A couple of great giveaways!

Check out Jolene's blog for a pretty awesome giveaway. I love it!

Check out Kathy's blog. I love her blog and her "little man" is so adorable I just want to take him home with me.

Finally some pics

Sisters Unite designed by Oakhaven Designs

Almost done with this Little House Needleworks design

Another cute Oakhaven Halloween design

Yet another

I love this one, and yes, it's an Oakhaven Design

I finished this one but can't seem to find the finished picture. This was supposed to be for my Halloween SAL but I finished it so fast I have to start another one. lol

I have to say a big thank you to all the lovely ladies who stopped by and commented on my last post. I have gotten (well almost) over the picture debacle and have fixed the Stitching for a Cure ornament mess. Thankfully, Donna is such a lovely person she said to just send them and if she can get them on the tree she will. If she can't, then she'll just auction them off individually. Whew! that was a big relief!! I have to say once I got the receipt from the postal clerk I felt like a ten ton weight had just lifted from my shoulders. Now, if I could just fix the picture issue that easily!!! I think if I take my computer to someone they could probably find them somewhere still sitting on it or I'd like to think so at least. lol

I am a total flipping Idiot!!!!!

I can't believe how incredibly STUPID I am!!!!!!!! Here is where I have to tell you how badly I've neglected my stitching corner. I haven't touched it other than to throw more patterns and projects on the pile. Last night, I decided I couldn't stand to look at that mess any more and started going through the massive mess. Horrors!!! What did I discover???!!! My package of finishes for Donna's Stitching for a Cure tree was still sitting there waiting to be mailed to her. I must have moaned or whimpered because DH asked me what on earth was the matter. This week has been a pretty crappy week when it comes to my stupidity. This was the second stupid thing I discovered I did or in this case, didn't do at all. I now get to do the crawl of shame to let Donna know how totally mortified I am for my own stupidity.

What else could I possibly have done to top this you ask? Well, lets see, hmmmm. Our computer has been slower than normal, couple that with the fact that I knew I had to download/upload a computer program from the data entry company that I will be doing subcontract work for soon. I decided to remove all my cross stitch patterns and pictures from the computer and put them on one of my flash drives. I thought I knew what was on the flash drive so I formatted it without checking it first. I then copied all files to the drive and deleted them from the computer. After I did this I checked the amount of room left on the drive and was a little concerned as I had a lot (a ton actually) of extra free space left. This wouldn't have been the case if I had actually used the right flash drive. I spoke to my DH and asked if he had saved anything to a flash. No, thankfully, he hadn't. Yes, you would think I should have asked him this before I formatted the stupid drive.

A couple of months ago, we received some much needed software so I could work with Logan on his speech and other therapies at home. We had an older computer that wasn't being used so I set that up for him. At that time, I removed all our family pictures and put them on a flash drive and deleted everything else from that computer. Do you see where I'm going with this yet??? When the truth hit me, I thought I was going to be physcially sick. Most of those pictures, gone, wiped out, never to be seen again. I do, thankfully, have some that we had printed out but the majority are completely gone. Add this stupidity to what I discovered last night and I think you can get the picture of how totally miserable I feel right now.

I do have some progress pics of all the stitching I have done lately but I think you can understand why I'd rather not touch any picture at this particular time. I will get back on here sometime this weekend and post them. Right now, I have to e-mail Donna and try to explain my stupidity.

A quick update....

to let you know that I've actually been stitching. I will get some pics this week sometime just not today. Mondays are not the best days in this house and today seems to be worse than the norm for some reason. I've done more running around than normal today and I can feel it. I had to run some errands this morning before making my way back home after dropping off the last child at school. By the time I got back home it was around 10:00 and I had the worst headache. No problem, throw on a small pot of java and that should take care of it. It was then I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Duh! I did eat and enjoyed a nice hot cup of coffee but it's not doing the trick.

It's now almost 4:00 and this headache will not let go. I'm hoping now that Logan and the two little ones are home I can sit and relax until Marie gets home. I think I'll do up another small pot of coffee and sit with my feet up. Maybe a little rest and some more food will kill this bugger once and for all. lol I will get the camera out of the bag and take some pictures of my stitching from this past week tomorrow. Logan will have to stay home as he came home at 3:00 with a temp and they have a rule that children have to be without a temp for 24 hours before they can come back. He seems fine to me; running around like normal so who knows what it was but I don't mind not fighting him in the morning to get on the bus. It will be fun getting him in and out of the van while taking Katie and Ryan but hey, I'm not even going to think about that right now. lol

Happy Monday and I will be back with pics tomorrow.

Lordy! I did it again, Oy!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted on here. I thought I was supposed to have more time now that the kids are back in school but it hasn't happened yet. It's now starting on the fifth week of school and things may settle down soon but then again.....maybe not! LOL



Let's see, no pictures to show of all that wonderful stitching I've done. Okay, I haven't done much stitching lately but I could still at least snap a picture to show what little progress I've made. If I did that I might actually get the pictures off the camera from Logan's birthday back in July. Geesh! I've been a very bad girl lately. No stitching, no pictures and I still need to send my mother-in-law and my mom pictures from Logan's birthday. Maybe I can get them off after Marie's birthday this Saturday. DH is planning on taking a vacation day on Friday and taking her to Universal Studios as a surprise. I have to keep telling her to behave herself or she'll ruin her birthday surprise. I can't wait to see her face when we wake her up extra early Friday morning!



My life got a little crazier than normal the second week of school when little miss Katie came down with the flu. She was out the entire week and I had to take her to the pediatric urgent care to get some meds for her. It turns out she is allergic to Tamiflu and it only made her stomach worse. It got a little scary there but thankfully she was able to turn it around on her own and started getting better by Saturday that week. Whew what a week that was!!! Somehow, I was able to prevent the other three from catching the flu but at one point they all had a little fever and mild cold. Thankfully they never got any more than that and we survived the first three weeks of school. Last week, they all made it through the entire week without coming home early. Yeah!!

Now, this week, I'm ready for the bus schedule to get to a more normal pace so that things can get into a rhythm. I can dream, can't I????? LOL

Happy Monday everyone!!!!

WOW! Time flies when you're having fun!

Marie doing her morning reading

Logan and his favorite birthday gift. It's loud, noisy and of course, he loves it!

Katie and Ryan snuggling before bedtime.

My gift to myself; I'm looking forward to finishing and framing it.

Gift for DH if I can just make myself sit and stitch at the blue. It's the logo for the TampaBay Rays baseball team.

So, what have we been doing with ourselves these past four weeks??? Well, my diet is going great! I've lost almost ten pounds in all and am doing pretty good on the exercising. I've started helping DH by cutting the grass. I actually like getting out there and sweating my butt off while I have some "quiet" time away from the kids. Yeah, I know; running lawnmower and quiet are not usually words one uses in the same sentence. If you're a parent, you know what I mean. LOL

The kids and I have been going to the park at least three times a week and started hitting the beach twice a week lately too. Of course, when we hit the beach, DH has to be with us as taking three or four kids and all their junk is nearly impossible for one person. Although, I have weeded a lot of stuff out as I see that they don't use things. I gave up bringing any of their chairs or extra umbrellas. We take a couple of huge towels to throw down so they can track sand all over them. Of course, we can't forget all their toys now can we?!?! The only ones who play with the toys are Katie and DH. Although, toward the end of our last visit, Marie and Katie did join in the castle making fun. Logan stays in the water when he goes with us and you can't get him to come up at all.

Logan is still enjoying summer school just not the getting up and on the bus by 7:00 a.m. every morning! We took the time this past weekend and finally put the boys beds together as bunk beds instead of having them side-by-side. Logan loves climbing up into his big boy bed. Now, if I can just get him to go to sleep before 11:00 p.m. each night things might get easier for the mornings. LOL Today we had a nasty morning but he ended up in a better mood by the time the bus got here. He has been wearing a harness to keep him from moving around in his seat but he absolutely hates it and I have no more energy to fight him anymore. He's just going to have to be free other than the seatbelt. He only has one more day this week and all of next week and it's over so they will just have to deal with his constant movement and kicking.

Four more weeks until the "real" school year starts and all of them will be going. Okay, so I will only get three hours (if that) each day to myself but since I never have had that since I stopped working over two years ago, I'm happy with that!!!!! I'm looking forward to getting everyone settled back into the school routine and I think they are really excited about it too. They love spending time playing in the backyard and at the beach and park but I think they all want to see their friends. I've had lots of fun with them this summer too. I wonder what I'll do with my few hours of peace and quiet?!?!?!

Stitching but no progress pics yet

Long time, no post eh?! It's been a busy week with all the kids home from school. We've been playing outside in the kiddy pools at least once a day and trying to take a nice walk in the mornings. As long as we can get outside before 9:00 a.m. the walk is great but anytime after that and it's a sweat suck-the-life-out-of-you walk. Today we're skipping the walk as they all woke up too late for it. It's back to the horsey rides through the house with Mommy being the horsey. At least I get my exercise that way right?!?!

I have been stitching but no progress pics to show. I finished my second Peace, Love and a Cure to send to Donna and I have one more ornament to finish stitching before I can send her package out. I did try my hand at finishing but I made a mess out of two cute smalls so I have to give up (for now only) and send all that I have to Donna to finish for me. She's such a great lady, she agreed to finish all that I have stitched for her Stitching for a Cure tree.

I've been meaning to get on here with a post but with all the kids home and Logan's habit of turning the computer off, my time on the thing has been drastically reduced. I'm hoping to get into a nice schedule of fun, school work (summer we like to keep everyone up-to-date and have them practice what they learned this school year) and down time soon. Logan's summer school will be starting in about two weeks so a different schedule will begin soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the later waking up time when I can get it, especially as I'm having to stay up later with Ryan. Oh and I've given up coffee so it does make for a harder wake up time in the morning. On top of everything else, I've finally pulled my head out and started exercising and eating better so I can lose some weight. I hope to be down to a tollerable dress size by the time the kids start school in late August. Wish me luck!