Well, I officially missed Thoughtful Thursday.  I must admit I missed it because I have a HUGE problem with my pictures.  As previously mentioned, I went to a scrap retreat this past weekend.  I do all digital scrapbooking.  While I was there, my external hard drive began deleting everything.  YES, DELETING!!!!  I was beyond anxious all weekend about this problem.  I am now waiting on Geek Squad to see if they can recover everything.  I hope and pray fervently they can.  This hard drive had every piece of scrapbook upload from the past two or three years.  It also has ALL of my pictures ever taken.  I am extremely worried about this!

Anyway, maybe I'll have good news soon!  I now will be backing up my external hard drive on the home external hard drive.  What a pain!  But I guess it's worth it in time of trouble huh? 

Signed,
Learned from my experience!

Weekend Wrap Up Part Deux - The Scrap Gatherers

What do you get when you take this group of ladies....

and mix it with this lovely scenery?

You get a three day scrapbook retreat!

Here's a highlight of what we did for three days.

The entire weekend was soooo much fun!  A relaxing time was had by all.  ENJOY!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I just returned Sunday night from an absolutely wonderful weekend.  Myself and eleven other women all piled up in a few cars and headed ourselves to Rogers, Arkansas to a very large home right on Beaver Lake.  We took off on Friday morning and didn't think about home until we crossed into the Oklahoma border on 4 PM Sunday. 

We - The Scrap Gatherers (as we've named ourselves) - had sooooo much fun doing nothing all weekend but scrapbooking and eating.  How wonderful it is to get together with women and have no worries in the world except what color should go with this picture and how should I arrange this page...

The stories that were told - HILARIOUS!!  The food that was eaten - DELICIOUS!!  The memories that were remembered and new ones made - PRICELESS!!

It was definitely a time away that will never be forgotten!

Tonight, Andrew and I are going to practice our cake for the upcoming Mother/Son cake decorating contest.  Can't wait to report what we did and show you pictures.  That will have to wait until next week...can't give away my secrets!!  ha!

Thoughtful Thursday

Every year our church hosts a Mother/Son cake decorating contest.  2008 was our first year to start this.  I thought I would share a few pictures of our first experience.

Here is Andrew and I with our cake.  It's a hot dog and fries made out of pound cake and twinkies (iced in red)

Andrew taking a bite of the "hot dog"!  Too cute!

He won second place in his age group.  I was so proud of him.  2009 we didn't do so good and I didn't even take a single picture.  In two weeks, we will be having our 3rd annual Mother/Son cake decorating contest.  We already have a plan and we will be posting about that after it's done.  What fun have you had with your kids lately?

Proud Momma!!!

Oh y'all!!!  I am sooooo excited and such a proud momma at this time.  Just thought I would update everyone about my daughter's first track meet yesterday.  (I'll have pics to post later)

She ran in four events and placed in two of them.  She came home so excited and loving the track world!!  YAY!!  She placed third (bronze medal) in the 1 mile relay and second (silver medal) in the 200 meter dash.  She ALMOST got first in the dash.  Her time was 29.29 and the girl who beat her was at 29.28 - super close race.  Now I wish I could have been there to see it.

As mentioned before, she was sooo excited last night and also exhausted.  I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see what will come in the near future from other track meets.

Java After Jammies

Last night the ladies of OFA had a very intimate little late night coffee/dessert gathering at the local Cracker Barrel.  It was a very laid back relaxed gathering and we laughed and laughed and laughed!!  Thanks Deb!!

We forgot to bring a camera so I took a few pics with my phone.  They're not the best quality but they're still fun to look at.

We all enjoyed a wonderful dessert!!

Fun, Food, and Fellowship!!

Kerry's dessert was the hit of the evening.  IT WAS HUGE!!!!!

It was such a wonderful evening.  I enjoyed being with you lovely ladies of OFA.  Can't wait to see what we'll be doing next month!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This past weekend was so peaceful and laid back.  The weather was FABULOUS!!!  I forgot how wonderful it was to be outside with the sun shining. 

I must take a moment to brag really quickly.  I have never had a "star" in any type of sport in our home.  Looks like that might be changing a little though.  My daughter (12 yrs old) started running track this year.  Her coach can't say enough about her.  It makes me soooo excited to know that my child is good at something!!  Her first real track meet is tomorrow and she's a little nervous but excited at the same time.  The coach told me on Saturday that she feels it is highly possible for Hannah to make all-state track by the time she's a freshman.  WOW!  Sooo exciting.  Anyway, I'll have to follow up later this week and tell you how that went.

Saturday was spent at a "mock" track meet.  Hannah spent about three hours with the coach and the team getting prepared for the track meet this week.  The hubster and I just kind of relaxed all morning.  I did a little laundry, drove Hannah to track practice and Jeff and I went to Wal-Mart for a few items.  All in all an easy day.

Friday night we had the family over for Taco Night.  It was soooo yummy!!  It was nice to have everyone around and enjoy the fellowship.  Jeff's two boys and their families and his mother came.  We had a total of eleven including kids.  We missed my husband's sister and her husband.  Things just went wrong with their schedule.  We had so much fun eating and playing a new game called "A Game of Things".  It was soooo much fun!  I highly recommend anyone to purchase this game to have in your game closet. 

Sunday was church day and lunch and another sunshiney day.  I got out in the yard and cut back my monkey grass.  It was so nice to be outside!!  I made my kids get out and play, too.  They wanted to coop up in their rooms and watch a movie...typical!

This week is full of lots of fun things!  Tomorrow night is my monthly Bunco, Wednesday is church, Thursday is open for WHATEVER!!!! and Friday I am leaving for a two night scrapbooking weekend on Beaver lake!!  SOOOOOO EXCITED!  What did your family do over the weekend??

Thoughtful Thursday (A Day Late)

Well, I successfully forgot to post my Thursday post. I thought I would do it today (even though it's a day late). I actually started the post yesterday and go to feeling bad and left work to go rest. As the night progressed, I just felt worse and worse. Sooo, here's my Thursday post:

I thought I would share a photo of the "other beings" that lurk around the corners in our home.

These are my darling kitties!!! The grey one (Ashes) was given to me by a neighbor about 6 years ago. She was a tiny little scared lost kitty when I got her. The black and white one (Oreo) was one that wandered up onto our back deck about 4 years ago. I have a super soft heart for lost animals. I started trying to pet the cat immediately and fed him a little....I know, BAD!! My husband was not very happy with me. I eventually wound up letting him come into the house. He never left!!! AND guess whose cat this is.....YEAH - the hubby's cat!! AND you don't mess with HIS cat. He's very protective.

Anyway, Oreo is tall and long and walks like a jaguar. Ashes is short and fat and wiggles when she walks. They are both HUGE kitties but we all LOVE them soooooooo much.

They both lounge around ALLLLLL day long so they can run around chasing each other all night long.

IT'S A TOUGH LIFE AS A KITTY!!

Ashes likes to lay on her back and rub around.

She also finds a lot of time to take a little "cat nap" when we're all watching TV.

This is how she looks when one of the children has her forcing her to take pictures.

And here's typical Ashes lying on the floor waiting on someone to rub her belly.

Oreo likes bags, shoes, suitcases, laundry baskets and anything he can get into.  Here he managed to get into a walmart sack that was in my bathroom.  He got the handle stuck around his neck and his feet inside the bag.  It was hilarious to watch him try and figure out how to get out of that one.

Such a poser.  He's in hubby's shoes.

America's Next Top Model!!

And another pose!

Sorry to bore you with my feline family!  Share some of your pets pics!!

Cheap Dinner

Well, the kids and I had a night last night without hubby home.  I decided I wasn't going to cook & we would go out to eat.  I was thinking about how I could get a great meal at a bargain price.  I am here to report we did it!!!!!  We did REAL GOOD!!  Here's how it went down:

Lonestar (where we live) offers a "Kids Eat Free" on Tuesday night.  You can get up to two free kids meals with one adult entree purchase.  I decided that would save us a bundle of change.  Then I sign up with every restaurant club known to man so I can get coupons and free items at my birthday time and anniversary time.  I just happened to have a coupon from Lonestar offering me a free appetizer.  Cha-Ching!

We started the night off with a FREE appetizer of Cheese Fries (savings of $7.99) - YUMMY!  I ordered a fabulous chicken sandwich for $7.99.  It came with a side of my choice.  Being I had fries already, I chose to have a house salad.  The kids ordered a chicken tenders dinner (savings of $4.99) and a steak medallion dinner (savings of $6.99).  We all ate and ate and ate until we were so full we rolled out of there.

When our waiter brought the bill, I was astounded at the price I saw!  I only owed $8.67!!!!!  WHAT?!?!?!  We had saved almost $20.00!!  Our sweet waiter did not charge us for any of our drinks either.  I only paid for my meal (the cheapest on the menu byt he way).  I was so excited to walk out of there feeding all three of us for under $10.  I did leave him a hefty tip!

I look forward to finding more great deals like this!  What are some of your ideas on saving in restaurants?  Do you have a story to share?

A New Favorite

I have a new favorite in my life!!  After reading a post on my friend Lori's blog (read her post here) about her UGG experience, it got me thinking.

I have always HATED the way UGGS looked.  I've thought they were clunky and fat looking.  I've never wanted a pair and never looked into the cost or comfort of them at all.  Recently, my daughter talked me into purchasing her a pair of the UGG look-a-like boots that are EVERYWHERE!!!  I began sneaking them out of her room and wearing them with my skinny jeans.  What a terrible mom!!  It's actually kind of sad when you're sharing shoes with your 12 year old daughter.

I began really enjoying the boots and looking to get me a pair.  Reading Lori's post made me definitely realize that I was going to have to splurge and get me a pair of UGGS. 

Look what I got yesterday!!!!

I about had a caniption fit when I got to looking into purchasing a pair of the UGGS and saw how much they were.  OH MY!!  I am an avid bargain hunter and want the best deal out there!  I got on ebay and found these lovelies.  They are chocolate brown cardy UGGS.  I only paid $51.00 for them - BRAND NEW with tags!!!  WOW!

Here's me wearing them today.

These are definitely the MOST comfortable shoes I have ever had on my feet.  NO socks and NO sweating!!  YAY!  I saved almost $100.00 by buying them on ebay and waiting.  Patience is not my virtue!!

Anyway, I was given strict orders to post this (from Lori).  Soooo, here ya go!!  ENJOY!

Please folks, invest in a pair of these UGGS.  They are the most comfortable boots I have ever worn in my life.  And really really cute with the right outfit.