Busy

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! Ours was busy, kind of stressful and everything in between!! The usual 🙂

Well it’s finally time for me to get up the Think Blogger award that Carla forwarded to me. I should have done it sooner but least I’m doing it now! Some people that I would’ve tagged with this have already been tagged. This is the blog that tells all about it and how it works. You are supposed to tag 5 blogs that inspire/make you think.

Karen~Scraps of Mind I didn’t “know” Karen. She found her way to my blog and left some comments so I checked her blog out. She’s really got some great resources on there! She’s a scrapper/crafter and there’s several posts about that as well as tons and tons of other useful information about blogging, music all kinds of stuff! I’ve been meaning to link her here but I’m lazy 😆 Shocking but true 😉 Anyway check out her blog!!

Janna~ Janna’s Life Janna always has really cool links to different fun/useful tidbits 🙂 She is honest and fun to read! Great photos, layouts, and her own designs on there too!!

Becky~Wandering with Webchyck ALWAYS makes me think, this lady 🙂 She is very honest, doesn’t sugarcoat and well….she’s just Becky!! Luv her much 😀 In fact she might have already been tagged with this~I’m woefully behind in my blog reading/commenting.

Jess~A Mile In My Shoes I always read something interesting over here! Jess is moving from England (I believe) back to the US 🙂 It’s neat for me to read how things are in a different country, to me a whole different world!

Petra~Pass The Dutch Petra started this little “blog community” idea. Kind of as a spin off to DST’s daily Blog Train thread. She wanted to get a little group together to check in on each other and read/comment on each other’s blogs, that’s how I found Jess’s blog 🙂 Great idea!! Takes someone with a lot of heart to try and bring more people together in this HUGE digi community!

So there ya have it! Speaking of blogs….I stumbled on this guy’s site and blog over the weekend. He is hilarious! I seriously LOL reading some of his entries!! He runs a news site and his writing style and things he’s done had me spewing my drink on my keyboard!!! You’d really miss out not to take a read!! Mike Davidson. OMG~he’s written a lot about MySpace and I almost pee’d myself when I read THIS post about what happened with his MySpace template and John McCain!!!!!! Then I saw THIS!! Playing with the African E-mail scams!! Seriously!! You really can’t go wrong with Mike’s blog 🙂 Just click on Humor and make sure you don’t take a drink of anything while reading!! 🙂

Back to the weekend. My dad and stepmom came to go to my nephew’s graduation. I knew they would, but they hadn’t called me by Thurs. so I started calling around to try and find out when they were coming. Sigh. They have a very bad habit of either calling the night before they come or just showing up. My house is (correction WAS) a sty so I needed to know just how much time I had to clean. That way I’d know if I had time to REALLY clean or just do the duck/swipe/hide thing. Turns out I had time to do some real cleaning (kitchen, bathroom, living room) and ended up with the duck/swipe/hide technique for the rest 😉

Anyway when I spoke to my dad on the phone we started talking about my brother and my family not getting invited. Sigh. Dad is….well?? Dad. He made the comment that he couldn’t go to his grave not knowing what is wrong between me and my brother. I told him didn’t think there was any danger of that happening quite yet, that I figured he had at least a few years left!! 😆 Course he didn’t find that funny at all and said since he’s so old it could be tomorrow. OH BROTHER…. He begged me not to send the e-mail I had so carefully planned out, said to give him 2 weeks to badger **cough** I mean ask my brother repeatedly (that sounds a little better) what the prob. is. Ok dad. But for good measure and because I can I’m sending the e-mail!! I’m over it but need for Mr. Stuckupedness to know how I feel. In the meantime I found my nephew’s MySpace page. I opened a MySpace of my own and if I can ever, EVER figure out how to customize it the way I want I’m going to contact him through it. Course that might send him into panic mode because after all what 17yr. old wants to have their aunt especially one they don’t know well, find their MySpace?? lol I’ll link him here and maybe he’ll think I’m cool enough who knows?? I do know that I’m tons cooler (really no comparison at all there) than my brother (his father) so maybe it’ll all turn out 😀

Now the QOTC is about finished!! Here is my last page. Unless I make it in to the finals anyway.

You can vote for me by clicking on the page 🙂 As always a huge thanks to anyone that does vote for me!! I’ve only voted 1x. Sigh. Guess I really need to get out the debit card and VOTE this round!! I’d love to win this thing but if I don’t that’s OK too. A moment of disappointment and I’ll be fine 🙂 Guess I sound like so many others when I say that this contest has been a great experience but it HAS really!! I feel like it got me out of the year long funk I’d been in and kind of make to “ME”? If that makes any sense?? lol! Not to mention I’ve got some pages that I really like for the 1st time in quite awhile in my gallery 🙂

Well time to get back to something fun 🙂 Trying to figure out how to customize MySpace! I only have 3 days counting today till the children are home for summer….ACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh if anyone knows how to figure out the coding for MySpace?? Let me know will ya?? Please? lol

BTW~~ Anyone I tagged who uses Blogger.  Sigh.  I tried to go to your pages and leave a comment but this is a bad day for Blogger and me I guess!  It won’t let me leave comments.  AGAIN.  This happens to me a lot.  Just wanted to let you know if you come read this, I’m trying!!  Really trying to comment on your blogs!!  I swear!

I Shouldn’t Feel This Way BUT

I do. Again my feelings have been hurt by my brother. I just found out from a e-mail from my Aunt that my brother’s oldest son is graduating high school this month.

Did we get a invite? NO. Did I get an announcement? NO. Do I ever even hear from my brother or his family even though they only live about 5 miles from me?? no…

I have absolutely no clue why my brother has decided to treat me and my family as if we don’t exist. This has been going on for a long, long time and I guess I shouldn’t let it bother me but it does. It always does…

My brother is 8yrs. older and we’ve never been really close. When I was a kid I really loved him. He usually didn’t give me the time of day though. I remember when I was maybe 8 or 9. He came home with some kid about my age. They spent the day together and I wasn’t included. Turns out he had volunteered to be a “Big Brother” in the Big Brother/Big Sister program and this was his kid. lol! How ironic. He had his own little sister at home that he was happy to ignore.

Here we are when I was 3 I think. hmmm….he’s smiling? I think I’m crying in this photo!

We became close for awhile after my mom died. I went and spent the night a few times with him and his wife. His 1st wife. She was pretty cool most of the time. Bro. and I talked a lot on the phone back then too. I left home and that changed. I had to get rid of our dog, well really his dog, because Dad wouldn’t take care of her and I had to leave at the time. Maybe he never forgave me for that?? I’m not sure. My brother has lots of skeletons in his closet that I know he wouldn’t want let out. Not sure if his kids even know about his 1st marriage not to mention the other stuff. Maybe he’s worried I’ll spill?? I don’t know. I think he’s been upset about me since the day I was born.

We went our separate ways pretty much. Didn’t keep in touch. He was always kind of “stuck up” and that seemed to get worse over the years. Especially after he married his current wife and had kids. He’s too good for any of us. Seems like a whole lot of this “stuck upedness” is directed at me and a few select members of my family. For instance the 1st time he saw my youngest child when Joe was a baby he said,”Oh another red head huh?”. Didn’t hold him. Nothing. My cousin on the other hand was there with her new baby and my brother cooed and drooled all over her. Held the baby. Sigh. Sound like I’m jealous? Well…yes. I’m jealous! My own brother won’t hold my baby but will hold my younger cousin’s baby?? 😦 Bullsh@*!!

I guess I’m just not “proper” enough for him. Guess I don’t live my life exactly as he thinks I should? I don’t really know since he doesn’t know us well enough to know how we live. I’m sure we’re not “wealthy” enough for him. I quit college after my 1st year. He just got yet ANOTHER degree a few years back. He holds Master’s degrees and a RN and I don’t even know what all! He has a very, very prestegious job with a very, very well known international children’s hospital. Sigh. I work for the gov. My dh is a blue collar worker. lol! What’s funny is that I was the “popular/cool” one. My brother was kind of geeky/wussy. LOL!! That must be it!! HA! 😆

All I know is that I’m sick and tired of his holier than thou attitude! I’ve asked him what was up in the past but it was never really the right time or place for it since I only tend to see him at funerals or weddings. He just kind of laughs and sighs it off when I try to ask. Like I’m 10yrs. old. My grandmother was very, very concerned before she died about it. She just didn’t/couldn’t understand it. Neither do I. My dad just tells me to keep trying. Why?? I’ve done my share. I’m finished. Finished after I find out what the heck his problem is.

I’ve got a e-mail all ready to go. Going to fire it off as soon as I get conformation that those invitations went out and that for sure I wasn’t invited! I was hurt when his son became a Eagle Scout and again we weren’t invited, I let it go though. This time I’m shootin’ off that e-mail!! I’d probably fall over dead if he responds to it but at least I’ll get my say! IF he reads it that is. Guess it honestly doesn’t matter because sadly I don’t know either of his kids. My aunt has told me how neat they are…my own kids see pictures of my brother and his kids and have to ask who they are. I swear I’ll bet my Mother is crying in heaven to see this…

Sorry for the rant/ramble today. Had to get that out! Don’t feel any better but at least I got it out. My next post will be the Think Blogger awards 🙂

lol! I just thought of something. IF my brother ever found my blog he’d have an awful red face 😀

Almost there

Whew! Just turned in my 4th week page Sat. night for QOTC. I think I’m done now unless I make it into the finals. What a contest! I’ve made some pages that I really LOVE 🙂 Let me tell ya though, this 4th entry better get like 1 million votes after all I went through to get it finished! lol Before I get off on a rant though here’s my week 3 page. If you like it you can vote for it by clicking the layout 🙂

Like I said it was really hard to get the next page finished! Our week last week was very busy with end of school stuff. DD had a play she was in called the Great Kapock Tree. A really cute little musical play about the rain forest 🙂 DD was a bee! She was adorable if I do say so myself! lol
She’s the shortest one in the photo. I haven’t had time to fix any of the pictures up yet or to really go through them…it was hard to take good ones from where we were sitting. Poor dd. She’s shy and almost started to cry when the play 1st started. She got going though and said her lines, sang her song and danced her dance though with not much enthusiasm! Can’t say as I blame her much! I was the same way up in front of people at her age 🙂

Fri. I went with dd to the Cincinnati Zoo. OMG…I am sooo not the type to chaperone field trips! I get lost in the Mall much less the zoo! I had 1 other little girl besides dd. Thankfully she was good. I dread to hear what she told her parents about the trip though! We “got lost”, sigh. I had wanted to follow around the teacher and we did for a little while. THEN we took a jungle trail, came out and noone from her class was there! They had given us a little map but it wasn’t much good. I found where we were on map but couldn’t seem to find anything else! We ended up walking around in circles. grr…Did manage to see quite a few animals but totally missed the zoo babies. I really wanted to see the baby rhino “Harry” but we couldn’t find him! For some reason time seemed to stand still and I couldn’t seem to remember where to go to get back to the buses. DD kept saying they were going to leave without us, she was truely worried! lol Truthfully so was I! I even called dh from my cell phone and complained! lol This will probably be the last class trip I go on! Just too stressful for me! That was Fri. all day.

Sat. comes. We had promised the kids, dd especially, that we would get a kitten. We had 2 cats that both disappeared and I really felt guilty. We had put them outside which worked out for over a year but 1 by 1 they disappeared and the kids LOVED them. Sigh. So we go to the animal shelter. As soon as we get there and walk in the door dd says she feels sick. I rush her outside and she throws up in their bushes. ugh. I had to go in and get paper towels from them to clean her up. Meanwhile dh already has the other 2 kids back looking at the kittens. Finally dh comes outside to check on us. Of course the other 2 kids are excited about the kittens so we ask dd if she’ll be OK. She says yes and comes in to look at the kittens. They had 2 little calico sisters, 8wks. old that were the most adorable things I’ve ever seen! We end up with both of them! Just what I need I know but they are sooooo cute 😆

As soon as we get home dd starts throwing up again. She spent the whole day vomiting. She must have gotten sick 12x or so. It was terrible. I felt soo sorry for her! She had just finished her antibiotic that very morning for a double ear infection and had just had a stomach virus not a month before and now here it was again! She’s little too. Very tiny at 6 1/2 yrs. old she only weighs about 38lbs. She can’t afford to lose any more. I kept her hydrated the best I could and inbetween tried to work on my 4th week QOTC page. Seems like every single time I do something like this, a contest that runs for a few weeks, something happens! It’s really, really hard for me to commit to these things but I”ll be darned if I was going to give up after doing 3weeks worth already!! So I finally get finished and had it sent by 11:50pm. They’re due at midnight 🙂 Just made it!

DD managed to not vomit any yesterday but she spent the day laying and sleeping. If you know her at all you’d know this isn’t normal. Even with ear infections or strep throat she’s up running around playing and what not. I knew she really felt BAD. Today she’s better but I kept her home from school just in case.

Oh and my good friend Carla surprised me big time!! Check this out!

Now 1st of all I have to apologize to Carla!! Blogger…sigh…for some reason will not let the comment box come up for me today to leave any comments!! It just keeps loading and loading and loading…. with no end in sight! I’m supposed to play this tag and I”m very flattered that Carla especially would think my blog is “thought provoking”! lol I will post again tomorrow or the next day and do my tag the right way! There’s lots of thought provoking blogs I visit so I’ve got to think a min. about it 🙂

So that’s it in a nutshell!! Happy Monday everyone…

1992

It’s our 15th wedding anniversary today! 15 years! lol! Dh says it’s been the best 15 years of my life 🙂 Okie dokie then! lol We’re kind of strange in that neither of us really worries much about our anniversary. I hate to admit it but both of us forgot until this morning. Well actually I remembered last night but forgot again before I could mention it to dh. Guess that’s because we’ve been together for so long.

I met dh when I was 17. My mom had passed away in Sept., I was a senior in high school and had just graduated. One of my best friend’s came out to my place to get me out of the house. She had heard this guy she used to date was back in town and working down the road at a truck stop. My dad didn’t want me to go out with her, he had turned very, well, depressed I guess is the right word for it, after my mom had died and didn’t like me to go out much. I on the other hand used ANY and all excuses to get out of the house! It was super hard on me the way my dad acted. So anyway my girl friend gets me and we take off. We get to the truck stop and there he is sitting in one of those little booths that the truckers paid at. I was impressed! This was my 1st time even seeing him and wow was he cute! Hugely buffed, we’re talking not much neck here, black hair, tan skin and very, very light green/blue eyes fringed by super long black lashes. Sigh… I didn’t talk a lot to him, this was my girlfriend’s deal. She flirted big time too so I just kind of stood there. He kept talking to me though. Asked where I worked and I told him. lol~at the time I worked at Spencer’s in the mall. The home of the black lights and se* toys 😉 We left after my friend got his #. I didn’t give him a 2nd thought.

I had gone out of town to my grandparent’s house with my dad. When I got back my boss at Spencers (a very crotchity old gay guy) started complaining that he wasn’t a dating/message service!! lol! Turns out that quite a few guys that I went out with periodically or had met had all shown up that week at Spencer’s hunting for me. One of them was dh 🙂 He had left his # and asked me to call. I didn’t. He was my friend’s guy even though they weren’t going out or anything. He showed back up while I was there and asked me out. I said yes. Couldn’t help it! Called my friend, told her, and asked what she thought. She said it was OK with her. She’d just met someone else. Sooo we went out! The rest as they say is history! I never dated anyone else again. We moved in together the next year and have lived together ever since. Took us awhile to get married. We were working etc…and just didn’t get around to it. I hid the living together for a long time from my dad. I knew he’d flip. He finally found out and did flip. Actually by then he’d decided he kind of liked dh and told me dh was likely to leave me if I didn’t marry him soon! lol

So we finally get married and our wedding was NOT the way I planned! At all! I wanted small. I only had 1 brides maid. 1 groomsman. Had told my dad not to invite the world only to find out right before that he did invite the world!! We must have had 200 people there! UGH!!!!……….. Our wedding cake was given as a gift to us by my bridesmaid’s mom and it was WAY too small. I still can’t mention it without dh getting upset! Picture if you will a rectangular cake you bake at home with a little square cake with bride and groom on top. The bride and groom statue was too large for the d@@#$d cake!! lol 🙄 After we made it through the no drinking, no dancing, Baptist reception in the church basement we went on our “honeymoon”. That consisted of a stay at a local hotel that we paid for ourselves and then a trip down to McCreary Co. to visit my grandparents (my grandpa had just had by-pass surgery) and Cumberland Falls.

Here’s just 2 pictures that I scanned in. 😆 It’s funny. I think we both look much, much better now than we did then!! Hated my hair and makeup, dh had hair then but was soooo skinny!! We didn’t have any $$ at all back then and he basically almost starved to death! Don’t know why I didn’t though! 😯

I’ve been making these little photo collages using Picasa. lol Saves some time when you’re too lazy to open up Photoshop 😉

Well 15 yrs. of legal marriage, 3 kids and lots of ups and downs later I can honestly say I’m happy 🙂 Happy with my marriage, of course there are things I’d change but really who wouldn’t, and happy with our life! I know dh is pretty satisfied as well….winning the lottery would be the icing on the cake but whatever!! hmmm…15yrs? We’ve been totally and completely together for ummm…21 years now!! WOW. Most of the time I still feel like a 18yr. old, mentally anyway!

As for gifts to each other? Not sure. Can’t afford much. This IS a special anniversary though and dh said I can get the upgrade and go for PS3 sooo…IF there’s enough after mortgage payment, phone bill, electric bill etc…I might just do that! I haven’t got anything for just myself (except my flowers I planted out front) in sooooo long!! After I vote in QOTC anyway! This is sad but I had 2.24$ in my paypal account for last week’s voting! lol It was just enough for 1 vote though! 1 vote could make or break someone for the win sooo don’t forget to vote!! Mamma needs a PS upgrade!

it was a good one

I think I had the best mother’s day I’ve ever had this Sunday!  🙂  The kids have been excited about it all week & plans for it were in the works!  I was told to stay in bed (they didn’t have to say that twice)!  lol  Sure enough I work up early anyway, snuck out to the bathroom & saw dh sitting at the kitchen table & heard Joe talking but the other 2 kids were still in bed so I went right back to bed.  Soon as I fell back asleep good & hard here they came!  lol  They had trays with coffee, a heart shaped Best Mom In the World cake, cards, homemade presents and flowers 😀   I got 2 cards from each kid, 1 they made & a store bought one.  Got a clay statue, magnet with her picture on it and a flower to plant outside from Hannah.  James gave me a flower in a pot he decorated at school, a bunch of coupons he made for me to redeem from him, stuff like take out the trash, clean his room, do the dishes, feed the dog.  He also got me a new body pillow..love sleeping with a body pillow 🙂  Joe got me a new blanket, a UK throw, he also made me a card & his daddy helped him make me a picture, sooo cute!  It was a photo of him in the middle of a paper plate & he decorated it with glitter and drawings around the sides 🙂  Dh didn’t really buy me anything but spent the whole entire day Sat. digging me up a new, huge garden plot in the yard.  Then they all took me out to lunch.  Well really it was a lunch for the kids but that’s OK.  Why go to someplace expensive and nice when you’ve got BurgerKing with the play area??  lol  😆  After lunch I went flower shopping, got all my plants but I’ve still got some veggie plants to pick up for the garden.  All they had where I went were tomatoes and green peppers.  I’ve got to get a few other things then I’ll be set!  Now to just plant everything.  We’re supposed to get some rain Tues. night, I’d like to get everything in the ground before then.

Ok now a post from me anymore wouldn’t be complete without something about QOTC!  lol  I know everyone is probably sick of it by now 🙂  OH WELL!!  lol   😆   I like my week 2 page so of course I’ve got to post it here.

You can see the credits here AND vote .   I really appreciate it!  Thanks soo much to anyone that might have taken the time/$$ to vote for me so far 🙂

My page for the next round is quite different than these last 2 in style.  When I was working on it I had something else for the design in my mind but it warped on me.  That happens to me a lot!  As long as I’m pleased in the end though it’s all good.

Now off to go put in my veggie plants and some sunflower seeds with Joe!  Should be a fun time playing in the dirt 🙂

procrastination

sigh. Story of my life! I really tend to put things off. I’ve got the best intentions but I get sidetracked SOO easy…ugh. I should be doing this, I should be doing that, but here I am blogging. My eyes keep roaming to the clock, I keep saying to myself why didn’t I at least start what I meant to??? lol 🙂 Oh well. After lunch.

So before I get off on yet another topic I’d better ask this now! My pc is acting kind of wonky lately. I know I don’t have a virus, ran Ad-Aware for the nasties and turned out OK so what’s up?? I had PSCS open, I had my homepage open as well as some music going, then I opened up Picasa to try and view my photos. Sigh. I had the trial of ACDSee and had to let it expire. I LOVED it but there weren’t any extra funds to purchase after the trial so…guess I’m back to “windows” viewing or Picasa. Ok. so I had these open and was wondering about a friend of mine, if she was on Hello today, I looked down and my little start menu (which has a little hide/unhide arrow next to it by my clock) is different. The little arrow is gone. It’s got 2 little icons there for my anti-virus software and Dell musicmatch player, which I’m not even using for listening to music with btw…and that’s it! It’s locked. I don’t have the arrow there anymore to get to anything. Strange. I think this PC is starting to have some memory probs. When I bought it 2yrs. ago I had it custom built and only put 1G of memory in it. I was thinking I’d just add more later, I can take it up to 4G. Well of course hind site being 20/20 now I wish I’d have gone for more then while I could! I priced a G of memory and it’s kind of, well ALL the way out of my reach. Grrr……wishful thinking for mother’s day I guess.

That’s not all either. The other day I had a bunch of tabs open in Firefox, closed them out, went to do something, came back opened up Firefox and boom!! There were all my tabs I had open earlier!! I closed out, tried again and there they were! HAUNTED!! I asked at DST to see if anyone knew what was up. Apparently somehow I had set them to open with my homepage. See my homepage had changed it’s self as well from iGoogle to plain Google and wouldn’t stay when I tried to switch it. Sigh. Well that’s a neat feature, to have your fav. tabs open with the homepage BUT I’m finding it a little annoying now. I had switched the tabs to ones I click on often but still…. If people ever wonder about my screen name this is why! I used to have serious computer issues happen a lot hence the name Krash 😀

We’re really enjoying our summer time weather around here!

It’s been downright hot out! I love the nice weather but I’m already dreading the heat and humidity to come.

Went to school yesterday with Joe to eat lunch with oldest ds 🙂 It was fun! It’s been years since I’ve been in a school cafeteria for lunch! WOW are those kids loud!! lol~Joe was sooo cute! He really felt big sitting at the table with his tray and the “big” kids! We got to eat at a special table and James got invite a friend to eat with us. Course he invited his best friend Jacob. Jacob just got detention for 3 days for saying he could just “kill” someone! Now these kids are in the 3rd grade and I’ve known Jacob now since kindergarten. He’s a good kid, he’s got ADHD so he is a little on the wild side but still! I know they have to take this stuff seriously but sometimes I think it goes a little too far… 😦 I think it’s sad that because of all the violence out there we all have to be soo much more careful about what we say and how we say it!

As for violence. I was supposed to go to the zoo on a field trip with dd last week. They cancelled it. The night before someone threw a brick through the window of a school bus on it’s way to the zoo!!! It went through the window and hit a kindergarten girl in the head, they had to take her for stitches. Then this week there have been several attacks on buses, a 9th grader was arrested for one of the attacks. He shot out the bus window with a bb gun. GEEZE!!! Thankfully we don’t live where all this was happening. It’s over the river in Cinci. but honestly I don’t feel safe at all taking the kids over there. That’s sad too. The zoo is over there, the museum, several cultural places to visit. I just don’t feel like taking the chance. They did re-schedule the zoo trip and I’m still going to chaperone but I will sit next to the bus window. I’m honestly hoping it rains.

Also before I forget I was pointed to a great music site by Karen 🙂 Duggup. There’s quite the mix there~lots of not so mainstream tunes! Love it! Everyone should check them out! Today while I’m trying, right here at the last min. to get my 3rd week page done for QOTC I’m going to be listening to a good assortment of tunes 🙂

Don’t know if I’ll blog again before Sun. so just in case I want to wish all mommy’s out there HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!! Hope everyone gets breakfast in bed 😀

sweet Dreams are made of These…

Yes. It’s sad but I’m old enough to remember and LOVE this song from the Eurythmics 😀 Yes I’ve been listening to an eclectic mix of music again while I scrap so my 2nd week entry for the Queen of the Crop was done while listening to this song. Least it kind of fits with the theme of dreams/secret desires. Now this 2nd week entry is definitely my new favorite!!

Got both kids home from school both today and tomorrow. They are off for teacher professional days. Good thing we’re having nice weather, I’ll throw them outside after lunch, I’ve got lots and lots of weeding, prepping to do anyway. I put out my flowers and veggies on Mother’s Day weekend every year so I have to get crackin’!

Well we didn’t bet on the derby, the traffic was unreal up near the track. I did manage to see the ending of the race anyway!

Ok. I feel like I’ve constantly been begging for money here. 1st for myself/my charity by voting for me in the Queen contest and now I’m going to ask you to dig a little bit again.

If you haven’t already heard Deb F. a member of our digi community and designer at Pickleberrypop lost her husband in a tragic farming accident. This has really, really been weighing on my heart. They have 7 children!! SEVEN!!

I can’t imagine what she must be going through, having had to tell them about their daddy, support and comfort them while grieving herself, and now to face being a single mother to 7. It’s horrible. Soooo.. I’m asking that eveyone that reads this consider going on over to her store and purchasing a kit, a element, a template….something. Any little bit would help I’m sure. Don’t forget to change the currency view, it’s in the sidebar set on Australian $$. I almost made that mistake myself! 🙂

So yep I’m asking for everyone to just dig in a little, 2$ towards a vote for me but more importantly for Deb F. She’ll need all the support she can get going forward.

the Queen in Kentucky!!

Yes it’s derby day 🙂 We are long time horse lovers in this house & really I can’t believe it but I’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby! dh has had a few races at Churchill Downs and says it’s a beautiful track 🙂

It’s a little known fact that my dh worked for the track. He was a “hot-walker” back in our young days. Wasn’t much money but it padded everything a little, not to mention we got the “inside” scoop from the trainers. We live right down the road from Turfway Park Race track, that’s mainly where he worked. I used to like to go with him at feeding time, I’ve always loved horses! Grew up with them and took riding lessons for years when I was a kid 🙂 lol! Believe me track/racing life is a hard life! VERY hard, 7 day a week work! dh worked 7 days a week taking care of his horses, 4am, back in the afternoon, back for every race…whew! Exhausting stuff. Least we didn’t have to live in a tack room like some of the hot walks did!

So today Queen Elizabeth is in Kentucky to watch the derby.

I’ve heard this is her 1st visit to the states in years. Hope it doesn’t rain on them today! Saw some video of the Queen last night~she’s spry for her age & pretty too!

Guess we’ll be watching the race, hmmm….ya know. I should’ve had dh go up to Turfway and place a bet with the simulcast! The more I think about it…guess where he’s goin’ here in a few!!

BTW! It’s finally time for the voting in the Queen of the Crop contest! The entries are ALL amazing! I haven’t voted yet but I plan too!

In the meantime here is my 1st week entry 🙂

LOL! I had a lot of fun with this page! Please take a min. to vote here! Don’t forget you get a HUGE grab bag for your 2$! Someone over at DST said it’s about 154mb! That’s big for 2$!! The most important thing is you can help me get closer to giving back 🙂 I really feel that this is a huge chance for me to try and pay it forward. My charity is the Christian Appalachian project. You can read more about it in this blog post and why it’s so close to my heart.

I found a GORGEOUS slide show of photos from a person that went on a help mission with the Christian Appalachian project!! Not only are there photos of a project but you can read his commentary! You’ve GOT to take just a moment and take a look. I’ve got tears. It reminds me of the beauty & of my granny’s place. She’s gone now, her place has been sold but we go every year…have to visit my dad 🙂 You know? When I look at this yeah, I see the poverty. But I also hear the sounds of the trains, the birds in the woods, the stillness. I see the beauty. I see myself. Corney? Maybe but true. Ever since I was a very little girl I’ve wanted to be there, in the mountains. I feel like my soul is there…
Christian Appalachian Project Spring 2006

It only takes a few mins. to view this guy’s album, please take a look. I think it might touch a few hearts 🙂

Blech…YUCK!!

It’s going to be a looonnnggg day. Hannah was up all night throwing up. Now Joe has the dreaded “d” & it’s a race to the 1 functioning bathroom we have! UGH….So strange how fast kids get sick! Yesterday afternoon was spent out in the yard, the kids playing on the swing set while dh tried to take down the old one.

lol 🙂 He did get the new one anchored btw…ToysRUs never got in the anchors they said they’d get, of course, so dh did some rigging and now yes we do have dog chains holding down the swing set. Sigh. Oh well at least it works, I guess.

Poor dd. We’ve got a field trip to the Cincinnati Zoo on Friday, she’s worried about being sick & about rain. They keep saying it’s going to rain but so far all we’re getting is gray sky. It’ll probably downpour on Friday! The Zoo has a new baby rhino just born 🙂 He’s not out yet for the public though.

Speaking of animals, when I was playing around with my camera yesterday I got some pictures of the little birds I watch everyday. They’re so pretty! There’s also a couple of baby Robins living right by the front door under my dogwood tree 🙂 One flew into the family room window yesterday, he was stunned for a few mins. but ended up OK.

That female Cardinal there is MEAN! lol She usually chases away all the little guys to make room for her hubby 🙂 I love watching those silly birds! They’re starting to get used to us too, they only take off if we get right underneath them now.

American Idol was just GREAT last night I thought! Bon Jovi wow has he aged well…swoon… Gotta say that Blake was absolutely the best IMHO. His rendition of that song was just perfect! What a way to resurrect a 20yr. old song!! :p I have NO clue who I think will be going home tonight! They all did pretty good.

Gotta make a phone call too..Hannah is really wanting to play soccer. I got some info from her school on a few local programs & now all 3 kids want to play. That’s GREAT! Especially for my 2 oldest. They are both so shy. I really think this would help both Hannah & James. It’ll help Joe too, he’s not been around a lot of kids his own age & really needs to learn how to play with another little guy. Big problem is the cost. We might not be able to do it for all 3 kids. I looked up the info online & it’s 95$ per child. For me that’s 300$!!! For soccer!!! I don’t know what to do. We have till the 6th to decide & I’m going to call to see if there’s any way they would give us a multi-kid discount. I hope so. I don’t want to disappoint someone or all of them. It’s so hard when you just can’t do it all for them.

Got to go work on my 2nd page in the Queen contest too. I haven’t started it yet of course. Story of my process, wait till almost the last min.! This is a hard one for me for some reason. Wishes/desires hmmm…some of them I couldn’t make into a page! lol 😉 I have to say that getting a preview of the pages entered was just great! They were all soooo darned GOOD! There were some really touching pages on there too. It’s going to be a very hard vote for sure.