Recommended Reading!

My friend Deirdre has a blog too! (click title)

The Getaway Girls!

You have to read her newest post, "Ratpocaylpse Now"...its a real thing!

And its Hys-ter-rical!

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Jan. 6th, 2016 - Science Project Due!

Little Man and his buddy "H" paired up for the schools science fair project.  Their topic, Building the Tallest Building.  And their question was, "Does the height of a building affect its stability?"  H's mom found the subject online and it was right up the boys ally.  Legos, building and science!

They built a shake table and 3 different buildings of the same design but different heights.  They shook each one and found that the tallest building fell the most.

Their project drew the attention of some older kids so they hung out and explained their project before class.  

They did such a great job...so proud of them! 

(LM is wearing the red coat and backpack)

--------------------------------------------

Jan. 13th, 2016 - At the orthodontist!

LM seems to have my tiny mouth and a cross bite. I had braces and headgear when I was a freshman in High School which I wore for what seemed like 2 years!!!

Now they start treating kids much earlier. They put in a "spacer"  for about 3 months, then braces and finally a permanent retainer.  All this takes place in 6 months and they're done!  Whaaaat?

Doing the impression for his spacer.

I remember having to do this right before they put the braces on....still use the same GOO! Bleh!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 2016 - Basketball season is almost over!  

LM joined a new team this year. Last years team was pretty much all boys from his school.  This year it was a team comprised of boys from his school and some from the neighboring school.  Great kids!

How cute is he?!

-------------------------

February 2016 - Little Man's room is done!

We painted over the blue (bleh) with a nice neutral called "Revere Pewter"from Benjamin Moore, with a nice ceiling white and white trim.  New ceiling fan too.  The kid had so much color going on in his room, that we needed to neutralize the walls and swap out some out grown furniture.

Passed down my 9 year old Mac - you can imagine how excited he was to have his own computer!  Looking at this pic makes me think we need to move Einstein to the right of the computer and relocate the  Pirate Cat print. Too high!

Nice homework space!  Daddy picked out the Einstein print. :)

Cleaned up his bulletin board and organized his bookshelves.

He was also ready to let go of his glider/rocker...sniff sniff.  Guess hes too grown up to need rocking.  :(  In its place is a Ikea chair that we never seemed to find a good place for.  Looks great in its new spot!

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIYers:  We've finished several projects that have been sitting on our "to do" list for some time.

Master Bedroom:  Closed off old french door access to t.v. room, new paint on walls (BM-Revere Pewter), Ceiling -White and white trim.  Rearranged the furniture and purchased new quilt and lamp shades.  Just need to get some art on the walls.

Love the new wall color.  

When we first had the room painted, we thought we would try something "new", something different.  Well, for us neutral is better and you can always bring in color with decor...much cheaper and quicker than with paint. :)

Guestroom:  Paint, ceiling fan and door hardware (oil rubbed bronze).  Need to install a built in blind unit for the french door that leads out to a mini deck in the side yard.

Hallway:  Painted ceiling walls and trim.  

Front entry:  Painted ceiling, walls and trim.  Ceiling light fixture to be installed today.

Installed new ceiling fans in the guest room and LMs room.

Just need to get the new light fixture put up by the front door.  

Before Pic - Painting the hallway a couple of weeks ago.

Just looking at this makes me tired.

But its amazing how listening to music helps when you work on stuff like this.  Really got into the 80's playlist we have...Vanilla Ice is great!  :D

New paint on the walls, sprayed the light fixture oil rubbed bronze  (ORB) and new globes.

Next up:  Husbands office, formal living and a light makeover of the Master Bathroom.  We're going to wait on the kitchen.  And Little Mans bathroom is going to be a total gut job.

We have new Energy Efficient windows coming for installation this week!  And we're already looking at exterior paint colors.  We recently updated our front door, installed a new lamp post light and spray painted our mailbox ORB to match.  All that changes the look of EVERYTHING in the front.   Now we need new paint, shutters and plants!  :D

Holiday Catch Up

Didn't really post pictures right before the kids Christmas break or after Christmas…trying to get back into the swing of things. 

Little Man's friend P had a bunch of friends over to watch The Empire Strikes Back in preparation of the new Star Was  - The Force Awakens.   Ewoks are cool!

---

Made it to Oklahoma to visit family for Christmas. Love spending the holiday in our hometown with family and friends.

Cousin Time! The 3 amigos!

---

One of our favorite restaurants in Tulsa!  Cafe Ole' on Brookside.

Blanco queso, spinach enchiladas and a black currant iced tea.  Ahhhhhh

---

Guthrie Green - a great place for free live music in the summer.

https://www.guthriegreen.com

Every tree was wrapped in lights!

Kisses from Grandma M and Aunt P!

---

Our Christmas morning started at 5:30 am.

Bow and arrow set!

Kylo Ren puzzle

J opening his gifts

"I'm a serious musician".

J treated us to a live performance of "Sweet Baby James".

  

---

Heading back to TX.

Henry watching over LM while he slept.

---

New Years Eve Party

Great food, drinks and friends!

And all the kids were invited too!

Cheers!

Duck Face Selfie!

I blame this one on the champagne!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

from 

the Baby Makes Three Family!

Splat!

Little Man has been asking to go play Paintball for a while and today was the day!  We met up with his friends "R" and "L" at GatSplat for some fun!

LM, L and R geared up and ready to go!

LM making his move!

The staff was so nice to give the boys free dog tags with their name / nickname on them. 

LM says " J Dawg"  :)

Shot in the face!

This is R being recorded by his mom who happend to catch me right after I was hit by a random paintball.

It REALLY hurt!

Halloween!

Thought I would post now before the crazy countdown to Halloween.  We're having a couple of LM's friends over to go Trick-or-Treating on Saturday and I'm scrambling to get the food/drinks/decor ready…and not have it all wrecked by more rain that is expected on Friday and Saturday.  Ergh!

Tigger - 6 Months

Dr. J - 18 months

Cyndi Lauper & 80's Wrapper

(Hubs looks great!)

Cowboy - 2 years

Obi-Wan Kenobi - 3 years

Han Solo, Princess Leia & Darth Vader - 4 years Old

Check out the custom made holster on Han Solo!

Catwoman, Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow

& Batman - 5 years Old 

 The G.I Joes & Snake Eyes - 6 years old

 Peter Quill aka Star Lord - 7 years old

Had to add an extra pic.  See the "Walkman"?  I searched for an original right after the movie came out and they were selling on eBay for $400.  Thats crazy!  We found the specs online for the original and made one out of cardboard.  

Then found some orange earphone covers at Dollar Tree…score! Love that store.  LMs iPod slips inside and what do you think is on his playlist?  Oh yea, the Awesome Mix Tape #1 from the movie of course!

Halloween Group Pic for this year.

LM is front row right end.  

Halo Commander..minus his mask.

Ran around all night and didn't get a good picture. But this was at the end of the night with some trick-or-treating friends.

Hope you all have a safe and fun filled Halloween!

Just A Flesh Wound!

When the Hubs is away on business, I get a wild hair for random projects.  And I don't mean I go down a to-do list of things.  I start on one and suddenly see something else that needs work and jump to that project….kinda like SQUIRREL!  Must have adult ADHD. :/

Today was no exception…

We are expecting A LOT of rain over the next couple of days so I thought I'd bring in some of my outdoor Halloween decor.  Sure its made to be outside…but who are we kidding.  Every year I decorate on Oct. 1st and the weekend before Halloween, everything gets trashed by rainstorms! Every.year.

So, I start winding up lights and retrieving my fuzzy spiders (love them!) and I notice the 3 Liriope plants I need to switch out with healthy full ones because our lawn service mowed over them (mentally cussing them) so I get out my shovel, the replacement plants, etc.  Like I said, SQUIRREL!  I actually finished that project and they look great!  Then I notice that the gutter down spout extensions need to be adjusted because of the rain we're "supposed" to get…again...SQUIRREL!  While I'm digging a mini trench to divert the water out to the yard away from the house, I notice rocks that need to be shifted around to help divert the water into said trenching…SQUIRREL!  So I start moving rocks. BIG ones. At this point my Hubs would be saying, "Stop doing that!  They're too heavy!"  And my reply would be, "Pssh!  I can do it!"  So move them I did...and then it happened.  

I squished/cut/mashed/maimed my pinky finger on my left hand!  

Blood spurted out and started running down my hand.  Pretty spectacular if I say so myself!  Then I was like, "Oh crap!  I need to do something!"  So I pinched my hand just at the base of that finger and raised it above my head and started to go inside to find the location of a minor emergency clinic to get stitches.  But then I thought, "I can't leave out my shovel and stuff…someone will take them!"  SQUIRREL!  

So there I was trying to keep pressure on the hand, elevate it and carry a shovel, bucket and trash bag to the backyard!

I finally make it inside and wash it off..hmmm, maybe not too bad but hurts like a SOB!  Pour hydrogen peroxide on it…SOB that hurts!!! Then I get nauseous!  I never get queasy over blood!  WTH!  After a few minutes of sitting down with my head between my knees (wuss, I know)  I hop on the computer to to try and find the nearest minor emergency center that does stitches.  Minute Clinics at CVS do not by the way.

Wasn't positive that I needed stitches but didn't want to not go and have it get infected and fall off.  But didn't want to get charged just to have them slap a band-aid on me either.    My friend "L" just happened to see my FB post.  Yes, I had time to post an inquiry about where to find a minor emergency center.  Don't judge me!  She was out walking with the kids in a stroller and offered to stop by and give me a second opinion.

She rolled up, took one look at it and said, "You don't need stitches!"  She has 5 kids, she would know.  So we chatted some more before she took off for home and I went inside to double check "the wound".  Looked better so I took some Advil, squirted some Neosporin (with pain reliever) on it and slapped on a band-aid and called it good.  Hubs happened to call so I relayed the whole "ordeal" of it to him and he said, "Oh, so you're o.k?  Good!  Well gotta go, talk to you later."  Mmmph.  

No loss of finger. Projects completed before the "incident". And now know where to take anyone for stitches, flesh wounds, etc.
Pretty productive day if I do say so myself!

Warning!  Following are graphic photos (not necessarily of me) to show what I'm talking about.

This is what it looked like when it first happened!

*not really my finger but found one similar to it.

I should have taken a picture of mine!

This is what it felt like after pouring hydrogen peroxide on it!

This is probably what my husband thinks it looked like.

This is the real deal seeping through the band-aid.

Seeping is kinda a gross word don't you think?!

This is the cut that caused all the drama today.

Looks pretty minor right?  Now scroll up to pic #1. :D

This typing doesn't seem to be helping.  Probably time for another Advil.  And a well earned beer.  And some Halloween candy.  Wonder if I can talk the boy into giving me a foot rub?

Hope you all had a wonderful and incident free day!  

Stay safe my friends!

School Pics!

School Pics are in! 

Wanted to stroll down memory lane for a moment to show how much Little Man has grown over the years.

Mother's Day Out - 1yr old

Mother's Day Out - 2yrs old

Mother's Day Out - 3yrs old

Couldn't find his Pre-School pic but I'm sure we have one somewhere!

Kinder - 5yrs old

1st Grade - 6yrs old

 2nd Grade - 7yrs old

 3rd Grade!  8yrs Old

What a handsome young man! ;)

Crazy how fast he is growing up!  I used to roll my eyes every time someone said, "enjoy your time with them while they're small, it goes by so fast"…well they were right.