Dance Recital Time!

Alyson just recently had her dance recital. She did so great and had so much fun. This year she wanted to take a hip hop class and she absolutely loved it!

Of course I had to take plenty of pics of her the day of her recital. I wish you could have seen her face when she was on stage at the recital - she was just all smiles and it was obvious she was having fun and was thoroughly enjoying herself. I think part of what made her recital so special for her too was that Steve took part in the Father Daughter dance with her. She was absolutely thrilled about that and I have to thank Aunt Rachelle for getting the video of that for me! (just scroll down a couple of posts and you can see it!)

Alyson had quite a little cheering section with Steve and I as well as her big brother. Aunt Rachelle and Dan came and brought her a huge bouquet of flowers which she was absolutely thrilled to receive! Aunt Tink and Uncle Christopher were there, and Nana, as well as Miss Pat...she had quite a little cheering section! We are already looking forward to next year.

Alyson doesn't "Mess Around"

This is the video I took during the dress hearsal the day before the recital - she was just so cute! I wish I would have taken one during the actual recital because she did even better and had a smile on her face that just lit up her face. We are so proud of her!

Some pictures of Alyson and Steve during their dancing debut as well as afterwards...they were so proud of themselves -- as well they should be! ;)

The Father Daughter Dance

Alyson was thrilled to have Steve participate in the Father Daughter dance during her recital. I wasn't allowed even a glimpse of what was to come so I was so anxious to see them dance...and I was not disappointed! They were both beaming from ear to ear the entire dance and at one point during the dance when Alyson is supposed to hug Steve, she whispered in his ear "I love you, Daddy." I just don't think it gets much better than that!

Challenge Complete!

I can actually see the top of my desk! There is finally room for me to sit down and work on a layout or 2! The whole space could still use a little more work but in all honesty, I have to admit, I really just have too much stuff! LOL! But I LOVE it! Now that I can see it all better I can hopefully use some of it up...that way I have room to put all the new stuff I *NEED!*

And of course I have my favorite pirate hanging out with me on the computer!

I love to keep some of the handmade items that friends have made for me close at hand...make me happy! (OH and look, there's my favorite Captain again!)

I got my credenza cleaned off and organized a bit better as well...

And last but not least I got my closet cleaned up too...although I think I actually forgot to post a before picture of that one. I have all my stamps, inks and paints organized in the bins on the big rack. I have all of my ribbon in the closet and lots of stuff in the drawers organized by theme(s) and such.


My space is not as fancy as some but at least it works...and right now my corner looks much prettier than my hubby's! ;)

I don't wanna!

So my day started out with a visit to a new doctor in order to get a second opinion on my wrist. I left in tears. I love this guy that I met today and so wish I could have had him right from the start. He actually genuinely seemed to care, which in this day and age seems pretty rare. Not that my original dr was a jerk, but I felt like he just wanted to get me and out as soon as possible.

Anyway, this guy has some concerns about where at least one the pins in my wrist is at...it is pretty close to my joint and could be part of what is causing me so much pain?! Still remains to be seen but he wants me to take some pretty hefty ant-inflammatory and go back in a month. I actually have 5 pins holding the metal plate in place and depending on how things go I may have to have to surgery to take them all out. I can't do any thing until after October since he says the hardware needs to stay in for at least a year before any doctor would consider taking them out.

So, once again I am in the "wait and see" mode and neither outcome is all that appealing to me. I will have to have surgery...again and hopefully have less pain or everything stays as it is and I learn to live with pain...which would you hope for?

I am taking the challenge!

One of the gals over at The House of Paper posted a challenge to get our scraprooms cleaned up after the month of scrapping challenges we had going on at The House in honor of National Scrapbooking Day...we celebrated the whole month long! SO, since my space is definitely full of "crap" (and you'll know what I mean if you saw my video previously posted!) I decided to take the challenge! I am posting my shameful before pictures here...

At least I have a path to my desk...

Of course once you get to the desk, well obviously that is a whole other story! Guess I better get busy! Wish me luck, I am going to need it! LOL!

Going on our walk tonight...

We took a walk last night after dinner and came across quite a bit of wildlife and I was wishing I had had my camera. So tonight we went for our walk...camera in hand. We spotted the little bunnies first - so cute! Then we found the 3 baby gators we had come across last night along with 2 more! No sign of mama or papa thankfully!We have 3 sandhill cranes that we see alot around our neighborhood but tonight only 2 of them came to grace up with their presence. On the way back to our house we took a peek in one of the other ponds and we spotted 2 more baby gators! Wowzers, that makes 7! Surely there must at least be a mama around here somewhere...maybe even two?! We will just have to make sure we are extra careful on our walks. It was fun taking pictures though!

It's the last day of school.

Stevie and Alyson have their last day of school today...I know they are super excited! I, however, am a little bit sad -- mostly though because rather than spending the summer with them like I always have, I will have to work. Both kids were rather surprised when they realized that I do not get the summer off of work. This has moved me to tears on more than one occasion. I feel like I am going to be missing out on so much with them this summer.

I can not even fathom how mother's who have no choice but to go back to work shortly after their children are born manage?! I know that not every mom is "made" (for lack of a better word) to be a SAHM and I know it was not part of my original plan - I was kind of forced into it. And even though I had my fair share of rough days and spent more than a few "time outs" on the front porch, I have never regretted staying home with my kids. I know that I am doing what is best for my family right now by working but I can't believe how much I miss being with my kiddos. I think the novelty of being a "working girl" again has definetely worn off -- and I am barely at the 90 day mark!

I have talked to Steve recently about how I am feeling and I am happy to say that he has been really sympathetic and supportive. He is even talking about the possibility of me being able to quit where I am at and help him focus more on our businesses and being able to make up the difference of my salary if we can reach a few goals with them -- we will have to wait and see on that one...so for now I will just have to continue what I am doing and enjoy the time I do have with them -- they are still young enough that they still like me (most of the time! LOL!) Steve is bringing them out to meet me for lunch after he picks them up for school so I am counting down until my lunch hour so I can hear all about their last day.

My baby girl is 7!

I can hardly believe that my little girl is 7 years old...seriously?! How did it happen so fast? I know it really is so cliche but the time has just flown by. I am so thankful that she is still a cuddle bug, always ready with a hug and an "I love you" (so unlike her big brother!)

We had her birthday party this past Saturday. She wanted a "Littlest Pet Shop" theme. I was sure she was going to want a Webkinz theme and so that is what I had been planning and thinking about - but then she changed her mind on me! (a girls' perogative, I suppose!) I had to rethink all of my ideas on the cake and for those of you who know me, you know that a store bought cake is NOT and option...so I stressed over how to make an LPS cake. In the end I think it turned out okay and Alyson was over the moon about it so that is really all that mattered. She was so excited while I was making that cake and stood by my side the whole time...just chit chatting away and telling me how much she loved me and how I was the best mom because I was making her a Littlest Pet Shop cake, etc...gotta love it! When I was done she said it was the best cake I had ever made...well, except for the Ariel one! LOL!

Anyway, she had a great time at her party with her friends and her waterslide - she even put on a little "concert" in her room! I think even the adults that stayed to play had fun too!

So, now in about 2 weeks I get to do it all again...for a 9 year old little boy...who is all about Pokemon (insert me rolling my eyes here! LOL!)

This blog has so touched my heart.

An online friend brought this blog (http://www.mattlogelin.com/) to my attention on Friday. The story has just touched my heart in a way that I can not really put into words. My heart aches for their loss but I am so inspired at the strenth this little girl's daddy has shown. Little Madeline is lucky to have such a daddy. The outpouring of love and support they have received from family, friends and even strangers is amazing - it is nice to see people doing good in this world once in awhile and thinking of others. It makes me want to be a better person and more aware of what is happening with others around me...and since reading the blog, I have made sure to hug Stevie and Alyson a little tighter and tell them again how much I love them...although I must admit I feel a little guilty that I can do that and Liz can not.

My National Scrapbooking Weekend

So, I had big plans to work on some scrapbooking challenges from The House of Paper and The School of Scrap...did NOT happen! It would seem my wonderful hubby had other plans...he has gotten the itch to paint our house -- we have been in it for about a year and a half but it had to be THIS weekend to paint (so insert me rolling my eyes here!)

Anyway, late last night I at least had a chance to sit down and look at the challenges posted and one turned out to be a video challenge from The House of Paper and so I grabbed my camera and went for it. I am sure my husband would be mortified to know that not only is this video on You Tube it is also on my blog! LOL! I assure you that he does NOT talk like that in real life but apparently the paint fumes were getting to him along with a few rum and cokes! LOL!

So, in the end no scrapbooking for me but at least the paint looks good! ;) And yes ladies, that hunk is all mine! LOL!

National Scrapbooking Time!

So I tend most of my online time in one of two places...The House of Paper and The School of Scrap...

The House of Paper is home to some of my best friends and my day is never complete without a visit with them all. I have been a part of The House for just about 4 years now! Time really flies when you are having fun! We always have great chatter, wonderful friendship and encouragement hanging out in The Living Room and The Playroom is always full of great challenges - and Chiara always spoils us with the RAKs she sends out! This month is going to be fun since we are celebrating National Scrapbook Day all MONTH long!

The School of Scrap is another really great site, my classmates are so nice, there is hardly ever any running in the halls! We do have an occasional food fight in the cafeteria though! ;) What I love most is the "classes" every month. It is not something you have to pay for. The DT has classes and every month is a new "assignment". You can pick and choose which ones you want to do, earn points, get fun RAKs in the mail...and of course great friendship and encouragement is always in great supply there as well. New classes are just being posted and it is never to late to join!

I am determined to get more in my scrapbooks this month and just had to share my favorite hangouts with you! So if you are looking for a fun place online that is fun and full of great inspiration I would love to see you over at The House and School! When you register, just tell them I sent ya! (don't worry, they won't hold it against ya!) LOL!

HAPPY SCRAPPING!

Need a pick me up?

So this last week or so around here has not been all that great -- although it did have some great parts. One of my bestest and oldest friends' grandmother passed away last week. That was pretty tough - I have known Granny Jean since I was in 1st grade. Such a sweet and wonderful lady. Her and Pappy had been married 62 years - how wonderful is that?!

My sister's fiance (okay, so it's not official yet but we are just going to call him that anyway-) had to have back surgery last week as well...this was from the car accident we were all involved in back in September. My sister ended up having to have knee surgery too back in April...so out of 4 of us 3 had surgery and now Dan and I are both sporting around titanium. All the legal crap and hospital bills and such are starting to stress me out. I know the accident was not my fault but I can't help but feel responsible you know? (Thankfull Dan is doing really well!)

The good part of this past week is that Steve and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary...quite an accomplishment especially since there was a time I was pretty sure we would never make it that far! LOL! We have been together almost 14 years in total and for the first time ever he planned something special for us and took me away for the weekend - just the two of us. That will be another post though, complete with pics!

So anyway, a co-worker of mine, seeing how stressed and unhappy I was last week decided to send me a little pick me up...some new motivational posters to get me up and going again. A couple of them had me laughing so hard another co-worker had to come out of his office to check on me! LOL! I decided to post a couple of them here...

This one is definitely my favorite....ROTFLOL!

Hope you have a great day...and a HAPPY MAY! Feel free to check back...have a few more I may share in a few more days! ;)

A new life she has found.

One of the things I love about scrapbooking is that I find it to be very therapeutic sometimes. It helps me relax when I am feeling stressed, has helped me to connect with some wonderful women who I know call friends and have been so wonderful and supportive to me over the years, it even helps me communicate better - sometimes I can write what I want to say so much better than just speaking it. This time however I have used it a bit to heal. I was inspired by a friend and fellow scrapbooker over at The House of Paper when she posted a LO regarding a painful part of her past. Just the other day I heard a song on the radio which brought back some painful memories of my own past and while I would not normally scrapbook something like that I decided to take a cue from her and just went for it.

I made this LO and will put it in my This is ME journal. I hope to keep it out of my children's eyes until they are older and can ask questions and have a better understanding if they want to know more. I hope that it will prevent my daughter from possibly falling into a similar situation as it seems these kinds of relationships are more and more common these days -- and I hope to prevent my son from being a person like that.

I have been wondering if I should really post this on my blog but again, if my friend who inspired me can do it, then I guess I can too.

The hidden journaling reads:

I heard this song for the first time the other day and the words really struck something inside me. I was suddenly flooded with memories of a time in my life that I have tried to forget. I wished I had heard a song like this 15 years ago. Perhaps it would have helped me to say “enough” sooner. Even now, all these years later, it is hard to put into words all that I am thinking and feeling. When I look back, I can hardly believe that was my life. Even now, there is a sense of shame that I feel when I think about it. I was once involved in an abusive relationship – both emotional and physical. It wasn’t like that at first but then gradually it just became that way. Why didn’t I leave at the first sign of trouble? Denial, maybe? Low self-esteem? I suffered abuse as a child by a care giver – maybe I just figured this was the way my life was supposed to be? I really do not have a good answer to that question and maybe that is why I don’t share that part of my life with very many people. Even those who are aware don’t really know the extent of things. After years of feeling so ashamed and trying to cover up the bruises and make excuses, I finally had the courage to say “enough”. I was able to finally see that my life could be better than this and I finally started listening to my friends who were trying to help me. I was lucky enough to meet someone who showed me real love and that I was worth so much more than I was giving myself credit for. I was also lucky enough to marry that ‘someone’ years later! It was not easy but I eventually moved on and moved away from that part of my life. There are times that I still feel haunted by things that happened but then I see where I am today and feel a sense of strength at the new life I did indeed find when I finally had enough.

The song lyrics are:

FACE DOWN

Hey, girl, you know you drive me crazy.

One look puts the rhythm in my hand.

Still I'll never understand why you hang around.

I see what's going down.

Cover up with makeup in the mirror.

Tell yourself, it's never gonna happen again.

You cry alone and then he swears he loves you.

A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect.

Every action in this world will bear a consequence.

If you wade around forever, you will surely drown.I

see what's going down.

I see the way you go and say you're right again,

Say you're right again, heed my lecture.

Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.

One day she will tell you that she has had enough

it's coming round again…

Face down in the dirt, she said,

"This doesn't hurt",

she said,"I finally had enough."

I love this girl!

Isn't she precious? This is my little party planner. It seems she had been planning a little surprise party for me. She had even written out a list which Steve gave me (for the scrapbook, he said). I came home from work on my birthday and was greeted to screams of "SURPRISE" from Stevie, Steve, my mom and of course, Alyson.

She had picked out Pirates of the Carribean themed party supplies, complete with party favors and pirate bandanas, because she said she knows how much I love Captain Jack. I got a "Birthday Captain" ribbon to wear too! She told Daddy exactly where to hang the banner, cleaned and set out the table and even picked out a cake for me. Her excitement was evident when I came home and she couldn't wait to show me the rose bushes her and Steve had picked up that day for me as well...they are my favorite and so they are going to plant them outside our master bathroom window so I can see them everyday. Steve told me how she had instructed everyone on what to do when I came home from work.

To know that she did all that, all of her own accord, just warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes (even now!) I can't believe I was feeling so down about my birthday this year -- I am so blessed and it feels wonderful to know how loved I really am! And like a good friend said...it is only a number, right?!

I love this girl!

I was kidnapped!

Yesterday morning I had planned to sleep in as we had spent and late night at the drag races. It would seem my family had other plans!

I was woken up by my mom and sisters early Saturday morning. You can imagine my surprise when I rolled over expecting to see Alyson only to see Mom, Rachelle and Tink all looking back at me! Rachelle informed me they were here to take me to dinner (but it's morning!?) and we are going to a friend's house (what does Gina have to do with this?!) Then they hand me 2 gifts to open...one is a package of sharpies (?!?!) the other a sash that says "Birthday Girl" Then the 3 of them proceed to sing "M-I-C-K-E-Y..." They had conspired with Steve to kidnap me for the day and take me for a girls day at Walt Disney World in honor of my birthday! Once I was finally awake and promised a stop off at Starbucks for a latte on the way I was excited and ready to go!

We spent the day hopping back and forth from Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. I got a Happy Birthday button from the cast members at Disney, which I confess, I always did want to have one of those! And I got so many comments on birthday girl sash as well - people wanted to buy their own and were so surprised to find out my mom made it! It was fun to have so many people telling me happy birthday through out the day.

I was excited to meet the artist, David Doss too. We came across him in The Art of Disney store. Turns out he is the one who drew the disney art I have hanging in my kids' bathroom (I was also thrilled to finally get him to tell me where a hidden Mickey was in one of his pictures!). My sister Rachelle bought me a small matted print of his and had him autograph it for me which was very cool! And he agreed to take a pic with me next to some of his art work! While we were in that same shop I received a phone call from Goofy who sang Happy Birthday to me! I was just so giddy (such a dork, I know!)

I had so much fun getting pics with some of the characters and they even signed my sash! The rainy day did not get us down and by the time we got to our dinner reservations in Germany we were all pretty cold and wet but didn't stop my sisters and I from having some fun doing the chicken dance! I even got a birthday card from all the cast members in Germany...so nice!

I haven't had this much fun or been this surprised for my birthday in a long time! I confess, I had really wanted to spend my weekend home scrapping in the Spring Fling at SOS but being able to spend some time with my mom and sisters at The House of Mouse (the friend's house we were going to, BTW) was just awesome! We did not get home until 2:30 in the morning...we spent about 13 hours at the parks! My youngest sister, Tink even drove home from Tallahasse just to be here and it would seem my sister Rachelle was the master mind behind the whole thing! How lucky am I?

Tonight my parents, Rachelle and my brother were here to make dinner and bring me cake! And tomorrow my mom is coming back yet again so that Steve and I can go out to dinner on my actual birthday! And here I was feeling bad about turning 35 this year...gotta tell you...it is feeling pretty good right now!

Today was my last day.

Today was my official last day as a stay-at-home mom. After almost 9 years of being home with my kids, I start back in the working world tomorrow. I am excited, nervous...ok, maybe scared to death, and a bit sad as well.

Steve is changing careers and starting his own business in addition to managing our tax stores. I know he is so excited and really looking forward to it all but we are both realistic and know it will take some time to get it going...so I am heading out into the world to try and bring in a little money for a while. He is also going to be taking over quite a bit with the kids as well. I am hoping it will not be too overwhelming for him. I am used to being around whenever my kids need me and I feel like I am going to be missing out. Maybe I am not ready for this?!

I guess I don't really have much choice, I have to be ready, right? Well, I

Happy Anniv"ARRRRR"sary!

My parents just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in true pirate style! Not only are my parents huge Tampa Bay Buccaneer fans but their very first date was to a Buccaneer game...so how fitting that they should renew their vows at the Buccaneer's Raymond James Stadium!

The party was in The Press Box which was just awesome and what a view of the field! After the ceremony the immmediate family got to go down to the infamous Buccaneers Pirate Ship and take pics and even play around a little. My mom kept us all to the pirate theme and bought us all costumes...although she did make her dress! Afterwards we headed down to the locker room and to see Gruden's gameday office.

We had a great time and while I can't share ALL the pics we took, here are just a few!

Fabulous FlaminGals LIVE!