The roses are blooming...

First, I had no idea they would be white. I suppose I should have asked. I just assumed they would be red.

It was my idea to plant climbing roses to go over the arch of the front doorstep, but I didn't go with my husband to pick them out.

It was so lovely to go out the door this morning and see all the blooms. I enjoyed them as I sat on the stoop waiting for the bus this morning with the girls.

How they have grown...

They grow so fast.

Harriet is the fluffy one on the far left.

My husband is almost done with the chicken run/coop he is building outside. He is building it as a part of the playset. I am hoping that the offer of free eggs will make the neighbors forgiving of any additional noise the chickens make once we move them from the garage. I put Harriet on the ground today and she chirped incessantly and loudly. I can't imagine that they are going to be quiet neighbors. Fortunately, I am teaching one of the next door neighbors' children and I give him a ride to school every day so Mom doesn't have to get out. I hope that garners us enough favor not to warrant complaints, since livestock is against the HOA.

My friend says I worry too much about what other people think. Probably.

Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats

FSMW is my favorite cereal. Winn Dixie just had a "buy one get one free" sale on this cereal, which made it $2.08 a box. I ended up with close to 40 boxes after 3 trips, causing me a slight storage problem in the pantry. I have eaten it every day for over two years, so I figure this is a wise investment.

When I saw this, I knew I had to make one...



Found here.

Gorgeous Bag!

I'm in lust right now on every level.

Found here.

Field Trip

The preschool went on a field trip to the zoo. I was attacked by loads of lorakeets.

One tried to drink my Diet Coke.


I had great fun spending time with the moms and grammies.


I had even more fun watching my students have fun!


It was the best field trip I have been on so far, thanks to a tip from a teacher. She told me at the last field trip to just post an itinerary of where I would be when, so I didn't have to stress about making everyone happy. Everyone just did their own thing, and a key few hung with me. Much better!

A New Gnome!

I thought I'd first introduce you to our oldest gnomes. This is Felix. Somewhere on the internet there is a video of Felix being dropped by a teenage girl during a scavenger hunt type youth group activity. He is a little worse for the wear, but he can still stand if propped in a corner.


The second gnome we acquired was Griffin. He's been the baby until yesterday...


My new sweetie pie... He totally called to me while I was innocently browsing fabric. His name is Reuben. He wanted me to buy his brother, Rupert, but Rupert was riding a frog and didn't have a book in his hands. I admit, I have a soft spot for bookworms. So Reuben came home. I am still thinking of Rupert. Not sure how hubby would react to two new gnomes in one week though...


This was just a perfect project box. I have a pretty pink floral lunch box that my sil gave me for my birthday one year, and it often holds whatever project I am working on.

New Darth Copier sign

Quote courtesy of my husband:

A Birthday Gift for my Mom

You know you live in the South when you see something like this...

Caught this sight while cruising around last Friday...

I always feel like somebody's watchin' me...

The eyes happened by accident as I was transporting leftover Easter egg decorating stickers in my purse. I added the mouth because it does actually talk to me on occasion...

My Favorites Sites... oops, I meant Sights

When I hit the driveway each day, these are my favorite things to see:


The dogwood that is always filled with birds clamoring about the feeder:


The azaleas and my gnome friends:


The birdhouse Tab painted:


The birdhouse Tris painted:


The wisteria bush that blooms for oh, so short a time:


The climbing roses we planted last year have almost made the arch and are ready to bloom:

Purging

I am (despite my pathological need to buy books...and yarn, if we are being really honest) doing my best to downsize, simplify, and purge. This bookshelf is in dire need of rearranging. When the books start piling on the top it is time to rearrange. Unfortunately I don't think there is a single purge on the shelf right now. Most are newly aquired from garage sales and the thrift store and haven't been read yet.

I did get rid of two lunch boxes, 2 zipper bags, and a bread pan, and threw away a bunch of paper today. Yesterday I cleaned out a large part of the medicine cabinet and the magazine basket in the bathroom. Today I focused mostly on cleaning out my work bag and purse. I'll keep you updated on my purge progress.

Darth Copier

We got a new copier at the church. I think it looks big and scary, so I named it Darth Copier. My pastor made the sign, because he's just like that!

Vegetarian Daughters

New snack bag art! I forgot to photograph yesterday's bag.


I was giving the teen a lecture on social responsibility and if he was truly concerned with doing the right thing, he would go vegetarian since the amount of grain it takes to feed one cow could feed thousands of people, not to mention the environmental benefits and health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Apparently, the only ones listening were the twins in the backseat.

I was a vegetarian when I met my hubby, but got tired of cooking two meals every night so I finally gave in and became an omnivore (and in the process gained a bit of weight). So when the girls decided to give up meat, I thought what better motivation for me to jump start my diet.

However, I wasn't thinking about the school lunches. I do not trust that they offer sufficient nutrition for a vegetarian, so we have gone back to packing lunches. We went veggie on Sunday and haven't had any meat since.

It took awhile to figure out some good options for snack and lunch. So far we have had for snack:
1. Apple and juice box
2. Almonds and juice box
3. Cereal bar and juice box

So far for lunch we have had:
1. Mac and cheese, dried fruit, boiled peanuts
2. Cheese pizza, carrots and fat free ranch dressing, fresh strawberries
3. Blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese, grapes, yogurt

I am hoping this isn't just a fad for them, because I can see cooking two meals when it isn't just me that is eating the meat-free version.

Garage sales, sewing, and game night, oh my!

We got up early this morning to start off our garage sale shopping season. We love garage sales. This is the primary way I get new clothes for the girls and occassionally I get a nice find or two for myself. Thad usually gets a gadget or two as well.
We got a couple of things for the house:
This beauty, we intend to hang in the dining room. We have just the empty space for it.

These baskets fit so perfectly with our decor we couldn't pass them up. Thad thinks we should fill them with peat moss, potting soil and plants and hang them out front. I'm undecided.



Of course I found some books. And the sale benefitted a local library, so I was glad to oblige with some books for me and some for the girls.

Tris had to spend her hard earned money on this and a video game. They had great fun playing darts on the garage door once they figured out it was magnetic.

Tab was lured in by this marionette tiger.

We got several clothing items (great brands) for the girls this summer and this cute little bench to sit in front of their window. They can use it for overflow toys.


I got a beautiful silver tiny tea set that I just really wanted. The lady seemed upset to part with it for $5 but she finally did. I envision pretend tea parties with the girls outside this summer.


As part of my effort to destress my life, I finished a project that had been nagging at me. I finally sewed the cushion for our plowman's chair. I still have to add buttons, but it looks pretty nice. You can see it matches the pillows I made weeks ago that the teen is using to sheild himself from the camera.




Tonight consitituted our first official Family Game Night. I had bought Blokus for 4 players. We had a blast except Thad got mad at me when I kept heckling him even after I got out of the game. Hence the angry face. It was nice when the teen voluntarily joined in the game....


For Christmas, my mom gave the girls a butterfly habitat. Hubby pulled it down to order the cocoons. Right after he sent off the request, the girls found dozens in the yard...

13 chicks, 2 cats, a dog, 3 kids, 2 parents and a tank of fish walk into a bar...

So clearly we are up to 13 chicks. My husband had a coupon, headed back to the tractor store, and came home with 7 more chicks. We have 2 black, 6 brown, and 5 yellow chicks. Two of the new ones are Harriet and Manuel, though I can only tell who Harriet is because she is the tiniest. Muffin (the pup) thinks they look like so much fun to play with, and consequently must be kept away from them so she doesn't stress them out with her incessant barking.

So far all I've done is feed them and talk to them. I brought down a book from the craft room that I bought a long time ago and never managed to read:

Hopefully I will make time to read it and it will contain some usable information as well as a nice story...

I should have seen it coming when hubby insisted on getting this off the clearance rack at Pier I.

Today I was going to work on the craft room, but...

my husband had other plans.

He took off work early and invited me to lunch at Zaxby's. Yum.

Afterwards I did a little shopping- more on that later.

When the girls' got home from school, he took them to do a little errand and came home with these:



I can't yet tell who is who, but they have all been named. Carly, Shelly, Penny, Leonard, Raj, and Howard. And yes, Shelly is short for Sheldon. We love the Big Bang Theory around here. I'm afraid Carly is of iCarly fame, named by one of the twins.

Hubby is busy at work on building the coop:



I have wanted chickens for eons, so I am thrilled. I am afraid the Homeowner's Association will be less so. We didn't know we were part of a subdivision when we initially bid on the house and were dismayed to find out before it closed that we were officially, even though we are actually on the outside of the subdivision. Well, hopefully we won't start a war, though small battles have been going on since we moved in.

While the girls are busy driving both the chicks and my husband crazy, the teen is busy working on projects for the end of the year.



My shopping consisted of more yarn for shell afghan, embroidery thread to start embroidering panels for the quilt for the craft room bed, and some clothing. Since aquiring my mostest favoritest shoes of the decade:



I have realized how very little red I have in my wardrobe. I have realized that in order to wear these shoes more often without clashing horribly, I need to add some more red tops, or at least tops which go with red shoes, to my closet.

I have also found that while I did put a bit of weight back on since my massive (46 lb!) loss last summer, I am either too small or too big for most of my bottoms.

So I bought some bottoms, a red top, a red purse and wallet, a red mini-lap bag to tote this thing around, some red flip-flops, red headbands, and some tops for the girls. Not thrifty at all, but very fun! I think I went a little crazy!

Totally wondering if I could make something like these... myself

Available at the. for $95- a bit out of my price range...
Hopefully I can manage a trip to the thrift store and Michael's sometime this weekend to come up with some supplies to do something of the sort.

Found via Allsorts.