Wowie

I still haven't given my blog a facelift. I need to figure out how to get my PSP over here to the laptop so I can make my new banners here instead of going to the desktop. I'm spoiled to the laptop now. LOL!!

I had a great time at the retreat, It was an unexpected surprise. Susie was very sweet to invite all of us and the only "fee" for Scrapbooking the entire weekend was a small donation to the missionaries at her church and the donated of needed things to the local womens shelter. We had a fantastic time and I got to make a few new Scrapbooking friends as well!

Things here have been going along. I'm still attending the weight watchers meetings. I've lost 18 lbs so far. I'm feeling a lot better too. Breathing easier, Sleeping better. I've been encouraging Ashley to make healthier choices as well. We've been going to the park, we're trying for 3 days a week to walk together as a family and let Ashley play and get excercise. the weathers been so nice it really makes you want to be outside more. I'm really bad about staying home inside the house a lot. I know it's not healthy, mentally or physically and having the family get outside with me makes me want to be out there more.

Of course I'm STILL knitting :) as if that would ever stop.. haha! Let's see right now OTN I have My afghan that I've been working on forever. but I've been working on it more in the last couple of weeks so I've made some progress on it. I'm also working on a Central Park Hoodie for myself, A pair of ankle socks for myself, the sweater for Ashley, If I don't finish it soon it will end up being for Abbey instead.. LOL!! and I think that's about it for now. I did finally finish my fulled Lopi Tote... I'll post some pictres before and after...

a few weeks ago Jake took a day off work and we went with Ashley's class on a field trip to seminole, OK to the Children's museum there. They had a lot of interested things for kids, everything was hands on and the kids had a lot of fun... here is a picture of Ashley from that. Jake and I got assigned two other girls from the class beside Ashley.. it was difficult keeping them altogether for sure. But we had fun. It poured down rain on the way home.

I guess that's about it for now. I've been bad about posting. I know. I haven't been on the computer as much as I usually do and I finally installed my Sims2 on here and so I've been playing that now and then :) So fun.

Until Next time.

I'm Here...

Here is where I'm at . . . Stolen Moments Inn

& this is what I'm doing :)

CROPPIN :-)

This & That :)

I think my blog needs a facelift :) The banner is outdated because the girls have grown so much and I'm getting tired of the colors. I need to work on the facelift soon.

I haven't been blogging as much lately as I'd like to. We've had a lot going on in the evenings & and I've been spending far too much time on Ravelry during the day. LOL!! I can't help myself, it's addicting. So many great patterns to sort thru and great forums to read & post to! haha!

We had our Knitting meeting last night, We decided on a name, We're calling ourselves "Knitorious" we wanted to decide on a name so that we could post leaflets on bulletin boards around town and get it posted in the paper as well. We want to grow and get more people interested in our group :) Anyway knit night was great as usual and I got a lot done on my Fulled Lopi Tote.

I had my weight watchers weigh in last yesterday morning. I was so scared to weigh in because last week I gained 2lbs. I kind of though it had been because it was my TOM but I wasn't sure. Turns out it was because I lost almost 4 lbs this week. That puts my WL total at 17 lbs!! Woohoo!! I'm so glad to be losing weight and feeling better.

This past weekend, Me, My Mom, Danetter & her Mom all went to Norman, OK together to attend them Taste of Home Cooking school. We had such a great time, The Lady teaching the class was so funny and made it a blast. We did a little shopping of course while we were in Norman, I had to stop and visit L&B Yarn Co. where I picked me up some discount cotton yarn to knit a sweater with , Barnes & Noble where I picked up two more of the Yarn Harlot's books that I didn't have yet, I wanted to buy her new one but they didn't have it. Maybe it hasn't been released yet. The Scrapbook store and a few other places that we stopped at.

We bought Ashley a new Bike, I say new she's never had one here at our house, She has one at her Dad's but not here, It fits in the back of the Van nicely so we're planning to take it with us on our trips to the park to let her ride. We've been trying to be more active, together as a family. I really enjoy our outtings to the park during he week when we're able.

This weekend on Saturday we plan on helping our friend Michael move. I'm hoping we can get it all done on Saturday so that I can go Scrapbook with Danette on Sunday. But we'll see. I have a lot to get caught up on for the girls.

I guess that is about it for now, I need to get the photo's loaded and get ready to go get Ashley from school.

Until Next time...

Our First Hockey Game...

Now you Canadians and other serious Hocky fans don't make fun, But we actually have a Hockey Team in Oklahoma City :) A few months ago our friend Michael won four free tickets to a Blazers Hockey game. So this past Saturday was the last game of the season so we decided to trade in our tickets. We went up around 3pm, got there around 4pm. We had Dinner at the Bricktown Brewery & we had a glass of their wonderful beer. Then we headed to the Hockey game, Jake and I had more or less gone because Michael invited us and we'd never been to a Hockey game before. Now I have to say... We LOVED it!!!!! The Blazers are a really good Hocky team! the game was so interesting and fun to watch. We will be looking into going to some games next season for sure!!! I'd love to take the girls to a game as well :)

I have a few pictures from our fun.....The picture you see above is of course Jake and I enjoying a little beverage and waiting for the Hockey game to begin :)

Here are a few shots of our team..

After the Hocky game on the first floor of the ford center they had Elenor on display.. now you gone in 60 seconds fans might remember this cherished car from the movie :) This is the original Elenor :)

During the Hocky game they had this stretch Limo that was intering the rink during the breaks... it is a ford excursion stretch Limo.. so after the show we're leaving and this Limo is parked right outside the doors of our parking garage and the driver is standing there with the doors open letting people look inside... then he told us to crawl on in.. I've never been in a Limo before!!! I was exciting... haha

It was such a fun night! It was nice to go on a date with my sweetheart :)

Happy Easter!! :o)

I hope everyone had a great Easter Holiday & enjoyed some family time. I hadn't really planned anything ahead of time for the Holiday, It was Ashley's weekend with her Dad so I figured they would have something planned for her. Shawn let me know they didn't have anything planned when he asked if I did. So I put together a simple Easter dinner meal plan and got some eggs for coloring and hunting & invited Mom and Kristi over.

You know what, I hate plastic eggs. I love the tradition of coloring your eggs and then hunting them, I always had that growing up and I want it for my kids, Not to mention that eggs are so much better for the kids than candy stuffed ones. Abbey is still a bit too little to get in on the coloring so Ashley had one last year of coloring them all :) Here are a few shots of her coloring and decorating :)

After the decorating was done, Daddy Jake hid the eggs for us and then Ashley got to hunt :) She said we didn't hide them very well :-P Guess we'll have to make them tougher for her next year. LOL!!! Here are her goodies.

After the egg hunting was over we had dinner. I cooked a Ham, Asparagus, Red Beans and Homemade bread :) Here is a shot of the real goodies :)

I did put together a few things in bags for the girls "Easter baskets" I never can bring myself to buy the premade ones, So impersonal and expensive!!! Here were there goodies.

All in all it was a fun yet relaxing day and dinner was so good everybody was stuffed when it was over :)

Ashley had also had an Easter egg hunt with her school before they let out for spring break, here is a shot of her eggs from that hunt :)

Till next time!

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 :)