Today feels like Monday when it should be a fun Saturday....

I had a rough morning. Yes, I did get up early to read some, but about an hour later my day just went down hill. It was a really busy week for us. I had two sick kids, a lot going on at work, lot's of other committments, etc etc. Anyways, I am in a neighborhood bible study that I find very interesting as it is the first kind of bible study I have ever been in, and I like getting to know my neighbors better. I do continue to feel akward as these woman are obvously at a much different place in their spiritual journey, and I am waayyy younger then them. Not that the age difference is a bad thing, it is what it is. So there were plans to meet for breakfast this morning at a local place with them, and I had told the leader of the group I probably would not be there as my husband would be at work and so I would not have childcare. Ok, so I could have brough them, but I didn't want to waste money on food that they would ask for (tight budget going on) when they had already had a breakfast that morning, and I knew I wouldn't be able to visit, with three kiddos begging for my attention.

So fast forward to 10 minutes before it was supposed to start. My mom called and said my dad would watch them if I wanted to go, and I turned it down as I was still in my pajamas and was now focusing on trying to clean our house. I told her I wouldn't be making it, and then I got another phone call from the head lady, and so then I felt really guilty for not going. I threw my hair up on my head, got dressed, and went, but before I got there I had a mini meltdown in the car.

Some of my thoughts- "I shouldn't even be going, my house looks like crap" "my house never looks clean because everyone just goes behind me and makes messes." " my husband only has one weekend a month home with us, and most of his other days off he's in court so I am always the one doing everything in the house, and he doesn't have a clue how hard it is", "how can the city council in his area sleep at night knowing that they increased their own salaries by %8 a few days before they elected to not give raises to the other city employees for the past 2 years, THEN approve a bonus to head of the department for keeping costs down, and go on to say it might be 2-3 years before anyone gets a raise." "did I leave a candle burning." "do my kids really play with their toys or do they just break everything and shove everything in awkward places." "that does it, I need to hire someone to clean my house again once a month,I just need some help, oh wait, we can't afford it."

So yes I made it to breakfast in a frantic state, and hopefully I hid it well, and then went home to clean and take care of my kiddos. I have been spending the day trying to declutter and organize but I just can't help but feel completely overwhelmed, and when I am working on cleaning or fixing something, I feel like I should be sitting down playing with the kids, creating something together, or taking them somewhere fun. And of course when we do the fun things, all I can think about is how my house is a wreck and I need to be cleaning it.

I am telling myself to keep calm, and maybe just maybe if I can do a lot of cleaning today it will make me relax a little.

New read....

I finally got around to updating the What I am reading sidebar on my page. Truth be told, I had not read anything in a good bit. I heard about this book, "Thirteen Reasons Why". It's a young adult book, (stop judging, the Twilight books are young adult too, and they rocked). I spied this book at Barnes and Noble, BUT I ended up getting this yesterday from our local library, and they had like 4 copies or something crazy.

I am a few chapters in, so I don't want to give any spoilers, but this is a crazy good book. I seriously woke up at 5:30am to have some time to read before everyone else woke up. That good.

This book is about a highschool girl who recently committed suicide, and before she killed herself she recorded herself on several audio tapes explaining her thirteen reasons why she had to do it. The tapes are being sent to the thirteen people who she feels are responsible for her death. Yes teen angst. Roll your eyes all you want, but teen angst is pretty much something we can all remember and relate to. This book will suck you in. Buy it, borrow it, or get from your library asap.

Working for the weekend....

I have been a blog slacker lately, but life just has been getting in the way of real blogging with pictures. I have so much going on and so much I need to do that it's beginning to freak me out. Christmas is less then two months away. I have done some shopping, but not nearly enough. I have a pretty good list going of what I need to buy, but I am hoping a few of the items for the kids are major Black Friday specials for the sake of my budget. I am also attempting to locate all of the people from the "Little People" nativity scene that I believe Santa brought last year. I am going to find them all (hopefully) and put aside for safe keeping until I break out the decorations. I should have put it away with the decorations, but I thought the girls would enjoy playing with it year round. Silly me, now we are missing the angel, all of the animals, and Joseph. Hopefully we find them....

I have also had two sick kiddos this week and of course it has fallen on a crazy busy week of work stuff, and other commitments. Isn't that how it always happens though? Pretty much having meltdowns about twice daily over just feeling overwhelmed. I really need a good 6 hours more added to each day to get what I need done. Hopefully, everyone will be well and the girls will be able to go to school Friday for their Halloween parties and parade as they have been looking forward it.

I will be back hopefully this weekend with some halloween pictures of the kiddos!

Theme park fun, and a small victory....

One of the great things about living in our area, is that we are very close to Busch Gardens. It is pretty awesome to live near an amusement park, as Season Passes to them are great deals if your into that type of fun. We got passes for ourselves, and for the kids the summer passes after not getting them for a few years as the kids were so young. The kids had a ball this year, I even was super brave and went one time without my husband helping with all three, in the summer, on a weekend. I do crazy things I tell ya....

Anyways, back in the day going to Busch Gardens in the fall used to be the way to go. No lines, no crazy tourists, it was like you had the park to yourself. I used to ride the roller coasters over and over and over again without ever getting off. In 2000 they started Hallowscream though, and that changed EVERYTHING, about fall at Busch. I went a bunch in college when I was home, and the year Dave and I got married we went, but we had not done Halloscream since. We finally went last night, and it was glorious! First of all, we were able to go without kiddos, which means no strollers to push, we are able to actually go on rides together, etc etc. Glorious I tell you! And Hallowscream now has really become a huge event. There are 5 haunted houses, the entire park is decorated AWESOME, the whole park is a scare zone now, meaning there are people everywhere jumping out to try to scare you, they just do an incredible job. As a halloween lover, I was just in heaven. We were also able to ride some roller coasters which was fun. The lines were not bad, and all in all we had a lot of fun and would love to go back, but chances are this will be the one time we are able to get away again for a while. Quite honestly I think it would be super fun to get a job there during hallowscream as one of the scary people. Dave says I would make a fantastic witch. Bahhhahaha. Seriously I am going to look into it next year. It might be a fun way to make some extra money for Christmas....

In other household news, I was excited to finally find the battery charger to my camera. The battery died last weekend, and when I went to charge it the next day I could not find that sucker anywhere! I tore through the entire house trying to find it, and pouted for a week. I usually keep it in a basket on our counter,but I got all paranoid that I might have left it back in September when we went to the mountains... We have a very nice camera so the last thing I needed was to lose the charger, as the chargers themselves are not exactly cheap. So victory was mine as I made a last ditch effort to find it. It had fallen out of the basket, in the floor of the pantry closet behind some clutter. Seriously need to clean out that closer before I end up on that show Hoarders...

Now that I have finally found that I can try to do Christmas pictures with the kids soon. I keep saying we are going to do them early so I have plenty of time to try to capture a cute one of the kids in their dresses. It's always an act of God to get a good one where everyone is looking in the same direction. I have a vision of taking this picture at Lion's Bridge, which is a small park area near our house that is on the James River...We shall see...

I think I know why people homeschool now...

All my life I have always wanted to be a mom. I have to say I never knew how hard it would be. When they are babies we are responsible for feeding them, changing their diapers, making sure they are not to warm, or hot, and it's a lot of work. But I am learning that the infant/toddler rearing is a piece of cake. The hard part is going to be guiding them as they become independent, watching them make mistakes, seeing their first heart aches, and just crossing your fingers and hoping that your kid doesn't end up a failure. I feel like the main role of being a mom is to worry. I know worrying doesn't do you any good, and we can do all the right things but we can't control our kids forever. I still worry though, and honestly if I didn't worry then that's just being a crappy mom. Anxiety is pretty much my middle name.

So here I am, freaking out about what school to put my child in next year. How is it that already my oldest will be leaving preschool. I have already spent this year a little concerned about her class this year, and thinking about switching teachers, as this lady has just gives me this vibe that she's really unsure of her own teaching abilities, and I don't think that Laura is really being challenged in this class, and then I start feeling guilty for becoming THAT PARENT. Freaks me out. I think I finally decieded to leave her where she is at, as it's just preschool, and she's a smart cookie. I can always work with her at home on things to challenge her some more.

However next year as she will start Kindergarten, I find myself getting all worked up all over again. Cue the panic attacks. There are a lot of private school options in our area that I have to get on the ball with checking out. Dave and I had a long talk with Rachel's teacher (who I seriously adore and wish she could just teach all my kids for their entire school careers). I really value her opinion, and as she has a young daughter in our area she's been through the researching. She did encourage us to not completely rule out public school, as she has been very happy with a magnet school in our city. The deal is though they can't get into this school as a kindergardener, they only allow that in 1st grade if it's out of your zone, which of course it is. So this has added a whole another equation in. The snotty school that added a elementry program has been completely rulled out by moi. I know things have not changed there, and I will be damned if I let my daughter either a. be buillied by snobs or b. turn into a snob. Yes it can happen elsewhere but it's seriously a bigger problem there. Yall, someone needs to do an intervention there asap.

I will be visiting schools soon, and taking my time on this one, but I just really need some prayers as I try to make the right decision. Ideally, I would like all three kids at one school, but I know the right fit may not be right for Rachel or Emily so that just adds to my anxiety. Momma needs a chill pill.

Tuesday happenings and a receipe...

My middle child had a small field trip to a produce/garden center that I actually worked at for years and years. I took off to attend this with her, and we got to have some mother/daughter bonding time. This place has been offering a cute halloween program since 2003, for local preschools in which they do a cute puppet performance, hayride, walk through a maze, and then they get to pick a small pumpkin. The teacher brought a fun snack for them to enjoy afterward on the picninc tables. Rachel really had fun, and I enjoyed spending the morning with her and her friends.

This afternoon we have pretty much all been lazy and spent it napping. We all had a rough night, as all of the kids decieded to wake up at 3am, come downstairs, got out some drinks and chips and just had a big 'ole party until Dave and I woke up and asked them what in the world they were doing. Of course then they got up again at 6am. Energy is wasted on the young.

I have slowly tried to get my but in gear this evening, and I have started dinner. Tonight we are having strawberry porkchops and sweet potatoes. We have really been enjoying this porkchop dish, and gasp, it's not pioneer woman! I did find it from a foodie blog, but I have put my own spin on things. Here's how I make it for my family.

4 boneless porkchops

6tablespoons of strawberry jam

2 teaspoons of worshire sauce

1 table spoon of cinnamon

1/2 table spoon of pepper.

stir up all into well combined, and then smooth it on top of the porchops, and then put in the over on 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. So easy, and we all know porkchops are super duper cheap. My kids also love this dish so hey, it's a keeper.

Pumpkin Party Recap...

I have to say, I was a bit wigged out about having this party as I can get anxious and stressed easily. I am so glad I got over it and had this party as it was so much fun and it wasn't hard as I tried really hard to do a little each day leading up to the party. Not saying I didn't freak out the week leading up to the party, but at least no melt downs while people were here Saturday. Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday, which I am sure anyone who has been to my house can attest to. I just can't get enough of it.

I was mighty proud of my food table. I used a lot of inspiration from blogs. (Don't you just love all the ideas out there blogs? I hardly even look at magazines anymore for ideas). I used It's always a Party at the Parker's idea of taking oreo cakesters (these taste just like whoopi pies, I didn't even know these existed until I saw the Shindigs blog entry), and jazzed them up with sprinkles. I brushed a small amount of honey around them to help the sprinkles stick.

The cupcake toppers that I won from Jen's Embellishing Life Every Day giveaway came right in time so I used some for some cupcakes I made (using a box mix and can icing), and for the others I used some creepy gummy candy from the dollar store to decorate the tops of the others. The cupcake stand I bought this past spring from Costco, and it really has come in handy for different celebrations. On the top of the cupcake stand I added a glittered skull purchased from the dollar store, and on the lower teir I got the "eek" decoration from Michael's. I made some white chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels upon my husbands request as well.

Before the party I downloaded a kid's halloween music album on my ipod from Itunes, and hooked it up to our stereo to play at the party. My kids have been begging us to play it over and over again even today... Corniest music ever, but hey whatever amuses them...

I also added to the table some other decorations such as a witches hat that I bought from a fall festival I had been to earlier in the day. I also had my Eat Drink and be Scary printable framed. I never did get around to using the 5 yards of black tulle I had bought at Walmart, so I just used it draped around the table.

I had cooked BBQ in the crock pot, and made some mac and cheese, and had everyone everyone else bring a dish to share. The BBQ was the way to go, because it's fairly cheap, and easy as I had completed it the day before and just had to throw it back in the crock pot to heat up again for the party.

The kids started out in the backyard where we had set up some folding tables and chairs, and got busy painting or carving their pumpkins. Thankfully I had more then enough pumpkins to go around. I knew it would be messy, but man oh man. I had washable paint, but goodness.... my youngest ended up painting her own face, and one of our gutters on the side of the house lol. I had a lot of glitter which some of the kids fought over and threw all over the place (thank goodness we did this outside)

One of my friends brought face paint and did face painting. This went over well too, little kids are so appreciative of the little things, and were excited to get this done. My husband thought it would be hilarious to give his friends daughter a black beard, and drew glasses on her.

We took a break to eat while the pumpkins attempted to dry under all the layers of paint and glitter, and then did the pinata. I am happy to report the pinata did not fall apart from the weight of the candy, and it took a bunch of wackings before it split open. I was so proud of it, and glad I made it.

It was a lot of fun, the kids had a blast, and have asked me when we will do it again. I am pretty confident we will do this again next year.

So... guess who was too cheap to buy a $20 pinata.... yepp that would be me. It's just odd to me to spend that much on something you tear open, and then throw away... I decieded to make one. Well let's just say I wont be quiting my day job anytime soon to start a pinata business... Let's be honest, mine looks pretty fugly...however it cost me a whopping .15 cents to make (cost of one balloon). I had everything else laying around. The true test will be tomorrow when I put candy in it. I think there's a 50/50 chance that it will self combust. If that happens, would it be too redneck I duck taped the sucker? Don't answer that. We will beat this pinata and be excited tomorrow gosh darnit.

I have spent my evenings this week trying to do something each day to get ready for out little pumpkin painting party, which has not been that easy, and honestly I did't have much to do, but it's just been hard trying to get everything done with life. Add in a husband who has been held over for overtime just about every night (makes for a evil wife). I will be trying my best to be chill at this thing, which means I have a bottle of wine all ready for me to consume beforehand.

Woohoo!

Exciting news! I actually won a giveaway! Yall, I have been blogging since 2007, and I have entered many a blog giveaway, and I actually finally won something! I won super cute cupcake toppers, from the Embellishing Life blog - go check out her blog for some craft inspiration! http://embellishinglifeeveryday.blogspot.com

If I get them in time I am going to use them for the pumpkin painting party, and if I get them after I will just whip up a batch of cupcakes for my kiddos. It's a win win situation.

In other exciting news I bought my first pair of skinny pants... or for someone who isn't a size 2 I guess I should call them tight pants on a average size chick.... I am digging the leggings look, but finally braved it up and bought some black skinny pants that are thicker and have a zipper (ala Target)... If I don't get made fun of tomorow at work (my worker peoples are blunt and don't hold anything back) I might just be brave enough to venture into skinny jeans... I have a Groupon to the Gap that might be spent on a pair from there. This is big guys, expect it to snow tomorow.

So now I am going to bed, and I am going to pray tonight that after walking 5 miles this past weekend, and playing two softball games tonight, that I don't look like a fat person in small pants tomorow. This might be a spanx day guys.

Halloween Frame....

I got around to framing my digital creation last night.... I printed the print through Costco in a 5x7, and then found this frame at the dollar store.... I love how cute, cheap, and halloweeny it is! Feel free to got a few posts down of mine, and steal it, or make your own!

P.S I am having way to much fun coming getting things ready for the pumpkin decorating party we are having... The dollar store is rocking my socks... they have the best stuff for fall right now!

Fabric Coasters

Yesterday our wee one had tubes put in her ears. She did great, but was pretty groggy for the day, so she spent a lot of time resting. During nap time when all three were resting, I whipped up two birthday presents for two people in my life who have had birthdays, that I shall see this weekend. I wanted to make something for them as part of their gift, so I decided to make these fabric coasters, that I learned how to make this summer. Super easy, fast, and well I would love to get some so I hope the people who get them like them.

To make them I cut some pretty fabric into 5.5 inch squares, I then cut some batting into 5 inch squares. Put two fabric squares and lay them on top of each other with the pretty sides touching, and then sew on your batting around the edges leaving a little gap to turn them inside out (once you clip your corners). Then after you turn inside out, sew around the edges all the way, and then continue sewing little boxes as close together as you want to create the quilting effect.

I made four in each set, and then I put some ribbon around it, added some flair to make it cutesy, and used a little stamp.

Candy Corn Decoration...

Today was a good day. I found the lovely dutch oven I have been wanted for a steal at TJMAXX, and I got all kinds of fun stuff at the dollar store for our pumpkin decorating party we are going to have...While at the dollar store I decided I also wanted to make a candy corn craft, so I bought one Styrofoam ball, two bags of candy corn, and a tinsel spider.....

Later this evening I hot glued candy corn to the ball. It went pretty fast, but my goodness... that ball weighs a good 5lbs when all is said and done.... I shoved the ball on a wood dowel that I painted Orange, and then put it through the tinsel spider, (the head part of it is Styrofoam as well) and then shoved the whole thing into a Styrofoam block and put it all in a basket. I added some black tulle to hide the Styrofoam. I think it's fun, and the girls think it's really cool looking.

A halloween printable and turkey dress....

I have been seeing people making these on blogs and sharing them, so I gave it a whirl, and think it turned out cute.  I made it with my CM digtial program.  If anyone would like to snag it feel fee =)  I am going to print it, and put in in a frame.

I have been hunting for a Thanksgiving dress for my oldes to wear, and finally found a cute semi affordable for smocking anyways, dress on zulily.com.  Great discount / members only site for kiddo stuff.  Here is the dress:

Emily is going to wear a older smocked Turkey dress that is a hand me down, and I bought Rachel a cute one last year of Etsy with a turkey on it, and her name, and luckily I bought it big last year, so she can wear it again this year (insert fist pump).

Hopefully this will be a good idea...

Yesterday I decieded I wanted to have a pumpkin decorating party this year.  It's no secret how much I love halloween, and I think it would be fun to have a get together to eat, decorate some pumpkins, and just hang out.   Because our kids and their friends are pretty young, and they don't need to stab someone or lose a finger, I am going to have paint, glitter, stickers, etc for their table.  I went through all of my craft stash, and I have everything we would need for this already.  (Also, if I use up some of my craft stash I will have a good excuse to go shopping for more for myself, this is a win win situation)  For the older kids or adults I am going to find some freebie patterns, and I have a few carving kits and items for those who can handle sharp knives.  I figure we can set up some tables in the garage to do this so we don't have to worry about any mess. 

I need to buy some pumpkins. I am thinking some pie size pumpkins for the kids, a few bigger ones for older people who want to play too. 

My husband thinks I am dork for wanting to do this.  And I am. BUT I know it will be fun.  And hey, I will have some beer, so he can amuse himself with that.

I already came up with an invite that I made with my CM digital program.  I have sent them to be printed at Costco, and I will pick them up tomorow after work.

As far as food goes, I seriously want to keep it simple.  Thinking about making some BBQ, or just being a slacker and ordering pizza.  Will have to figure out which would be cheaper.  Of course I want to have some snacks, so I am asking those who come to bring something to share.   I might attempt to come up with some kid games, or another easy craft (aka look on blogs for ideas).  I think this will be fun, and who knows, maybe we can start doing this every year....

The girls in their shirts!

My mom posted this picture that she took yesterday while we were at the festival, and I had to share it.  The girls had on their shirts that my mom made them.  I just love these shirts!  If you would like to check out her blog as well go here: http://averettladynana.blogspot.com/

Halloween Countdown...

Today we went to a local fall festival.  We looked at crafts, ate some food, got some faces painted, played on a playground, and enjoyed the weather.  I did get one halloween decoration.  It's a sickness I guess.  I would have bought more, but alas, the youngest is having tubes put in her ears this coming week, and those jokers called telling us what our copay and coninsurance is...and to let us know the amount is all due when we arrive.  I mean seriously, the surgury center just can't send me a bill in the mail like normal people?  Guess they have been stiffed to many times.  So that put a damper on fall festival spending to say the least.  It's cool though, little E needs the tubes.

Yes I know the picture is sideways, and I have spend a good 15 minutes trying to fix it but I give up.

This afternoon I went into my craft room to attempt to clean it and organize some.  But I got side tracked.  I have this framed magnatic board from Creative Memories that I got for Christmas a few years back.  I have used it to display some pictures at birthday parties, and what not, but had not used it for a while.  So of course I gave up on cleaning, and played with it for a minute.  I had been wanting to do a halloween countdown, so I figured this would be a easy way to do.  I used my Cricut to make the spiders, and then glitter glued them, and used some brads for the eyes.  I used some letter stickers in my stash to spell halloween and of course I just free handed the numbers for the countdown part, cause I didn't want to spend too much time on something I was just going to cross off.  

Obsessed....

I need a Le Creuet Dutch Oven.  I have become pretty much obsessed.  Above is a picture from Bakerella's website from when she went to visit my main squeeze, Pioneer Woman.    Yepp, I am all jealous of P-Dub's amazing collection, and that Bakerella got to visit her.  Can you only imagine how amazing all their meals were?  Oh my gosh I gain about 20lbs just thinking about it....

But anyways back to the Le Creuset.... So I have been needing an dutch oven for like forever, and last year I asked for one for Christmas, and didn't get one.  No biggie.  Bonus for me since I know which one I want now, but negative for me as have you priced these freaking things?  Behold, QVC has them and for the larger size it's $275 plus some tax and shipping.  Minor freak out.   Never fear, I am on a hunt.  I actually come across one at a local thrift store.  It was marked down to less then $30, and I heard the angel's singing, a tear dripped down my eye, and I hugged it.  But then... I opened it, and discovered it was pretty much involved in a kitchen fire, and was ruined beyond repair  It was cracked, it was just an awful site.  No clue why the idiots even had it for sale due to the condition, because all they did was attempt to trick me.  I was so close, but yet just so far away...

I also have spied some at TJmaxx, Marshalls, and Tuesday Morning... and I may give in soon and bite the bullet and get them discounted from there.  But before I do that, I am going to try searching a little more at some thrift stores.  I know it can happen, my own mom just got a Le Creuset Stock pot at one this week in perfect condition.  She offered it to me, but I am going to let her enjoy it, and honestly I know she will get more use out of a stock pot then I would. 

So my search continues..... I hit up a Goodwill this morning, and I am going to try to check out a few other places this weekend.