Beautiful Tuesday

Dear Mother Nature -

Thank you so much for the lovely weather today. I cannot believe it is 63 degrees!!  I've got the windows OPEN - fresh air in.. old stale air out!

Walked the dog.. and he has been playing outside all day, chasing those damn elusive Jersey squirrels. One day he will catch one... a very old and fat one .. but he'll get 'em.

Right now, it's time for his afternoon siesta

Everyone, meet Finn. Finn, meet the Internet.

 

 

 

I feel like a grown-up now

Paul and I have finally purchased our very own bedroom set. As in, no hand me downs (nothing wrong with that at all). It was a large expense but something we needed. We have had OPF (other people's furniture) for years and things have finally crapped out/fallen apart. Our bedframe broke (get your minds out of the gutter people) when one of our teenage daughters dove onto it, thus collapsing one of the sides, unable to be repaired.


I am waiting for the delivery truck now.


I am just nervous about the amount of the purchase. For some folks, not too much money but we've got a college bound student (woot!) and well, times are pretty tight right now since I am unemployed. The majority of my time is spent doing the three C's - cleaning, cooking, and chauffeuring. I'm busy with a lot of volunteer work but that's not helping to pay the bills. Luckily, eBay and a couple cleaning gigs have been available.

How funny - I've always thought I've been suited for this:

But, I've got this instead:

Well, at least I will be a cleaning diva!

Buncos, Boards, and Benedict - Oh My!

Had all my rowdy girlfriends over on Friday night for Buncos. So much fun!

My favorite part of Buncos is making food. Since the ladies were coming to my home, it gave me the opportunity to make yummy foods that no one really like to eat here. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

::Pssst - look me up on Pinterest::

Pinterest is my absolute favorite website. Where else can I find delicious recipes, housetold tips, fashion and jewelry galore, AND hot guys - all neatly categorized in one place???

ANYwho

I have a ton of boards on Pinterest, broken up into neat little categories like:

Amazing Appetizers
Heavenly Drinks
Everything Harry Potter
Everything Doctor Who
Kate Snark (my personal favorite!)

But, the most popular one lately?

Everything Benedict

"But why?" - do you ask

Here's why...

::BOOM:: Benedict Cumberbatch - meet everyone. Everyone, fall immediately in love with Benedict.

You're most welcome.

Do you know if you google "Benedict Cumberbatch", it comes back with roughly 92,000,000 results? ::rowr::

As you can easily see, Pinterest allows me to, well, sort of wander through different boards, like shopping at the mall. The mall with really hot guys...

WHICH leads me to another favorite board: Sweet Dreams - go on and browse. I'll wait...


You're welcome!

Yeah yeah... I know..

It's been forever..

Christmas, New Years, the Olympics.. blah blah..


Back on track.

MUST read - my lovely friend Liz from This Full House has a very touching post up about providing breakfast to kids in need. Do you know that 1 in 5 kids go to school hungry?

Completely unacceptable.

Watch her video (and grab some dang tissues) and then watch the video with the Team USA athletes.


::smooches:: Love ya Liz!

I'm a winner!!!

So - about ten days ago, I entered a contest over on this awesome blog ::waving - Hi Liz!:: hoping I would win. My girls are BIG readers and T.A. Barron's books are right up their alley. We are all big readers. I used to have to take their books away from them because they would stay up way past their bedtime, reading in bed!

Imagine my surprise when I got a congratulatory email from Liz, telling me I won the contest!! YAY!!!

So - guess what was at my door when I got home today?? An entire box of lovely books!! Hello beautiful!!

Thank you again Liz and T.A. Barron for the big, beautiful, box of books!!

Xmas Jammies

You KNOW you want to sing along...



Love them.
(h/t to Young Conservatives for the link)

I don't want ANY of these for Christmas!!

Whilst browsing my Facebook feed, since I am home and unemployed, I found this gem: What NOT to F'ing buy my kids this holiday.

It definitely made me laugh out loud. I remember those days, now, fondly. I have two teenage girls so my house was awash in Barbies (usually naked in a box with the other poor naked Barbies), mountains of My Little Pony - both toys and ponies. I am still not allowed to give away the ponies - here's the proof:

You should see the amount of Legos and blocks we still have around the house. At least I can say we still have them around for when my young nephews visit.

What were YOUR kids big requests this year? Mine asked for Beats (no way), a cat (HECK no), and all kinds of assorted clothing, boots, music, and gift cards.

Never thought I'd say this but I kinda miss buying toys. My babies are growing up.

Relaxing Sunday Snowmageddon!!

A little wacky here in NJ - it was out first official snowfall today! We got about 5 inches dumped down on us. Not that much snow but it did come down quite quickly, causing a mess on the roadways.

Olivia and her friends were in and out of the house - playing in the snow, making a mess. I got to run the dryer several times (thank goodness for dryers!), make popcorn, and hot chocolate. Paul shoveled the walkway and I cooked dinner, even grilling a steak in the snow flurries. It was awesome :)

The highlight of the evening - watching The Little Mermaid with the teenagers. Can you say fantastic? Made me reminisce about the times when they were younger. We would set up all the blankets and pillows on the floor, with all the stuffed animals, snacks, drinks, and fire up the VHS player. Ahhh - the good old days.. back when the girls looked like this..

My babies!! Now, they are so old and grouchy.. dang teenagers...