HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

The happiest day of the year!!! We went the drive-thru at MickeyD's and they all were laughing and telling Josh what a cool costume he had. Gotta share:

And here is my family today uptown trick or treating this morning. Yes, we ALL dress up for this event! We LOVE IT! I wore my new cape! I love that thing! No hat though. The wind was sooo bad it would have never stayed on.

Will's School Picture

Here's my BABY!!! Seriously?? My BABY? Really? I think he really really looks like a Sallows! I might get ONE child that looks like me?! Maybe? Do you think he looks like his mommy? Look at his teeth! LOL Missing is front top teeth and then his lower laterals. I LOVE IT!

School Photo

Look at my handsome boy! Didn't get William's yet. So you will have to enjoy Zander's alone for

now. He got new glasses today. You can see them later in the HALLOWEEN classroom party pictures! yes, I said HALLOWEEN! The shirt he has on in this photo is the same one his Art Teacher has and Z thinks that's pretty funny! I told them they have to wear them the same day and have their pictures taken for the yearbook! hahahaha

Another Gripe

I'm just gonna say this over and over since we can't say it about the school parties

HAPPY HALLOWEEN Happy Halloween happy halloween HaPpY hAlLoWeEn
Happy flipping Halloween. What's so wrong with saying Happy Halloween? I love love love this holiday. It's right up there with Christmas for me. It might even be higher? But then nothing could top Thanksgiving for me. I was born on Thansgiving Day and it's my FAV Holiday EVER! No gifts, lots of food, and family. Nothing better! Well ok fine, I get some gifts! LOL

Our theme this year is animals. Will's classroom is doing Old MacVarney's Farm. I made face masks for all the students to hold up and they are going to hold on to twine to show them in a pen on the farm. The teacher is the farmer! I love it!

Zander is going to be the Cymbal Monkey. You know, red striped pants, yellow shirt, fez hat and cymbal with a HUGE SMILE! LOL Nana made it for us. It's so cool. Can't wait to get pictures of him in it!

ok...off to work...blah...

Bah humbug to Thursdays

I seriously HATE thursdays. It's my late/long day at work and it just sucks. I've done it for 7 years and I am just sick of it. And this time of year makes it even worse because it gets dark so early. And after the time change on Sunday, it will be even worse yet. So...boo hiss to this day. But I put on my smile and off I go! I'm loving life and I will just have to think of it as more time to spend to my co-workers! Luckily I really enjoy them or it could be a nightmare.

So...I need to see what happened with Sister's shopping trip and food adventure yesterday. I hope you ate smart! heehee

Big Ideas

Well, I have not posted about this yet as I was just too emotional over the whole thing. But due to budget cuts, William is losing his teacher. She is done on Nov. 20th. She's so unbelievably AWESOME too. I'm soo sad about it. I understand why it is happening but I don't have to like it, right. Well I got this bright idea to make her a photobook of the kids and have them all write letters to her. I will then take a photo of the child with the teacher and scrap their photo and their scanned letter to her. So she will know something is happening but she will NEVER GUESS THIS! I got the first letter back tonight. Oh my word...


Covered the names to protect the innocent. but seriously...how totally adorable is this first one I got back today. I'm going to love putting this together. I think it might go down as my most favorite one yet!

Fall Memories-Jennifer Fox & WW info

So I finally got around to doing something for my CT's. Yeah, I suck lately. Just been beyond busy. Finally took some ME time. So to speak. It was for them actually but I enjoyed it!
Kit: Jennifer Fox and Amanda Heimann-Fall Frolic
Template: Designs by Sine of SO

So...I have done something that is so totally out of my comfort zone. I talked about it in an early post but it really happened. I joined this "challenge" called Skinny Jeans. I had to take pictures of myself and post them (including my starting weight-ACK). Thank GOD it's in a private forum. Talk about humilating. But at the same time...it's going to be sooo cool to look back and see the progress. I have to take WEEKLY photos on Sundays. I will NOT be sharing them on my blog for personal reasons. I know I'm fat and I don't need to share that with the world! heehee I will also let you all in a tiny little secret. I started Weight Watchers on Sept. 28th. As of this morning I have lost 17 pounds. I'm in total shock. I was not going to share this with the world in the beginning because I was not sure if I was going actually stick with it. I am not proud of what has happened to me over the years and I had a lots of inspiration from many around me lately and felt I was ready. So with the help of my little sister, Amy Jo, I made my move. I joined. My sister surprised me with a little gift last week. Some books to carry in my purse to help me with the points. I really think it was because she was sick of me calling her before every meal asking how many points such and such was! LOL But no matter what the reason she did, THANK YOU!
I also have a little bet with dear Kiwi. So I am surrounded by inspiration, motivation, and determination. I am not going to look like I currently do at my sister's biggest day of her life. I couldn't do that to her or me. I know she wouldn't have cared one bit what I looked like but in the end, I would. And I am sick of feeling like crap. I'm turning 39 on Turkey Day and I do not want to enter my 40's looking like I do. So I figured I better get to work. Susan C. has recently gone through a life change recently and I figure if she can, I can too. I admired her for doing it from a far and now it's high time I tell her...THANK YOU for inspiring me! I'm very proud of you!!
My weigh in days are Tuesdays for my WW. I have been sending out emails with my progress but I can share here now. I have a little ticker on my blog so you can keep tabs on me if you want! Who knows if I will ever reach my "GOAL" weight but hey, I wanna try! I don't think I weighed the "goal" even in high school so I'm not really sure how this will play out but I will not let that stop me from trying. I'm already lighter than I was so as far as I can tell, I'm already a winner.

Pumplies 2009

Here's what we did this year. Can you guess which one is mine?? They go by age in case you are wondering!

Cloudy with a chance...

of meatballs...here we come! Off to watch this movie with Nana, Jackson, myself and the boys. Looking forward to having some popcorn!

Now hear this...

My voice it sorta back. Still can tell I have had issues but it's more than a whisper!

No voice

Woke up with NO VOICE. I've been under the weather but nothing too major. Just a cold like feeling...coughing, sinus pressure, tired. Now this. Should be fun at work. I called my boss to tell him I have no voice and see if he wants me there. He says, It's my call? Well, I know what that means...be there. So I'm going to go in. Should be interesting. A hygienist with no voice. I guess I can use my hands to show brush/floss! LOL hahaha Still got the dry sense of humor.

My current view

I stepped out my back door tonight to watch the boys play in the yard and I turned and looked and saw this.
This doesn't even really do justice to the color either. It was truly breath taking. The oranges and reds were so bright. It was a gorgeous day here today and yesterday. Tomorrow brings in rain and cold. Figures. All this color will be gone so fast if it rains. So I had to get this memory locked in print. I have NO PLANS for the weekend for the first time in 6 weeks. I am going to clean my house! It's terrible. Needs a good over haul. 6 weeks of neglect has taken it's toll on me. I'm still fighting something in my head/nose/throat. It's not horrible but man...it's not fun either. Tomorrow is thursday..blah... I hate thursdays. Long day at work. But...Will has a music concert at 6:30pm so I have leaving work an hour earlier so I can make it there on time. He's so excited. Zander has to pass out the programs. He's taking choir this year and was asked by the music teacher to help out. He's loving it! I've got the best kids!

Said the spider to the fly,

Just another wacky day in the land of Lincoln Parent Group!

Used Jennifer Fox-Spooktacular kit available at PolkaDotPlum

Skinny Jeans Challenge

So, I signed up for the Skinny Jeans Challenge over at SweetShoppeDesigns. Ironic, no? Sweet Shoppe and weight loss contest! Anywho...There's some prizes to be won so I figure, why not.

And a few of you are probably smiling or even laughing to yourself. You know my little secret and you know I can win this! If I'm doing it already, I might as well get paid to do it! (yes, I'm that cocky that I will win) heehee Who wouldn't love to win some digi supplies. I know I would! Secretly, I bet it will be all Krystal Hartley stuff! heehee just my luck! MWAHAHAHA well guess that's not a secret anymore. Me and my big mouth.

It runs Oct 25th thru Dec 30th. Based on Percentage of weight loss. Winner gets $40 towards the Sweet Shoppe Store!! Oh yeah! Only bad part...I have to share pictures to be entered in the random $50 drawing. UGH...Gag...puke...please no. But alas, I will do it. It might be a fun journey in a few years to see where I started. Or maybe not?!

This one's for the Girls- Krystal Hartley collab

This one is a tear jerker for me. It was, and still is, a very emotional time for us. But as many of you know, our way to get through life is to laugh. Even in the worst times, we will find a way to laugh about it. So this was our attempt at making light of a terrible, rotten event. I adore my MIL more than most will ever know. We do a LOT together since my own mother is not near me anymore. She has sorta filled in the void left my mom having to move away. I still talk to my own mom a lot but there just something about jumping in the car and going shopping or going for a walk or just hanging out. I don't know what I would have done if the outcome hadn't been so good for us in the end. We are NOT at the end of this journey yet but we are smiling and enjoying life along the way. She's getting better all the time and she's here! What more could we ask for? So this one for my Mother-in-law whom I simply call, Mom! She's the best and I love her as much as my own mom.

oh yeah...the kit! LOL It's available at Sweet Shoppe Designs today for 20% off. It's called This One's for the Girls! How cute is that name! So hurry. If you know anyone with Breast Cancer or simply want to have an awesome PINK kit, this one will make you very happy. The bra alone makes it worth buying! heehee I see a totally different layout coming from that, right Shell and Bev! LOL hahaha "the Grab" is going to happen again, I am sure! *snicker

Snowy by Kristin Aagard

Here's another layout for the Murder Mystery photobook. Pretty much every layout I will do now will be for that! I have a mission to get it done before halloween. We shall see! LOL

Anyways, this mini kit is by Kristin Aagard ( my long lost cyber sister-she's been avoiding me, I think...wink wink) and it's called SNOWY. I just couldn't bring myself to work on SNOW pics yet! heehee I will link you up with it when it becomes available. I just had to share this layout now as I had people asking about it.

Ready for a break

Whew...I'm so busy getting ready for Fall Festival. I have done a couple of pages for my CT's but I really haven't had time to scrap like I had been. And quite frankly, I think needed the break. I'm feeling ready for it. So much so that I am actually going to a crop on Saturday when I should be working on Fall Festival stuff. But my main goal is to get it DONE today and then I can Play tomorrow. Well whether it's done or not, I'm going scrapping on Saturday. I want to work on the Murder Mystery photobook. I need some ME time.

SNOW?

It's snowing an hour north of me. BEV!! Is it pretty?!

Ahhhh....Coach Mo..

NO WAY? I'm just happy he made a positive addition to his life in the end. He's so right...If you really wanna do it you can do it. And next week they go home? ahh...what a mean twist! heehee Sorry to bore you with TV talk but sometimes things hit home for me and I need to talk about it.

Meredith Cardall-Boo 2 U

Meredith has this really cute Halloween kit coming out called BOO 2 U available at Elemental Scraps. I just love it. I really had to share this because I have so many people wanting to see my witch outfit.

Success and Major FUN!

The Murder Mystery Play/Fundraiser was really really fun and a HUGE HIT! Some photos are up on facebook if you are a friend. If not, just hang tight, it will be slowly revealed in my pages!
Huge huge hit!

Family is arriving!

Josh's family is slowing trickling in!! I'm so loving this! We will only be missing ONE of the 8 kids that are left. Josh's mom's side of the family is HUGE! They are all coming home for the big Murder Mystery Play/Fundraiser for the Library. Josh's mom is the director and most of the cast is family too. Looking forward to this one. Let's see...without "spilling the beans" too much, I will share this, Josh is a Mummy, I'm a witch (hardy har har), Zander is Mortimer the Mortician. And Will is not involved due to his age. Maybe next year. Zander will also have an appearance as Micheal Jackson. Oh yes, this is going to be FREAKING AWESOME!
My name in the play is Flo Tomontage. I'm the photographer for the play. I will be doing candids with a photo board, and general pics. My cape is to die for! I love it! I will be sure to post photos. Off to finish my witch hat!

wednesday--ahhh

The week is half over and that means we are getting closer to the wonderful weekend. This weekend is the play! I'm so excited for this. My MIL has put a TON of time into this and I am excited to see all her hard work pay off. Then it's on to two more major events at the school and I can coast for awhile!! I'm ready to have my life back that is for sure! I feel like I have been working for everyone else's gain lately and I am ready to put me first!

I'm Alive!

I survived camping this weekend! LOL
Just very tired. Just not the same as your own bed. And Rain on tin can doesn't help! heehee

Survived night one

To all my friends and family out there... I survived night one of camping! LOL It's about 70 inside. So I'm fine! Going shopping today. Hoping to find some fun socks for my costume next weekend. Found 3 clear pieces for my sister yesterday and really funky green beaded necklace at goodwill. Now I just need to find a really cool pin for my cape.

Thank you Amy Jo for helping me last night. I love that you are so supportive.