This- my friends, is 30 pounds gone!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??????????????????
Now, this dress, it was a loose fit anyway, but when I put it on yesterday for Church I about drown in it!!! LOOK AT THAT! I could fit a whole leg in there! Crazy egh? Talk about feeling good! And you know what? I WORE it to Church anyway and showed my "workout" gals how huge it was too!!!!!!!! hee hee!

5 months, 30 lbs, 2 sizes..........not bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BOOKS BABIES BIKES and Trucks?

So, here we have more photos, as promised, of all my kids and their crazies. I have my two "book worms" (Chris 15 and Tiffany 9) reading away and being dorks ... Tiff in her super cute purple glasses and Chris in MY driving glasses! Goofs! Then we have lil' Micheal and Tiffany with all her "babies" Colleen, Christy, Emily, Ashley, Xavier, Ganeese....... aren't they cute? And of course, Micheal on his new Birthday Bike (and helmet!) and then him with his coolio remote cars and trucks. Big brother bought Micheal a HUMMER for Christmas and that was the big hit of the season for us all....

LOVE being a Mom to these crazies....

Promised pictures...

OK IS THIS FUNNY OR WHAT???????

So I have been a "boring blogger" (according to my dh Ed) so I will punish myself by totally humiliating myself with the big green machine lady photo! Go ahead, laugh, it IS funny.

I downloaded like 151 photos tonight so I will at least have some things to share with you all.

I also included a Christmas photo..... yes, I am so behind! Anyway, this is a photo that SANTA took after he dropped everything off on Christmas eve... doesn't look like tons, but believe me those kids got spoiled! (young and old)

And then there is the photo of our newest family addition........"HERSHEY" (as in the chocolate) We adopted him from a family on Free Cycle a little over a week ago, pure bred cocker spaniel and so far so good. (He is ED'S DOG) He is dang cute though..

OK until later, me

SEE MOM SCREAM

SEE MOM.
SEE MOM SORT LAUNDRY.
SEE THE BIG BIG LAUNDRY PILE?
SEE THE MONSTEROUS PILE OF DIRTY LAUNDRY?
SEE MOM SIGH....HEAR MOM MOAN?
SEE MOM.
MOM LOOKS FUNNY.
MOM LOOKS FUNNY BENT OVER LIKE THAT.
MOM LOOKS ANGRY BENT OVER LIKE THAT.
HEAR MOM SIGH AGAIN?
MOM HATES THE LAUNDRY MONSTER.
MOM WANTS TO SLAY THE LAUNDRY MONSTER.
SEE MOM.
MOM SIGHS AGAIN.
MOM FINDS CLEAN LAUNDRY IN THE PILE.
MOM MOANS AGAIN.
MOM WANTS TO SLAY THE CHILDREN WHO FEED THE LAUNDRY MONSTER CLEAN CLOTHES.
SILLY SILLY MOM.

**Edited: Ahhhhhhh see mom be all done. Clothes are sorted. Laundry can wash it's own self!**

Catching Up is Hard to Do....

OK I have SO much to talk about, SO much to share.....don't even know where to start! Geesh! I will just give a re-cap of the last week or so I guess and then I will get some photos on here later today too. Thanks for waiting around....just crazy life these days.

So. last Sat we had Micheal's 6th Bday party, went to a local pizza/kids play place, had immediate family and a couple of family friends join us. Kids played, we all gorged ourselves on tator tots and pizza and then cake and ice cream. It was a nice, fun evening and the kids all wore themselves out. Wow! Can't believe my "baby" is 6 years old! *sniff sniff*

Sunday we had Church and basically hung out, not a lot going on but I did babysit the majorty of the afternoon and then all evening for my sister's 3 kids..... they played with ours and basically got along pretty well. Later in the evening I took the kids to their house and put them to bed, did some housework for my sis as she is burried with "life" these days (more on that coming) and what else was I going to do for 2 hours? LOL

Monday was a Holiday/ teachers work day at school so the kiddies were home, sort of hung around, played with friends and stuff. Nothing too major. After being out the prev Friday too for a snow day, Mom was SO OVER the long weekend and ready for them to be back in classes on Tuesday. Tuesday was more of the same ol' same ol' going on, kids, house, school, oh, and playing taxi with dh and ds as we are still down to just the one car. Also older dd had a Church activity that night which turned out to be a scrappy night so I went and hung out with her there.

WED morning (aka Tues night) all heck broke loose!!!! At about 3 am my honey woke me up telling me he was super sick and in a lot of pain...after a short wait and other factors I loaded him up and took him to the E.R. Ahhhhhhh the culprit?? KIDNEY STONES! ick! (been there done that myself a few times so sympathy was at an all time high for him) So, after a VERY long morning in the E.R we were shipped upstairs to the floor where he was admitted for meds to control things...... all day Wed and Thurs we kept at it....... talk about LONG days!! Finally late Thurs night he passed that sucker and then was able to come home Friday about noon. All the while Wed-Friday I had things going on with the kids, church, and other family members (one of which whom is also in the hospital) and FRANTIC - STRESSED - and EMOTIONAL were the three key words for my life. I only had one major meltdown (not bad imo) and then got tough.
I had a few wonderful people to give me tlc and helped out, big thanks to them, you know who you are. So, Fri we got dh home and so far so good.......

Wanted to mention, Wed evening I did get to go to the card class at Church I'd been preparing for, my good buddy Robin helped out and did a card technique and the gals loved it! Although we were few in numbers and my mind was 10000000 miles away, I still had fun and think that break was what kept me from going totally "postal" later in the week. LOL

Sat was a good day, got some housework done, kids got to hang with friends, we even rearranged some furniture (to make way for dh's new BIG freakin' TV). Sat night we went out to a nice dinner with our friends, so good to get out, and then came home to hang out. OH and other big news... the kids got dirt bikes and are excited to get this snow melted and get out on them to play!!

In other news.......I am forgetting lots of stuff here........ we got a new dog this week, in the midst of all this chaos the ding dong thing ran away the first day we had him OYE that was fun...NOT! He is a black cocker spaniel, "Hershey" is his name, and he is NOT my dog... dh's and our oldest son... not mine. I will not (refuse to) bond in any way shape or form with this mutt and have 101 reasons why although I won't go into that now. LOL Also got a way cool pkg in the mail yest from an online scrappy buddy, Nichole, she totally treated me and I am LOVING the stuff she sent, a giant organizational binder, two super COOL looking storage boxes, a mini scrap kit 'grad' themed, and a ton of fun embellies too! LOVE having that come to me! Felt so special all afternoon!!!

Gosh, not much else, of course you are all sick of reading by now... LOL I am sure I missed a few things, but I think I got most of it. I did have a long night last night (Sat/Sun) as my sis was sick too and I ended up taking HER to the ER as well.......but she is fine, just overwhelmed and overstressed with things. So, I will end it here , for now, and then I'll add some pix and also update anything else I remember that I forgot ROTFLMBO!

SMILES :O) Darla

LOTS going on

OK so the last 3 days have been, um, "eventful" to say the least. I have lots to report on, good adn bad, but right now I have a family who is thinking they are hungry for dinner! (THE NERVE!) So, stay tuned, I promise I'll be back with stories galore.......

Darla

PS Sherelle!! Glad you "found" me! :O)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MICHEAL!

WOW! Today is our baby boy Micheal's 6th Birthday Party! He acutally celebrated his birthday on Monday the 8th........but being the first of the week it was not ideal for a party soooo.... we are having the party tonight. A few people , cousins, friends, family, at a big pizza place with toys and games, should be fun....did I just say that? OK it should be crazy, loud, and yes, fun. Big boy is getting a new bike (he rode his other one near to death) and is having a "Cars" themed cake, I'll be sure to post pix asap.

Other than that, busy day, had to be up early, took oldest ds to work in the wee hours.......then to the gym to workout, now cleaning house like a crazy woman....then a shower, and if time allows ?? IF time allows.....always an "IF" in there.....maybe some scrappy therapy for Mom???

We'll see.

HAPPY SATURDAY EVERYONE!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, OK, not really a "snow day" .......more of a FROZEN DAY?? We have had crazy weather here in SE Idaho. We went from 30-40 degree temps to a sudden major snowstorm Wed/Thurs this week and then plummeted down to -0 temps today. We were -10 degrees this a.m. and had wind chill as low as -35 degrees! YIKES! So, they closed all the schools ....... about 100 miles each direction of us.........and the kids are home, cozy, warm and helping Mom with chores!!!! Hee hee!

Happy weekend to you, hope you are cozy and warm too!

Darla

Card Idea

Working on cards for a class at Church.... really stumped as to what I am doing. Want to involve the gals, keep them busy, challenge them a bit and still have fun. This is the first one I did (scan is terrible) and I love the colors and everything but thinking I need "Funner" ribbons and to do something with the cupcake....ideas? please share............. Darla


BTW.......the colors look clashing on here, bad scan, but they are all from the same paper kit and match perfectly to a tee!!

EDITED: I went back, did some pen stitching on the cupcake and border around it also took the tag off and put it inside the card.....looks much "cleaner" and cute!! I got them 'mass produced' into zip lock baggies for the class! One set down, one or two more to go!!

EDITED AGAIN: just added the 2nd card, big flower.....again, colors scanned wonky, but I love this simple lil' card!

I guess I got tagged??

A little birdie told me I got tagged, well, there are a couple of 'tags' going around and I was not sure which was it so I just picked one! Here goes........

Here are are the rules to play:1. List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets2. Tag 5 friends and list them.3. Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.4. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

-5 Weird Things About Me and My Pets-
1. I hate pennies, they totally freak me out, gross, dirty, ick!
2. I love spinach and I love mushrooms, canned, fresh, cooked, whatever, I love them both.
3. I hate black and orange together..... my HS rivalry team's colors, hate them to this day.
4. My cats are all phsyco, but one of them has a thing with going in/out the sliding glass doors in the kitchen and will more or less "knock" to get in or out ... so weird!
5. I like to salt my melons! LOL Watermelon, honeydew, cantaloup.......gotta have salt.

-Tagging 5 Friends-
Robin Karalyn Dolly Ruth Nichole

Long time no chat

Well.......what is going on? Hmm nothing. Not much really. Just running with kids, house, and so on. Not much to report. Been a hectic week but I couldn't say why. I have been good, going to the Y to workout, eating healthy, staying busy. And that is about it.

Planning a scrappy night with my good buddy Robin and her 2 boys soon....can't wait for that!! Also have a card class to prep for coming up on the 17th.....hope that it is a success too! Fun stuff.

Ok sorry nothing exciting, just the normal boring "life" things. Maybe I'll have something fun to post tonight. (hope to scrap a bit!!)

Chow.

Oh how I love a challenge!!

I have been doing these "challenges" on a couple of my scrapbook chatty sites for a while now. They are a lot of fun but I am so bad and doing them myself sometimes....especially the past few weeks over the Holidays I got WAY behind. So, I am trying to catch up, but starting with the most current challenges as to not get further behind.

This page is for the Monkey board challenge..... week #30 it was, we were to use a chipboard coaster, a die cut(s) and some eyelettes. Did I really put this challenge together? Geeeeesh!! Well, luckily I had the perfect photo to use and got to play around with a new "toy" (chipboard coaster from my dear friend Robin/ribinscraps) and I also got to do some really FUN spring-ish colors that brightened my day up! I used some fun products too... Bazzill cardstock (and NO pattern paper which is crazy unheard of for me!)... I used the RobNBob coaster, some GinX die cut flowers, some MM stickers, BG rub ons and my new Cricuit for the big lettering. Enjoy. (oh and click on the image for a larger view if you want)

Super quick hello........

Just wrapping up the end of a VERY BUSY and VERY PRODUCTIVE day! It is after 11:00pm here in Idaho.... I ran ran ran today, got my gym time in (felt great!) and then came home and did not ONE....not TWO.....but THREE HOPS (hour of power) on the house, got the whole upstairs clean and super tidy including dusting for webs on the ceilings and vac-ing closets and nooks and crannies. Even helped youngest ds clean his VERY messy bedroom YEAHHH!!!!!! After all that, my dear and loving dh went and picked up take n bake pizza and cooked it for us all....so nice of him. Tonight I helped dye 3 teenagers hair CHICKEN YELLOW (dont' ask) and then came down and hid at my scrappy haven and did a page. OH.....and all the while long today I was pumping out loads of laundry... neverending job.

HAPPY WEEKEND!
Darla

New Years "INTENTIONS"

Well, last year my dear online buddy Jules challenged us to do a scrapbook page about INTENTIONS rather than resolutions.....such a cool idea. I did in fact do a page and I took it out this year and was pleasantly suprized to see I had done EVERYTHING I had listed and it felt so great!
This year I am back so resolutions.....hee hee but the same old stuff, just want to keep improving my life and my families too!

So, as most of you know, and if you don't WHERE have you been??.... I have been working on getting more healthy and fit over the past few months. I started back in August 2006 and with much encouragement from my sister and friends and family I have dropped some weight and feel so much better. I still have a VERY long path to my ideal weight and fitness goals, but at least I have not given up and I am still looking forward, not trecking back. Right now I am just a hair under my 30# weight loss and I am struggling to get there.......it is SO frustrating to be so close!!!! I am really pushing myself extra hard both at they gym and at home and of course food is the everlingering evil in my life. I got this great book "YOU On A Diet" by Dr Oz and it has so much helpful info in it too. I think as I begin to better understand my body, the way my brain connects to my stomach and my will power connects to my mouth.....well, I think educating myself is the best thing I can do.

Basically, just wanted to catch some of you up on where I am and what I am doing. Feeling really good....sleeping better, feel better overall. Just lots of good things coming with taking better care of my body. AND I wanted to thank all those who have been SO supportive and helped me along... I still have a way to go (a LONG way) but I know with the extra shove and pat on the back I will and can do it! THANK YOU!

OK off to clean house....does that count as cardio??? :O)

Darla

It takes all kinds my Dad used to say....

So..... I was a good girl, I got up and go my butt down to the YMCA for my workout today, so proud of myself. First time I have gone without the hubby and or kids.... all alone, free to let my mind wander and just have some "me" time ... me and the weights, me and the treadmill, me and the WEIRDOS!!!!!!! yes, the weirdos were out and where did they go? THE YMCA OF COURSE!!

Ok so I get there and do my mini warm up on the recumbant bike, have my headphones on, rockin' out to The Eagles Greatest Hits....Desperado... yadda yadda... and just above the sound of my tunes I hear some sort of chanting or something?? OK turn the music up, keep going... nope, there it is again, "Peace to all... may we all have peace..." hmmmm um, OK? Turn up the music some more, blast my lil' eardrums... "Peace to all, may we all have peace ".... OK DUDE A PIECE OF WHAT?????????????????????? Yee gads! Shush up already, I am trying to relax!! I dont' want no peice or peace or whatever. HUSH IT UP! So, I get off the warmup and start into the weight resistance training... and I get a picture of this dude... tall, skinny guy, bright Barney purple sweats (too short), yellow ball cap, glasses as thick as pop bottle bottoms.... reading a book on Budism and walking the treadmill. Ahhh yes, and the STENCH of odor coming from him, not a good thing. No wonder he was calling out peace signs to all. So, I go about my weight training and all the while he is chanting and meditating (very loudly) and I hear a few comments.... apparently he is a regular , ahhh great. I get to the end of my weights and he finishes up his treadmill.... proceeds to walk through the entire fitness facility and bow to each and every peice of excersize equipment (as if to thank it) and to each and every person, ME TWICE... and then goes off to talk to someone at the desk. Ummmmmmmm OK?! Yes, it takes all kinds.

Oh no, I am not done yet. Ohhh no no no...

OK so I then go get on the treadmills (so thankful that Mr Barney is done) and here comes Jack Black himself. This dude is all dressed in black boots, jeans and button up shirt, dark shaggy hair and beard/mustach... NOT quite the dress code for working out, but hey, better than ol' Barney right? Maybe not. He proceeds to lean in my direction on the neighboring treadmill and look at my screen.... I am at 2.8 so he moves his up to 2.8....... a few minutes pass, I turn mine up to 3.0 and he does too... I go up to 3.2 and so does he.... get the idea? So....I just cranked up the ol' ACDC music (Back in Black .... go figure??) and march away. Well, my 30 minutes are up and I move back over to the recumbant bike.... oh and here comes my friend Jack Black!!!! GEESH!!!
Now, maybe it was my fault, I was not wearing my wedding rings and I may have been looking unusually attractive in my cut off sweats and too tight white teeshirt with hair up in a sweaty pony tail........but um, yea, he freaked me out.

So, after I finished up my time on that machine I left. (and made sure neither of them followed me out the door!) EECK!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2007 IS HERE!!!!

Wow, what a crazy year 2006 has been, lots of good stuff happening in our lives, busy times, fun times, lots of great memories. So fun to move into a new year now, I look forward to all the adventures we'll have.

Wanted to mention.... here is another LO I did with my new Cricuit I got for Christmas from dh and Liz. I used the letters with shadows on the title SMILES ... it is a photo of my 2 neices who I think are 2 of the prettiest girls in the world!! LOVE them both so much XOXO

So, New Years Eve was a fun night, went out with friends to play games (got my butt kicked in Monopoly) and visited, hung out and enjoyed one another... they are the coolest people, so comfortable to be around, more like family than friends. Very thankful for them in our lives. :O) New Years Day (today) we slept in, took down the Christmas decorations (very early for me but I was feeling very cramped and overwhelmed with "stuff" in the house) and then went over to our friends again.... same ones.... and visited some more. Quick dinner then the BIG Fiesta Bowl College game in which Boise State University played Oklahoma and what WOWZER that game turned out to be... but after much upset and crazies, Boise pulled it off and won!!!!! SO cool!

Well, the New Year is here, with it I will be working even harder on my fitness goals, and we plan to incorperate teh whole family in our quest for better health. Exciting times. I think we will be a great support system to one another. Good stuff. Also working hard on some goals personally as far as home, family, spirituality, and of course my favorite hobby (which is becoming neglected due to treadmill time...hmmm??). LOL Can't wait to see what the year ahead brings me to.

Blessing to you all my friends and family for a wonderful year in front of you.....may it bring all the best to you and yours!

Darla