Keep on Keepin' On

I am a "mantra" girl. I have things in my head that are on a constant rotation to keep me focused and get me through life's not-so-fabulous moments. One that I shared with friends this weekend is "it washes off" I say this over and over in my brain when someone pukes,poops, when I have to dump a lost sippy cup filled with sour milk. Another one I us a ton is"first things first" this one is for keeping organized when I am overwhelmed, which is more often than I expect.

But what I really wanted to share is this quote.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude,to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past,than education,than money,than circumstances,than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. Its more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that LIFE is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."
-Charles Swindoll

I have no idea who Charles Swindoll is. But I can tell you how much of my life has become better because of the basic message of this. Things are only as bad a you DECIDE them to be. It is an embellishment on the glass is half empty/full. This kind of thinking has given me more power over my life. I decide how bad something is and how long I am going to choose to suffer over it.

Whew...its been quite a weekend. I'll post Chicago Pics tomorrow:)

GrosgrainStore.com Grand Opening & Giftcard Giveaway!!!!!!!!

I really need to get one of her skirts for Teagen. She would be adorable! The new store's website is www.grosgrainstore.com
another new favorite:)
GrosgrainStore.com Grand Opening & Giftcard Giveaway!!!!!!!!

Friday

So today....

Grady dumped 1/4Cup of salt into his cereal bowl
The dogs got into a garbage bag I had set in the garage
"someone" dropped their yogurt on the floor, who it was remains a mystery
Teagen has had a bathroom"incident"
I brushed toothpaste out of Summer's hair(the smell of kids toothpaste makes me ill)
Grady is on his 2nd outfit
Teagen needs to change again
I found a football in the microwave
my oatmeal EXPLODED in that same microwave
I have about 6 ounces of flat diet pepsi to keep me sane

its not even 10am.

BUT-
Bob and Joan are taking the kids overnight! I get to hang out with my hubby again! I am leaving for CHICAGO with some extremly wonderful girls for the day on Saturday! I even have a little spending $! And I found shoes that look cute and wont hurt my feet when walking for an entire day!

Life is so good:)

Oh, no broccoli for me please...

This is much cuter than the stickers they gave me. But I took one of those anyway for my art journal.

I was really concerned that I would have to wait in line forever, but Jason went right after work and called me to say be ready, there is no one here! So off I went. We vote at the McGraft Park so needless to say on this beautiful day I dodged more than a few Frisbees(there is a really nice Frisbee golf park there). Those people were every where. I nearly ran one over with my jeep(a frisbee not a player)!

Anyway, I cast my vote for the lesser of 2 evils. I hope you all did too;)

Funny story-

I took the girls to pick up pizza(all that voting really took it out of me)and we were talking about the candidates and that I believed that neither one would harm or really help us much, blah,blah,blah. And when we got out of the car, Teagen asked,"Mama, who's Broccoli Obama?" Ha!

method playground challenge

Sorry for the bad pic...but its late and there is no good light for this kinda thing...

Totally out of my comfort zone here...LOTS of stuff, tons of layering. I even used some riped raw canvas I painted a bit back and some garbage!(cardboard and a pice of paper that had embelishments on it)

All thanks to an awesome challenge on www.methodplayground.blogspot.com.

Check them out!

Trick-or-Treat 08

Whew, I'm tired all over again just looking through my pictures! But it was a good night. Amazing weather! Thanks Holly for letting us come over and "use"your neighborhood. It was perfect for little ones not up to the major walking. We went with the Burn's Fam and it only took an hour! Left us plenty of time to visit the grandparents here in town.

And some shots of the costumes.

Summer wore this one for 2 years and now Teagen loves it too! I'm glad because its a fav of mine.

I couldn't resist posting this rear end pic. best part of Grady's costume.

The crew...Teagen,Grady,Reid, Kennedy and Summer Jaye

The only time I saw Reid in his mask! He just was not into it. But this is just too funny!

My favorite Grady pic...

More bat-boy...

Hippy Chick...

Its all about the peace, people.






Sweet Woodland Fairy...

Hope everyone had a good time, I am still exhausted! Good thing we get an extra hour of sleep tonight(yeah right, not like kids follow daylight savings rules!)

Summer is a little under the weather(temp 102) so I will be up taking care of her I am sure...hoping it does not make its rounds...but we will be missing the birthday party at my bro-in-laws tomorrow, so we are kinda bummed. Just don't need to spreading the wealth of a virus to all those kids, that's for sure!

Boo!

Here are the eyeball cookies I made for Summer's class. Very easy, just sugar cookies(I cheated and used the Pillsbury ready to bake dough) vanilla frosting, green gummy lifesavers, choc chips for the pupils and red decor gel for the veins(lovely). FYI-I made 40 cookies and required 2 bags of lifesavers and 3 red gels. It also took 3 packages of cookie dough because while I was baking (during dinner) Jason helped himself to a handful. Apparently he thought I was just being nice and baked him cookies.
He made a trip to the store.

So as I am typing, Grady just approached me with a strange red smear on his face. That little bugger used a stool and helped himself to a cookie! Good thing there are 10 extra, just for circumstances like these:) Teagen wants nothing to do with them. She thinks they look gross.

And I leave with a pic of our "Bubba-Dog", Griffin. The night we did pumpkins, he and our other (smaller) dog, Chase, got into it when she tried to take a snack away from him. For one of the 1st times in 9 years, he let her have IT. Totally not his nature at all, ever. He is a gentle giant and just the sweetest. I seriously watched one of Rachael's kids step on his front legs a few weeks ago and he never even budged. he is so good. But Chase has been pushing her luck all over the place and he had had it.We were actually worried that he hurt Chase, but she's got that terrier in her and is tough as nails. Griffin on the other hand is still hurting 3 days later. I think he pulled something in his neck when he lunged at her. He paces, and follows me everywhere. He cant lift his head too high and isn't sleeping well either. He is getting aspirin twice a day and is perking up a bit.

He finally found a cozy spot yesterday on Teagen's bed. I wasn't about to kick him out.

Get better soon, buddy!