey at Toys R Us and pick him up at the Airport. We're looking forard to his visit :) He is such a great guy, enjoyable to be around :)

I treated myself last week to something and it came it the mail yesterday... I'm so in love with Burkies, They are the only shoe I have that I can wear standing al day and my arches don't hurt at the end of the day... so I bought these beauties . . and wouldn't you know... It's 25 degrees outside... I HAven't finished knitting my first pair of cute socks, so I can't EVEN wear em!!! arg! Check em out.

While I'm stressing and cleaning myself to death today here is what my youngest is doing... wish I could crawl in there with her :)

4 Things . . .

4 Things You May or May Not Know About Me, in no particular order.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Started babysitting @ 13
2. Winchelle's Donuts 2 years
3. Wal-mart in the bakery 8 years
4. Stay at home Mom

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Pretty Woman
2. Pretty In Pink
3. 16 Candles
4. Wedding Crashers

Four places I have lived:
1. Ardmore,OK
2. Ardmore, OK
3. Ardmore, OK
4. Ardmore, OK

Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. Greys Anatomy
2. Dirty Sexy money
3. Ghost Whisperer
4. Pushing Daisies

Four places I have been:
1. Arizon, Grand Canyon
2. Disney World, Florida
3. San Antonia Texas, Riverwalk/Seaworld
4. Washingtong, Seattle, Olympia, Chehalis, Centralia, Winlock

Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Danette
2. Joann (MIL)
3. Jennifer
4. Susan

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Orange Chicken
2. Sesame Chicken
3. Spinach Pizza
4. Crab Legs

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Scrapbooking with my girls
2. snuggling with my Hubby
3. Shopping w/lots of Money
4. Hawaii

Four Things I look forward to this year:
1. Losing weight
2. Scrapbooking retreats
3. Watching Ashley& Abbey Grow
4. Finding a nicer house to live in :)

Saturday Morning :)

It's been a good week for me :) Nothing too stressful going on. It was my first week back on Weight Watchers and I did AWESOME! I've stayed on points all week, Which I am very proud of. But I don't want to get too over confident.. I still have a lot of weeks to go. hee!

I got LOTS of SL (Second Life) time this week which made me extremely happy! haha! I've been going all over collecting clothes, freebies and buying some and I hadn't been unpacking anything. So I spent most of yesterday clearing up and organaizing my inventory. I still need to do more of that!

Last week when I was grocery shopping at wal-mart I found a limited edition Diet Dr. Pepper it was Cherry Chocolate Flavor, They only had it in 12 packs so I bought some. The flavor is weird. They taste exactly like chocolate covered cherries but it's weird to have that taste in a liquid. I don't care for them much, But Jake has been drinking a lot of them :) Here is a picture of the can.

Today I need to get Abbey's birthday invitations ready and mailed out, Her very first birthday is on January 29th. But we're having her party on January 26th. We're having Cake, Ice Cream, Punch and Hot Dogs for everyone to celebrate here at the house. Jake's Dad will be flying in from Washington on Thursday the 24th and will fly back home on Thursday the 31 st. We're looking forward to his visit... He recently found out that he was borderline diabetic so he drastically changed his eating habits.. So he's lost around 70 lbs. I'm looking forward to seeing a smaller dad and having him here to inspire me! :o)

That's it for today. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!!

Mandi

I'm Back :0)

It's been a weird couple of weeks.




Last week, January 9th, Shawn called (my ex-husband & Oldest Daughters Daddy) It was his day for visitation and he was calling to see if it was okay if he skipped it this week, He hardly ever does that so I found it strange but then he want on to tell me that His Sister, Donna had passed away. For those who don't know. Donna and my Current Husband dated while Shawn and I were still married. (Jerry springer-ish I know) But anyway, He was still dealing with the loss himself and didn't want to have to explain it to Ashley that Day, He would tell her during his weekend visit with her. Now, Donna and I were not on the best terms the last few years, But I never wish death on anybody, I was sad.. sad for my Daughter because this meant she had lost her Aunt, whom she was very fond of. It was hard & I worried how she would take the news but she handled it very very well. Maybe it's mostly just not understanding. But She sang "I'll fly Away" at her funeral, Shawn said he cried watching her... So strong and singing so pretty, I was touched and wish I could have been there to see it :)


Jake wasn't effected by it, He and Donna didn't seperate on good terms and Jake was very bitter with her for the way she used and treated him and then he was upset on a few things she'd told Ashley about them... always sending stuff home with Ashley that he had bought for her when they were together... vengeful things... She wasn't the worst person in the world.. She just made really irrational choices . . .


So onto other things, This past weekend Danette and I were invited to our friend Susan's house for the weekend a Girls getaway, She lives in Arlington, Texas, That was about a 2 hour drive from here we had a great time!! I got quiet a bit done! Susan was a great hostess, She even cooked us breakfast both mornings, DELICIOUS!! We even got to Visit with Teresa & Susie (our other Scrapbook retreat girls :) We went and had Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse I think it was called, YUMMY!!!


I've been feeling down a lot lately, I'd put on a LOT of weight since getting pregnant and having Abbey. I'm having trouble breathing and no clothes fit me... While we were down there this weekend I talked about it with the other ladies... It felt good to talk about it in the open, It's hard to talk to Jake about my weight problems because he doesn't understand them... He's skinny and always has been. I was inspired by Susie this weekend, When we went to eat, She totally resisted the cheese fries that came to the table, even the YUMMY bread & butter, to top it off she even ordered a chicken salad!!! That's what it's about afterall, Just making better eating choices! Even teresa inspired me, She had the cheese fries, but instead of ordering an entree' she order a salad like Susie :) So on Monday I started following the Weight Watchers program again, it is one of the few things that have helped me in the past, So far it's going pretty well, I've been on points, I HAd some recipes in the house that I'd already bought stuff for that were points friendly but I've made do with what I have... I think I'll probably weigh in every two weeks, Mostly because I'm hoping to see bigger results that way and party because every week drives me mad.


So okay.. onto other things, At the last retreat I'd started a family recipe scrapbook, I'd done it in the size 6x12 I found a book for those pages this past weekend :) Here is a the book and you can kind of see a couple of the recipe pages, They are all laid out the same way so look the same.





Danette and I also stopped at The Container Store on our way home and I bought me a goodie to keep my Scrapbook flowers in, Good thing we don't have one of those stores here, I found LOTS of stuff I'd like to have from there... it's a neat freaks heaven! Here is my goodie

While I was gone this weekend, Jake went to his company after Christmas Christmas party. He won a DVD cam corder, Which he traded for a DVD recorder and $50. We also totally lucked out and one of our friends won a HP 4x6 photo printer, I had a dell one that was a few years old, but he only wanted $20 for it!! So Jake bought it! Seems I'll be keeping this one since it prints so awesome and MOM will be buying my dell one :)

That's it for this time... until next time :)

Tuesday Talky :)

Hello Hello :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year so far. I Cannot believe it's 2008! Wow.

Ours has been great so far! :) Ashley started back to school on Monday. She was so excited after having been out for over two weeks & It feels good to be back on Schedule.

Abbey had a Doctors appointment yesterday for her Shots, She really surprised us, She didn't even cry after the first shot and after the second one she only cried for a second. Then she was a happy baby the rest of the day! What a trooper! I was so proud of her!!

We had our Knitting meeting last night at the library, We had the most amount of people we've ever had, but not everyone was there at once, We had 5 people :) We met two new knitters this week, Both were great ladies and I can't wait until we can all get together and knit again :) It's so interesting to see what other knitters are working on & just great to chat about knitting with someone who loves it as much as me :)

I've been doing a lot of knitting over the last week because Jake and I were getting caught up on a lot of shows :) I started a new scarf for myself and I knitted a hat for a friend... he is a VW nut. I wish the VW symbol wasn't so big and I wish it didn't look so jagged? But I used a pattern for it... But here are a couple of pics of that :) He absolutely LOVED it and said he couldn't wait until it was time for another VW show so he could show it off.. LOL!! He's a nut.

Ashley recieved an interesting gift in the mail this week. During our last visit to Washington State to visit Jake's family, we were at his Grandparents house helping them work on the porch & a friend of the family let Ashley ride down to her farm with her, I believe they have alpaca's and various other animals, So this week Ashley recieved a knitted hat in the mail, Come to find out, the lady that Ashley went with SPINS & KNITS!!!!! Her own yarn... from her very own animals.. so awesome! I'll definately have to make a special visit to her next time :) So interesting! I know I must sound nuts sending my child with someone I didn't know that well, But she's been a friend of Jake's family for years and years :)

I'm headed to a friends house this weekend with Danette for a girls weekend of Scrapbooking & fun :) Should be lots of fun, I'm really looking forward to it!

Guess that's about it for now, Nothing too exciting going on.. hee! Till next time!