Faces in the wild

Call me crazy but doesn't this look like a face? Maybe some long forgotten Easter Island wanna be? Use your imagination... maybe WC Fields?  :) 

Vacation Daze part 3

Finally home after our week long excursion to our wonderful hometown of St. Louis. We survived the horrible weather that hit after our hiking experience at Hawn and enjoyed the trip to visit Lincoln's Library and Memorial.  On Friday we went to Elephant Rocks State Park and had fun rock climbing on huge granite boulders and mounds. We followed that up with dinner at the Elk's Lodge with Dan's family, it was really good and we saw a few old college friends there as well.  We headed for Omaha on Saturday and it has taken me this long to catch up on laundry to write.  Since its the holiday weekend, we can't pick up our mail until tomorrow; I am always anxious to see how much we received while we were gone.

I just want to take a minute and thank those service men and women we are honoring today.  Your bravery is the reason we are all free today.  Thank you and God Bless!

Vacation Daze part 2

Went hiking today in southeaster MO to Hawn State Park and other little parks around the area.  Got in a few good hikes before the rain drove us home.  Lots of rain, severe storms and tornado's all around us. Heading to Springfield, IL tomorrow to visit Lincoln's home, library and monument.  Hoping for better weather. Pictures to follow when we are back home in Omaha.

Vacation Daze - part 1

We are traveling the globe, well to St. Louis anyway so the blog will be lacking for a few days.  Here what has been happening so far.  (Pictures will follow at a later date)

May 20 - last day of school!  Woo-hoo!
May 21- survived the apocalypse and arrived in STL
May 22- celebrated Danny's birthday with STL family
May 23- hung out with Maw and watched the rain dampen our hiking day

Today we are hanging out with my mother and traveling the Great River Road in IL.  My kids are thrilled. ;)

Happy Birthday!!

My baby is 17 today!!  Guess he really isn't my baby anymore now is he.  :)  

It's all about me

So I am on the path to simple abundance. {no I have not joined some cult} I read this book a while back about being a tranquilista, living in harmony with my surroundings {read: teenagers} and thought that sounded wonderful. When you take this journey you have to really find who you are, so see mom... it really is all about me!  At least this notebook is.  Its my space {kinda like my blog} where I can put images and ideas of things I eventually want in my life.  I have a self realization board too, but today I was working on my material book. I filled it today with outfits I like that I found in yesterday's ads and some decorating ideas.  Now to have the lotto materialize so I can afford the items in my "me" book.  

Old habits die hard

I see that it has been three days {sigh} since I last blogged.  We have been busy and I did take pictures of our going-ons.  Just didn't charge the camera, so at the moment I can't transfer my pics.  Maybe I should looking to getting a new battery as the seems to be happening a lot lately.  Anyway, here is the run down of my missing days:

May 12:  hail storm moved through, pics of near quarter size hail

May 13:  8th grade honors night for Emily, pic of her receiving her awards

And today, May 14: honors tea for Danny, pic of his academic letter

Hopefully, I will have my camera back and in proper operating condition for tomorrows entry.

Craft room update

I love it when I find new uses for old items.  This shelving unit was in my son's closet not really being used.  I mean, he was keeping dirty laundry and old shoes on it, but...  I realized I could make better use of the space and he could learn what his hamper was for.  Ta-da! I now have a space to hold all my in progress albums and projects plus some cute knickknacks.  It will also be a nice place to store my Big Shot when I purchase it.

Junk be gone!

We all have them... the junk drawer. In fact, I have more than one; I have one for each room.  {I am certain that I am not alone with this dirty little secret.}  Today was my day to tackle the junk drawer in the kitchen.  And in doing so, I found two gift certificates to a local hair salon, two to Target and one to Jimmy John's that I completely forgot I had.  Score!!  Wonder what treasures my other drawers hold?  

93 for the first week of May

The mercury reached 93 here.  That's right, 93 degrees... for May!  We had to turn our ac on... in May! I don't want to complain about the heat, especially since it was so cold in April.  But 93 is a little too warm for my taste for early May.  I am having a little trouble with my camera at the moment.  I'd blame it on the heat for draining the battery, but I think I left it on after uploading yesterday's picture.  You would think it has an automatic shut off or something.  So hopefully I will be back up and shooting my life tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a very nice and relaxing day with my family.  This is the kids and myself before dinner. Look how they have grown into two wonderful young adults.  I am truly blessed! 

I can see clearly now

Since I am down to my last pair of contacts and my last eye doctor visit was over a year ago, it was time for my eye visit.  So off to my trusty Shopko {think Target} to visit Dr. V in the optical department.  All is well with my eyes and new contacts were ordered, but because our lovely eye insurance only covers glasses or contacts every 2 years, I had to pay out of pocket for those but my annual exam was covered {sigh!}  I am sure that makes sense in insuranceville, but it's a little annoying waiting every other year for my contacts to be covered.  If I wasn't so afraid of the lasik surgery, I would have that done and be finished with contacts. Oh well, it could always be worse...

In one day...

... three magazines arrived for me.  Three!  Now to make a cup of tea, settle into my cozy chair and find new inspirations for our home, new recipes to try and some new exercise that will give me six pack abs. Happy reading for me.

Follow through

Emily's final regular track meet before City Finals was this afternoon.  Most of today was sunny, but as our luck would have it, rain moved in {so much for the 40% chance} and made the first 15 minutes of the meet soggy and cool. After the athletes dried off, and us too, the meet resumed with Emily's group at the shot put. This has to be one of my favorite pictures so far; also one of the few I have of her throwing shot put.  I love how her eyes follow the ball, er shot put, as she releases it. I also like the determination on her face, willing the "ball" to go far.  Her first throw, this one pictured, was her best of the day.  Way to go Emily!!

Goodbye clarinet

Today was my beautiful daughter's farewell tour with the 8th grade band. {she is the third one in, next to the blonde girl} Now it really isn't a farewell tour, they are just visiting area elementary schools, hoping to encourage the students to become involved in music.  However, she informed us she is giving up the clarinet next year, not wanting to continue in high school. She has been playing since 5th grade and is tired of it. We had the same deal with Danny {handsome son} when he played the violin.  I am a little sad... for the reason my dream of seeing both my kids on the football field, one playing and one in marching band won't be realized. But wait, maybe I can talk her in to trying out for cheer squad.  {My dream may still be alive after all :) }

Almost like riding a bike

I have been away from my scrapbooking for a while, so my goal is to finish my son's football album up to senior year since that is next year.  Apparently I have forgotten how to scrapbook.  Usually my pages have lots of cool paper, embellishments and such but my mind has gone blank {or black} trying to figure out what to do with black pages. I know they don't have to be black pages but I thought it would be cool since his school colors are black and yellow.  Maybe I need to visit a few of my favorite blogs to "borrow" a few ideas.

May is

National Scrapbooking Month so to celebrate, {starting a day late, oops} I spent my day off from work scrapbooking. Hopefully the next few blogs I can share my newly completed pages.  I better get working, my son finished his junior year of football this year and I have yet to start his album.  {think it's going to be a graduation present for him}  

Two posts in one

So I have missed a few days so let me recap....

On Friday, we had an out of town visitor.  My cousin Monica was in town for a quick overnight visit and I really didn't have time to post. {also really didn't want to explain my blog to her, yes I know it's out here for anyone to look at but...}

Yesterday reason for no post, simple...  I am lazy.  So I am posting it today, just pretend it is still Saturday.
Blog title:   The Cost of Mamma's Taxi Service

Just a quick snapshot of what it costs to fill up my taxi car.  Today I had to take Danny to work so I could use my car {wish the money fairy would bless us with extra money for a third vehicle}; drop Monica {visiting cousin} at the airport; drive back to the airport to give her the wallet she left at our house; {she made her flight by minutes to spare} take Emily to the the mall; head to the grocery store; then finally pick Emily up because they couldn't figure out how to carpool.  Whew!