Happy 4th!!

 Hope everyone have a safe and Blessed 4th of July!!! 

Happy Easter!!!

Hope everyone had a Blessed Easter. I know it was tough as we still can not really go anywhere. Ours was nice. The Easter Bunny had it rough as he could only get a few things ordered offline, but it was still great. I'll post pics once I pull them off my camera and phone.

Please continue to stay safe everyone!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ok, so I know we still have 3 days until turkey day.........but I am SO looking forward to eating some yummy turkey!! We normally just do a turkey breast, as a whole turkey is just WAY too much for just the 4 of us. And of course this time of year, trying to find a small turkey is next to impossible!! I think the smallest I saw was just under 20lbs........yeah, I love turkey left-overs, but can only do so much!! LOL I am a little bummed that we couldn't be with family in MD this year. We tried, but Z just couldn't get the time off from work. One of the main reasons I wanted to go up there is to see my dad, who is having some health issues right now.  I also wanted to "see" mom as well, as it's been too long since I visited. Hopefully things will work out and we will get up that way soon.

Right now there are SO many things going on in our lives, both good and bad. But there are TONS of things I am thankful for......

I am thankful for:

- Both of my boys, Tyler and Chase. Even though they drive me freakin insane and some days I just want to run out of the house pulling my hair out and screaming, I wouldn't have things any other way. Both of them are my rock and my heart & soul, and I love them beyond any words I could say. I don't know how I would make it without them.
- having Z here with us. And yes, he does the same to me as the boys do but I wouldn't have him any other way.
- having a roof over our heads. I know I complain about where we live (and with good reason, I might add!) but I AM grateful to at least have a house to live in. No it is not our home, but our time WILL come, and soon.
- friends that are always there for me, no matter how much a whine or complain about things!! There are several friends who are more like family to me and always will be. They too have been my rock over the years, and I don't know how I would make it without them as well. I am always here for you and love you ALL so freakin much!!!!  
- my family. I hate that I don't keep in touch more with them. I miss them so very much. They can drive me crazy at times, and I KNOW I drive them crazy at times as well, but I love that about them!!
- My in-laws. More importantly, Z's parents. Yes, the same people who have driven me insane throughout the years and caused WAY too much drama in our marriage. (well, not so much them as it is another in-law who is a drama queen attention whore and LOVES to cause crap between Z's parents and myself) Z's parents have helped us SO much throughout the years. I really wish they lived closer to us so they could see the boys on a regular basis. Maybe someday.......


Obviously there are tons more I am thankful for but I would be here all day typing!! So, I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!! Don't over eat, and of course save room for dessert!!!!

Too long

Wow, i'm SO sorry I haven't posted in such a long time! Mail goodies/freebies haven't been too bad, but I've been slacking with taking pics and posting them. :(  I've been dealing with some of my own issues (which I really am not ready to throw out there just yet) that I have been getting help for, but it's really been harder to "get a grip" on  than I thought it would be. I mean, I didn't expect things to get fixed and all better overnight but I also didn't expect to slip further down like I have. As I said, it's not something I really want to open up about right now. Hopefully, in the future it will all be something I can look back on and open up about easily.

Anyhoo, things around here seem to be going "ok". Just counting down the months until we can get moved.......hopefully only 5 more months to go!! The boys are SO excited about Halloween this week.....I actually got Chase into his costume and he didn't cry!! I don't know what his deal is about clothes....not only did he have a meltdown when he initially tried on his costume, he has meltdowns when it comes to certain clothes in general!! Especially long sleeve shirts right now! I've been trying to gear him up for the cooler weather coming, but all he says is "I can wear my jacket, I'll be fine..." I've told him it will be WAY too cool to wear a tshirt, even with his jacket, and that he will have to wear warmer shirts in the house with no jacket and he keeps saying "I'll be fine, mommy...." So far today I've gotten him to wear a long sleeve thermal shirt....albeit he has the sleeves pushed up right now, he is wearing it and not crying! LOL He looks so cute in his costume, though. He is going to be a pirate!

He didn't have his hook in the pic, and I seriously doubt he will wear the eye patch on Halloween, but he is just too cute!!Ty had a few ideas of what he wanted to be, I normally I try my best to make their costumes......but when I went onto Party City's website Ty saw a costume that he just LOVED!! And, it was on sale!!! He is going to be Walugi, from MarioKart!

I think he loves amazing!!! He doesn't have the mustache on in this pic, but we are waiting to put that on after we eat dinner Halloween night. That is another thing the boys are excited about....eating dinner at the mall!! Because of the area we live in, we take the boys to the mall for trick-or-treating and it's so nice! Even if the weather is bad or super cold, the mall is the perfect place to go. It's just so hard to believe Halloween is this week......this year has flown by SO fast!

Just in case you didn't know.....

Only 6 more months until Christmas!!!

I can not WAIT until we get moved and I can really decorate for the holidays......think Clark Griswold.

Memorial Day

Christmas has come and gone

Each year I am shocked at how fast the holiday goes by. This Christmas seemed to go by even faster since I took the decorations down the day after! I usually leave them up until at least New Year, but we really needed the room. I still keep finding decorations here and there, but I think I got it all up now. I foudn a few Christmas cards that we got this year, and I must say I don't think we will be sending out cards next year. And if we do, it will only be a small few. I am truly amazed at the lack of cards we got this year. I know it's really not a big deal, but it always meant so much when we got cards from family and friends......it really showed they were thinking of us. We got a total of 6 cards this year. So yeah, i'm not really thinking about doing cards anymore. (and I hate being that way, as I LOVE doing Christmas cards )

As for Christmas, we had a GREAT day!!! The boys got so much and loved everything they got. Some things we had to put up until we move, since we just don't have the room for everything. I think Chase's favorite was the Fisher Price Stand and Play Rampway. Actually, we ALL love playing with it!! And some of the reviews were people complaining about the cars flying off the track....well, Chase cracks up everytime one of his cars goes flying!! I'm hoping to get him a few more cars to use with it, although he loves to use his Tonka Chuck & Friends as well as Hotwheel cars on it. Ty's favorite thing he got was his Spongebob Lego sets!! In fact, he is getting a third one for his birthday! But he plays with them every day. They both also love the Crayola paints they got from my sister and her family. All in all it was a great Christmas.

Well, Ty has been on Christmas break for 2 weeks now and he is BEYOND ready to go back to school!! I'm SO thankful we had decent weather since he loves to play outside. If he would have been stuck in the house for most of his break I think I would have lost my mind. I love him so much, but he needs to be around other people!! He goes back this Monday, thank you Lord. He's also excited about this coming week, since his birthday is a week from today!!! How is it he is going to be 8 years old?!? We're going to actually celebrate his birthday on Wednesday, since Z is off that day. Ty had asked Z if he could get home a little earlier on his birthday so they could have dinner together, but Z's work is moving to a new shop and he has to stay late that night. Z mentioned about celebrating on Wednesday and Ty said he would love that!! He's asked for chinese food for dinner and an ice cream cake for dessert.

Poor Chase has been having issues yet again with his ears.We had to take him to see the doctor on Wednesday because his right is was now bothering him. The doctor checked his left ear but couldn't see much since he had so much wax in it, but he said his right ear was really infected and it looked like the eardrum may have ruptured. They gave us some stronger antibiotics and he said he wanted to see him back in two weeks so he can make sure the fluid is going down. If not, Chase will need to see an ear specialist and may possibly need tubes in his ears. I mentioned to the doctor about Chase's speech and he said it could very well be because of his ears being infected and that he isn't hearing well enough to speak clearly. So, if it does come down to him needing tubes it won't be a bad thing, as it will not only help his ears but possibly his speech. I just feel so bad for my boy, though.

Well, Chase is now awake so it's time I get off of here. Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!

Happy New Year!!

Wow, how did I not post this already?!? We've been so busy around the house I totally forgot about it! It's SO hard to believe yet another year is starting. 2011 wasn't one of best years, that's for sure. Between finding out Z has cancer to him losing his job thanks to his asshole ex-boss....well, I think that was a blessing actually. He was SO miserable there....between his boss's mood swings and another co-worker that treated everyone in the shop like shit (karma will get her, though ) he was dreading going to work every day. But the way he was let go was not right at all. Then with the issues we had with where we are living, it's been a rough year. 2012 should really be our year, though. Yes, Z has to have surgery again but this time he has short term disability so we should be ok as far as bills go. Plus we plan on putting some income tax money away to get us by...but the best thing, we are moving!!! (we have moved 6 times since being married and i've always dreaded it, but not this time!!) Hopefully within the next 2-3 months we will be out of this neighborhood and into something permanent...meaning all ours!! I can't wait to feel safe in my own home again.

I don't really have any resolutions for this new year. Just to get the boys through it in one piece is enough resolution for me!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed new year!!!! 

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!! I posted pics from our outting last night to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on Facebook.....we all had a BLAST!!! The boys loved seeing all the lights. And they had so much fun this morning with opening gifts......i'll try and post a few pics of the goodies they got a little bit later.

Take care everyone and have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!

So excited!!

The boys got their letters from Santa!! Ty was so excited because Santa added his own personal message at the bottom of the letter........

Officially done shopping for Christmas!!

Other than a few stocking stuffers (the traditional mini m&m tubes and a few small things) we are done!! Ty has been done (even though we still keep picking things up for him.....but we are putting things away for his birthday, which is a few weeks after Christmas) and as of this morning Chase is now done!! Yesterday morning I ordered a really cute pair of Mickey footie pj's for Chase and this morning I found a Mickey table and chairs set that I had been wanting to get him.....well, I wanted to get him a small table and chair set like Ty had years ago, but the plain tables were almost $30!! I got him a Mickey table and chairs for $20 shipped!!! We'll get our layaway out in a few weeks, and then i'll get the fun of wrapping all of it......I love wrapping!!!!

Today I got all of our Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail out. Some will go inside of some goodie boxes I hope to get out this week. I just love this time of year!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving........

Super fast!!!

On October 31st I placed an order with My Publisher for Christmas cards. I had gotten 2 emails (one for each account) offering 10 free cards, so I decided to just go ahead an order them. (I had ordered free mini photo books from them in the past) Well, I got them today!! I am SO impressed with how well they turned out!!! And at how well they were packaged! I had our return address printed on the envelope as well, and it was all for free!! I ended up with 20 total cards! It actually feels so good to have that part of the holiday to-do list done. :)

Welcome, November!

It's SO hard to believe it's November already! This year has just flown by. Last night we took the boys to the mall for trick-or-treating and they had a ball!! We decided to go to a different, bigger mall this year and i'm SO glad we did!! The boys got so much candy, and not just tootsie rolls and lollipops! (at the previous mall we went to, that's about all the stores gave out....and that's if we made it on time to trick-or-treat!) They got some super cool stickers and little toys....they even got a Cars 2 card matching game from the Disney Store! The only down side to going to a bigger mall was more people, which honestly wasn't that big of a deal. The bad part was people that would just cut in front of people in the "line". Ugh, I swear I wanted to smack some of those people...they were SO rude!! Oh, and don't get me started on the older kids that were getting candy...and adults!! They had a sign up that had the "Rules" of the mall for TOT and it said it was only for kids 12 and under. There was one "boy" in front of us that had hair on his legs thicker than Z does!! And he sure didn't look like he was under 12. It was crazy!! Some stores did refuse to give candy to some of the older kids/adults and I like that they stuck to the rules. Ohhh, Godiva was giving kids samples!! Chase did good in the beginning with walking and saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!" but after walking for a bit he was exhausted....I think mainly because he didn't get a nap yesterday. He LOVES to walk, but when I asked him if he wanted to get in his stroller and he4 said yes, I knew he was wiped out! LOL Here are my scary boys and their loot!! (Chase didn't wear the hat to his costume)



And what was even cuter was in the beginning when we first started out. Chase was SO excited when he saw people were actually putting things in his pumpkin!! After they would put something in, he would look in his pumpkin and get a huge smile on his face. And the more people who put something in there, the more excited he got! We made it to 4-5 people before he decided he was ready to eat something out of his pumpkin. It was just adorable seeing how much fun he was having now that he is old enough to "get trick-or-treating". I remember Ty being the exact same way when he got into it!!

Well, Z was off yesterday (and it may be his last day off for awhile ) so we decided to do some Christmas shopping for the boys. (well, a layaway, anyway!) After we dropped Ty off at school we headed to Kmart over in Pigeon Forge. We wanted to do a layaway there mainly because Walmart had restrictions on their layaway....like, it was only for electronics, toys and jewelry and the items had to be over $15. We were highly disappointed in Kmart. They had a horrible selection of toys and what few things they did have were WAY overpriced. We did pick up a few things, like Ty needed a certain color shirt for his program at school next week (he actually has a solo!!) and we found a sweater for him that I had been looking all over for!! It was marked $20 but was 30% off (I think? maybe 40%?) so we picked it up. When it rang up it was only $10! We also got a super cheap dvd player since we put our dvd player in Ty's room to help him sleep in there. We also ended up getting a $5 Kmart gift card back because we spent a certain amount!!

When we left Kmart we headed to Walmart and decided to just do the layaway there. I am SOOOO glad we did!! I found the Spongebob Lego sets I wanted to get Ty, AND I found the Lego Duplos for Chase!! (he loves trying to play with Ty's Legos but they are just too small for him still) I also found a HUGE plastic container for storing Legos that also came with the flat Lego piece that you can build on....and it was only $10!! We also got Chase a Tonka Chuck & Friends set (love those!) and for both of the boys (and to help keep mommy sane while Chase and I wait at Ty's school!) we got a dual portable dvd player for the van!! We got such an amazing deal on it. Z also found a pair of headphones for Ty (he is so hard on them and they break so fast). Well, when we went to do the layaway I remembered things had to be at least $15 and we had two things that were under that. The lady and man that were ringing us up told us Walmart dropped that and it can be any amount as long as it was in the three categories....so we got to put everything on layaway!! Ty is SO done as far as Christmas goes. I didn't realize how many things we had gotten for him!! There are still a few things we want to get Chase, plus we need to get stocking stuffers for both, but we'll get those when it's closer to Christmas. And thanks to some awesome deals, survey money and freebies, it didn't cost us much out of pocket!!! Now that Halloween is over, I can't wait until Christmas!!! (not that I am rushing time at ALL!! LOL)

If you love Christmas time...

I highly recommend the store Christmas Place! They are located in Pigeon Forge, which is about 20-25 minutes away from us. In all the years we have been going to PF, we never went in. Well, I was looking online for a certain ornament for Chase and their site popped up! I not only found the ornament I was looking for, but it was on sale! I also found some really cute LED photo frames that were also on sale. They did have an ornament I was going to order for Ty, but it was out of stock. So I talked to Z and he said to just order what I found online and we would go into the Christmas Place store on his next day off. (this past Thursday) Well, Thursday morning we went to the store.....and all I can say is, if you have never been and are ever able to go, you need to GO!!! They have everything you could ever imagine for the holidays!! And to be honest, yes some things were a little pricey, but for the most part their prices were not that bad! (and you know what a cheapskate I am.....) And this place was HUGE!!! Every time we thought we had seen everything, we ended up going into a new section! And the employee's were so friendly and helpful. We spent almost 2 hours looking at everything!! We ended up getting an ornament for Ty (not the one we wanted though, as they were not only sold out online but at the store. he is SO into dinosaurs and they had a T-Rex ornament but it was not in stock....we ended up getting him the Stegosaurus) and I got an ornament that goes with what I call Chase. It's an adorable baby monkey (looks like a baby in a monkey costume!) and on the belly it says "Little Monkey". (for Ty I have a pickle ornament, since i've called him my little pickle since before he was born)

Well, once we got home I put the ornaments away so the boys wouldn't see them. Later that evening, UPS came and brought me what I had ordered from Christmas Place online!! I was so shocked to get it so fast! I absolutely loved the ornament for Chase (a school bus....he LOVES them!!) and the picture frames are so adorable.......plus they sent me a free snowflake ornament!! Now I can't wait to get our Christmas decorations up!!!



The frames look super bright because they have glitter on them to look like snow....can't wait to put pics in them and light them up!!!

Can you believe.....

There are only 109 days until Christmas?!?!?!? Yes, I know i'm a little insane, but I am actually looking forward to the holiday season this year!! I honestly don't know why, as I usually stress about what to get the boys and how we can get them things without going broke!!! But this year just feels so.......different, for a lack of a better word. Z has a new job that is so much better for him, not only financially, but for his own sanity!!! We started up a little savings for the boys Christmas, and I would LOVE to be able to actually send friends and family a little something this year! Plus, we already have a few things put away for the boys, and I ordered Chase's Christmas ornament today! (we try and get the boys new ornaments every year, mainly of things they are really into) I think what mostly got me in the holiday mood was when I found the star that we are going to use on top of our tree this year. (our angel died on us last year....so sad :() When I found the star I called Chase over to where I was, and I plugged it in so he could see all the colors.....the look on his face was just priceless!!! He got a huge smile on his face and was so excited!!! I wanted to put our tree up right then and there! But, then I went through the pics of last years Christmas and our "leaning tree" and that brought me right back down to reality. But still, i'm really looking forward to the baking and shopping, and of course the decorating!!!

Labor Day!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day! It's been raining fairly heavy since last night, and is supposed to keep up for the rest of the day. We desperately needed the rain, but it's coming down SO fast! Z has to work today, so it's just the boys and I. With all the rain, it's been a pj and movies kind of day!! (the movie Up is about to come on....love it!!!) Z was off yesterday, so we got most of our running done then. We got something for Ty for Christmas. He has been asking for his own mp3 player, and he is SO rough on things and I just couldn't see getting him something that was super expensive and just have him destroy in within days. Well, Big Lots had an mp3 player at a really good price, so we got there when they opened and got him one!! It's perfect for him, and I just know he will love it.

Well, with all this rain i'm SO glad we decided to not cook on the grill today!! Thinking about making some tacos for dinner...at least that's what Ty has been asking for! ;) Stay safe out there, everyone!!!!

Official start to this week......

With Z being off yesterday, this week is now officially started since he is back to work today. It was so nice being with my 3 fave men these past 3 days. Yesterday was awesome! We decided to do burgers and hot dogs off the grill along with fries and I had some potato salad. (LOVE the Food City potato salad! Now I just need to learn to make my own! LOL) For dessert I had made some sugar cookies and a strawberry shortcake (which I already posted pics of) and they both kicked butt!! The cookies have such an amazing sugar cookie taste (and it's a cookie mix! Krusteaz) and are really soft! And the cake was oh so yummy..........everyone loved it! As for fireworks, we didn't really see much from the house. We didn't go out to see any, mainly because Chase had no nap and was ready fro be before 7pm! Plus, none of us like huge crowds of people so we usually end up staying home anyway. Before we moved last September, we could see fireworks right off our front porch, which was nice. But at this house, we could see a few but it was too scary to be out there to try and watch them. (not the greatest neighborhood to be out in at night :() We did watch the fireworks on tv and listened to some amazing music! We watched a little of the show from D.C., but we mainly watched the local channel to see the fireworks downtown. I have to say, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra was AMAZING!!!!! Their music was just beautiful.....and the fireworks were just as beautiful!! Ty enjoyed watching them, but he was disappointed he couldn't see any outside. I told him we will make some plans to go out next July 4th to see some live. All in all we had a really nice holiday weekend.

I am SO far behind with scrapbooking, you would think I would try and get caught up any chance I had to sneak scrapping in, right?!? WRONG!! I have now started a cross stitch project. LOL I found an adorable, FREE, pattern that I just couldn't wait to do!!! I got it started earlier last week, and i'll be sure to post pics as I work on it. I also still want to sneak in scrapbooking when I can, but at this rate i'll be lucky to get one layout done every few weeks! LOL

Hope everyone had a safe Independence Day, and has a wonderful week!!!!

Happy Independence Day!!

I hope everyone has a safe holiday!!! I made some special desserts for today/tonight......

My version of red, white & blue cookies....



Strawberry Shortcake!!!

2011!

Wow, it's SO hard to believe 2010 is over. It was a very rough year, to say the least. But I do believe things always happen for a reason. I have several resolutions for 2011 that I really want to work hard on and stick to. For starters;

- I want to be a better mother to the boys. To have more patients, and to enjoy every single moment of them being kids.
- I also want to work harder on being a better friend. I get caught up in so many things around the house and I neglect keeping in touch with my friends......I feel so bad about that. :(
- I want to do better at keeping up with housework, but not to the point where I miss out on things with the boys. As long as I can manage the "lived in" look, i'll be happy!!
- I want to do better with getting my diabetes under control. I would love to say I want to lose weight to do that, and I do vow to fit some sort of exercise into my daily routine.
- I want to try and work hard on my marriage. I put this last because I don't know how to accomplish this, when I have been trying to work on it and Z has not. I can't make him change, but at the same time I would think he would want to change and be a better husband and father......I think the boys deserve a father who isn't constantly yelling and fussing at them. Poor Ty gets the brunt of Z's temper and I feel so bad for him. He bends over backwards for his daddy, and all Z does is find fault in every little thing he does. But then Z will turn around and say that Ty never listens to him.....well, when the only attention he gets from you is yelling why should he listen? If he doesn't listen and you yell at him, that is at least some attention he gets. (albeit the WRONG attention) I've heard Z say several times how he needs help, but nothing ever changes.....nothing. I guess what I really need to do first is figure out if I want to even try and save this marriage, or just move on for the sake and happiness of the boys. They don't deserve to be treated the way Z treats them.

Ok, I guess the last resolution was more of a vent.....sorry about that. :( I always feel like i'm the bad guy when it comes to Z, especially when it comes to his family. In fact, last night he was bitching about me to his mom on the phone when I was in the other room. He always tries to defend his actions when it comes to his lies or the way he interacts with the boys. I honestly don't care what his family feels or thinks of me..........I know what kind of person Z is and I honestly don't like it very much anymore. Over 10 years is a long time for someone to put up with the things the boys and I have had to put up with. Who knows what 2011 will have in store for the boys and I.............