American Saturday night....

Brad Paisley style.





















I had the chance to attend the Brad Paisley concert on Saturday night with girlfriends(GNO). The show was AMAZING from start to finish. Brad was awesome, he totally rocked the stage. I have heard his music before & liked it. Now that I have seen him, live in concert...I am a fan & am enjoying all of his music.





























Jimmy Wayne(never heard of him until the concert) & Dierks Bentley(love, love, love Dierks) opened the show for him.


























The music was great, the evening weather was perfect( after a HOT day), & these girls were so much fun to chat, sing & dance with.















Who should we see next?
p.s. Huge thanks to Amy & Jen for sharing their concert pics. with me.

You know it's been super busy if there hasn't been a blog post in ONE whole week. Even though we have been in school for 6 weeks, I am finally feeling like we are BACK in school. The homework is piling up, book reports are waiting to be completed, All About Me posters have been decorated & filled out. I'm helping in all 3 classrooms this year. I volunteered to be the art docent in two of the classrooms. Add in soccer training four nights a week, piano lessons, scouts twice a week, etc... It is crazy. I am falling into to bed each night, physically exhausted & mentally drained. Please don't take this the wrong way, I am not complaining...just feeling it this week. Did I mention that my 2 year is all of sudden behaving like a two year old. He has been 2 since May & just this week decided to take on the terrible two syndrome. I am pretty sure the people at Costco thought I was kidnapping him as he was screaming NO at the top of his lungs as I was hurrying to get him out of the store. Parenting in all its glory.

Here is our week,week in review style:

Friday, September 18th am

Tanner received the Coyote of the Month award. His teacher had some really nice things to say about Tanner. He makes us super proud.














Friday, September 18th pm


















{self portrait, not my favorite & a crumby angle in the car...it is what it is}.
John & I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary a little early. We went to the movies(All about Steve-cute with a good message) & dinner @ CPK.

Saturday, September 19th
Soccer Saturday...3 games in the heat! Tanner tied, Carter won, & Garrett lost by one goal. We enjoy watching them play.


























Sunday, September 20th
our actual anniversary. It was very uneventful. We went to church & I got to wrestle the alligator in the foyer. I'm just saying that the terrible two thing & church don't mix right now! Sorry, no photos! Not an hour of my life that I want to remember -LOL.


Monday, September 21st
I walked the boys too school & then went for a power walk with my friend, Camie. I got home from our walk & decided to pull weeds & trim the bushes since I was already stinky & sweaty. After some yard work, i end up with tiny puncture wound & lots of pain...wasn't sure if I had been bit by something or if I had a dried reed stuck in my finger. it hurt (and still does) bad.

Tuesday Sept. 22My finger is still throbbing at this point. I tried a salt paste to help extract whatever is still stuck in my finger, lots of peroxide. Nothing is helping or doing the trick.

Wednesday, September 23rd
My Mom came up for a visit. It was seriously exactly what I needed this week. We went to lunch with John & the boys. Then my Mom & I up hit Green Tangerines & the Mall. She was successful in the shopping department, I didn't find anything to buy. Shocking, I know!!!! I loved having her here to chat with & just be. I think she played more rounds of hide & seek in one visit that she has in her entire life. Garrett & Brody loved how willing she was to hide & seek with them. She hid in the hall closet, under the high chair, next to the piano. It was fun to watch! We hope she comes again, real soon.



























Thursday, September 24th
A new kit of the week was released at Green Tangerines this week. Perfect for your Disney photos. There is room for 7 photos on this layout! I had fun creating this one. As always, you can call to store at 916-771-8010 to order yours.


















In other Thursday news, I spent the morning & part of the afternoon at my Dr.'s office. Went to have him take, whatever is in my thumb out. After 20 minutes of digging(with a not fully numbed thumb-say that 20 times -LOL) he didn't find anything. I did leave his office with a flu shot & a tetanus shot...good times for sure. I am hoping all of the digging moved things around so that whatever is in there, will come out on its own. I am just happy that it was not a spider bite. I have decided that I will be excused from any other future yard work :-).

Friday, Sept. 25th














There was no school for the boys today. It was a teacher in service day...not my favorite, "lets miss school" kind of holiday. I did sneak away for a bit to deliver a little bit of happiness to a friend who is celebrating a birthday on Monday.
Happy birthday, Mer. I hope your day is fabulous!
p.s. have you been to this cute little cupcake boutique...so fun & cute!

Gearing up for soccer Saturday tomorrow & looking forward to a GNO concert...I can't wait! Have a super weekend, friends!

it's that time of the week...again

Here is a look at this weeks Kit of the Week from Green Tangerines.

















This kit is available today(9/17/09).I don't get to scrap with girly girl colors very often. I had to borrow girly photos from my friend, Jan. She had these darling photos of her daughter Johnna & her BFF's. Aren't they beautiful girls? Thanks for the photos, Jan & Johnna.















This kit includes pattern papers from American Crafts, Thickers, Kaiser Kraft Bling, Bazzill cardstock, & cute butterfly die cuts. If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of scrapbooking, the Kit of the Week is a perfect way to get back into it or even get started for the first time. All of the supplies are included in the kit. All you have to do is trim the papers down, glue them down & add your own photos.

I have been busy working on another fun project for the store. The 12 weeks of Christmas will be launching soon. The idea behind this weekly kit release is that you will complete 12 LO's for a calendar by Christmas. You pick up a new month, each week. You go home & create that layout & come back the following week for the next month. You will have a Christmas present ready to give & hopefully you didn't stress out over the creation of it. My sister, Amber & I make several calendars each year to give to the Grandma's. They love them & look forward to them each year. Stayed tuned for sneak peeks of the calendar pages.

words to live by

I came across this quote while preparing for my YW's lesson last week. Our lesson was all about having good thoughts. We talked about the things that can help us to have positive thoughts all the time. This quote has become my new mantra ...definitely good words to live by. I used some more of my scrapbook stash(scraps) & even used one of my old clock stamps on the handouts. I found candy watches to attach to each handout for the girls.

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Author unknown

just be bloggled

Have you ever worried about loosing your blog entries? I'll admit it...the "what ifs" have crossed my mind a time or two. Our family blog has become my journal. I have been able to record the comings & the goings of our family. I have recorded the ups, the downs & all of the in betweens. I would be absolutely devastated if I ever lost my blog entries.

I ran across the Bloggled site over on the LEELOU blogs site. For a small monthly fee, Bloggled will back up your blog entries, comments, & even your Tweets if you use Twitter. If you head over to their site right now,you can check out their services for a 30 day trial. If you decide you want to continue to back up your blog entries, you can use the code LEELOU for a 40 percent discount(for life)off of the monthly fee. I received permission from the designer/owner of the LEELOU blog site to share this discount code with you, on my blog. They are also in the process of working on a service that will print your entries into a book. I can't wait to try that.What are you waiting for, back up your life now :-).

p.s. I am not being paid to type this. I just feel like it is important enough to share. Check out the Bloggled site now.

beep beep...

watch out, the Walking School bus is coming. This is an activity that the boys look forward to with the start of each new school year.















You wait on a street corner in your neighbor & the Walking School bus makes its way through the neighborhood to pick you up. It was quite a sight to see 95 percent of the student body walking to school.






It is a great event that encourages the children & parents to get out & walk to school. It provides good exercise & reduces pollution. Once we made it to the school grounds, their was a light breakfast(bagels, fruit, fruit leathers,waters) & a fun little pep rally for the kids. My boys sure don't need the encouragement in the exercise department. They love riding their bikes to & from school & continue to run circles around us. I, on the other hand need all of the encouragement I can get. The Walking school bus renewed my desire to get out there & walk. Come Monday morning, Brody & I will be out & about, soaking up the sunshine & getting our exercise in. Honk if you see us or better yet, come join us!

taking time to remember

I never feel like I have the right words to express my feeling & thoughts about Sept. 11th, 2002. I am a little weepy this morning, remembering that awful day 8 years ago. I remember feeling so helpless & very scared about raising a young family in this crazy world. Tanner was 2 1/2 & Carter was 6 months old exactly. I felt very angry that other people had so much hate in their hearts. So much so that they could take away so many lives & create so much destruction in a short amount of time. I felt very, very sad for all of those families who lost their loved ones that morning. Today I am feeling very overwhelmed with love & gratitude for those men & women who serve our country without a second thought, on a daily basis so that I can hold my head high & live the life that I do. A life where I can proudly say that I am PROUD to be an American. I am taking time this morning to remember all of those people who lost their lives that day. Time to remember those brave police officers, firefighters & kind hearted citizens who sacrificed so much on that day! I know I will never forget that day or where I was when I heard the news. Out of the many photos that captured the turmoil that day, this one is still my favorite. It gave me so much hope(and it still does) that this great country would rise above this day & pull through together.
God Bless America, the land that I LOVE!

Silence leads to...

When my house is quiet, I am talking when there is dead silence. You know the kind, when you can't hear a thing. That is when I know something is wrong. I know somebody is into something.

I'm not naming names or anything but here is what the silence led to yesterday!

He was hiding in the corner with the tube of Desitin. We are not even going to talk about the tube of 12 hour lipstick that he found this morning.

It's official, summer is coming to an end...booooooo. We decided (last minute) to take the boys to Lake Tahoe for one last trip this summer. It was a little windier that we would have liked but it did not damper our fun! The wind on the lake actually provided some awesome entertainment for us. We watched several guys do some parachute surfing. Have you ever seen this? It was very cool & entertaining to watch. The boys had a blast digging in the sand, fishing for crayfish, running in & out of the lake, having Dad pull them really fast on the boogie boards & spinning out of control, & eating lunch on the shore of our favorite lake.

With the end of summer comes the start of Fall.I am so looking forward to cooler weather, Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks,, soccer games(oh wait, we have been attending soccer games all summer), sweater weather, wanting to exercise outside again, Crock pot dinners, favorite fall candles burning, & the lovely colors of Fall.

wrapped,tagged, & almost delivered

I am wrapping up our little service project tonight! Have I mentioned how excited I am about this?

Look what I received in the mail today. Four pairs of brand new tennis shoes. This wonderful delivery completed our back to school care packages. A huge shout out & thank you to Kim M.. You ROCK Kim!

Each child will receive their own bag of goodies! I had fun creating little tags for each bag. Nothing fancy...all the supplies used to create the tags came out of my scrap stash. One of my goals after purging my scrapbook room this year was to use my scraps more. So far so good.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for these bags( AND a box of school supplies, a backpack filled with school supplies, two boxes of food, one box of toiletries, two bags of gently used boy clothes, & $100 worth of Wal*Mart gift cards) to be delivered tomorrow.

Thank you to each & every one of you who contributed, large & small. Every item made this little service project come together & PERFECT. Together, we made a HUGE difference in this little family's life.

Have a happy & safe Labor Day weekend.
Regular scheduled posts coming soon :-)!

Update #2

I have had so much fun receiving thoughtful notes, opening packages & the gift cards that have come in the mail.


















I have had even better time shopping for items for this little family! Have I ever mentioned that I like to shop :-)? Even more so for others. I can't say it enough, so I'll say it again & again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support & desire to help this family out. One of my favorite quotes of all time reads "Each of our deeds may share only a pinpoint of light, but added together they begin to make a significant difference". I have this quote printed & hanging on my fridge. I am thankful for the daily reminder to help those in need. I have had some people(in a nice way) tell me that I can't help/save everyone. I know I can't save everyone(I wish I could), but I can continue to make my little pinpoints along the way!

Here are a few photos of the pile of loot so far.


















I am going to finish up some shopping tomorrow & put each child's stash in their own gift bag & create a cute tag for each one!

A huge thank you to a few of my friends/co-workers @ GT who pitched in. Thanks ladies!
I can't wait for their bags to be delivered!