Milestones......How I Loathe Thee

Let me explain - I only "loathe" milestones, simply because it means my kids are growing up.  Don't you wish you could bottle up all these memories and place them on a shelf? I guess technically you can, if you photograph everything your children do.  Which is funny, because that's exactly what I've been doing.  I snap pictures of just about everything my kids do.  When they complain, I say "think of the memories....one day you are going to thank me for taking all these pictures." 

I have found a cheap way to preserve these memories too.  Snapfish! See, Rich and I drink a lot of pop (yeah, yeah, yeah - I know it's not good for you, etc.).  Coke has points that you can redeem for fun things.  I have already redeemed points for magazines (not that I ever have time to read them).  If you redeem 50 points (I think?), you can get 30 prints from Snapfish for free.  You pay for shipping and handling.  Or you could upload your prints to Snapfish and pick the ones you want to print and pick them up at Walmart (You just pay for the printing - I think it's 20 cents ?? a pic). 

Geesh, did I get sidetracked there or what?! At any rate......

Speaking of milestones, our family has hit some major ones:

Anthony passed his Learner's Permit Test - Now, it's Daddy's job to teach the new drivers in this house.  Mommy might have more patience, but Dad is a HECK of  ALOT braver than Momma - LOL!

Sarah and Zachary graduated the 6th grade....It's on to the high school, they go.  Sarah said she didn't want to "grow up" because she didn't want to go to high school.  I don't want her to grow up either, darnit!

Mrs. Stoffa and Sarah

Mr. Morecraft and Zachary

The twins with the elementary principal, Mr. Cole

Of course, every mother of twins knows you must get the obligatory picture of them together when they reach those milestones (and I naturally took tons!).

Amanda got a job (her first one, other than babysitting, which really doesn't count) - a waitressing job at Bob Evans.  She hasn't worked that much yet, but she's been spending her paychecks already, in her head - LOL! 

To add insult to injury, Amanda said "Mom, this is really a BIG milestone year.  This will be my last year of high school.  The twins first year of high school and Nathan's first year of school."  Thanks for reminding me kid!

More fun pics of "graduation night"

And this next little gem......the girls actually getting along (GASP!).  Amanda was saying "Stop it, Mom!" LOL! But, I had to document this, as they don't always get along so well.  Amanda actually let Sarah borrow her clothes, did Sarah's hair and put some make up on her.  And Sarah let her do it.  It was fun listening to them talking too.  Reminded me of when my sister did those things with me! That's the kind of memories I'm glad my kids will have too!

Pie For All

For this week's stART project we read the book All For Pie and Pie For All by David Martin.  This was a really cute book about a grandma cat that bakes a pie for her family.  When the cat family is done eating the pie, there is one piece left, so a mouse family eats the last piece of pie, leaving behind crumbs for an ant family to enjoy.   When they all wake up from their naps, the grandma cat asks everyone if they would like another pie.  They all say yes, including the mice and ants.  And then they all bake the pie together, which was Nathan's favorite part of the book.

We decided to bake a pie together.  I made a big pie and Nathan made a little pie.  We made apple pie like the grandma cat made.

We also made a blueberry "pretend" pie....Our craft project, since the second pie they all made together was a blueberry one.

We used a small pie tin and placed the lid inside to give the "pie" volume.  Then we cut out the crust using felt.  For the blueberries, we used blue glitter foam board cut into circles.  And then glued criss cross felt on the top of the pie.  It came out really cute!

Linking up with stART at A Mommy's Adventures.  Check it out for more great stories + art.

I found me a new crack store

I call the dollar stores and thrift stores my crack.  I AM addicted to them.  I can not stay away....Seriously....It's sick! LOL!

The other day, Nathan and I went shopping.  We went to Michael's "just to look" - should of known better, let me tell you.  I had to tear myself away from the store, I could do some serious damage in there.  I did buy a few cute little crafts for Nathan and Nicholas (since, he will be joining us for craft time this summer).  While there I saw some spray stuff that Wilton makes, that you spray on cupcakes or cakes.  I've been wanting to try it on some cupcakes, but at $4 something a bottle, I didn't think it was worth it (Did I mention that I'm cheap?).  I couldn't bring myself to buy it.

But, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Once I get an idea in my head, I have to try it or it drives me crazy.  We have a small candy and cake supply store in the area, so I gave them a call.  They not only had the spray, but they sold it for less than Michael's did.  I have never been to that supply store before, but it's been there for years and I've always wanted to check it out.  Oh My.....Was I in absolute HEAVEN!!! Anything you could possibly need to make cupcakes, cookies or cakes they had.  We're talking an entire wall of cookie cutters - I could spend hours starring at them.....And I probably would have if I didn't have Nathan with me.  I have a feeling that the woman who owns the store and I will be on a first name basis very, very soon....hahaha.

She said "Oh somebody must have a birthday coming" looking at Nathan when she said it.  I said nope, it's the last week of school for the kids....any excuse to make cupcakes, is a good excuse as any!!

Mommy & Nathan Day

How did we spent our last full day alone together?

Much like we did the first day (of school)........

We got the mail

We picked some clover

Made some Peanut Butter Playdough

Two Cups Confectioner's Sugar

1/2 Cup Honey

One Cup Peanut Butter

Mix It All Together

And Play (Or Eat It - It Tastes Really Yummy)

Colored with chalk

We Painted

And We Ate Doughnuts

I don't think it could have been more fitting of a "last day"

End Of An Era

This is the very last week of school.  Which means......

-  it's the last week I have of just me and Nathan

- and it's the end of an era. 


For years and years now I've always had at least one baby at home to take care of.  Nathan is my last baby and since he's going to school next year- there will be no more babies for me to take care of at home.  I don't think I really need to say that I've already broken down in tears three times this morning (Ok, four).

I know I will be dreading the fall, when school is back in session.  I won't be one of the moms doing back flips through the parking lot this year.  I will be sitting in my -very empty van- crying.

I asked Nathan what am I going to do now that I don't have any more babies to take care of......he told me I "should buy a baby".... If it were only that simple, huh?


I can see me now 50some years from now.....I'll be a little old lady in the nursing home rocking a babydoll and feeding it my mashed up bananas. 


It's hard when most of your identity is wrapped around being a mom.  Not that I would ever, EVER take any of those blessed years away.  I may yell at my kids and they may think I'm a big meanie when I ground them.  But I love them with my whole being.  Rich has always said there was a method to my madness of having babies every 4 years (I never saw it), Because I would always have another one to care for.  If I could turn back time, I never would of gotten my tubes tied.   I was so sure I didn't want any more kids.  And now I go back and forth almost daily debating why I did it.  I know Rich would have agreed to more kids.  He tells me that.  He pretty much would do ANYthing to make me happy (Yes, I know how blessed I am).   He "jokingly" asked me if I wanted him to get his hunting knife out and cut me open and tie my tubes back together.  Don't think for a minute that I didn't at least entertain the idea, lol.


For weeks now, I've been trying to think of ways to make this day special  - just a mommy and Nathan day.  And my mind has come up blank.  A little party? A huge craft project? Some cupcakes just for us? A library trip?

Maybe subconsciously I didn't want to think of the future, of today, ya know? Because I couldn't think of a single thing or way that I wanted to do to make this day extra special.  Maybe that's just it...maybe we just need an every day, normal kind of day.  Maybe that will be just as special too. 

Ok.....gotta stop.....crying again..........

Where's the tissues?

Like Me....

I jumped on the bandwagon and made a page for my blog on facebook.  So, if you like me then come "like me" on my facebook page.

Just click Here to find me.....

The Cupcake Mommie featured me on her site today.  Aww....I feel So Loved!!! Thank you Cupcake Mommie.  Any lover of cupcakes is a friend of mine!

A Whale of a Time......(a stART project)

I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

We found this book at the library (we love libraries, as proven by how many dues we end up paying lol).  It was a very simple read and had cute pictures.  Nathan loved how the book opened up at the end. 

Where else is there to draw when you are in the ocean?

I taped together all the blue construction paper I could find.  Amanda drew this big beautiful whale and then cut it out for Nathan to draw on.

Nathan had a blast drawing and coloring.

Nathan's "Mess - terpiece"

I'm joining up with A Mommy's Adventures and stART.  Check it out for more great story ideas and great art projects.

Down On The Farm.......

Sorry the pic is blurry! Rich took it on his cell phone and I suspect that Nathan wasn't holding very still at the time either.   Especially since Rich said shortly after he took the picture Nathan dropped the poor thing.  That's a little baby chickie that he's holding in his hands.  Rich took Nathan to our friend Lew's farm for a little while yesterday.  They saw chickens and horses and little baby chickies hatching from their eggs.  Very cool learning experience he had.  He saw Lew's huge garden and told him he must of needed such a big garden cause he's so fat (LOL!)....Lew laughed, no harm done!

Nathan told me that he got to drink orange pop and play with the kittens and dogs too.  But, he didn't get to ride the horseys, he said.  You can tell he had a good time.  And best of all, Daddy brought home some tomato and cucumber plants courtesy of Lew.  Thanks Lew for once again helping my garden grow (for not only providing me with plants, but with horse manure as well).

Stuff Sarah Says....

My Sarah is 12.  She's always been a talker.  I absolutely LOVE that about her.  I take her with me when I go for my walks...she literally talks my ear off the entire time and before we know it we are back home and it hardly seemed as though we even started walking.  She's great.  She's fun.  She's imaginative.  She's a big ball of energy.  She's breaking into that horrible hormonal stage.  I'm not ready for her to grow up yet.  She cracks me up.  She's My Girl Friday.  She still likes hanging out with her dear old mom. 

She is always telling me these off the wall funny things that she does and thinks.  She's something else.  And she always tells it like it is.  She may not intentionally try to hurt your feelings, she's just brutally honest - to.a.fault.   She once broke a tree branch (yes, a little tiny tree branch) and came running inside crying to her daddy about how sorry she was for breaking a tree branch, because she was just doing a normal kid thing by hanging off the branch when it broke.  But she felt just awful about breaking it and thought she would get into trouble.  That's just the kind of girl she is.........I hope and pray she never changes!

I wanted to write down all the funny things she says and share them with you.  I guarantee, she'll have you laughing too.

...........After working on a school project about budgeting money she said ---- I'm just gonna have to marry a husband that's good at money and all that.  Because I don't get interests, and banks and stuff like that.  I'll work and he can do the money stuff.

...........She spent an hour telling me about her "boyfriend" when we were walking one night ---- A is a nice boy, he's not like the other A I went out with (LOL).  And my other old boyfriend C is stupid.  He was doing some jumping thing while we were skating at the school picnic and he kept falling on his knees on purpose and then at our baseball practice he kept complaining about his knees hurting.  What a goofball.....Isn't it weird that I started telling you this story when we were down by so and so's house and now we're almost home and I'm still talking about?!

...........Mom, these boys at baseball practice kept saying stuff about me having boobs and I don't have any boobs yet.  Do I?

...........I wish they let girls play baseball instead of softball at school.  That's just not fair and it's really sexist, right?

...........Hey Mom, I know how to use the washing machine now.  And I promise that I won't just wash my stuff like Amanda does with her's, just don't make it one of my chores though.

My email was hacked!

My apologies if you have been receiving weird emails from me.  My email account was hacked.  I have no idea how to fix it, or how to close the account.  I did sign up for a new account, but I really hate the idea of my email, not to mention my name bouncing around the internet.  Anyone computer savvy that can help me figure out how to delete the old account?

I lost all my contacts, all my saved info about my blog and everything else.  I can't even get in touch with the guy from csn stores about the giveaway.  All I can do is hope he kept the email address of the winner. 

Damn - I'm freakin' pissed!!

I already changed the email on my blogger account and I'll have to finish changing the other account as soon as possible.  This just sucks, because I hurt my back at work.....nothing like kicking a person while they're down, huh?

Let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix this mess....Thanks in advance!