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!

Crafty Christmas....

Okay... so it all started with this blog post from Vicki Howell, one of The queens of Knitting & Craftiness, IMO anyway :)

The Stocking I had, was one that my first husband bought for me when we were dating.. um that would have made it... 13 years old & did I Mention it was from my first husband? LOL So when I saw Vicki's post.. I knew that, THAT was my future stocking!

I did add my own craftiness too it and used a cut in half foam ball and some yarn to make my yarn ball and used my die cut machine to cut out the letters for my name :) and stars were more chirstmasy than hearts for my needle ends... so here is MY NEW Stocking :)

While making my stocking I remembered that I Hadn't bought one for Abbey yet... and since we call her Abbey Bear.... her stocking was born....

While Make Abbey's I realized Ashley didn't really have a "personalized" stocking of her own... So... She wanted Hello Kitty :) and so her stocking was born...

When i told Jake how the girls and I were going to have cute similiar stockings with our fave things on the front.. he was jealous.. and so... his stocking was created and born.... a Ninetendo WII remote and console for those of you not savvy on video games :)

Merry Christmas!!

This was supposed to be posted a long time ago... it was saved in my drafts sorry here it is :)


Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, I believe we were all very spoiled here. We had a good Christmas! Jake's Mom sent us our Christmas box, filled with wonderful gifts and goodies for everyone!!

Christmas Eve we had our usual get together with my Mom, our dinner theme this year was BBQ Christmas, I smoked some ribs and we had potato salad, deviled eggs, rolls and yummy baked beans. Everything was so good!!! Mom spoiled all of us! Jake got a Dremel tool and and coffee maker and I got an awesome PINK suitcase to use for my retreats and a pink camera bag that I'd been wanting forever and of course the girls got all these goodies . . .

Then of course we had Christmas morning with the girls, Abbey's first Christmas :) The girls got very spoiled by Santa and Jake and I didn't do too bad... here are some pics from that :)

See how we all were spoiled? Wonderful Christmas!!!

I've Been A Very Bad Girl!

Okay, So you know how a child is with a new toy? Well, I have a fairly new toy, It's called Second Life. For a former SIMS addict it's a very addictive thing and well frankly I seem to have an addictive personality to things I enjoy, knitting, scrapbooking, food.... well you get the point, So as it goes, I've been spend a LOT of time playing SL and not a lot of time blogging. I'm still functioning and doing my Motherly, Wifely and Housely duties, Just not my blogging duties. They've been neglected & I am sorry for that.

So no more guilt and moving forward I present to anyone who cares enough to read and myself a new blog :)

Let's see, I see here that my last blog post was on December 4th. Not too long ago but a LONG time ago in Blog-Time. So what has happened since then...

On the 7th-9th I went to another wonderful Scrapbooking retreat at the wonderful Stolen Moments Inn with some very good friends. It was a wonderful weekend as always. I had a wonderful time and got lots of goodies completed and lots of ideas from the other girls about projects to start. hee! Great fun is the be had there with all of those wonderful ladies :) TY Teresa for hosting & Susie for providing such a wonderful location :)

In between then and Now, Ashley managed to catch something at school called "Fifth Disease" which sounds much worse than it actually is, She healed from that and then caught some Nasty stomach Virus TWICE then gave it to her poor sister :(

Jake is back to working a somewhat normal schedule but is only getting one day a week off.

I've been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, shopping, wrapping, and playing lots of SL which we've already talked about :) So now time for Pictures. . . .

Here are some things I finished at the retreat...

In knitting land I finally finished a scarf for Ashley that took me a year to knit because I kep putting it off.

The project I'm working on today is painting a coat/backpack hanger for Ashley's room :)

Okay I guess we're all caught up now :)

Christmas-y Things...

Well, Christmas is so close and I still don't feel the spirit of it. The older I get the less I feel it and I don't want that, I want to love Christmas like I did when I was young....

We did get our tree up... & I did actually get some cards made up to mail out this years.... So here are some photo's from that. We put up a little tree this year instead of our big one since Abbey is really getting into things a lot now...

They took Jake off of nights, just when we were getting into the schedule of it all and now he's back ON days and they told him if it get's real busy then they may put them back on nights *scream* I'll be glad when this ShNUFF is over!!!

Abbey has a Dr's appointment tomorrow, but I'm going to call and reschedule. I'm leaving Friday Morning for my weekend Scrapbook retreat and I have a lot to get ready before I leave...

We went Saturday night and bought Christmas for the girls. We need to get Abbey one or two more things, but otherwise we're done. So next payday will be buying for each other and our parents and Siblings. We pretty much already know what we're getting so we're in good Shape just gotta wait for the money to get it!

I did get one of my presents early though.. hehe!! Jake bought me an HP all in one Photo Printer, Scanner and Copier. I have a Dell 4x6 photo printer that I used the heck out of, But I wanted to be able to print larger pictures sometimes and to just have a good printer in general, So far so good, I'll be printing out pictures today that I'm going to work on this weekend :) Yaay me! Digital Photo's rock!!

Okay guess that's about it for now.. I'm not feeling so great today.. PMS getting the best of me this time.... and Ashley's home from school sick... that helps don't ya know? LOL!!

Till' next time!

Do You Love Christmas Music?

We love Christmas music and I came across this blog today reading another blog.. They have several free ablums available for you to download of Christmas Music... Check it out!

http://falalalala.com/

So I haven't posted anything in awhile. That's bad of me. Jake has been working from about 7pm to 8am and sleeping until about 5pm everyday. It's been hard, definately a change for me. not having him here to help me manage two girls. It isn't killing me by any means, It's hard to adjust too. It means a little less time for other types of things.

I do have a new addiction.. I think I may have mentioned it in a post before, It's Second Life... You can check it out on their website. http://secondlife.com/ It's a lot like the SIMS if you've ever played that but so much better because your interacting with real people. It is it's own little world.. You create you a person & You can rent places to live or even build places to live, Shop for Clothes and furniture and there's all kinds of places to hang out and dance and socialize.. and lots of event's that happen that you can attend. It's so much fun, I love it and would love to have more friends on there to socialize with, So if you think you might be interested in playing please email me and I'll send you and invite, I get credits if you go thru me :) missmandigirl @ sbcglobal.net

I haven't done any Christmas shhopping. NONE, That's bad... but Jake will get his first big check this week and I'll be on my way. Two girls to buy for this year :)

I have my scrapbook retreat in 2 weeks, I'm looking forward to that for sure. I haven't done any Scrapbooking since the last retreat!! Oh my.

Not a lot of knitting going on. Since most of my knitting happens while Jake and I watch TV together. I have worked on a KAL a few times. But not much else.

That's about it for now I guess.. Till next time!

Just A Ramble In Time...

Honestly, I have nothing exciting really to post about! LOL!! I just felt that I should blog since it had been a few days. Abbey is keeping me on my toes these days, For while there she hadn't figured out how to get her walker over the living room carpet to other rooms, So we could "trap"'' her in there while I cooked and things, Well now she's figured out how to get over those humps of Carpet and She's into everything! LOL!! However one evening while I was cooking dinner and trying to keep Abbey out of the kitchen Ashley came up with this very cute and clever idea :o)



Friday was Oklahoma's 100th Birthday. Ashley's school was celebrating and they asked that the children be dressed and Pioneer children did 100 years ago. So this was Ashley's dress up. I know it was a bit before Strawberry Shortcakes time but Jake's Grandmother made Ashley this adorable Apron and I couldn't resist letting her wear it :)


Jake has begun his night shift at work. Only for the holidays. it's hard keeping quiet around here during the day when this is the time I normally clean. I had also gotten spoiled to having Jake here to help me get the girls ready for bed and for now it's all on me since he leaves for work at 7pm.

We finally seem to have gathered enough ladies to meet to knit to actually call ourselves a group! LOL!! We had our 3rd meeting last night at the Library, Sabrina, Myself, Misty and Amanda were all there, Four of us, The biggest meeting so far, We do have a few other ladies interested so maybe they will make it to the next one.We had a ball last night, it was fun knitting and talking about her kids and husbands & life in general. Now I understand why knitters love their knitting groups so much! I can hardly wait for our next meeting.

Thanksgiving is here, Thursday, It snuck up on me this year! But we have mostly everything bought that we'll need. I need some cream cheese for a Cake I'm making but otherwise I think we're all set! It will just be our small family get together. Mom, Kristi, Me, Jake, Ashley & Abbey. I'm thinking next year My Mom's side of the family needs to get their business together and have one big Thanksgiving. it's been awhile since we had one.

I have a new addiction I'm afraid. It's even more awesome than The SIMS!!! I've been hooked on playing Second Life!! I love it so much, it's awesome. It also makes me realize how badly we need more ram for this computer. But I've been having a lot of fun on their messing around. It's a awhile other world on there!!

That's about all I guess. I do still have some recipes I Need to post over on my recipe blog. So I guess I'll tend to a few of those now :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!
Mandi

What Time of Day are You?

I did this because I Mel had done it. This describes me to a T!!!

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Wednesday's Words..

Hello Blog & Bloggers :o)


Everthing is going good. Nothing very exciting going on, which is always good. Means more time for the blog & knitting of course.. Today I'm thinking of dragging my scrapbook stuff out and working on some more of Abbey's pages that I didn't finish at the last retreat. I'm going to another retreat in December, I'm so excited about that!!

I got my hair cut and highlighted the other day. I'm on a mission. You know how when your a SAHM some tend to kind of stop dressing up & fixing your hair and putting on make-up, Well okay maybe it was just me. I know I feel better if my hair is fixed & etc. So I'm on a mission to do that for myself every morning. So far so good. I know that letting myself go is not a good thing for me. It's so easy to stop caring for yourself when you have others to care for. But I need to do this for me.. Plus Jake likes it when I do.. and that is another plus...

Ashley got her hair cut as well, about 5 inches off. Guess what, No more throwing fits in the morning when she brushes her hair! Things have been so much better in the mornings now! Woohoo!!!

Jake has started to work the crazy "Peak" hours at CC Distribution. Which means a lot of hours and little time at home. This weekend will most likely be his last weekend off until after the holidays. Ashley will be with her Daddy this weekend and we've already asked Mom if she would mind watching Abbey for us while we go on a date. The busy season is always hard for me and Jake because we don't get a lot of alone time with each other and we both need that. Not sure exactly what we'll do on that Date yet.

I've been knitting on odds and ends stuff. I did finish a ballband hanging hand towel. Part of a set that I'm working on for a special friend of mine. I created this one by just working the ballband pattern until it was as long as I liked and then I decreased at each band. worked 4 rows and decreased over and over until the hanging handle was as wide as I wanted it to be and worked seed stitch with one YO for the button hole.

I finished this kings cozy. I don't like that it doesn't have a bottom and the bottle can slip right out of it when your holding it. I love the design though and need to come up with some way to add a strip across the bottom.

The weather here has been absolutely insane. But that is Oklahoma for you. Last night it got so hot we had to turn the AC on in the bedroom, IN NOVEMBER. Today it's getting cold and I need to find a pair of socks to put on. I don't think we're going to have a winter at all & Global warming is a scary thing...

Okay not much else going on, I have a new recipe to post on my recipe blog, So I need to get to that. I've not bee trying a lot of new recipes lately. I've been cooking cheap and easy things. Hopefully I'll pick back up on the new recipes soon.

Have a great week!!!

Mandi