Is this baseball season or football season?

We had an awesome weekend and got a great surprise! Bradley and Brennan both had ballgames on Saturday. We knew it was going to be a cold day with temps in the 40's but winds blowing about 20 mph. As Gary and I got situated on the bleachers, we saw Gary's parents and brother's family getting out of the car! Kevin and Angie had come up from Arkansas for the weekend, but they surprised us by coming all the way up to Carlisle for the boys' games! Being from Arkansas, I don't think they were prepared for this Iowa cold. Gary had to make an emergency trip home for blankets, jackets, sweatshirts, etc. It was so cold at Bren's game, nobody dared move from under our many layers, but by Bradley's game it warmed up just a bit, and the kids ran around some. This was Bren's first game since all of his other ones had been rained out. He got on base every time, but the game ended in a tie. Bradley's team won 7-1.
He wasn't pitching today
since he'd just pitched Friday night.
He did go 2-3 with a nice double

and made the last out of the game, so I'm glad both

of the kids had good games for Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins. After we thawed out, we ordered pizza for supper and just enjoyed catching up and chatting. They didn't leave until about 9:30 or so. It was such a fun day together! It makes us look forward to our Florida vacation in just a few short months!

Sunday was busy as well. Church in the morning, Bren had a make-up baseball game, but I had to miss that to take Bradley to a meeting about his tournament ball team. Then Gary had to hand out umpire money, we headed back to church for evening groups and stayed afterwards for the auction for the youth group to raise money for their mission trip this summer. We didn't get home until about 10 so it was late to bed for the kids. Last week Gary and Bradley both had colds, and Gary, in his generous way, passed that on to me. This is the third time this winter I've been sick! Bren also is struggling with it, so he had a rough night. He is just like me in that we both hate having our nose plugged up. So he was awake most of the night fussing and crying and frustrated, which means I was awake most of the night frustrated as well. We vicked, Little Nose sprayed, medicined, and did everything we could to help him breathe better, but it wasn't very successful. So he slept in this morning and I took him to school late. I am dragging today, trying not to waste the whole day away, but I know there will definitely be a nap in order!

Planning on posting some recent layouts soon. I worked a little more on the recipe album this weekend, so it's almost finished up as well. Later!

Long time, no post

I actually started one the other day- in fact I had quite a bit done, and was trying to attach a picture and couldn't for some reason, so I ended up chucking the whole draft. ARGHHHH!!!! I get so frustrated when I'm trying to learn something new and can't figure it out!

So here is what's been going on in a nutshell the last couple of weeks...

* I got a new cell phone, and I love it! It's a US Cellular LG so it has a music player on it, and finally I have a phone with a camera! I actually did figure out how to get some tunes on that last night, but then when I went to put the chip back into the computer to load some more songs, my computer wouldn't even recognize the chip! So I have to try and mess with that again today.
* I got to scrapbook all day last Friday. I went to a crop at church, and had a wonderful time meeting and getting to know some fellow scrappers.
* I exercised 5 times last week. Count them- FIVE! I think that's an all-time record for me. However this week, that number is at 0- so far. That is next on my agenda today.
* Bradley finally got to play a baseball game after having several rained out. He played a double header in Fort Des Moines, and they won both. He is starting off much better with his hitting (last year his hitting wasn't so great) and almost hit one over the fence!! Brennan still hasn't played a game, and it's not looking good for this weekend either since it's supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow.
* I did try a new recipe- pizza meat loaf. My family does not like meat loaf, however I thought maybe if I disguised it with pizza sauce and pepperonis it might fly, but I was wrong. That recipe got taken out of the file and pitched as I don't see me making it again.
*Gary's Uncle Larry was brought up to Mercy with heart issues, and ended up having two stints put in. Thankfully he is recovering now. That same day, Doyle's Uncle Dee passed away at Mercy hospital.
* I am beginning to get my summer schedule figured out. I can't believe that is just weeks away!
* I have been helping Mady put together a little scrapbook of her prom pictures. We have been using lots of glitter and bling, which I absolutely love! It's been great fun, and it turned out really cute!
* I raked leaves and cleaned out flower beds last weekend when it was actually nice. The fertilizer is down as well, so now we just need it to dry out enough, and I'm ready to plant some pretties!

That about sums it up! Today is rainy and yucky, so hopefully I will get something done. I seem to drag a little more on these kinds of days.

Finally some sun!

Nothin' but blue skies today and it felt so good!! I definitely feel energized on days like today instead of like last Thursday. It was cold, windy, and rainy, and even though I had the day off, I curled up on the couch and slept. Today I did my workout, cleaned the tutor room, did a couple of loads of laundry, made banana brownies, and scrapped for awhile! I've got lots of creative energy right now, and I just want to hole up in my little basement room and work, work, work. When Gary gets home with the camera, I will post some of my latest pages.
In turkey news, Bradley came home without one. They saw several, but just wasn't in the right spot at the right time. Gary saw several again today, and is hoping for good luck tomorrow morning. I'm ready to have him home. My bed is lonely at night. I've been plugging in the heating pad, propping up my pillows, and reading or perusing magazines before I fall asleep. I did have Oreo to keep me company while Bradley was gone, but as soon as he came home, Oreo deserted me for Lad's bed. On the brighter side, I stay on my side of the bed when Gary's gone, so making the bed in the morning has been a piece of cake. His pillows are still in place and the covers on his side are untouched! I just straighten the comforter on my side a bit, put my shams on the bed, and all done! Well off to my nightly routine. I got some good scrappin eye candy in the mail today so I will enjoy that until my little eyelids can't stay open anymore.

Been working on...

creating a new recipe file for the last couple of weeks.

Although I don't seem to cook as much as I'd like to

I really seem to enjoy accumulating recipes. I have

subscribed to several cooking magazines throughout

the years, and after I go through them, I cut out the

recipes I'd like to try. I will often ask others for good

recipes brought to get-togethers, etc. and my husband

is great to ask for a recipe from a coworker who has

brought something yummy to share. So all of those

recipes have been tucked into a folder which is now

bulging at the seams. So I knew I needed to do

something. I saw this binder at Target, and thought

it was absolutely adorable and wanted to use it for

a project, and thought it'd be perfect for this. I bought

the adorable dividers as well (I will post pics of the

inside soon- I'm still putting finishing touches on it).

It took quite awhile to go through all of the recipes, and

weed out a bit. Some I've tried, but weren't worth

saving, some were very similar, and some I'd had for

several years and never tried, so I figured I probably

never would! Then I divided them up into categories,

and went through each one and straightened up the

edges with my paper trimmer. Most I had just quick cut out with scissors, and they were all jagged. I'm a bit anal about straight edges! Some of these recipes have been quickly written down on scraps of paper and some of the well-used ones have been spilled on and smudged, so my next task is to rewrite some of these on recipe cards. Then I want to add some cute "scrappy" final touches, and the project will be completed!

In other news, opening ceremonies and the boys' first ballgames were cancelled this weekend. The weather has been just awful- it even snowed today! So my boys are freezing in their little turkey blind. They have one more day for Bradley to hopefully get a bird! They did see 18 of them the other night, but Bradley was facing the wrong direction to be able to get a shot. Figures. Brennan and I stayed in today except for getting his baseball pictures taken. He played Guitar Hero, we ate corn casserole (his favorite meal), and have played a few rounds of Boggle. That is his new favorite game, and I love how wonderful it is for spelling and vocabulary development. I play Boggle with my tutoring students quite a bit. I also worked on my recipe notebook and finally got the hall closet cleaned. I have needed to do that for weeks, but just kept putting it off. Tomorrow we will go to church and probably stop at McDonalds for lunch. I'm trying to spoil Brennan a little since Bradley gets to do something special with Dad.

"It's Raining...

It's pouring, the inside is boring!" (spoken from the cat who goes in and out 50 times per day).

Lots of rain here this week- opening ceremonies of baseball is looking pretty bleak for the weekend. My boys just headed down south for turkey hunting. Bradley just called, and said it's a muddy mess. They had a makeshift bridge put down that is officially under water, and it's still pouring. I don't know what turkeys do in this kind of weather, but I sure hope some of them will run around in the rain so my guys can get a chance to shoot one! They have been looking forward to this for months.

I know this dreary weather has done nothing for my motivation! I enjoyed breakfast out with my neighbor, and then had plans to run errands and grocery shop. Instead, I curled up on the couch with a blanket and took a nice long nap (I won't admit just how long it was!!). It was just that kind of day.

Organizing Mojo...

I am still struggling with how to arrange everything on a post. I wanted to line these pictures up, but I can't seem to figure out how to get them to move. ARGG!!! Anyway, here is the fruit of my labor this weekend before I started feeling yucky. The first picture is of my hall closet-the one that holds medicines, bandaids, cleaning stuff, etc. I got some rubbermaid baskets and labeled each one accordingly. I found a lot of expired medicine in that closet- one was from 2001! I usually go through this closet once per year and pitch old stuff, so I'm not sure how that bottle of medicine escaped me for so long!

The rest of the pictures are in my scrapping area. I went through all of my stuff and categorized and labeled it so I'm able to find what I want easier. I recently took all of my acrylic paints out of the cupboard and lined them up on the ledge by my CREATE sign. I really love the color it adds to the room and inspires me to want to use them more. I love how paint can spice a project up, but I hate the mess involved in cleaning up.

Above my table area, I have an inspiration wall on the cupboard doors. I love quotes, and often times, our pastor will use some great ones in his sermons, and I'll write them down on the sermon note sheet. I recently went through all of my sermon note sheets and gathered my favorites to post on those doors. I also got a great little daily quote calendar last Christmas from Mady and several of those are up there as well.

Anyway, it felt good to clean up and organize- I love "a place for everything and everything in its place" (a favorite quote of mine, as you can imagine!)

Feeling yucky

I had intended to post all sorts of wonderful things today, but I'm a little under the weather. Gary has been fighting a cold this last week, and this morning I woke up with the worst sore throat, headache, chills, and just feel icky. I have stayed home from church all day, and basically just laid around- I don't really have energy to do anything. Bradley has been so sweet- he just made me a beautiful salad, complete with bacon, ham, cheese, and light ranch dressing. As he was playing outside today, he came back a couple of times just to check on me, and has been asking me all day if I need anything! It feels kinda nice to be waited on! How precious!
Thankfully I didn't feel bad until today, so I did get a lot accomplished this weekend in spite of today. Yesterday it was gorgeous outside! That seemed to provide extra energy to get things done.
Next time I post I'll show you what I've been up to. I've been an organizing maniac!

Did you know...

that the words LISTEN and SILENT have the same letters just in a different order? You may not think that's a big deal, but I think that's kindof ironic. So many times I think we think we are truly listening, whether it be to our mates or our children, a friend, or the Lord, but often we are not being silent in the process. We are getting ready to respond, react, or try to tell them what we want to say. When was the last time you truly listened to someone, without having your next sentence formulated already? When was the last time you were silent and took it all in when having a conversation with someone- not just their words, but their tone, gestures, body language, and demeanor? Maybe that's not hard for you, but I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I know it's something I need to work on-especially with my kids.