Life's Simple Pleasures

WOOHOO for Friday and time to FRAG!

I have gathered up some of my fragmented thoughts that have been wandering around my head all week and will now attempt to post them in a reasonably coherent manner.
I realized that they all seem to have a common theme: Simple Pleasures. Thus the title of this post: Life's Simple Pleasures.
Didn't that work out nicely?
Anyhoo.

I've always enjoyed the simple things in life, but now I'm finding even simpler things that bring me immense pleasure. Such as....

* ~ Making my own laundry soap, washing our clothes with it, and then hanging them on the clothesline to dry.



*~ Making dinners using fresh vegetables from local growers, and fresh eggs from a farm just around the corner.



* ~ Herbs already sprouting in my window garden.




* ~ My whole little family all together under one roof.



* ~ Lying down with Elayna at bedtime, having snuggle time.

* ~ Sharing "inside jokes" with Shelbie.

*~ Elayna telling me that when she was helping John take clothes off of the line, there was a ladybug on one of Shelbie's shirts.




*~ Kisses from my Sofie-dog when I lay down to sleep every morning.

~* Walking into a store and seeing my best friend standing in front of me.

*~ Friday Fragments.

*~ Sleeping on sun-dried linens.

*~ Cupcakes.





A few more fragmented thoughts:

~ * Elayna's last softball game is on Saturday, and I'm really going to miss it! Since the weather has warmed up I have really enjoyed her games and even practices. Now we'll have to find some other activity to get involved in!

~ * Last Friday, Andrew spent the night with my parents. Somehow they started talking about the fact that Andrew calls me Mama. My mom said "Well, I guess everyone else in the house called her Mama so you thought you should, too?" and Andrew, who takes everything very literally, said "Daddy doesn't call her Mama." So my Mom asked, "What does your daddy call her?" and Andrew replied "Sugarplum. Or Love." John calls me Love all the time...but he has never once called me "Sugarplum"! So we thought that was hilarious. I'm just not a "Sugarplum" kind of girl....I'm not that sweet! I have no idea where Andrew got that from!

That's all I got, folks!

**Go visit Mrs 4444's for more Friday Fragments!**

{and have a GREAT weekend}

The Stupid Thing I Did Today, Volume III

I do stupid things on a pretty regular basis. I guess you could say I'm scatter-brained. If you're being kind. My mind seems to normally be on about 12 things at once. That's my excuse for the Stupid Thing I Did Today.
It was quittin' time, which for me is 0700. In my defense, work is very hectic right now, and mornings are especially busy. So, after finishing my morning duties, I gathered up my things and left.
Except...I left one very important thing behind.
My.freaking.PURSE.
I didn't realize it until I was getting out of the car. At home. In another town.
Now, I don't know about you, but my purse contains my life. I had my keys and cell phone in my pocket, otherwise I'd have never made it home without realizing I didn't have it. But everything else of any importance? In my purse.
Daily medications? Which I need? In my purse.
Cash? In my purse.
Cards? In my purse.
Hairbrush? In my purse.
I can't tell you how many times today I thought of something I needed and then remembered: Oh yeah. It's in my purse.
Fortunately, I didn't need to buy anything, and obviously I lived without all of the other precious things that were in my purse.
But you can bet that I will be very certain that my purse is hanging on my arm when I leave in the morning!

Tell me about your purse. Is your whole life in there, or only a few necessities?
And...have you done anything stupid lately? Come on, you can tell me!

Table Topic Tuesdays

Today I'm participating in Nut House Mama's Table Topic Tuesdays!

This week's question is:

if you were to get a tattoo right now, what would it be?

I have three tattoos already. You can read about my most recent ink here.
I am planning number four now. This one is going to represent me and my children, but I am torn about what design to get.
I LOVE turtles and owls, so I either want a Mama turtle and four baby turtles, or a Mama owl and four little owls.
I'm leaning towards the owls because I could put them on a really cool-looking tree. But the turtles would be cool too...so...now you see why I don't actually HAVE tattoo number four yet!
I already have number five planned; it's going to be a heart with a paw print in the middle, to symbolize my commitment to animals & animal rescue. But I want the kid tat first, so for now, I'm stuck!
How about you? Do you have any tattoos, or do you have any future ink plans?

{I'm also participating in Tuesday Tag-Along today, check it out!}

Weekend WrapUp

We had a really great weekend. It was a very busy one.

It started on Friday night with Tim's prom. They went to the Ivy House for dinner, and we all met there for pictures. It was my son's first time in a tux....he looked great! And his girlfriend was beautiful. Here are a few pictures!

my son does NOT like to smile for photos, plus although he wouldn't admit it, he was nervous.

I tried to make him laugh....

...and eventually succeeded.

Of course I had to get into one shot!

They both said prom was "amazing". I'm so glad they enjoyed it.

After the picture session Elayna had a softball game. She did very well and her team won, again! I was supposed to work an extra shift that night, but ended up being cancelled, which was just fine, thank you!

Saturday was super busy but fun. On Saturday morning, Elayna had another softball game in another county/town. They won again, and she did very well again. She's really improving, and it's exciting to watch!
Afterwards, we went to Pioneer Days with my sister, niece, and niece's fiance. It's a craft show with lots of different activities that is held every year in a nearby town. We got some fresh veggies from local farmers and a pepper plant for our yard!
When we left there, we really got busy. We needed several things for the house, and several things to accomplish my Going Greener goals. We got the materials to make laundry soap, materials for a clothes line, a window herb garden, and several other things for the house....ran a few more errands and then went home to get busy.
Not like that, you pervs!
{That was later.}
Ahem! Anyhoo, we got SO much accomplished, it was great!


Then on Sunday, we were so exhausted we slept in...way in...and got up in time to pick up Andrew, then John had to work an extra shift. The girls stayed an extra night with their dad, so it was just me and Andrew at home. We were totally lazy!
The weekend went by way too fast and I was not ready to see it end!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and if you blogged about it, link up here!

ETA: Last week, I mentioned that my reader was down. Well apparently, it was constipated but over the weekend had a major blowout. I now have 740 unread posts in my reader! If I haven't been by lately, it's because my reader was holding your posts in. I'm going to have to mark all read and start over - in a NEW READER!! So if I haven't been by, I promise, it's not you....it's my reader. (GRR!)

FINALLY Friday Fragments!!!

I swear this has been the longest week in the history of the world, and it ain't over yet!
By Tuesday I was thinking it should've been Friday already.
Today is another busy day - softball for Elayna, prom for Tim - and I'm working an overtime shift tonight. (*snore*)

But maybe I'll feel all refreshed and ready-to-go after I frag. Let's see....

* I use Bloglines as my reader, and it's down tonight. I.am.freaking.out. Also, I am LOST! I really hope it comes up soon so I can read your blogs!

* Our favorite football player, Tim Tebow, got drafted to the Denver Broncos last night! First round draft pick - WOOHOO! We are now officially Broncos fans! lol

* We had two funny incidents at softball this weekend. #1: Elayna made it through practice without a hitch, then while getting in the car, hit herself in the face with the car door and split her lip! #2: One of our best hitters nailed the ball. It soared up over the dugout, hit the grass, and bounced right up into Andrew's crotch, hitting him in the...umm...family jewels! He was fine, so I didn't feel guilty about laughing so hard I nearly fell off the bleachers!

* If you notice me hanging out at your blog for an oddly long length of time, it's probably because I got called away from the computer and didn't close out the page. I'm not just stalking you. Maybe. Sometimes.

* Speaking of stalking, I love the BlogFrog widget; all of my Blog Frog friends who visit my page show up on there, so when I look at my blog, I get to see all of your lovely smiling faces!

* I also love the way Mrs4444 is doing Friday Fragments as a Blog Hop now, so that everyone's button or pic shows up on all of the posts! Fun! So go link up with her if you did your Friday Fragments today like a good student!

It worked, I feel all refreshed now and ready to go!
(Ok not really, but I will once I get a Diet Dr Pepper!)
Hope you all have a Wonderful Weekend!

Earth Day 2010

Today is Earth Day, and it couldn't have come at a more appropriate time in my life.
When we found the house that we just moved into, I immediately made a commitment to myself to start being more "green" once we moved in. We have a huge yard, so there's more room for some of the things I wanted to do. Also, the house is bigger and comes with a large, sparkly, refreshing money pit called a pool! So this will increase our energy bills. I want to save money anywhere I can, while going green!
These are my green goals thus far:



1. Recycle more. I want to be more conscientious about recycling, and try to recycle everything that I possibly can. While we were moving, I learned that there is no recycling pickup at our new home. But that's ok, we're just adding a trip to the dump to our weekend routine. This one is starting immediately.

2. Start a compost pile. I have plenty of room and plenty of grass clippings & other organic matter. This is good for the environment and keeps a lot of stuff out of the landfills. I'm hoping to start this weekend.

3. Install a clothes line. I'm going to start line drying some of our clothes. It saves energy, a win for the earth and for my finances! (I also never, ever wash in hot water. I don't even hook up the hot water to my washer.) We're doing that this weekend.

4. Make my own laundry soap. I learned about this over at Loving Mom 2 Boys' blog, and I'm really excited about it! I'm also doing that this weekend.

5. Plant vegetables/herbs. Although I have the room to plant a big garden, I lack the time and the know-how. I know my limits! But I may plant some tomato and pepper plants, and a few herbs. I also am going to make an effort to buy locally whenever possible. This will be done in the next few weeks, hopefully.

How about you?
Obviously not everyone can plant gardens and put up clotheslines, but you can start thinking of smaller things to do. Here are a few of my suggestions:

- Switch to energy saving light bulbs.
- Use cloth shopping bags. (buy a stash and try to keep them in your car.)
- Plant a small indoor herb garden.
- Buy locally. (learn how that helps here.)
- Visit www.EarthDay.org for more ideas and tips.

Happy Earth Day!

{Crash}

When he arrives, he sleeps, the sleep of the exhausted, as if returning from a long trip.

When he's here, he lays on the couch and snuggles with the dogs.

When he's here, he is himself.

When he's here, he laughs.

When he's here, he relaxes.

When he's here, he plays.

When he's here, there's no tension.

When he's here, there's no fear.

When he's here, he is loved unconditionally.

When he's here, he's home.

Visit Things I Can't Say to see more Pour Your Heart Out posts.

Loss

My dear friend Hallie from Wonderful World of Wieners lost her oldest son last week.
I have so many thoughts swirling around in my head; I've been thinking of her all day since I found out. But I can't even make a coherent post about it right now. Just please, send your thoughts, prayers, condolences, whatever you have to offer, to Hallie & family today.

Weekend WrapUp

This weekend was a mixed bag of fun and not-so-fun.

It started on Friday with Elayna's softball game, which was fun. My parents came to the game. The other team didn't have enough players show up, so they technically forfeited but played anyway. Shelbie had a friend spend the night, and Tim had to work.




Saturday began bright and early with another softball game. Elayna's team won this one, and it was a great game! The rest of the day was spent arranging the house. We got a LOT done and it looks great.
Also on Saturday, I received my goodies from ShortMama's Spring Swap. (I would've gotten it earlier but the change of address caused a delay.)

My partner was Amethyst Moon of Life, Music & Laughter.

{a blogging journal, an awesome mug, a martini recipe book, hair clips, Kat Von D perfume, and air fresheners that smelled SO amazing I may or may not have licked one to see if they tasted as good as they smelled.}

{a sewing kit and a bag of assorted truffles...mmm!}

{an adorable tote bag that contained many of the goodies, and a CHOCOLATE cookbook! LOVE!}

{My dog Sasha was very interested in what was going on and stuck herself in the picture!}

Everything was beautifully wrapped until I tore into all of it!

She totally spoiled me, I had to take three pictures just to include all of my gifts, plus I accidentally left one thing out! In addition to all of the pictured items, she also sent a beautiful scarf. I feel like such a lame partner, she totally overdid it! Thank you, Amethyst Moon, I LOVE my gifts!

Sunday....oh Sunday. We had great plans for you, Sunday.
We were going to get up early again, and help my friend with setting up our town's Spring Festival. Then we were going to go to church. Then we were going to attend the Spring Festival. Then we were going to attend our church's baptism service. But instead.....Aunt Flo and her evil henchman, The Migraine, came to visit me. I literally spent the day in bed. And it SUCKED. We missed everything. And once I finally started feeling better, it was time to get ready for work. Yay, Sunday.

Now it's time to kick off another week.
I hope you all have a good one!
If you blogged about your weekend, link up here!

TGIFragments

Back to normal....I'm extremely glad it's Friday!
Coming back to work after an awesome vacation is a bummer. *sigh*
But it's all good, because it's Friday and time to Frag!

~ This weekend will be busy with softball and unpacking, but we're still going to squeeze in some time for swimming in the pool! We can't wait. The kids are inviting friends over and I imagine my house will end up full of kids!



~ Yesterday my husband rearranged some of the kitchen cabinets in the new house.
I'm pretty sure he's lost his mind.
He has apparently forgotten that he's married to a LUNATIC who cannot stand for her stuff to be rearranged! I can't believe that after 5 years of marriage, he would think he could rearrange the cabinets and live not make me totally insane! They have now been rearranged back to the way I had them, of course, thankyouverymuch.





Now for a couple of Facebook Faves!

Posted on Monday during the Big Move:

Cyndy N*** E***: Moving buddy: Don't have one? GET ONE!

{If you can tell me what movie this is from, you will win.......my undying devotion! WooHoo!}

My friend Sue's latest status:
Sue M***: Don't pity the person with one true friend... envy them.

And how cute is my son's status?:
Tim G***: girl....check. ticket....check. tux....check. ur boy's ready for prom!



~ I installed a fun little widget over there <~~. It's a Top Commenters widget and it lists (and links) the people who comment on my blog the most! Wouldn't you like to see your name up there? It's a win/win, you feed my comment addiction, you see your name up in lights! Sweet, no?





~ Check this out - I have a Carbon Neutral Blog. Just for posting this, a tree will be planted for my blog! Click the button to join in and have another tree planted in honor of YOUR blog.

~ Subway's white chocolate macadamia cookies are calling my name. Fortunately, there is a Subway here in the hospital where I work. And it's open 24/7.
So um, on that note, I'm ending this post!

Have a great weekend, and visit Half Past Kissin Time for more Friday Fragments!

Home.

....Just a few random pics that I took
in the yard of our new home....

true determination
{these are growing on our front steps}

in bloom

the old woodshed
{not really...just an ordinary shed}

my favorite color of azalea

the old barn

I love this place....so many interesting things to see and photograph. Lots of different flowers and even blueberry bushes that should be producing very soon!

Random Acts of Kindness

Holy crap on a cracker, I am sofa king exhausted.
I hate moving. But I love love LOVE our new house. Serious LOVE. I might marry it. Oh wait, I'm already married. But I think John would understand.
Anyway.

I was not online at all today because our WiFi isn't hooked up, and would you believe there is no WiFi around the new house for me to steal? How rude.
So, I decided to do my Random Acts of Kindness post anyway, just a little late, because that's how I roll. I'm one of those annoying, always late kind of people.

Today's Random Acts of Kindness post is about cards. Remember those things? Greeting cards? They still sell them at many fine retailers such as Target, Walmart, drugstores, even supermarkets. But do you still send them? I don't mean for birthdays, but for other stuff....and most of all, for no occasion at all?

Today I was on Facebook (on my phone, at least I'm not totally disconnected from everything!) and I noticed that my best friend, Danielle, who had gastric bypass surgery in February, posted that she was having a rough day, just feeling down. A few minutes later I was in the supermarket and a gorgeous card caught my eye; it had a big butterfly on the front with beautiful colors on it, and the inside message was perfect. I already mailed it and I can't remember word for word, but it said something like: Just remember that every day you're growing, every day you're changing, and becoming a more beautiful and wonderful you.
Of course, I grabbed it and bought it and mailed it out immediately!

I love to send cards, most of all for no particular reason. I love to know that in a day or two, she's going to open her mailbox and receive something from me that will brighten her day. Sometimes I send her little trinkets I've picked up here or there that made me think of her.

I also am a member of a group called Spirit Jump, that sends cards and/or small gifts to lift the spirits of people suffering with cancer.
I really enjoy it, and I think it's a perfect Random Act of Kindness.
How about you?

{I'm going to attempt to put a Mcklinky in here in case you want to link up, but the last time I tried it didn't work....yeah, I'm lookin' at you, new LinkyTools site....so we will see....}

Weekend WrapUp {Spring Break Edition}

We had SO MUCH FUN over Spring Break! In the beginning of the week the Littles stayed with their grandparents, and the Teens hung out with friends. Then we went to Busch Gardens, and then Clearwater Beach. Tim's friend Brendon came with us. We had a blast, and I have tons of pics!

Andrew

Elayna and Zoe (from Busch Gardens' new Sesame Street Safari!)

We went to Timbuktu!

This gorilla was amazing.

He was so expressive and human-like.

He was posing for the cameras!

My kids are clowns....

Andrew was pretending to eat bugs off of the monkey in front of him.

Elayna fit right in with the chimps!

This chimp was amazing too.

He would sit and stare at the waterfall, seeming to be deep in thought.

Monkeying around again....

While we were eating lunch,

this mama duck led her babies right by our table!

Elephants are so darned cute!

I can't remember what kind of bird this was.

But he was very neat-looking!

flamingos

sleeping bird

that may or may not be me on the carousel with the Littles...

Shelbie, Andrew and Elayna acting goofy by the giant butterfly

Elayna and Andrew, "flying"

And now we move on to Clearwater Beach!

They had a huge fun area set up for the kids to play on....

which cost us an arm and 2 or 3 legs....

This is Andrew sliding down the giant Shark Slide

Andrew running along the shore

{with Elayna playing in the sand in the foreground}

the Pier

Tim, helping Andrew build a sand castle

Elayna, sunburningbathing

All four of my kiddos....and I didn't even have to pay them to pose for me!

....and this is how the trip ended. Exhausted, happy kids. WIN!

**Between vacation and moving, I'm so behind on my blog reading & commenting. As much as I want to catch up, it's just not possible! But I promise I'll be back around ASAP!**