Late Wordless Wed.

A simple card I made for a friend for Valentine's Day. I do not have the name of the stamp set, but it is a Stampin' Up set.

Hope everyone has a sweet and Happy Valentine's Day!

Tammy

Wordless Wed.

Ciah Impressing Her Brother

After receiving 5.5" of snow my 12 year old went across the street and borrowed his cousin's sled. Up until the point of this video, he had been going down the hill with Ciah. It was so sweet seeing him excited when Ciah braved up and went solo:).

A card for another My Pink Stamper challenge. This is a retired Stampin' Up stamp set. Since my sister likes cats it is the perfect card for her:).

Tammy

My Pink Stamper Challenge Card

A card I submitted for the My Pink Stamper Challenge. The challenge was to use black as one of your colors.

Tammy

Yee Haw

A card made with Stampin' Up paper and ink. I used the Just Jeans background stamp and the stamp set Yee Haw. It was colored with Prisma Colored Pencils.

CASed Snowman

I seen this snowman on a blog (sorry I do not remember which one) and had to have the digital image. Bought the image and made the cute snowman. Thinking of using it as a thank you card:).

Tammy

In Heaven..................

Tea heaven that is..........lol. About 3 weeks ago I ran out of the tea I had brought back from India. Yes, it has been 14 months since I have been back from India and I just ran out of the tea. I had one huge suitcase packed full of the stuff. Yes, I know, I am addicted. Sorry Lipton, you just do not cut it anymore. You haven't since I set foot in India 7 years ago and had my first taste of there. Anyway, I came home yesterday and there was a box sitting in the kitchen waiting on me. Inside.................... my tea from India! Needless to say, I have been savoring every sip I take:)

Tammy

Birthday Boy...........

My oldest baby is 12 years old...........sniff, sniff. How did this happen. It was 11.5 years ago I was standing in a New York airport waiting on the escort to walk down the hall with him, after coming through customs. Now we are celebrating his 12th birthday while he tries to act cool. But Mom still sees a hint of the little guy sitting in the stroller taking in the airport activity. Happy Birthday Seth, I hope it was a good one.............

Tammy

Chef Kami

My hubby snapped this picture of our 3 year old Christmas Eve. She was pleased as punch when she got her turn at putting the hat and apron on....lol.

Tammy

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

Tammy

Favorite Christmas Card........

This is my favorite Christmas card I made this year. Home for Christmas is the stamp set used. It is a Stampin' Up set.

Tammy

My Oldest Is Growing Up..............

I can't believe it......... My oldest will be 12 next month....sniff, sniff. It really hit me last night when I dropped him off for his first dance. The Snowball Dance. Then this morning he informed me of all the girls he slow danced with. My baby slow danced with girls..........sigh. Hope they realize how lucky they were to have danced with him!!

Tammy

A Simple Card...............

I made this card for my niece. Simple to highlight all the coloring I had to do:).

Tammy

Have To Brag On My Hubby..............

I am so proud of my husband! He decided about a year ago that a great way to honor the memory of our friend, Emily, was to build a Habitat For Humanity house in her memory. On Tues. the house was dedicated. Here is a link to a small statement on a website that Emily's friend wrote........... http://www.lexingtonprosecutor.com/?p=2335

Tammy

Happy Thanksgiving.......

We are getting ready to head off to my parents for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!!

Tammy

The Dreaded Phone Call.........

It is the phone call every mother dreads............ Mrs. M. you need to come pick up Ciah, she has had a little accident on the play ground. She needs to be taken to the emergency room!! Uh, we go from "little accident" to being told the "emergency room"? No big deal, I inform them I will be right there to pick her up. So I'm driving to the preschool to pick her up thinking they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. When I arrive the preschool director is outside waiting on me, which I thought was odd. She scurried over and gave me a report on how Ciah was doing and what they had done to stablize the arm. I walk in and there she sits, on her teacher's lap. They had taken a disposable rubbermaid lid (the blue see through kind) and had a gallon ziplock bag of ice on top of the lid. They then had a layer of paper towel ontop of the ice, then Ciah's arm on top of the paper towel. They had then taken gauze and wrapped it around the whole get-up. When I walked up to her, I tried to look in to see her arm, but all I could see was her finger tips. I asked her to move her fingers and she did with no problem. So I'm still thinking they are blowing this all out of proportion, that she just sprain it and they were covering their butts and being careful.

So I load her up in the truck thinking about what I'm going to do. On a fluke, I called the doctor's office. I figured I might as well pay the office co-pay opposed to an emergency room co-pay, since it was probably just a sprain. As luck would have it, they had an opening at 1 pm and it was just after noon when I called. In my mind I was timing the drive and hoped that arriving early would allow us to get an x-ray and be seen and that way I could get back in time to pick the boys up from school. We arrive 30 minutes before our appointment time and sure enough, the doctor is eating lunch in her office and they got the verbal orders for us to go ahead and go downstairs for an x-ray. We go back into the x-ray room and they proceed to say we needed to remove her arm from the ice to take the x-ray. So we gently slipped her arm out to find a nice odd angle about 2 inches above her wrist. So I knew from looking at it that is WAS broken, it was just a matter of how bad. Would it require surgery or would they be able to just adjust it and put a cast on it.

I love modern technology, as by the time I got her back up to the doctor's office, they already had the x-ray results upstairs and they were in the process of calling the orthopedist. So the only problem I had now was what to do with our 3 year old. There was no way she would sit still while they were setting Ciah's arm. Thankfully their dad's office is across the street from their peds office. So I was able to drop the 3 year old off with the secretary and John left his job site to go pick her up. One of the nice perks of being part owner is when it is an emergency like this, he was able to also pick up the boys from school.

Once we got to the ortho. office, they decided they would need to set her arm at the same day surgery center down the road. We had to wait until 4 pm for them to set it, as they wanted to "knock her out" and she had a cupcake around 10 am that morning. So by the time we got to the same day surgery center and they got her checked in, clothes changed and arm marked, it was almost 4 pm. They gave her some medication to make her loopy, and when they went to take her back she was a brave little girl and did not even wimper. She just held onto the mask they were going to use and off she went.

Within an hour, I was back with her in the recovery room. Since they knew I was a nurse, they let me go back and sit with her before she woke up. Which was nice as it kept her from crying, which is very normal for kids to do when they come to. The funnniest part was when she noticed her nice green full-arm cast and the look she gave it.

We finally pulled into the driveway at 6 pm that night. Needless to say, we had an early night as there is nothing harder than waiting to get back to your child. Part just to be able to hold them and assure yourself they are alright. The other part is to be able to assure them that you have not disappeared. Are we upset that she broke her arm? No. These things happen. She could have broke it here at home the same as she did at school. It was just one of those fluke things that can happen and did. Although, I would have bet any amount of money it would have been my 8 year old who would have broken a bone. I have always said, it is not a matter of "IF" he breaks a bone, but a matter of "WHEN", as he is so active. I never guessed my 4 year old, quite, little girl would be the first of my children to do so. I just hope she doesn't start a string of events......lol.

Tammy

For Halloween.........

I called this one Distressed Eye of Newt........lol.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo.............

Another card with my new favorite Stampin' Up set, Rustic Rooster.

Something A Little Different...........

I liked the design of this stencil and tried to chalk it. Added a few brads and this is what it ended up looking like. I doubt I will be using the whole design again, as I think it is too big..............

Tammy

Whine, Whine, Whine

Who forgot to tell me that when girls turned 4 the whining started? One minute a certain 4 year old is acting so grown up and the next minute she will whine about everything. I think when the teen years hit I am moving out..........lol.

Tammy M.

A Cluck, Cluck Here.......

Sorry for the bad picture, but it was the only place in the house light enough to get a good picture of the color. I got this new set, Rustic Rooster by Stampin' Up, and wanted to share a simple card I made. I may have to try one with more color, as I am loving this set..........

Tammy M

Christmas Mouse

I came across this digital image and had to purchase it and color it in. Not too thrilled with how the overall card turned out, but had fun with my Prisma colored pencils:).

Tammy

Just When You Think You Have Heard It All......

John was reading the paper tonight when he called me in to read this to me..........

Ala. teen found riding in box on van, mom charged.

Albertville, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child after police say she let her daughter ride in a cardboard box on top of their van.

Alberville Police spokesman Sgt. Jamie Smith said the 37-year-old woman was arrested Sunday after police received a call about a minivan on a state highway with a child riding on top.

Smith said the woman told police the box was too big to go inside the van, and that her daughter was inside the box to hold it down.

Smith said the mother told officers it was safe because she had the box secured to the van with a clothes hanger.

The 13-year-old daughter wasn't harmed and was turned over to a relative. A jail worker said the mother was out on bond Monday.

Needless to say, my jaw dropped when he started reading the article to me, but I had to pick it up off the floor when I read, "secured with a clothes hanger". I was expecting him to say bungie cords, but a CLOTHES HANGER?!?!?!

Cute Painting Set

This is a cute set by Hannah Stamps. As soon as I seen the set, I knew I had to have it. In real life it does not look like she is painting on the hanging picture. I probably should have moved the wall hanging over more. Oh well, next time:).......

Tammy M

Happy Birthday!!!

Today our little one turns 3!! It has been an amazing 10 months and 14 days since we walked off the airplane in Lexington. To watch her grow and "blossom" (as my MIL put it) has been an experience John and I will never forget. In the short time she has been home, we have seen her personality come to light, to match that little glint that has always been in her eyes. She has amazed us with learning the English language at a pace we never expected. She can now put together 5 and 6 words. There are very few times she cannot express, in English, what she is trying to tell us. Considering English is one of the most difficult languages to learn, I find it amazing she has discovered the "slang" and puts it to use. For example, "oh man", "get back here", etc.

Needless to say, we are head over heels in love with this little girl. We have watched her siblings love and accept her the moment they set eyes on her. There is something about watching your "cool" 11.5 year old tell a 2 year old that he loves her and openly gives her hugs and kisses on the cheek. Then again, to see the same 11.5 year old tell his 2 and 3 year old sisters to come outside and play baseball with him just melts my heart. How did I get so lucky to be the mom to 3 angels and 4 great kids?

Tammy

Just A Swing'n..............

This is the perfect card for this week!! The other night I was talking to John when our 4 year old wanted her cup filled up. I walked over to the fridge to fill her cup up with water when I seen a shadow move by my foot. I automatically jumped back midstride and looked down to see what I had missed. There scampering across the floor was a MOUSE!!!!! It was slipping and scampering across the floor and headed to my stove. It was moving so fast it had to do a nose dive to keep from running head first into the stove. So it flattened itself and slid under the stove. All the while I was doing some scampering myself..........right behind John.

I HATE mice. Did I mention HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE them? I think it stems from growing up in an old farm house. We always had mice and they always seemed to not mind coming out whenever they liked, no matter how much noise was going on. So I was always jumping on chairs or table tops to get away from them. It just became a habit when I seen or heard one to jump and make my "I see/hear a mouse" noise. Anyway, I was making that noise and John went into his "calm down"mode and donned on his "let's fix this" face.

Where are the mouse traps? Ut oh............ It's 10:45 at night and we have no traps. Time to act sweet and beg for hubby to be my hero and make a run to the store......lol. I guess he knew he might as well go to the store or he would not get any sleep. Any noise that sounds like a mouse will wake me from a dead sleep. So while he went on his trap run, I got the cat in the house. I figured the mouse would smell the cat and cower under the stove until John got back.

When John came home, he set 4 traps, then we turned off the lights and TV. Off to the bedroom we went and sat on the bed to listen for the "click". It wasn't 4 minutes and we heard it. Of course, John was just smirking and said he was going to go see what bait it went for. Apparently he had put peanut butter on some and roast beef on the others. He figured it had went for the peanut butter. We were very surprised when it turned up in the roast beef trap. I did not know mice went for that type of food........ So needless to say, I was able to get some sleep that night.

I know some people will say a mouse trap is not the humane way to dispose of mice. I'm sorry, but I HATE them, always have and always will. I admire people who can catch and release a mouse. But my theory is, if you catch them and release them, they will head right back in!! John said the one we caught was a female and I have a feeling it was trying to come in and make a nest......ick.

Anyway, the traps are still set and I have my 2 ultrasonic boxes plugged in with 3 more on the way to me. I have read reports that the boxes do not work, but we have lived here almost 12 years and have only had 3 mice in the house. Each time one has gotten in the house, I have had the boxes unplugged. So I am a firm believer in them. I just need to remember to go back and plug them in whenever I remove them to use the outlet..........

Tammy

Back To School Card

I was in a "crafty mood" but was short on time (more like NO time), so I quickly threw this card together. I had my daughter give it to a teacher, who was heading back to school, she had helped keep an eye on her at the ball park. I like the set from Stampin' Up, but have not been able to sit down and put it to good use.......

Tammy

My All-Star

I thought I would share a picture of the reason for my absence. We have had a summer full of baseball games. Then much to my son's delight, he was chosen to play on the All-Star team. Of course, we were are so proud of him, as the players have to be nominated and voted onto the team. His dedication to practice his swing, catching and pitching have been paying off. Of course, his mom hitting him all those ground balls did NOT have anything to do with his short-stop skills............lol.

Wild Month

It has been a wild month here.... Can you believe we were ROBBED?!?!?! The guy got away with over $1000.00 worth of stuff. I had ran down to rent out a storage unit to a couple of guys. While I was down there, I drove along and wrote down the unit numbers and sizes to put into a computer program I had bought. When I pulled into my driveway, there was a guy putting John's weed eater into the back of his truck. I just happened to be talking to John on my cell phone, so I asked him if he had sent anyone from a job site to pick up the weed eater. The guy acted like he was suppose to be in my driveway picking up the weed eater. He just looked at me straight in the face, put the weed eater in the back of his pick-up truck, turned and casually opened his truck door, got in and put the truck in reverse. By this time, John had told me to hang up and call the "cops". When John had said he did not send anyone over, I had put my truck back in drive and moved back into my driveway closing in on the guy, to pin him in between my deck and my truck. But there was enough room between the front of his truck and the deck for him to squeeze through. When I seen he was going to go through my yard, I was going to follow him, but decided against it. The area he was heading, there was a good chance he would get stuck :). So I slammed my truck in reverse and flew out of the driveway backwards. I met him at the edge of my yard as he was hitting the road. I double checked the license plate number and he got a head start out of the subdivision as I was writing the number down and dialing 911. Then I was off on his tail seeing where the little weasel was heading. Our subdivision is off a highway and there is always traffic, so I just knew he would have to wait at the stop sign. Wrrroooonnnngggg................... I was the one who had to wait on traffic........grrrr. Needless to say, he got away:(.

When I was after the guy, I thought he had just taken stuff out of the garage, but after getting back to the house, I discovered he had been in the house. That is where he hit the jackpot. If I had not been going through magazines, tearing them apart, getting coupons, etc. he probably would have gotten my laptop. I had just happened to have placed some of the pages I was going to throw away on top of my laptop and that kept it from plain sight. Thankfully I returned home before he could get to the master bedroom where my engagement ring and gold bracelet were. People ask me if I feel violated that someone was in my house and the answer is "no". I'm use to people being in and out of my house. I'm just irritated I wasn't able to pin the little weasel in so I could get our belongings and his little butt be put in jail.

When the state trooper arrived, he said that the license plate was expired. It was not even registered to the vehicle it was on. They had tried other letter/number combinations and those resulted in tags appearing in towns all over the state, nowhere near hear. So they are certain (as am I) that the number I gave them was correct. He told me to keep an eye out and if I ever seen him around, to call 911, since I can identify him. Needless to say, every older, black Ford Ranger I see, I check out the driver to see if it is "the weasel"!! To date, I have not seen him yet.........

The next day, a F-3 tornado touched down 2 miles from our house. Thankfully all we experienced was heavy rain and some wind. We did not receive any damage. But some of the "landmarks" I am use to seeing are gone. There was an old concrete gas station that someone had turned into a car repair shop that was totally destroyed. Fox News mainly focused on the subdivision that was hit. This subdivision has homes on larger lots and the majority of the homes have some damage. I did not hear how wide the tornado was, but given the size of the subdivision it hit and the number of homes damaged, it must have been pretty wide:(. Thankfully we were spared, as here at home there were no warnings. Seth was upstairs and the rest of the kids were in the kitchen with me. Who knows what would have happened to us if it had hit..................

Enter To Win

My favorite author is having a give away on her blog. You can win a copy of her latest release, which I mention in a previous entry. The book is titled "Love Finds You At Last Chance California". The instructions on how to enter can be found at her blog:

http://miraleesdesk.blogspot.com/

Tammy

Strep Throat X 3

Yip, count them, not 1 or 2, but 3 kids with strep throat!! I keep waiting on the 4th (oldest) to come up and start complaining his throat hurts with a nice high temp. Not that it makes me feel any better, but apparently it has been going around the school and Zackery must have brought it home to "share". Now as long as they do NOT share it with me:).

Interesting Day......

This morning around 1 am, my 3 year old woke up wanting something to drink. So being the (hack, hack) awesome mom that I am (hahaha) I crawled out of bed to get her one. Walked into the kitchen to a floor full of water. Looked over to the counter and there was my Beta fish vase tipped on the side. You know there is a mess when a night-light shows this. So I flip on the light and there is my Beta laying on the floor. So I grabbed some towels and clear a path (hey, don't want to get my socks wet....lol) to the fish vase and flip it up. There is a little under 1/2 the water left in the vase....yeah. I don't have to stand and fill it up if he is still alive. So I go over and reach down to grab the Beta. It does a little jig so I know it is still alive. I grab it and go to pick it up and part of it's tail fin is stuck to the floor.....ack. Another little flip and it is loose and back in the vase.

What happened? Well......... a certain cat is in BIG trouble!! From what I can gather, he jumped upon the counter and decided to check out the Beta vase. In the process he tipped it over. He must have known he was in trouble, as he did not EAT the fish. How long did the fish lay there? I do not know. The only thing that saved him was a small amount of water under him. Talk about luck....lol. So needless to say, he isn't exerting much effort today to swim around and is just taking it easy. I expected to walk into the kitchen at any point during the day and find he had croaked. And to think, the only reason the cat was in the house was due to the cold weather. He is so old, I have been taking pity on him and letting him sleep in the house at night.

To add to the day, the girls went upstairs, a few hours ago, thinking my oldest son was up there. When they discovered he was not to be found, they decided to play on the bunk beds. The only problem is, our oldest had pulled the mattress off the top bunk (again) and took it into the rec room to sleep. The 3 year old decided to show the 2 year old how to climb up to the top bunk. All this was going on while I was helping the 7 year old with his homework. Next thing I know, the 3 year old is yelling for us to come and "help". So the 11 and 7 year old hit the steps first. No problem, they can get their little sister out of their "stuff", right? Nope, the 11 year old is yelling for Dad to come. Up the steps go my hubby. A few seconds later he is yelling for me to go up.......sigh. So up the steps I go thinking, "what could possibly be going on that a grown man cannot handle"....lol. I get to the top of the steps, walk into the bed room and there is the 2 year old. She has slipped down between the metal bars that hold the mattress!! The only thing that is on the "top" of the bars are her arms and head. My hubby was trying to get her to lower her arms and tell her to turn her head sideways to slip between the bars. For starters, her English comprehension is not far enough along to know what "turn your head" and "lower your arms" mean. All the poor girl knows is she can't go up or down....lol.

I walk over to the bed trying to figure out WHY he thinks her head will fit down between the bars. Between trying to give her instructions, he is asking the 3 year old "HOW she got UP between the bars". Taking pitty on her, I proceeded to tell my hubby that her head will NOT fit down between the bars. His reply? "Then how did she get it UP there?". HELLO!!!! She fell DOWN between the bars". His reply? "Then she will have to come up to get out" DUH!!! So I got on the bottom bunk, held her butt while we pushed her arms up through the bars. He was able to grab her arms and pull her up and out. Needless to say, she needed some TLC:).

I think I am going to round the girls up early and put them to bed. I figured after that bit of excitement, the best place to keep them out of trouble is in their beds sleeping.....lol. Thankfully they haven't had any episodes of sleep-walking.........yet........lol.

Ice, Snow & Wind

Wow, what a difference a few weeks make!! We were without full power for 4 days!!!!! We had to spend the first night without heat..........brrrrr. It was so cold our little one brought me her coat to put on her. I told my sister that you know it is cold when a 2 year old, from India, brings you her coat....lol. But my awesome hubby brought a company generator home and we were able to have heat and run a few lights. My BIL and his family had to bunk out here one night, as they had lost their power, but had it back within 24 hours.

No sooner did the ice melt, then we got a few inches of snow!! We rarely get snow that sticks around long. The kids loved it and so did mom:).

This past week we had strong winds along with a tornado warning. The boy's school let out, but the county schools held the kids until the warning expired. It was a fast moving storm and we were lucky we did not have damage to our house or property.

This picture was taken out my deck door. It shows the damage to my neighbor's trees in his back yard. Thankfully we do not have many trees in our yard, so we did not have to worry about clearing branches...........