Pinky's Up

What am I, the Queen of England?!

*Canister in kitchen, chock full of tea bags, not shown



I cleaned out some cabinets last night preparing for our yard sale today. Apparently, the hubby and I are hoarding tea.

Scaredy Cat

Those of you who know me are already quite aware that I'm a total wuss. I wouldn't go as far as saying that I'm afraid of the dark or anything, but I don't know that my hubby would even back me up on that statement!

I'm sure that I've always been this way, too. I can remember watching a particular episode commercial for "Are You Afraid of the Dark" on Nickelodeon and being afraid to sleep by myself because the commercial showed a kid sleeping peacefully  in bed and then pans up to show that there is a ghost hovering above him. It fah-reaked me out! You guys, I was even scared of the movie Ernest Scared Stupid! There is a scene where the girl hears something and is afraid to get off her bed because she thinks a troll is hiding underneath. She finally gets the courage to look and, of course, it's nothing but her teddy bear. She sits back up with a sigh of relief, only to turn her head and find the troll laying next to her! I realize this sounds silly now, but this scene sometimes still haunts me!

So, to recap, I am totally freaked out by anything even remotely scary. As a result, I'm quite jumpy. And since we all know that misery loves company, I am forever trying to sneak up on people to scare them. I do this to both my mom and my hubby on a regular basis. Hubby pretty much expects it and so I almost never have the satisfaction of scaring him. And even when I do, I usually have to ask because it isn't like he lets out a high-pitched scream. I wish he did. I'd totally post it, too.

You know who does scream at the top of their lungs when someone jumps out at them?! Yeah, that'd be me. And that's what happened last night. I unsuccessfully tried to scare Dan when we were heading to bed. Then I realized that I forgot to grab the laundry out of the dryer, so I ran out to the garage to grab it,  turning on lights as I went, of course! I came back in and before I turned off the dining room light, I tried to peer into the hallway to make sure he wasn't going to try and jump out at me. All clear, so I turned off the light and began to walk through the living room when I heard a noise. A growly-hissy noise. You know the kind. Then there was something coming towards me. And I screamed. And backed up into the table. And then there was a bunch of giggling coming from the hubby. That bastard. I didn't even have time to react once I realized it was only him. First, because I woke Haeden up and he started crying almost immediately and second, because I had to run and pee. This bladder ain't what it used to be.

Karma sucks, you guys. Be careful out there!

Steppin Out... Football Edition

This week's Steppin' Out is a little stretched... but Mandy said no rules, riiiight?! Also, it looks as though I will never actually "step out" on Saturday. Obviously because I'm a rebel and not because I'm lazy or forgetful. Duh!

Every year we try to take the older boys to a Jaguars game. This year, we could not have chosen a better date. The weather was beautiful* and we actually won! I'll be honest here, I don't really care much about football (shocker!) but it's hard not to get into the spirited frenzy when you actually attend the game. I might watch the people around us a little more than what's happening on the field, but it's all a part of the experience, right?! I was actually paying attention when it counted though because I totally witnessed the friggin' PLAY OF THE YEAR! For those of you that didn't, let me paint a picture...

The game is tied. The Jags get the ball with 8 seconds to go. Everyone thinks they're going to just take a knee and go to overtime, but NO! They threw the ball... or ran it? I don't really know because I was texting our sitter at this point to let her know it was going to overtime. Ha! But, basically they get a little further down the field and now there are only 3 seconds left! The quarterback throws the ol' Hail Mary pass a good 50 yards down the field and a Houston defender in the end zone bats it down... but not down to the ground like he intended, oh no, he put it right into the hands of one of our receivers right at the half-yard line! He took one step over the line for an amazing win!  They don't call them the "cardiac kids" for nothing! Wooooo!

Okay, enough foot ball talk. I'm beginning to sound like my hubby. On to the photo:

Boys: Representin' with their Jags Jerseys! Dan's is great because it has our last name on the back and his number was actually his first football number from when he was a young lad. Awwww, memories!
Me: Jags sweatshirt. You can't really see it, but very comfy and cute... but freaking $65 dollars! Good thing my sugar daddy paid for it.  And Sunglasses from Target.

Giving Thanks

It's a little early, but really, when is it not appropriate to count our blessings? I give thanks today for my lovely little family. Especially for this little guy. Holy crap, is he cute or what?!

Overheard at Golden Corral

My lovely sister, who I don't get to see nearly enough, graced us with her presence for a few days this past week. She lives out in the boonies of Virginia. No point in telling you exactly where because I assure you, you've never heard of it.

Every time she is in town we end up eating at Golden Corral. This is because my grandfather will only come along if we agree to go there. I don't think anyone else especially enjoys the dining out experience it provides. It's basically over-priced cafeteria food and other than the mashed potatoes and macaroni, the food is pretty bland. And lets face it, how hard is it to screw up those two?  If it weren't for the all you can eat ice cream, I think I'd have a pretty hard time getting the hubby to agree to going. As it is, he likes to refer to it as "The Trough." ha!

Anyway, on to the point of this post. Other than the ice cream, the only saving grace GC has is the entertainment the patrons tend to provide. My sister was busy filling her plate full of starches when she overheard the following conversation:

Classy Woman #1: Oooh, girl! Here go da broccoli and brussel sprouts. Gonna get you sum?
Classy Woman #2: I ain't gettin no brussel sprouts!
Classy Woman #1: Why? They good fo you!
Classy Woman #2: Cause when I gots brussel sprouts in my mouth it taste like someone pooted in der!

Man, I can't wait to go back!

Flower Power

You guys! I am totally obsessed with the plethora of tutorials that can be found on the blogosphere. Lately, I have been printing them off and sticking them in a binder at home. It is already overflowing with all the projects I'd love to someday try, and yet I find myself printing off probably two or three more each week. I need to stop printing and start crafting! This would be so much easier if they'd let me do this at work...

At the moment I am addicted to all the flower-related tuts, whether it be felt/organza hair clips, pins or just plain (but still gorgeous) ol' paper flowers. So far, the tissue paper carnations have been an epic FAIL, however, I am hoping it might just be the fact that I had super cheap (super thin) tissue. Mine came out looking more like a wrinkled up ball of tissue paper rather than an actual carnation.

What does seem to be working for me are the felt/organza hair clips and pins. I can usually churn out three or four of these in an hour's time. They aren't perfect by any means (homemade isn't supposed to be, right? riiiight?!), but I've already got a few friends asking me to make them some, so I'm pretty proud! I must warn you though, although I didn't singe my bangs with the lighter, I did burn the crap out of my fingers with the glue gun. I'm not sure I have much of a fingerprint left on my right index finger. Oh, and I may or may not have accidentally punched myself in the eye at one point. Don't ask. Just be careful!

Here are the results! And please excuse the craptastic photos. My house is basically a cave.

The off-white and pink flowers are pins. I sent one to my Chemo Angel last week. The rest are all hair clips. I can't wait to try my hand at a headband for my sweet little niece. What do you guys think?

Steppin' Out: Halloween Edition

A Halloween Edition:

Me: Nothing exciting here. Everything except for the seriously seen better days Converse is from Target. Oh, and the $5 kitty costume from Wally World.

Haeden: Pajamas/ skeletoddler costume also from Wally World.

Halloween is a toughie in Florida. Most costumes are seriously hot and you never really know what the weather is going to be around here. Sometimes it's 85 degrees and sometimes it's 65 degrees. Last year it was the former and poor Haeden was rather crabby about his getup:

And he wasn't any happier with this one:

So, with that in mind, we decided that this year we would simplify. Plus, we already knew that there was no way in hell he would keep anything on his head for more than 2.5 seconds and that really limits choices these days. We found this year's costume while grocery shopping at money-saving soul-sucking Walmart. It's really just a pair of pajamas that glow in the dark, but we were sold on the fact that it would be worn more than once and still passed as a costume. We also planned to spike his hair and add a little makeup to his face, but someone wasn't cooperating. Imagine that!

As for the rest of us, we really tried to plan ahead this year. We tried, but we failed. Since we were strapped for cash, we didn't even consider the local costume shops and since we only have the boys every other weekend and they had no idea what they wanted to be, we didn't have the opportunity to thrift shop hop either . In the end, we found ourselves once again at Walmart two days before Halloween, picking through what little was left over. I tried to get the boys to go as fairies, Disney princesses or flappers but they just weren't having it. All things considered, we didn't do too bad. Patrick, the Woopie Cushion*, was a pretty big hit, as was Daniel's mustache! Ole'!



* I totally just realized looking at the pictures that Woopie is spelled wrong! Guess that is how you get around the trademarks! Ha!