Super Storm Sandy Go Away!!!! :)

I was very disappointed to wake to bad weather Monday morning.  Aiden's pre-school class was scheduled to go to the pumpkin patch where they would each get to pick their own pumpkin, go on a hay ride, have a picnic and they were going to get to go through a maze.  Hurricane Sandy was already wreaking havoc on our lives and it hadn't even made landfall yet.  :(  Aiden was so excited about his field trip that he got up an hour early to get ready for school.  Not only was he disappointed that the trip had to be postponed (until after Halloween no-less) but he was also looking forward to me going with the class this time. 

I stewed about this all day and then decided to try to be super mom while I was out running errands.  We needed a family pumpkin so when I stopped to get it at Kroger I explained the situation and the produce manager was able to give me a $10 discount on my purchase.  With the discount we scored 15 pumpkins for about $1.86 each.  Now I am not a morning person so I didn't make it to the school to deliver the pumpkins until it was almost the end of the day.  Now Monday afternoon that didn't seem like a big deal, but then this morning I woke up to a voice mail that school would be closed today due to Super Storm Sandy.  At this point I just hope they get to go to school tomorrow so they can go on their trick-or-treat parade through the school and get to decorate their pumpkins before we miss Halloween altogether.

Since J and Aiden were not in school today we got to carve our family pumpkin today.  After cutting the top off we gave the girls a chance to feel the pumpkin guts, but they were having noting to do with that, LoL.  Emma did get brave enough to touch the ledge that the top rests on, but wouldn't touch the guts even when I pulled them out for her.  They can be such prissy little girls sometimes.

We had been planning on going back to Mom's neighborhood for trick-or-treating this year, but now that I am seeing the updated weather forecast I am thinking we might head out for some indoor fun at the mall instead.  Each year Tanglewood Mall and Valley View Mall in Roanoke County host trick-or-treating with the vendors from 5-7pm on Halloween.  I have never been out to one of these events, because I was afraid of the lines and crowds, but the alternative is letting my son go trick or treating in the rain and not letting the girls go at all if it does rain. What to do - What to do? Guess I will have to chat with the hubby about it and see what kind of input he has and then go from there.

This year we chose to go with a traditional Jack-o-Lantern face for our pumpkin!

Emma is thinking "Mommy that feels a little ewwwy!"

Nope, nope, nope! Not gonna touch it and you can't make me! LoL

Ghosts and More Tour 2012

This year was the 10th annual Ghosts and More Tour in Rocky Mount.  I volunteered through the HSN community service program.  The tour is put on by the Rocky Mount Historical Society and they take their passengers on a trip through history sharing paranormal hot spots along the way.

The history of the town is represented by at least 17 historical characters presented in 23 scenes

My friend Mel and I represented factory girls that jumped out of third story windows to avoid burning to death in a over-all factory where they were trapped shortly after starting work one day.

My friend Evie was portraying the dead bride of William B. Williams.

Linda was dressed for her part as co-ordinated the event with her families help.

I found my outfit courtesy of my local Goodwill.

The other "factory girls" were sorority girls from Ferum college and they loked awesome in their costumes as well.

Evie made a great dead bride!!

Mel looked awesome and was terrific at pretending to be dead ;)

For the second year in a row there have been protestors due to the Historical society dipicting a hanging on the courthouse lawn, but local law enforcement made sure that things went off without a hitch.  For more information on this and other tours of Rocky Mount VA visit http://www.franklincountyvirginiahistoricalsoc.org/eventsschedule.php.

MyPublisher gets a 5 star review from me :)

 

 

I have enjoyed my "weekend" this week!! I got my photobook from My Publisher today and it was well worth the shipping and handling (less than $10).   Even though a lot of the pictures I have right now have been taken on my GalaxyS Cell phone I have still been taking all kinds of pictures with it.  Now, since the resolution isn't that good, there were 8 pictures that were flagged while making the book to possibly have a low quality when printed.  I went ahead and kept all but one of the photos and hoped for the best since I really only had two hours to get it done when I noticed the discount.  I used the collage templates in My Publisher to arrange and crop the photos that I used and it made it super easy to make the backgrounds and embellishments match in a flash.  The first thing I noticed when I got my new photobook was the brilliant colors and the picture quality they were able to achieve.  I give My publisher a 5 star rating for customer satisfaction, quality and value.

 

 

Mind you my "weekend" didn't start out he greatest, but I am glad it ended well.  J and I took the girls for their 15/18 month check-up (yes I feel like a horrible mom for forgetting they were supposed to go at 15 mos -- but really you would think that they Dr office would call you to see if you forgot to come back).  They each got 5 shots and boy can they scream.  Emma even held her breath for so long her lips were turning blue and they had to keep blowing in her face occasionally to remind her to breathe.   After putting the girls through the ringer on Wed morning I went to an eye Dr appointment and got a new prescription and new glasses ordered.   The eye drops that dilated my eyes lasted well into the evening, but instead of going straight home from my appointment I went to Mom's to borrow her camera.  We had a nice little visit and I taught her how to send a picture message with her new cell phone.  ((Mom made butter in a mold that her friends Rick and Alice bought for her and we sent them a picture)) I also got to see her new heritage chickens and her birthday ducks again.  I love that she has set up her chicken/duck coop in the garden so they can be free range and fertilize her garden too.

 

 

 

My "weekend" started getting better on Thursday; I got to go out with Mom, my big brother and the kids for dinner and shopping at Goodwill.  We find some of the best things while we are there and Aiden gets a chance to get a good deal for the money he has earned.  This week he got a dinosaur fort that looks like a T-rex skull made out of rock with plastic green ivy accents that opens and has a ramp and a trap door for just $1.95 and he scored yet another transformer for $.55.  I also grabbed up some new pj's for the kids for $2 each (yard sale prices are better, but they are not as likely to have what you are looking for) so, a good deal to me.    As we were leaving the second Goodwill on our outing I noticed a flyer advertising a costume contest.  I already had a picture of the costume I made for work saved in my phone so I sent in my entry and now I have to wait until Monday evening to find out if I made top 3.  (I have my fingers crossed and I will let you know if I get good news)

 

Before I go for the night I would like to give a shout out to my nephew William!!!! You did a great job of decorating for Halloween at grandmas house, I hope you are going to come in and help take your cousins out trick-or-treating they always love to see you and your brothers.

 

 

Just Dance!!!

Grandma Dee Dee came to visit yesterday and the girls had a blast spending time wth her.  Emma was very excited to have a new hat to sport and both girls enjoyed showing Grandma anything they could.

Best of all she got the chance to dance with the girls.  Have fun watching the videos, I have to hit the hay early tonight so that I can put Aiden on the bus and get the girls ready for their Dr. appt and then I get to go to the eye Dr in the afternoon.

My photo projects have begun for the year!!!

 

 

As the holiday season is quickly approaching I have started reflecting on the year that has sped by.  It seems like just yesterday that I was spending time with my Daddy and he was watching my babies grow.   It's really hard to believe that it has been months since I have had that.  I am grateful to be a "picture nut" every time I look back on the memories I have captured in the form of pictures and short videos.  I love looking back over the year and reliving the best moments over and over again.

 

This year I have gotten to throw my baby girls their first birthday party, celebrate my son's 4th birthday, see two of my nephews graduate from high school, experience the loss of my Dad, see my oldest child off to preschool and so many more things that I never want to forget. 

 

 

I was going to finish uploading my pictures to Shutterfly today and I got distracted by an e-mail from MyPublisher announcing that my $20 credit with them was going to expire tonight.   That is enough to get me a 21 page Hardcover Photobook for the cost of S&H (less than $10).  I decided to give it a try and see if I could really put together a photo book that looks nice, doesn't cost a fortune and doesn't take all day to design.  With my $20 credit as my inspiration, I updated the MyPublisher program installed on my PC, chose all the pictures I wanted to use and had the program put them into a book for me.  The original design was about 28 pages for around 75 pictures.  Now had this been a book about a single event I may have left the book alone added some captions and went with it.  Since I chose to create a book for the first half of 2012 instead, I decided  that I needed to do some editing and shuffling of photos, editing of layouts and adding of captions to make a book I would be happy with.  In under 2 hours (with interruptions) I had designed and ordered a photobook.  The real test will be to see the actual book which I should have . I am hopeful that it will be as beautiful as the one I spent 2 days designing for my mom last year.  If anyone is thinking about trying out MyPublisher, let me know and I will send you an invitation e-mail!

 

 

Coupons, Free Stuff and Daredevil Toddlers!

 

Yay! I got my coupon for "Dirty Jobs Household Cleaners" BOGO deal, did all of you?  I actually stumbled across "Dirty Jobs" stain remover when I was in Wal-Mart shopping for Oxyclean.  ((I have found that the Kroger store brand of Oxyclean is 1/2 the price and just as effective.))  None-the-less last time we were running low on stain lifter I found myself in Wal-Mart.  Of all things, they actually don't offer a generic stain lifter, but they did have an alternate option.  Now mind you, we watch a lot of Discovery Channel in our house and so I am very familiar with the show "Dirty Jobs- starring Mike Rowe."  The alternate stain lifter was 1/2 the price of Oxyclean and it was  "Dirty Jobs" presented by Mike Rowe so I was willing to give it a try.   From what I have seen this product has done just what I needed it to and I would purchase it again.   So I am laying in bed the other night and I see a commercial for the "Dirty Jobs" stain lifter and a website to get to a BOGO coupon.  (it was actually amusing to see the wheels start to turn when J found that web address jotted down on a piece of paper in the bedroom... LoL)  For those of you that missed the link from yesterday: go to www.dirtyjobs.com for a printable coupon.  The coupon is good until November 20, 2012 for up to $9.98 savings and I am sure quantities are limited; so if you want it I would go ahead and print it out asap.

 

 I have also been working on uploading this years pictures to www.Shutterfly.com for some new picture projects I have in mind recently.   If you follow the link above it will take you directly to their site and when you register you can get 50 FREE 4x6 prints.   When I ordered Aiden's school pictures I got a bonus $20 credit to use on Shutterfly and a coupon for a good deal on a 11x14 Canvas Print for just $14.99 from another company. Since the girls are not in school yet I am going to use part of the credit to get some pictures made of them too, instead of taking them to a photographer.  As you can tell by my blog, I am a picture nut and at this point I have already uploaded almost 3000 pictures from this year alone to my account and I am not done yet.   ((I figure I should have a good shot or two in there that really showcase the girls.)) For anyone that is wondering; the upload process is quick and easy, plus once the pictures are uploaded they will be there and available to be used for projects for years to come as well.  I love that once I upload the pictures I can access them from anywhere I have access to the web which gives me a way to have easy access to my pictures no matter where I am.

 

I did also want to give an update on one of my toddlers.  Izzy has grown into quite the monkey.  She has actually only climbed out of her crib twice so far, but she loves standing on top of whatever she can.  Here she has used her toy box to climb up on the changing table and was jumping on it, daring it to break when I walked in to check her.   Mind you, when Aiden was little he jumped off his changing table so many times, I was not phased by this scene in the least, so I did capture a picture or two before removing her from her perch.

 

As a side note, when I was shopping for J's birthday presents this year I came across the best card ever for the parent of twins.  Watch and listen and prepare to laugh as it rings true in so many ways. :)

Getting back to deal hunting and getting ready for Halloween!

 

I was looking through my e-mail and stumbled across an e-mail from a website that I joined a long time ago.  The website is Smiley360.com and I have participated in a research study for Pam cooking spray that I loved.  Basically they gave me a coupon for tomatoes and Pam cooking spray, a spatula and a glass baking dish.  I cooked dinner using the tomatoes in a lasagna and washed the pan after dinner.  I got to keep everything they sent to me and all I had to do what take a short survey about the product that I was trying out and give some feedback.  After having the twins I really took a step back from the sample sites that I was subscribed to, couponing was put on a back burner at one point, and deal seeking for everyday's needs and activities slowly crept to a stop.

 

I did actually get my Sunday paper last week, and I AM going to get a coupon online printed off for a freebie (www.dirtyjobs.com -- BOGO coupon for Mike Rowe's version of oxyclean) and I signed up for consideration for another "mission" for Smiley360.  I hope I get chosen for another mission and I would love to invite everyone to join me at Smiley360.com and see what you can try for free just for giving some feedback on the product.

 

Here it is, your Halloween sneak-peek of my Batwoman costume.  I turned in my picture for a costume contest for work, if I win I will get some more shopping $$ yay! The girls and I are going to be superheros.  Aiden has a Bumblebee Transformer costume and is trying to convince his Daddy to be Optimus Prime... I will keep you updated if there is any progress on that one... LoL!

I did end up taking the kids to the Dr. on Friday.  I made the appointment for Aiden and once he was diagnosed with Strep Throat we had to wait for the girls to be tested too (They have all been running fevers on and off for about a week).  The girls initial test came back negative, so they are sending the cultures off for further testing and will call on Monday to let us know if there are any new developments.  Til then we will all just hope that the girls are able to slide by this w/o needing antibiotics too.

 

Totally Terrific Toads and Simply Stunning Smiles!!!

It just dawned on me that I had not shared our video and pictures of relaesing the Toads so that they can hibernate for the winter.  Aiden was very understanding about the fact that they would not survive the winter in captivity and we had to let them go so that they would live. 

Before letting them go I hulled some more walnuts and gave them a pile of larvae to snack on as they became accustomed to their new found freedom.

This little guy, as fat as he was eyed the last easy meal before taking off.

This little guy was happy to be free and immediately set-off to explore his new surroundings.

I am so excited that Aiden's school pictures turned out so great. As crazy as it sounds, I already have them cut and stuffed into Christmas cards.  One of these days I am going to make myself a mailing list, but until then I will be working on collecting the addresses I need to send out Christmas cards yet again.

Aiden has a portable dry erase board and was having fun drawing people.

This is the finished product, including hair and all!

Emma is always cheesing for pictures, but has a hard time standing still for two seconds.  I did finally get a picture with a smile and open eyes, but still need to work on getting one with no blur.

Izzy was having fun sliding on her box and saying "wheeee" as she went down.  Of course when she saw the camera she needed to get a closer look at it, but in the process I did capture some beautiful shots of her.

My little man is growing up! :)

It is fun to watch Aiden's imagination bloom and grow.  Aiden had earned about $1.50 to spend when we went to get his Daddy's birthday present.  He found a pack of Halloween party favors at the Dollar Store that has entertained him for hours.  He has had a lot of fun decorating his Little People castle for Halloween and turning it into a haunted castle.

Even though Mom has been growing Hens and Chicks for years, I don't remember ever taking the time to notice the flowers they produce.  A couple of ours started to bloom over the past week and the flowers are so pretty I wanted to share them. :)

Aiden is excited that he gets to go back to school tomorrow.  While he was out I pulled out the ciriculum and we worked on the letters for this week, so that he will not be too far behind his classmates. We came up with "S" and "I" words and made pictures of the words and letters.

Aiden was happy to trace his letters for me, but was hesitant to try to write the letters on his own.  At least he did practice the letters in his name. He is also excited to show his classmates the work he did and take them a copy of his favorite music CD.  What he doesn't know yet is that we will be making brownies for his bus driver Ms. Kellog that keeps him safe on the way to and from school for Bus Driver appreciation/ Bus safety week.

Our Birthday festivities for J's big 3-0!

For J's birthday this year we were able to get a sitter and go out for a kid-free night on the night before his 30th birthday. We started our night at Rancho Viejo in Vinton, VA with a wonderful dinner, then we headed to a friends for a couple of drinks before heading downtown.

We met up with a friend we have not seen in many years for some good fellowship and enjoyed a trip to our old stomping grounds, Awful A's. 

Cody is ready and waiting for Halloween!!!

Ok, yes I am a country girl and it was amazing to me to be able to get within 2 feet of a wild raccoon in the city.  So I just had to take pictures, he was adorable and very stubborn about not posing for a picture.

We had fun opening J's gifts on his birthday with the kids so they could join in the action.

But after a night of drinking I did let J cheat and open just one present so he could enjoy his new pillows.

Home sweet Hokie Home!!!

J finally has some Sunday funday clothes!!!

We have lots of new Halloween decorations courtesy of Aiden and his gift for his Daddy!!

Emma loved the tissue paper and even helped clean it up when the fun was done!!

We wanna help!!!

and help....

and help some more!!!

J's new Hokie light!!!

As soon as J put on his Raven's gear they ran a ball for a touchdown and they beat the Cowboys on his birthday too!!!!