John-Rob's Invention

John-Rob gets LOTS of nose bleeds, so tonight he was having a hard time getting it to stop. He was tired of holding his nose & REALLY wanted to play his Diego video game- so... this is what he came up with, NO KIDDING. I just about fell out when I looked downstairs & saw this! I sure am glad he found that hair clippy I've been looking for!

Rae's Halloween Costume

We found Emma-Rae a Halloween costume today, cute- isn't she! We need a leotard, leggings, boots and we should be good to go!

Captain Jack Sparrow ALERT!!

Wow! I was just reading my Mousesavers Newsletter and came across some REALLY good news, particularly for any of you that are Johnny Depp and/or Captain Jack Sparrow fans! :)

Disney Studios Announces Three New Johnny Depp Projects
Disney Studios recently announced several upcoming projects involving Johnny Depp. Depp will reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow for a 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie. In addition, he has signed on to play Tonto, the well-known sidekick, in a Jerry Bruckheimer production of The Lone Ranger. Depp will also re-team with Tim Burton, playing the Mad Hatter in a part live-action, part motion capture, part CG, mostly 3D version of Alice in Wonderland.

Weight Loss

Hey everyone! I've not fallen off the face of the Earth again, just busy. I've just gotten in from work & I've got some things to get together before I head off to bed- not to mention I had to eat dinner. John-Robert & I are going on a field trip with his class tomorrow, we're visiting Uncle Fudd's Farm, I'll try & post some pics tomorrow night. However... on to the real subject of this blog. I weighed & measured myself on Tuesday, it was 4 weeks into my diet. I have not weighed or measured myself before then - I've lost 16lbs. and 9 inches total (from hips, waist, & bust). this diet is certainly not a walk in the park but it's not the worst thing I've ever had to do either- quitting smoking pretty much trumps everything else and I'm about to have a one year anniversary for that. :party:

The Wilderness Lodge all Dressed up for Christmas

This is a picture of the lobby @ the Wilderness Lodge, the lodge is going to be our home for the week we're at Disney- don't think it's going to be too terribly hard to get into the Christmas spirit!

Cinderella's Castle Lights

Cinderella's Castle will be decked out with 200,000 lights when we visit Disney World. On November 30th this is the view we'll have during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!! I wish all of you could be there with us to see it, it is absolutely spectacular...

Positive Thought for the Day

"Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else." Judy Garland

Funny, the things we remember- my Grandma Althea didn't like Judy Garland, I don't know why, I never asked her why... but Grandma Althea was kind of like that, sometimes she just didn't like things & you sure knew what it was she didn't like. I sure miss her though... when she lived here in Memphis she would have us over for dinner @ least once a week & for some reason she let me bring my dog. She would feed my dog a plate of WHATEVER we were having for dinner, I mean down to the fruit salad- the dog got some too. We had fruit salad every time we went for dinner & I didn't like the fake cherries & my brother didn't like the wet bananas so... we would trade. Do you remember that Sam?

Apple Farm Memories October 16th 2004

Wow! I can't believe this picture was taken 4 YEARS ago, 10-16-04 to be exact! We had a great time with the Alton crew that day. We had lunch @ the Fin Inn & went out to the apple farm to look @ the huge pumpkins & play on the playground- I can't remember if we even brought any pumpkins back with us or not. I do remember it was chilly and BOTH of the kids were lovin' going down the slide that day. Friday the kids were off for fall break- we had a nice day. The kids DIDN'T sleep late BUT we did hang out and watch The Nightmare Before Christmas when they got up, we LOVE that movie. The rest of the afternoon they spent outside riding their bikes & scooters with Kaitlyn & Zachary, Ms. Angela & I spent the afternoon catching up on life. We've had a nice weekend, what beautiful weather. Tomorrow is the kids' last day of fall break- they are off to Emaw's house & I'm off to work in the a.m. :( Wish the weekends were longer than the week...

Pretty Pumpkins

Look @ my new pumpkin salt & pepper shakers. I thought they were just the prettiest pumpkins ever- when John saw them on the table tonight he asked me- what the heck are those little things? Emma-Rae likes them cause the salt comes out fast. I like them because they are that beautiful creme trademark Lenox color & have little green Swarovski crystals to make the grapes stand out. I couldn't resist them!

McDonald's in Africa

When McDonald's reaches the savanna...

Spooky, Scary, Haunted House the McPike Mansion

We're spending Halloween in Alton, Illinois. Alton's basically right across the river from St. Louis and is a great small town. Alton's where my Dad grew up and we still have family there- including my wonderful Aunt & two lovely cousins. We're going to attend the Alton Halloween Parade- a first for us, but we are soooo excited! Emma-Rae is beggin' me to dress up like a witch with her & my cousins may end up being witches too... oh boy, we could get into some trouble! :) Then, as if we couldn't get anymore excited- my cousin told me to check out the website for the McPike mansion (I was bored during my lunch break). The McPike mansion was built in 1869 and is HAUNTED! They are doing TOURS of the mansion while we are in town- yeah baby! I wanna go soosoo bad, we'll see who all I can convince to go with, PLUS who I can beg to babysit my darling brats. Alton, IL, is one of the most haunted small towns in America. Throw in the facts that Alton was the site of a confederate prison during the Civil War, the underground railroad, a tuberculosis sanatorium, and had a Piasa bird flying around there's bound to be some ghosties hanging out somewhere! :) So, if you're interested and get a minute check out these cool links. Alton is a fun place to visit- the people are nice, it's beautiful this time of year, and they are known for having good antiques.

http://mcpikemansion.com/index.html

http://www.prarieghosts.com/alton.html

Positive Thought for the Day

Rae's Social Studies Project

Emma-Rae has a Social Studies project due tomorrow, a time line of her life. The directions were as follows: Each student should include the year they were born, then 4 events in their life and the last event should be the future. This should be 13 years from the year they were born, and they should draw a picture of what they think they will be doing at that age. Project is due 10/14, no late work can be included in this 9 weeks grading period, work will be displayed for Open House.

Tall order, but we managed. Emma-Rae had already sketched out her timeline & picked some things to put on it before she came home this evening. We looked through some old pictures and she came up with the following events.

2000- born

2003- brother born

2004- 1st trip to Disney

2005- Kindergarten

2007- 1st vacation without Mom & Dad (she went to Aunt Katy's)

2013- 8th grade graduation(I shudder @ the thought)

This is the finished product, I think it looks really good! Yay Emma-Rae!!!

Sunday's To Do List...

Well, I didn't get everything accomplished on my To Do List yesterday (what a shock!), I really needed an extra day off to wrap some of this stuff up. This is where I stand

1. Got the house cleaned- with the exception of the fishbowls
2. Got the winter clothes out of the attic & kids tried them on- now I just have to put a bunch of it back in the attic, wash what we took down, & put a bunch of their summer things in the attic.
3. Got the Halloween decorations out of the attic- have not put them up yet
4. Never found my Dad's keys, never made it to the hospital- have to go after work today
5. Got John-Robert's Indiana Jones flashlight stuff together- have to wait til tomorrow to put it in the mail since it's a holiday today.
6. Got NOTHING accomplished in the yard.
7. Watched True Blood and enjoyed EVERY second of it, we CAN'T wait until next Sunday!!

Tonight- have to go by the hospital on my way home from work, go by the grocery, go by Dad's & get some stuff together for him, assist Emma-Rae with her Social Studies project due tomorrow, PLUS all of the normal stuff. Maybe I'll get those fishbowls done tonight too!

Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood on RockBand!!!

This week Motley Crue's album Dr. Feelgood is being released on RockBand! We're so excited,we're heading to the Lema's for a Motley party on Saturday night!!!! If you call the house later in the week & we don't answer we are either...

A. Not home

OR

B. In the middle of a Motley Crue marathon!!!

Zucchini Hashrowns

Well, for those of you who aren't in the know- I am on a diet. I've gotten really FAT since I quit smoking last November & I had to do something about it. I'm on a diet-yes, I know that diets don't work & you have to make lifestyle changes- I'm on a diet to get the weight off & have a plan in place for maintaining the weight loss once I've finished the diet = lifestyle change. For more info. about the specific diet I'm on you can visit 1stpersonaldiet.com I've been on this diet for 3 weeks this Tuesday, I have not weighed- I will be doing that on 10/21. I have however "shrunk" some, I couldn't button my winter coat a few days before I began this diet, now I can! I have to give myself a few pats on the back for my willpower this weekend. Stacy made a really delicious breakfast yesterday a.m.- bacon, eggs, & pancakes- I ate 6oz. of organic, low fat, plain yogurt- sweetened with a packet of Splenda & some cinnamon. John-Robert had a soccer party yesterday around lunch time- pizza, Doritos, home made brownies (my FAVE) and I ate an apple. Yay me!!

I tried a new recipe for breakfast this a.m. Zucchini Hashbrowns, my Mom said they sounded "interesting" when we were talking on the phone. Thought I'd post a pic & the recipe.

So... this is my breakfast. Zucchini Hashbrowns (they were decent), an apple, & 8oz. of Diet Coke

Zucchini Hashbrowns

65g of Zucchini sliced thin

1 medium size egg

3 Saltines

Garlic Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Slice your zucchini thin, mix in an egg, crunch up the Saltines- add to the mix, season to taste. Fry them up in your pan using Olive Oil Cooking Spray

Pretty easy, I don't know the nutritional information (Dr. Godfrey knows how to figure all of that out- not me!) Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this unless you want to avoid the potatoes- although if I could have smothered them in ketchup they would have been delicious!

Today's To Do List

I believe this a.m. I have discovered the reason why I haven't had time for REALLY important things like my blog. It's the dishes! Ever since we've been cooking dinner @ home instead of worshipping @ the church of McDonald's- we have had MASSIVE amounts of dishes to do, everyday. BTW did I tell y'all that I don't have a dishwasher?!

So, I've been up since 6ish this a.m. cleaning & John's just had to run up to work for a few hours. We had soccer all day yesterday and got absolutely nothing accomplished. So... our to do list for today is as follows

1. Clean house (vacuum, dust, mop, bathroom, fish bowls, catbox...you get the idea)

2. Laundry (there's a mountain of it!)

3. Cut & edge front yard (backyard = fughedaboutit!)

4. Trim scary "Welcome to the Jungle" holly bushes (no Mom- we're not digging them up)

5. Decorate for Halloween

6. Find the keys to my Dad's, get some stuff from his place & take it to the hospital

7. Get kids' winter clothes down from the attic & put up summer stuff

8. Send in $3 plus this "token" off the cereal box to get John-Rob an Indiana Jones flashlight

9. Dinner, bath, bedtime

And... last but certainly NOT least...

10. Watch True Blood (HBO 8 p.m. central time)

So... if you're bored today & want to chat, give me a call. Obviously for the majority of the day, I'll be home and I can get most of these things done with the cordless phone crammed to my ear!

Our Belle...

I know I've been MIA for the past week or so, but on top of everything else... here's something that's been keeping us busy. I'm fostering this orphaned 2wk old baby squirrel, John-Rob has named her Belle, as in Beauty in the Beast- IN FACT, Belle's last name is ACTUALLY Beast (per John-Robert). Belle has to eat every hour & a half to two hours, she eats squirrel formula, like baby formula. We take in injured and abandone wildlife @ work, so- when this one came in the other day, it was my turn.

P.S.- did you see my Disney World ticker? Vacation is RIGHT around the corner! I'm going to post an itinerary for everyone as soon as I get it completed.