Happy 4th of July!! :)

Well, it's extremely late, but "better late than never", right?!?! ;) HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! I hope that you had a wonderful day today. We went to the in-laws' house and had dinner, then went to see fireworks. The kids absolutely LOVED them! They were extremely tired by the time it was all done and now I'm ready to go to bed too. We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Brady!) and other than that, no plans! Just doing some projects around the house.

Anyways, quick and simple tonight 'cause I'm exhausted! Talk with you tomorrow!! :)

Kinda boring day today. Sale & new template though!

Today is a boring day. Nothing much to report. Jarrett put up a shelving unit in the playroom/office last night, so I spent most of the day starting to finally unpack office/craft stuff. It looks like a complete mess at the moment, but I can't wait to finally get the room all together!!

The weather is crappy yet again here today. Thunderstorms and more rain...surprise, surprise. :( I am SO sick of it!! So, that means no playing outside or doing anything fun. I'm really sick of being cooped up in the house. Ugh.

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Having a 30% off sale in my store today through Sunday for the 4th of July. I also put a new template up in the store yesterday, Marching On. This is one of my all time favorites! I just love how my LO turned out using it!! :)

Sample LO using Starlu by Andrea Burns:



Template:



Sale info:



Enjoy your day! {HUGS}

21 day challenge...

My gorgeous friend, Sally, posted a 21 day challenge on her blog. Basically, the premise is that you can form any habit if you do it for 21 days straight. I'm right on board with that, because I need to get some structure back in my life! I'm going to work on TWO habits in 21 days:

~ Blog daily
~ Track my calories daily

I'm really glad that she started this challenge. I really need the motivation to get off my rump!

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Went to Kennywood yesterday! We had SO much flippin' fun! The weather was beyond gorgeous. A little hot, but not humid at all and there was a nice breeze. Also, it wasn't crowded at all! It was so nice to just jump on the rides without waiting in line forever. The kids absolutely loved it too! Their favorite ride was the Whip...HUGE smiles and big belly laughs the whole time. They just wanted to keep getting in line and riding again! :) Childhood excitement and innocence is so contagious. They really make me see things in a new light, KWIM?



With my sister, Dana, and my hubby, Jarrett:



Ava would ride absolutely EVERY single ride we saw! It was hysterical! That kid isn't afraid of anything!!! She just LOVED the Kangaroo. This was her favorite along with the merry-go-round.



Christian is a little more of a chicken. He's leary about everything and won't ride it if he's a little scared. No Kangaroo for him!!! LOL His absolute favorite was the turnpike and the auto cross ride. He would ride those cars all day if you left him!



He was tall enough for a real roller coaster this year. He loved the one in Kiddieland, so we decided to take him on the Racer. He rode in the seat with my dad. Ummmm....didn't like it so much! lol

BEFORE- Went on smiling.



DURING



AFTER- Came off crying. :(



He got over it real quick though and actually said that it was a "little scary", but still "fun". Said there was NO WAY he was riding it again though! LOL

Random cute pics...





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New LO posted and new template in my store! Just in time for 4th of July pics, Independence Hill, is ready for sale!



And here's a LO of my little Christian playing Tball! Uses my new template and Backyard Bar-B-Q collab kit from Oscraps.



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Easy day planned for today. Just need to get everything cleaned up and put away from our Kennywood trip yesterday, getting together another template that I have almost ready to go in the store, and a LOT of rest and lying around! My knees are killing me and I need to chil out on the couch a bit! We got a new movie from Blockbuster Online in the mail yesterday. (Veggie Tales Wonderful Wizard of Ha's) Planning on some couch time with the kiddos to watch it! :)

Have a great day!!! {HUGS}

My gosh...how long!

Wow. How long it's been since I posted something here on my poor neglected blog! :( And how much has changed since my last post! :)

All went well with the selling of our home. The couple who bought it needed to close a little bit earlier, so we moved in with my parents for about 2 weeks. We had our whole life packed up in a UHaul rental truck in their driveway and our storage facility until we could close on our new house. As most of you know, we wanted to build a new home and that was our dream. VERY long story short...we couldn't build. Getting the sewage up to our property was going to be such an excessive cost and the taxes went up tremendously and that (amongst other things) priced us right out of our dream. :( It was by far a HUGE bummer, but....what can you do right?!?! Given lemons, you need to make lemonade! We searched and searched for a new home in the area we wanted to move to and found it!

It's 4 bedrooms/2.5 bathrooms. There is SO much more space than our old house! It's truly amazing. We are really, really enjoying it and still have so much we need to unpack. We're having fun though and we're hoping to start painting and making some cosmetic changes sometime really soon. I'll have to post some pics for y'all to see it! :)

That has pretty much consumed my life for the past year! Selling the house was WAY harder and more work than we thought and the whole selling/buying process was way more stressful than I thought it would be. I put on about 40 pounds in the past year that I need to get off now and it will NOT be easy! :( All good things come to those who wait, right??!?!?

Other than that, I'm still designing at Oscraps and have LOTS of neat projects up my sleeve. Now just to find the time to get them all out of me and done! lol Hope you all are doing well! I know that hardly anyone checks this old neglected thing anymore, but I'm hoping to change that again and post more regularly again. Talk to ya soon! {HUGS}

Great news!!! It's sold!!

Yep, that's right! Last Sunday (2/10), we got an offer on the house and accepted it!! :) We had the home/pest inspection on Thursday and supposedly all went well. We'll be closing on March 28th!! YAY!!! What a huge weight off our backs!!!

~ Valentine's Day

Jarrett & I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We just exchange cards and then try to have a date night a week or 2 after it. We were all sick this past week anyways (mostly Jarrett & the kids though...I only had a slight hint of it for a day or so). Christian's valentine's day party was on Wednesday and I was one of the moms to help out with the party. It was so fun! Christian loved having me at school with him and I just love being around all those 4/5 yr olds. The kids in his class are adorable and they just have such a blast no matter what you do with them!!

~ Other than that...

It's the first quiet weekend in FOREVER!!! We have been showing the house so much and having different functions to go to every weekend. It's nice to have the house under contract with no more showings! It's especially nice since everyone is recovering from the sickies. Just a weekend to lay around and chill out! We're going to Monster Jam tonight with Christian, my FIL, and my BIL. Christian is totally obsessed with monster trucks and I can't wait to take him. We went last year and had a blast...this year will be even better!! It kinda sucks since we put off getting tickets until the last minute so we're not going to have great seats, but with everyone being sick, we didn't want to buy them ahead of time.

Have a GREAT weekend!!! :) Talk to ya soon!!

YAY, AVA!!!

My little peanut is starting to use the p.o.t.t.y!!! YAY!!! Yesterday she had no accidents at all and told us every time she needed to go. Including at the mall!! :) We left her pick out her own new under.p.an.ts over the weekend and she got Dora and Pooh. She is so proud of herself!! We had one accident today, but she's making such good progress! YAY, AVA!!! :) I'm so proud of you, princess!

On the house front, we had someone else come yesterday to look at it. The people that came back for a second look haven't made any decision yet. His pickup doesn't fit in our garage, which is the biggest issue. He is trying to figure out a way to make it work. We're just trying to stay positive and keep our fingers crossed!

I STILL haven't got my designs up in the store yet! ARGH! Every time I sit down to do it, something else comes up. :( The people that came to the house yesterday called at 1:00 pm to say they were going to be there at 4:30. I know...3 hours sounds like MORE than enough time to get a house together, but with a 2.5 yr old and 4.5 yr old it is SO hard!! I ran around the house the whole afternoon to get it done. I am SO SICK of getting this house ready to show to people! I am hoping we get an offer soon. This is causing so much stress!

Have a great day, girlies! {HUGS}

Not much...

Not much going on today. We had someone come back for a second viewing today and we're really hoping to get an offer from them. They need the garage to be taller so that his pickup truck would fit and today they came with a family member that is a contractor to see if they could make ours work. That seems to be the only sticking point, so hopefully it works out! We haven't heard anything back yet, but I'm of the thinking that "better nothing at all than a NO!". So...another day of keeping the fingers crossed.

Today there is nothing at all happening. Just sitting around and relaxing. I'm going to get some new templates packaged up as soon as I get some sample LOs done. That's pretty much it! Thrilling, eh?!?!? ;) LOL

It's nice to know that a couple people still check in here...thanks, girls! {HUGS}

Well...

the couple that came back for a second viewing of the house on Saturday chose another one. :( Their realtor said it was between our house and another and they ended up making an offer on the other one. Is it too mean to say that I hope the offer falls through? ;) We DID get a call last night saying that someone else wants to come back for a second viewing tomorrow morning. They like the house, but he wants a garage that will fit his full sized pickup truck. He's bringing a family member that is a contractor tomorrow morning to see what it would take for him to alter our garage to fit his needs. They like the house other than that! SO...again....keeping my fingers crossed! LOL (the story of our lives right now)

We had a Superbowl party yesterday and the normal group came over. We had a ton of fun and it was so nice to get together with everyone! And...I'M SO GLAD THE GIANTS WON!!!! I absolutely, positively hate the Patriots!! (sorry if any of you were rooting for them! lol) They are just so cocky and arrogant and I hate that. Then the way they were big babies and sore losers at the end of the game...ugh...really turned me off even more!! I thought the commercials pretty much sucked too. What a letdown!

I started a few more templates over the weekend and need to get some sample LOs done before I can get them up in the store. I've been neglecting my designing so much. I haven't done much since before Christmas! :( I really need to treat this more as a "business" instead of just "something I do on the side". The money is definitely more important now that we're in the middle of this whole house fiasco!!

Anyways, I'm off to work on them now. Have a wonderful Monday! {HUGS}

Keeping fingers crossed...

Well, so much for my relaxing day yesterday! lol As soon as I posted my blog post, Jarrett called and someone wanted to look at the house between 1:00 and 4:00! That was at 11 am!! ARGH!!! I pulled it all together and me, the kids, and the dog all went to my parents house. Well, they liked it and came back again today for a second look! Plus, we had 2 others look at the house today. Keeping those fingers crossed that we get a good offer soon!!!

Today, we went shopping while the people were looking at the house. We went to the mall and did some returns and then Walmart to get some goodies for tomorrow's Superbowl party. It was friggin' MOBBED out there! So darn busy and the kids were acting up too which made it so much harder. :( Ugh. I'm glad to be home now!!! Just a relaxing night planned here. Getting ready for the party tomorrow as much as I can.

I am cautiously optimistic about today...trying to stay positive! Off to relax now! {HUGS}

TGIF!

Today is my dad's birthday!! :) He can be a true pain in the butt sometimes, but I just love him to death! He is soooooooo hard to buy presents for. Ugh! We went to the mall and got him a new grill cover, a 1/4 zipper sweatshirt, a bartenders bible (since he claims he is sick of drinking beer right now, lol), and the automatic adjustable wrench from Craftsman. It was so cute shopping with the kids for him. Every single thing they saw, they were saying "let's get this for papa!" or "papa would like this!". LOL You should have seen some of the stuff they were pointing to! Christian also came up with a grand plan for his bday. He wanted to make a cake, buy the relighting candles ("'cause that would be so funny, momma!"), and go to the mall to buy him presents. I haven't had the heart to tell him that my mom already ordered a cake for him. Shhh.... ;) So, anyways, that's where we'll be tonight. Spending the night with dad/Papa. :)

The weather is so gross here today. It is rainy and everything turned into a solid sheet of ice outside overnight. The trees look like they are ice scuptures!!! Really pretty, but I hate going out in that crap! I kept Christian home from school today and we are just in our PJs. I'm hoping to get the house straigtened up, have the kids do some sort of project for dad's bday, and hopefully get some designing done!!!

Christian is also old enough to do T-ball this year!!! OMG! When did my little boy get so big?!?!!? Sign-ups are tomorrow morning and it's looking like he will be the youngest one. It is based off of their age as of April 30th and his bday is April 15th. The T-ball is for ages 5/6. I really think he'll have fun with it though!! I hope that some of his little friends from preschool are on his team!

We're having a Superbowl party on Sunday. The same group of people gets together every year for the Superbowl and we also get together for the playoff games if the Steelers are in them. It is always a fun time and this will probably be the last big party we have at our house! (hoping that we're out of here by April for Christian's bday, of course!)

We had people come yesterday to look at the house and again tomorrow. PLEASE let someone make an offer soon!!! *fingers crossed and prayers being said* We are SO sick of showing it to people!!!!! The ones that were here yesterday were here for almost 45 minutes, so hopefully that is a good sign.

And that's it! Just sitting in front of the computer on a crappy, gray day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!! I love you!!! xoxo Have a great weekend everyone!! {HUGS}

Ups and Downs

That is what life consists of right now. Complete ups and downs. Better than ALL downs though, right?!?! ;)

Christian had his Winter Wonderland day at school on Friday. Jarrett stayed home from work so that he could watch Ava and I could be a part of it. It was so cute! They had little stations set up around the room and the kids were divided up in groups of 4-5. Me and another mom were in charge of the "Penguin Waddle" game. The kids put a beanbag on their feet and had to waddle like a penguin to the finish line. SOOOOOO cute and the kids got a real kick out of it! It was way harder than it looked though! LOL They also had a story/hot chocolate station, relay race putting on winter clothes (hat, scarf, gloves, etc...), winter snowglobe craft, a science station where they painted with ice cubes (water with food coloring frozen with a popsicle stick in it) and made a string stick to an ice cube floating in water by sprinkling it with salt, and a snack station where they made a snowman out of little powdered doughnuts. It was all SOOOOO cute!!

He also had PJ day at school yesterday. His whole class got to wear their pajamas to school and they looked so adorable! He told everyone about it and he's been looking forward to it for weeks now. They got to sit on a blanket and watch a "Franklin" cartoon while having a snack. A BIG deal when you're 4 yrs old! LOL

We took the kids bowling for the first time ever on Saturday! It was sooooooooooooo much fun!!! Christian would have stayed there all day if we left him! Ava got bored after about 4 frames, so he played her games for her too! Yep...do the math...He did 3 and a half games all by himself! They pulled up the bumper rails so that the kids couldn't get gutter balls and it was such a blast. I'll have to post pics tomorrow. I haven't downloaded the camera yet!

We're not really sure what is going on righ tnow for the whole "home" front. We can't get any kind of an idea what the estimated taxes are going to be for the new house which is SO frustrating! We also have a couple options to break off a piece or 2 of the property and sell it to make this all possible again. I truly hope that we can figure out a way to afford to build the new house. It means so much to me! The land has been in my family forever and it will be so nice to continue our life on it.

We still have a bunch of people looking at the house too, which is SO hard! Someone is coming again tomorrow morning....UGH!! Supposedly, the person that was here on Friday has "some interest"...whatever the hell that's supposed to mean! Show me an offer!!!!!

SO...life is up and down...trying to stay positive and hoping that something happens soon! Happy Tuesday!!! {HUGS}

Another emotional day...

but aren't they all anymore?!!? :( It just seems like there isn't very much good news coming from anything right now. We contacted the realtor and asked him to lower the price on our current house again. Hopefully it will generate some more interest and an offer. Please keep the good vibes and prayers coming our way! If it sells while we have no other plans, we are just going to move in with my parents for a while. Not the most ideal of situations, but at least an answer for now.

We also talked to our potential neighbors last night to see if they were interested in buying a piece of the property we are building on. It would have helped us significantly money-wise, but as of right now, they are only interested if we give them a big enough plot to build on. This is a MAJOR thing to contemplate because the piece we would have left wouldn't be the flatest or greatest of yards. A LOT to digest, that's for sure.

The kids are being extremely rowdy today too, which isn't helping my situation at all. They are driving me nuts!!!!! God love 'em, but they need to calm down today or momma is going to be taken away in a white jacket!! lol

I feel like such a "Debbie Downer" recently. My normal happy go-lucky attitude is on a major vacation right now...and I have a feeling it will be gone until we get some answers on this house situation. It is just so disheartening and depressing. I really, REALLY hope it works out soon!!! Everything is such "bad" news right now when it comes to this. Hopefully one day soon I can come on here and post some WONDERFUL, POSITIVE news!!!

Have a great day! I'm off to hopefully get some designing done, 'cause ya KNOW I need the money!!! ;)

Tough times...

We're having some major headaches right now. This house not selling is really making it hard. And then, the realtor says that we need to drop the price again a bit. We aren't thinking that we will be able to afford to build the new house now. :( It's just going to be too hard. Hopefully we will get it all cleared up though. Keep your fingers crossed.

All of this stress has also affected so many other parts of life too. My diet and exercise are pretty much thrown out the window for now. I haven't been scrapping at all recently, let alone designing!! WHICH...in turn makes for less sales, which makes for more money issues....ugh... :( I really need to get out of this funk RIGHT NOW! I'm seriously driving myself nuts.

I really don't have much else to say today other than....GIVE ME A BREAK!!! :( We really need something to break open here to give us some closure on some items. I know if we keep the faith, it will all work out, but it is so hard to keep a smile on, KWIM? Send us some positive vibes, okay? {HUGS}

Ugh...money!!

Why is it such a pain? Why is it such a factor in every single aspect of life?!?! Honestly...it just drives me nuts. I am blessed to be a stay-at-home mom, but I would love to find a way to make more money to help support us. Yeah, I sell my digi designs at Oscraps already, but we have so much money stuff to worry about. It would be SO nice to find another source of income. A part time job outside of the house is out of the question. Family life is too important to me.

Anyways...just needed to vent. We had 2 strokes of bad money news today and I'm just frustruated, KWIM? We are definitely going to have to write a check to get out of this house once we sell it and today our realtor told us that he really feels we need to lower the price again. The market is just crappy and he thinks it is best. Ugh...we haven't made a decision yet, but the amount of the check we would have to write is OBNOXIOUS!! Seriously...I have no clue where that money is going to come from.

Rant over...and yes...this is my second post for the day. I need to get off my ass and start doing something other than worrying!!!!!

STAY POSITIVE, right?!?!?!? ;)

One day down...SOOOOO many to go!

So, yesterday was a good one for the new "healthy living". I put in the Turbo Jam videos I've had now for over 2 months and finally did one. Let me tell ya...it was so fun!! I started out with the Learn & Burn and I get a little lost in some spots, but it is a blast and I worked up a great sweat. When Jarrett came home, we both did the Learn & Burn again. He wanted to try it out and he didn't care for it as much as I did. I also used the Ab Roller twice yesterday and did some leg exercises while laying on the couch. All in all, a great day! I DO have to say though...I am sore today! lol But at least it's a "good" sore, if that makes any sense.

Here's the rest of the breakdown for yesterday:

Calories (between 1200-1500): :( I went over a little bit. I didn't realize how bad the leftover wedding soup was! Those white flour noodles are a killer!
Water (between 80-120 oz): :) I did VERY good on this!!
Exercise: 40 min of cardio (Turbo Jam), approx 20 min misc exercises (ab roller, legs)

Yesterday was a pretty low key day. We just hung out around the house and did nothing. I have a LOT of catching up to do today though! Our Christmas decorations are still up....I know...pathetic, eh?!!? They are in the process of coming down today. I also have laundry to do and also a church Session meeting tonight. I haven't been to church much in the past 2 months. I'm kinda burned out by the negativity surrounding it and I've been avoiding it like the plague. I missed the last 2 Session meetings because of it, so I decided to suck it up and try to overcome it. Being more positive....

Word for the year
On that note...my word for 2008, ala Ali Edwards, is...
POSITIVE

Yep, it's time to get back to the happy-go-lucky person that I used to be. I have been so stressed out this year with this house being up for sale, getting together ideas/plans for the building of the new house, money issues, and in the process of all of that...gaining 35 pounds, which made me even more miserable. Now, I've noticed that I'm just crabby, miserable, and a little depressed almost all the time. I want to get over the stress and get happy all the time again. I know it can happen, so this is my pledge...staying POSITIVE!!

Alrighty...off to pick up Christian from preschool. Have a wonderful day!! {HUGS}

A kink in the plans already!

Yep...you heard me right. A kink in the plans already!!! Today was supposed to start extreme healthy eating and exercising. Want to hear what happened?!?! We got a call this morning (while I was taking Christian to preschool) saying that someone wanted to come look at the house tonight. UGH!! Having the house ready to show to anyone at a minutes notice is a lot of hard work...especially with a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old! The house has been "officially" for sale with a realtor now for a little over 2 months. We are just hoping for that special someone that wants to buy it!

Anyways...I digress...since so much time today went into cleaning/scrubbing/etc, no exercise happened and we ended up eating in the mall food court for dinner while the people were here looking at our house. Thank god I ate really good all day and only drank water, because we did Taco Bell for dinner. Here's how the day ended up...

Calories (between 1200-1500): yes :)
Water (96-120 oz): yes :)
Exercise: no :(

Pretty good, all things considering. I also did some grocery shopping this morning and got lots of healthy food for us all. Tomorrow will be a better day exercise-wise hopefully!!

~ Cute kiddo stuff ~

Here are some really cute things the kiddos are doing recently:

Christian:
~ Woke up this morning and told me he was dreaming last night. When I asked him about what, he said "about how much I love my momma & daddy". Awwww...does it get any cuter than that?!?!? Then he told me, "I dreamt that I loved you guys even more than I already do, but that's not possible, Momma, because I already love you thiiiiiiiis much!" *spreading his arms open as wide as he could* My gosh. This kiddo warmed my heart tremendously and he was only awake for 5 minutes!! :)

~ He says some of his words so darn cute. It makes us smile every time we hear them! Such as "wevver" for "weather", "skirtcles" for "circles", "nuffin'" for "nothing". He's adorable!

~ He LOVES going to preschool! His teachers are Mrs. Patterson and Ms. Cole and they are awesome! He has a different job each week, has a different letter they focus on each week with show and tell being on Wednesdays (the item they bring has to start with that letter), he says the Pledge of Allegience and sings My Country Tis of Thee. His best little buddy is Carter and they just love each other!

Ava:
~ Is in such a kissy mood recently! :) She is so darn cute about it. She puckers up her little lips and just lays one (or twelve) on you when you're not paying attention. She also gives you big 'ole bear hugs and tells you she "wuvs" you all the time. It is simply SOOOOOO adorable!

~ She wants to snuggle nonstop. Every time you lay her down for a nap or to bed at night, she wants to have someone lay down with her.

~ She is in love with her baby dolls. She likes to dress them, feed them, pretend she's changing their diaper, etc... She is always carrying one of them around and she takes care of them just like any "mommy" would. It is so sweet!

That's enough rambling for today...I have so much stuff to do!! It's 10:00 pm and I swear, I feel like I can never get caught up. :( Ugh... Happy Monday to y'all!! {HUGS}

Has it really been 6 months?!?!?!

Seriously...has it really been 6 months since I posted anything here? PATHETIC!!! :( One of my new years resolutions is to post more regularly again. This is a great way to remember all the little daily things that I want to cherish always.

Also, tomorrow starts my "new life". I have quite a few resolutions this year. I'll be sure to post them all in the next day or so. I have just been so busy, stressed, and unfocused for the past 6-9 months. I really need to get my life back in order so that I can go back to the happy, easy-going person I once was. NOT the miserable, moody bitch that I am now. Seriously...I am SO moody! It doesn't take much to throw me over the edge right now. Most of it revolves around money issues, house issues, and of course, the 30 pounds I've put on in the past year. My biggest resolve right now is to start getting healthy again. I need to lose a TON of weight and start eating healthier. Not as much takeout and sitting on my butt. I need to lose at least 30 pounds as a short term goal and more like 45-50 for my long term "ideal" goal. Just losing a bit will help to make me feel better about myself. All of my clothes don't fit or fit like absolute garbage. It is so sad and pathetic that the only pants that fit me are some running pants and a pair of dress pants that I had to buy in a bigger size just so I would have something to wear to church. HORRIBLE!!!

SO...starting tomorrow....

~ Drinking only water/crystal light.
~ Healthier eating. Between 1200-1500 calories a day.
~ Track my calories daily.
~ Exercise at least 20-30 min a day 5-6 days a week.

Other than that...that's where I stand as of now. Starting over a new leaf and getting back in the groove. :) Hopefully I may actually get people to start reading this thing again too! LOL Happy New Year!!! {HUGS}

Queen of the Day!

YAY!!!! I'm the Queen of the Day at DST today!! :) :) :) I am so excited and so flattered. Stop over and drop a line or feel free to ask any questions you want. Here is a little gift for all of you as well just because I'm SO excited! Use the coupon code queen627 for 50% off my entire store through Friday (6-29).

SO busy with house stuff...
We are still trying to sell our house and looking to build a new one. We spoke to a builder and have it narrowed down to 2 different house plans with some updates. The Lexington and The Jamestown. It's just amazing how much all the upgrades come to and once you figure in the cost of the property, it is just obnoxious!!! We need to figure out what we can afford and then go from there. We're going tomorrow night to see a Jamestown that is under construction to try to get a better idea of what it looks like "in person" and not just "on paper". The home builder had a model of the Lexington at their site and it was SO pretty! We actually didn't like it "on paper", but loved it "in person". Now we're seeing pros and cons to both plans and need to figure out where they fall money-wise.

Speaking of money...
Just a quick rant... Why is everything so gosh darned expensive?!?!? I swear, it is unbelievable!! I'm lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, but the "play money" just isn't there, KWIM? It just amazes me what life costs.... Okay...rant over! ;)

That's it
Just a quick blog post today. I still have to download the camera to get off the camping pictures to show all of you. I promise I'll get on that today! ;) (ooppssss...did I say that DAYS ago??!?!? LOL) Thanks to all of you for being such wonderful friends!! {{HUGS}}

Whew...SO busy!!

I know that I have been SO totally neglecting my blog. Life has been so hectic and insane! Here is the last couple of weeks in a nutshell:

~ Ava turned 2!

Yes...my baby girl turned 2 years old on June 2nd. It is seriously so hard to believe! We had a girly monkey themed bday party. She is just obsessed with Curious George and all things monkey! Here are a few pics for you all... (isn't her dress the cutest?!?!)













~Church things...

We had our Silent Auction this past weekend. I was in charge of the whole thing and it went very well. A TON of work goes into it, but it is totally worth it in the end. We're also planning a big picnic for the whole congregation this summer and also selling engraved bricks for a patio that we want to install this fall. Overall...just FULL of stuff to do! Bible School starts next week and Christian is going to go at least part of the week.

~ Designing & CT stuff

Some new templates are in the store and I'm working on some more. I'm having a blast with them and I just love working at Elemental Scraps! You really need to check out the store and the great designers there if you haven't already. I'll be getting some more new goodies in there next week! As for now...here are some previews of the new stuff!

Point it Out


Backyard Adventure


Ray of Light


Steppin Down



~House Selling stuff...

We still have the house up for sale. We haven't really advertised it at all except for putting a sign in the yard. We've been too busy to put the time and effort into selling it really hard and now is the time for us to step it up. We're hoping to buy the property off of my aunt that has been in my family forever. We are really hoping to buy and build a house within the next 9-12 months. Keep your fingers crossed that we can get it all figured out!

~ That's it & a coupon

Not going to bore you to death anymore! ;) If you've read this far, here's a coupon for you to use at my store at Elemental Scraps. Valid for $3.00 and until July 1, 2007. Code is loyalreader I'm going to try to get better at blogging regularly again and hopefully get you all to start reading again! :) Have a great day! {{HUGS}}

50% off my entire store AND last day for free...

Mega grab bag at Elemental Scraps! When you spend $10 in the store, you receive a HUGE grab bag worth over $40 including the June mega kit by the ES designers.

My entire store (Melanie Colosimo) is 50% off through June 8th. Including all of my new templates too! SO...RUN OVER! You don't want to miss this!



I promise...
that I'll be back to regular blogging soon. Life has been SO hectic recently and I haven't had time to devote to it. Sorry! I miss you girls! {{{HUGS}}}