in the sub arctic Midwest…   The temps right now are a very bitter –24*.  It is VERY cold!   The winds started howling yesterday afternoon and they haven’t stopped yet.  My son Alex went to spend the night at his brothers and now the car wont start for him to come home.  I told him before he even left last night that he would have problems in the morning. That car just doesn’t like starting when it is so frigid outside…  But nope, he had to go anyway and now he is stuck…   Sometimes it just pays to listen to mom.

So much has happened in the last few months.  That is my only excuse for not taking the time to blog.  I have managed to keep semi caught up with my friends thru subscriptions, but it is not the same as being able to visit everyday. 

My only real excuse is I am now a Co-Owner of The Scrapping Garden digital scrapbooking site.   The previous 2 owners decided that due to family issues and just plain not having time anymore they needed a break from the site.  I was one of the chosen ones to take over.  I was shocked to hear they were leaving, and even more shocked to be asked to take over.  But I stepped up and accepted.  I am very happy to say that Cheryl, one of the former owners, has since decided to stay a part owner.  Robin on the other hand did step down and turn in her resignation.  I will be so glad when she has time to come back around the site as she has been sorely missed…..     So, life has been very busy for me.  I have had to learn a bunch of new things to keep the site running.  I am in charge of payroll for all our designers, and all customer relations’ emails come to me.  It is unreal how much work there is in running a site.  So much behind the scenes work that no one has any idea about.  I pretty much spend all my “free” time on the site trying to make sure things are running smoothly.   If any of you have never been there this is my personal invitation to you to come out and look around.  I love digital scrapbooking and I am betting a bunch of you will too.

My daughter Lily and I went to the Cosmetology College yesterday and got haircuts, color and paraffin dips on our hands.  We both needed a bit of a change and decided to take the day and pamper ourselves.  My hair had gotten long and was so full of silver that you just about couldn’t tell what my original color was.  I got a short haircut and a reddish brown semi permanent rinse put on it.  It will fade out in about 6-8weeks so I wont have a noticeable skunk stripe on my head.  Then I can just go back in and get another rinse and my haircut updated a bit and be ready for spring. I think I look about 10 yearsd younger and that can only be good?  Right? J   I will post the before and after pics, although be prepared that they aren’t the best.  I forgot the camera and had to use the cell phone.  LOL  The color isnt quite perfect in thses pics…

Lily Before

Lily After

Me before, Hair is pretty frizzy and very silver

Me after,  not perfect, but a big improvement  

My daughter Sara was in the school play last night, The Shakespeare Project.   The kids all did very well.  All those long Shakespeare lines and not one of them made a mistake, I was pretty impressed.  The play consisted of excerpts of different Shakespeare plays.  The scene Sara was in was a take off of the Taming of the Shrew.  It was a fight scene between her and another girl and 2 of the boys.  It was pretty funny to watch.

The girl of course is Sara…

That’s it for now, I will try and get back out here much sooner next time..   Stay warm everyone…

I can’t believe it is already the last day of 2007!!  This past year has gone by so fast…  So many different things have happened, some of them not so nice, but a lot of them were.   I want to take a minute and wish each one of my Xanga friends a very safe, healthy, prosperous and blessed New Year! 

  Stay safe and have fun everyone!  See you all in the new year!

  Tomorrow is the day we are celebrating Christmas.  I have been running around like crazy the last few days trying to get everything ready for the kids to all come over tomorrow.  I have all the cookies baked and decorated with lots of help from Miranda and my little granddaughters….   

Miranda and her gingerbread boys

Little granddaughter Ani with a frosting face….

We decided on a meat, relish, and veggie/cheese tray.  I have all the dips and crackers ready.  In the morning I will start the bbq smokies.  I am hoping it is an easy day.  That’s why this year I decided on sandwich type stuff rather than a whole big dinner that would keep me in the kitchen most of the day.  It still cost a small fortune for all the food, but the kids are worth it. 

We are in the midst of another winter storm warning though.  Right now it is raining, the rain is supposed to change over to heavy snow tonight and then the winds are supposed to start howling.  It will make for some very bad visibility and temps tomorrow when the kids all head this way.  Thankfully they only live about 10 miles away from home so I am hoping they can all get here safely.

 I have the new curtains for the living room/dining room up and it looks so nice.  I still have more pictures to get hung and another mirror to get on the wall, but at least the main stuff is done…

One of my little granddaughters spent the night with Miranda tonight so it is time to get a movie going for them.  Baths and hair washings are all done for the evening so movies are all that is left  

I am going to head out for now…  Hopefully I will be back tomorrow or Monday with some pictures from tomorrow’s celebration     Have a great night everyone 

Car that is….    Monday started out as an ordinary day.  Ron left for work, Alex left for school and I left to drive the schoolbus.  I got back home from my route, stepped in the backdoor to see my son standing in the kitchen.  It took me a second for it to register that HE was in the kitchen instead of at school, but his CAR wasn’t in the driveway.  I just about got all the words out of “what in the heck are you doing here and where is the….?” And he fell into my arms sobbing his heart out.  It seems a deer came across the road; he hit an icy patch, tried to avoid the deer and spun into a ravine.  When the car finally stopped he was partially inside of a big metal culvert about 10ft down the ravine and in no way visible from the road.  He was able to unbuckle his seatbelt and get out of the car and climb to the road where he called home and then my sister’s house on his cell phone, (Thank God I got him and Sara both a cell phone to carry with them)  My sisters husband went and got him.  As far as we can tell the car is totaled and he is lucky to be alive.  The tow company hasn’t been able to pull it out of the ravine yet because when he came over Monday afternoon his tow rope wasn’t long enough to reach the car.  Yesterday we had a terrible ice storm and nothing was able to move.  Today is better so school is back in session and everyone is back to work.  Alex is very sore now but I don’t think he is hurt.  He has a bruised chest and waist where the seatbelt hit him and his neck is sore.  He was so scared, and so was I.  Things like this happen in a blink of an eye.  Now we are back down to one car and chaos at home trying to get everyone where they need to be.  I am just so thankful that my son is alright….   the car going into the culvert

Tonight we decorate the Christmas tree…   Baby is so excited!  She has been wanting to do this for weeks now.  The livingroom/diningroom area is finally fixed up to where we can decorate.  I still need to get new curtains; hopefully I will do that in the next few days…. This is a before shot after gutting the living room… This is a shot from today, we still need curtains and some trim put up..  overall though I am tickled.

The ice storm yesterday really made things a mess.  We got about an inch of ice on everything.  It actually warmed up enough to rain like crazy and then the temps dropped and everything iced over.  It is beautiful outside but ohh so dangerous to get around.  The main highways are clear now, but the back roads I drive on for my bus route are still snow and ice covered.  The snowplow driver did get some sand laid down so I can get some traction.  I just have to be careful.. a view off the back deck looking out over our acre a pic of the big tree on the other side of our driveway, (and my bus)  These ice pics were all taken this morning.  its beautiful, but dangerous.  Numerous trees have lost big branches and many people are still without power.  We lost our power for about 4 hours last night and then it came back on.

My daughter has no vehicle right now.  We think the transmission went out in her van.  Makes it hard for them too since that is the only car they have.  Her hubby has been getting a ride to work from his Dad and she has been getting one from another sister of mine.  It always seems like these things happen at the worst time.  The van has been towed to our house and Hubby will look at it as soon as he gets a chance.  This is his second week without a day off so who knows when that will happen..

Well,  now I need to get baby dressed….   Again!   She was dressed, decided she wanted to wear a summer dress, (yep it is very cold) so she got undressed, put the dress on and now I need to convince her she has to change into warm clothes so we can go run the bus route…   Wish me luck!   She is a typical, wants her own way, 4 yr old

And I am tired.  I got up this morning and started the cleaning up of all the plaster dust, plaster, and flyaway paint that I have been dreading.  Alex helped me.  We got a lot of stuff put away.  I was able to get all the cupboards cleaned up of all the dust and plaster that spattered everywhere, even though we had a big sheet of plastic up over the doorway.  Somehow plaster and paint STILL got in the kitchen.  I had to clean and scrub the toaster oven, all the counter tops, the front of a couple of the cabinets, the floor.  And then the stove…  ugh!   It was just in need of being scrubbed because of all the messy cooks in this house.  So I tore it all apart and scrubbed it.  I even SOS padded the burners, so it is sparkling now.  I turned on the self cleaning oven just for good measure   and  I just threatened the kids with their lives if they don’t wipe their messes up when they make them.   The sink is shining now too.  Sinks sure take a beating when you are painting.  Paint gets splattered everywhere when you try to clean up…    

Alex helped me put some of our Christmas decorations up.  We have garland and lights on the front porch around the railing, and garland and lights on the back deck around the railing.  He hung up 3 big 3-D snowflakes on the front porch.  We are just waiting for Hubby to get home from work so we can get the extension cords hooked up to the power and turn them on…  

And here I sit!  I am tired….   I may just sit here for awhile,  then again maybe I will go take a hot shower and then sit…   I don’t think I will do anything else tonight.  Hmmmm   a movie sounds good…  maybe a nice hot shower and then a movie, cuddled up under my electric blanket…   Yep, that may be just what I do     Have a good night Xanga friends and stay warm…      We are under a winter storm watch for the rest of the night…

18* and only 8* with the windchill.  It is definitely too cold for me…   I prefer temps somewhere in the 70’s to lower 80’s range…   I keep looking for the place that has these temps year around, no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no bugs big enough to carry me off, but I haven’t found it yet…   Hubby says there is no place like that, but I am just sure somewhere is my dream spot, I just have to find it  

Back to reality…  It has been awhile since I have had time to blog.  We had our Thanksgiving dinner.  It went very well.  Everyone ate til they were stuffed and we still had tons of food left over.  I sent doggy bags home with all of the kids and the next morning we headed to Ohio to visit hubby’s mom.   It was a nice visit, but then it always is.  Baby got to play in the new hotel swimming pool, I thought it was a little chilly but her and Sara thought the water was just fine.  We went to dinner at the Der Dutchman, a very nice family style Amish type restaurant.  They have a bakery and a small craft store that we always enjoy looking around in.  Sunday came wayyyy too soon and it was time to head back.  As we come into Indiana there is a shop called Warm Glow Candles that I love to stop at.  I bought some candles and some neat hand dipped silicone bulbs that flicker.  They look so nice in my little electric hurricane lamps..   Then it was back home, and back to work..

The last few weeks we have been really working hard on getting the living room/dining room finished so we can get our Christmas tree up.  I refuse to put our decorations up with the place looking like a shambles.  Hubby has been very busy at work but he has gotten the mudding finished, he got the walls primed, then the texture put on, and then re primed the texture.  Last Wednesday night he got the walls and ceiling painted, Thursday he got the contrasting color on the walls and Friday morning we went to Menards and picked up the plywood for the new floor.  Before he went in to work Friday he put all the recessed lighting in and this morning he got half of the floor put in…   He doesn’t get a day off work til next Friday so he can only work on the room when he has a few hours after he gets home or before he goes in to work.  Today he has to close the store so he had a few hours this morning, but he wont get home til late so I don’t expect anymore to get done with the floors til tomorrow night.   The kids are all gone right now, but as soon as they get home we are going to get the dust wiped off everything and try and get some more stuff put away so there will be less work later…

I need to get about 3 more bird feeders to hang off the hooks on the back deck.  I only have one up now on the front deck and the poor birds are fighting over who gets to eat first.  Hubby bought another 50# bag of bird seed last night but didn’t get the extra feeders so as soon as I have a way over to the store I will pick some up.  We are down to 2 cars, hubby needs one and Alex has been using the other one.  He had to go in for his monthly Marine class.  Today they are going to the Arsenal to shoot M-16’s.  He was sure excited about that…

Well, not much else going on….   Ohhhh one thing I forgot.  Remember when I broke my ankle back in June?  When I was finally able to get up I couldn’t put any weight on my left leg and so used crutches and only my right leg to get around.  My right knee started really bothering me and as the months went on it has gotten more and more painful.  Painful to the point that when I sit down and try to get back up I almost can’t walk.  Any kind of using my knee hurts it.  I went to see the Orthopedic Dr.  He gave me a cortisone shot in the knee joint and sent me to 4 weeks of therapy.  The shot helped with the pain but the therapy didn’t help at all.  Next was an MRI…  So he gave me another shot of cortisone, this time in the nerve that runs along side my knee and sent me off for the MRI.  I went back last Thursday for the results of the MRI and he said I have degenerative arthritis in my knees, no cartilage, (if I wasn’t so young he said they would want to do a knee replacement on me) but he did see one tear in what little cartilage I have in my knee.  So I am going to hobble thru the holidays and go back and see him in January.  If I am feeling better then great, if not I may have arthroscopic surgery done to repair that cartilage.  He said it is all up to me..   So we’ll see how I feel next month…   Ok,  now that is all the news    Have a great weekend everyone

I was tagged by  onevoice1 to say 8 things about myself, so here goes…….

1.  I cant get up in the morning until I have laid in bed and snuggled with hubby for 10 – 15 minutes. 

2.  I have a tattoo on my right wrist of a Sun/moon and 7 stars that represents me, hubby and my 7 kids.

3.  I have lost 21# in the last few months!

4.  I spend wayyyyy  too much time on the computer!

5.  I love to read and can spend hours in a bookstore looking thru the books.

6.  I love going on spur of the moment motorcycle trips with Hubby..

7.  After 27 years of cooking I really prefer to have someone else cook now, and most of the time I dont cook. 

8.  I am thrilled to death to be a Grandma 

The Rules
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people (or less if everyone else you know has already been tagged!) to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

I tag: SherriLynns, LusciousRedLips, PhantomOfHappiness, Tinkerbell_1986, bananar00, Gilybeany, …………………….No retags please!

If you have already been tagged, please disregard.

I got busy and forgot, that’s what happened.  Mondays and Thursdays are always busy days for me because that is the day before TSG new release day in the store.  I have to get all the last minute kits ready to go in to the store and that takes some time.   Add in going to physical therapy first thing in the morning, driving my bus route, doing laundry etc, chasing around after Miranda, and you have a very busy day!  No wonder I forgot….  

Well,  all the new releases are in the store, physical therapy for today is over, Miranda has had lunch so now I have a few minutes to post.    I got some very good news last night.  Two different sets of kids are moving off my bus route and today is their LAST DAY!!!   I am so tickled, mainly because I have had nothing but trouble out of these kids for the last 3 yrs.  It seems like one or all of them are in trouble every single day.   The news that they are leaving has caused me to break out and do the happy dance!   Cant you hear all the commotion??  That’s me having a party!     Ok,  enough of me expressing my delight over those kids moving

Hubby was able to get a good portion of the walls sanded in the living/dining room area.  When he gets home tonight he is going to get it finished up and then we should be ready to prime the walls.  We went to Menards last night and bought a handy dandy paint sprayer, no more rolling paint on the walls for me!   After the primer is good and dry we will be able to spray the texture on the walls.  Of course all the windows need to be taped first so no texture goes anyplace we don’t want it.  Then once the texture dries it can be primed and then painted.  I cant wait to get it done…..

Tomorrow I have to get Thanksgiving Dinner ready since we are having it on Sunday.  The kids will all be over with their families so it will be a full house.  On Thanksgiving Day, hubby and I and baby and Sara will be making the 8 hour drive to Columbus, Ohio to visit Hubby’s mom and sisters.  So this weekend will be our Thanksgiving celebration, and I will be darn busy! The 25# turkey is thawed and waiting.  I will get the fruit salad and cranberries done tomorrow,  Hubby likes to make the stuffing so he is in charge of getting that ready tomorrow night so Sunday morning all we have to do is get up and pop dinner in the oven…   And wait for the hungry horde to descend

It’s about that time again…   Time to drive my afternoon route and say goodbye to the 5 troublemakers!     Darn!!   What on earth am I going to do for excitement on the bus now??!!!  

Have a great Friday everyone   Ohhhh   and I was tagged so hopefully I will be back later to do that post

This is going to be a quick post since I have to leave and drive my afternoon bus route in a few minutes…    I wanted to let any of you that are interested in Digital Scrapbooking know that there are a few quickpages(stickits) that I am giving away over on TSG Blog  if you would like to go get them while they are there.  I am hosting a challenge on the blog this week.  Everyone who downloads the “Maryann” quickpage  and makes a LO and then uploads it into TSG Blog Gallery will be entered into a drawing for the December Mega Kit from the designers at The Scrapping Garden.

You can find the beautiful kit, “Maryann” , designed by Linda Cumberland, that this quickpage was made from HERE

I hope a few of you will join the challenge and be entered into the drawing for the mega kit which will be held on Saturday.

Hubby has tomorrow off, Well,  all but a couple hours when he has to go in and give the guys a lunch break.  I am hoping there is much more prgoress to report on the living/dining room.

Our Thanksgiving dinner is going to be this Sunday since we will be out of town on Thanksgiving Day.  I think I really need to get to the store and get some groceries bought. 

Ok,  I need to run now and drive the bus.  Have a great Wednesday everyone

for another day of driving the school bus.  I got a phone call about 6:30am from the girl at the bus barn.  Calling to let me know that 2 of the girls on my bus route finally moved up on top of the hill.   Normally this wouldnt be a problem, but it makes a 7 minute difference in my bus route since I no longer have to go all the way down to the river to pick them up.  They were SUPPOSED to let me know at least a week in advance of when they were moving so I could let the other parents of the kids this would affect know about the time change.  Well, needless to say I was let know early this morning, about 20 minutes before I was ready to leave to start the route.  I called the parents of the kids this affected, (4 families) and let them know the new time I would be there to pick up their kids.  Everyone was understanding about my early morning phone call..   Now we’ll see how it works out in the afternoon. Since I no longer have that road on my bus route I shouldnt be going down it.  BUT I have 2 other girls who go to their grandparents house in the afternoon and the grandparents live down there.  I am hoping the grandparents will drive up to the stop before there and pick the girls up.  That would cut about 15 miles and 35 minutes a week off my afternoon bus route. 

Hubby got the living room half of the living room/dining room area sanded and mudded again.  Hopefully it will be ready to prime and texture soon.  

I need to get my Thanksgiving groceries bought sometime in the next few days.  We are going to have our family Thanksgiving this Sunday.  On Thanksgiving Day we are going to make the 8 hour drive to Ohio to visit with Hubby’s mom for the holiday weekend.   Miranda is so excited.  She loves going to visit Grandma.  I got her calendar all made up and posted on the refrigerator so she can check off the days until turkey day and then until time to go to Grandmas.  She was up early this morning asking me if she could make her check   She is such a sweetheart

Well,  I better get a move on.  I have a ton of things to get done.  Re working my bus schedule is one of them.    Have a wonderful Monday