Friday Fragments! Is is Fall yet?

It is time to join Mrs 4444 for Friday Fragments. Click on the pretty little button for some more, or find out the details and join in!


***Wow, not so much of a slacker this week! I have actually been blogging again. I hope both of you who read this have enjoyed.

***I say "Is it Fall yet?" because around here, you wouldn't know. The weather has been CRAZY. After a very dry several months, suddenly we've gone damp. It has been damp for the last month. For the last week or so, we'll have a couple of cool, drizzly days followed by a warm muggy day. For example, Thursday the high was 89 and it was so humid you could cut the air with a butter knife. The predicted high for Friday is 65 and stormy. No wonder everyone around here is sniffling.

***I babysat this week. Is it really "babysitting" when your charges are 10 and 6? Oh, and a baby kitty. Being a homeschool mom, I had a lot of new experiences with the whole drop off/pick up line at school. Unfortunately, the poor kiddos got sick. (Not my fault, I promise!) The older one was already sick, but on antibiotics, so we thought we'd be just fine. However, Wednesday when I picked them up, the younger one looked pitiful. He said his eyes were watery and his head hurt and Ms Cunningham told him to ask me for Tylenol. Of course I am wondering if he has been sick all day why the heck didn't they send him to the nurse and CALL me to come get the poor child? He had a fever of 102.5 when we got home, poor little guy. I called his parents and they ended up cutting their trip short to come home for him. I did get to witness the surprised and happy kids reunited with their Daddy after six months. He is on his "R&R" right now. I so hope everyone gets well so they can all enjoy it!

***Since we had obviously been exposed to something, I decided to err on the side of caution and take some steps to protect us from getting sick. So we hit Walgreen's for a few things to help. The check out lady looked up and said "Worried about the flu?". Ya think? We had a big thing of Orange Juice, Zicam, and Little Colds Safety Pops (lollipops full of Vitamin C and Zinc). We'll hope for the best! My two older ones had FluMist last week, but little Boom can't get it until his 2nd birthday next month. I am getting the shot tomorrow.

***In addition to the kids, we babysat their kitten. We don't have a kitty ourselves due to allergies (both Man o Mine and me, but I thought mine were gone, as I have not had any reactions in quite some time when visiting with friends that have kitties). I LOVED having the kitty around, she was so sweet and cuddly. Unfortunately, she wanted to play at 4am. Not so sweet. I am also experiencing a pretty bad case of the "itchys" pretty much everywhere kitty touched me. I may not be over those allergies after all. Ooops!

***I won a contest this week. I blogged about it. Did y'all see? Here it is in case you missed it. I had a great acceptance speech all planned out but then Kanye stole my microphone and started blabbing on and on about something or another. I tuned him out and poured a celebratory round of Firefly.

***I am a sucker for yummy smells. I love Bath and Body Works, and they know I am a sucker. They keep giving me coupons and of course I keep coming back to use them. I had a "free candle with a $10 purchase" coupon so we stopped in to use it. I've been trying to decorate for Fall just a bit, so when I found an adorable Acorn shaped candle I had to have it. It is a ceramic candle holder filled with a "Leaves" scented candle. It is burning as I am typing and I can almost taste fall! (Seriously, I feel like I am tasting cinnamon or something like it!) Mmmmmm

***We are going to the Circus Friday night! I am looking forward to it. I haven't been since I was a little bitty thing and the kiddos have never been. Yvette's hubby has special duty doing a candle ceremony for Fallen Soldiers and was able to get us all tickets to go see the show. Should be fun!

***Boom has a "Halloween" shirt. Well, kind of...it is a demon monkey kind of thing. Isn't he darling? Please excuse the crazy hair, he just woke up from his nap.
***Princess apparently doesn't care so much for the pick-up line at school either. We were waiting in line Wednesday when she rolled her little eyes and said "Come ON ladies." Oh my...


Have a marvelous weekend y'all!

A Thousand Words Thursday--Art Class!

Happy A Thousand Words Thursday y'all!
Want to play? Check out The Mom Jen or click on the button for more ATWT!



This week I kept two extra kiddos for a few days. The two I kept attend our local school, and mine are home-schooled. I got to experience the whole backpacks/pick up/drop off/etc thing. Some fun, some not so much.
TT had a fun art lesson from his curriculum one of the days, and I got the bright idea that it would be fun to wait until the others got home and everyone paint. So here is a quick picture snapped with my phone.

5 kids + 6 paint colors, am I going to regret this?


Fortunately it went very smoothly, everyone had fun, and it cleaned up well. Even Boom and Princess' shirts came clean!

I won, I won!!

Amybo over on Life of A Nguyener (Win-ner) runs a little contest every now and then, called Caption This. She posts a wild and crazy picture and asks her readers to comment with a caption, and she picks a winner.
Well this week, *I* won!! Wheee! I am so excited. I'd like to thank my family, and of course, my blogger friends, and wait...WHAT? KANYE!! Get AWAY from my Microphone! This is MY moment!

So I am sure you are all dying to see the picture. Here you go:



My WINNING CAPTION: Hate to burst your bubble there Twinkle Toes, but to come on the Teddy Bear Picnic you have to be dressed AS a Teddy Bear. by Jamie


Go over there and check out some of Amybo's other Caption This posts. The pictures are most certainly worth a thousand words!

Fight the Fight Series

It seems that my cool idea of having stories linked flopped, as my Linky expired. These stories are priceless, and I have to share. Please be sure to check out:

Mrs 4444's story of Grandma Grace, in TMI Thursday, Grandma style. Grandma Grace fought breast cancer and went on strong for another 20 years!! This story cracks me up!


Yvette shared the story of Jerry, her late father-in-law. Jerry lost his battle with cancer, but is remembered with much love by his survivors. I know he would be so proud of his son (Yvette's hubby) now. Read the tear jerking story of Jerry's Fight. (have a tissue nearby)


Karen shared her own story, of her fight with breast cancer. Read How One Phone Call Ruined My Day and Got My Wish. Thank you, Karen, for sharing your own story!


A couple of others have shared blogs that have ongoing Fight The Fight themes.
Talkin' with Teenie is doing a series on Breast Cancer. She has the whole blog done up in pink and has guests posts going for the entire month of October!


I hope to have more stories to share! Please let me know if you'd like to share yours!

Some Random observations and questions...

Just a few random things I've noticed or wondered about here lately. I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging a little more. Some of these I've been meaning to put in a Friday fragments or Random Tuesday Thoughts but keep forgetting. So here goes.

***What is up with being all proud of your area code? I noticed this the first time with someone from SC. They had a decal with the state outlined and the area code of the lower part of the state in big numbers in the middle. I commented to Man O Mine that maybe I should get one with "864" on it since we are from the Upstate. We South Carolinians tend to be rather proud of being from SC, so I figured it was something along those lines. Since then I have seen others though, some with state outlines, some with words. One was "Genuine Cali" with an area code from California, I've seen Georgia, and a few others that I wasn't able to get a close enough look at to determine which state. So is this some new thing, or am I just out of the loop? A gang thing? A club thing? A random thing? Anyone know?

***So the kiddos and I are out doing some random shopping recently. The Old Navy here does an extra 10%off for military on the first weekend of every month, I had a coupon for Children's Place, and it was a dreary day. So we were out seeing what we could find. We came out of TCP and 3 young men (I say young men...they were at least mid teens, possibly early 20s, but moving fast so I wasn't sure) on two bicycles (yes, 3 on 2...one guy was standing on a bike) came flying by us on the sidewalk. They all had handheld airhorns (foghorns?) and blew them right as they came in front of us. My poor kiddos were wigged out! These punks proceeded along, terrorizing other pedestrians and a few cars. Good grief. I can see the line of thinking now "I'm bored, let's do something" "Okay, what?" "OOO! I know, let's go blow these horns at random people in the shopping center!" "Whoa, sounds like fun!". Idiots.

***Why do we drive on a parkway (for example, the Blue Ridge Parkway) and park in the driveway?

***Need a good laugh? Go check out People Of Walmart. Someone suggested this site to me and oh-my-goodness is it FUNNY! Yes, I admit it. I enjoy laughing at random people caught looking ridiculous. Really, if you leave the house looking that ridiculous you are asking to be laughed at!

***Random new status for my facebook "What I lack in motivation I make up for in procrastination skills" (yes, I came up with that ALL by myself.

Have a wonderful week y'all!

We have a WINNER!

I used Random.org to generate a random number for the winner of the Vera Bradley My Pink Ribbon book. Some courageous woman will hopefully find this lovely book to be a useful tool.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2009-10-04 02:05:00 UTC

Comment #4 was from Jaime:

"jaime said...

hi! I just found your blog....my grandmother had breast cancer last year and is doing wonderfully. However, my aunt was recently diagnosed with Stage IIIc ovarian cancer and just started chemo treatments yesterday. Obviously, the prognosis isn't good, but we're all doing the best we can. I work in the cancer field and have done advocacy work, and I would LOVE for my aunt to have this book so she can take it to doctor's appts, take notes on chemo sessions, etc."

Thank you to all of you who commented. Know that you and your loved ones are in my thoughts and prayers as they Fight the Fight!

Friday Fragments

It is time to join Mrs 4444 for Friday Fragments. Click on the pretty little button for some more, or find out the details and join in!


***yep. Still a slacker. Things have just been nuts for me lately. I have very little excuse. What I lack in motivation I more than make up for in procrastination skills.

***I had originally planned to have the drawing for my Vera Bradley Pink Ribbon Book on Thursday, but let that one slip. So I am extending until Saturday morning. It is a beautiful book/journal/planner for someone fighting the fight against cancer. Please go comment on that post if you would like to have it for yourself or someone you know.

***I am going to take a good chunk of Friday and go antiquing! I am so looking forward to it. Going to drag my neighbor along with me...she is so talented at finding pieces and making them work. I love going to her house, because I always see something new, either that she has redone or moved or I just didn't notice last time.

***Was awakened Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at 0220 by a SCORPION. No fun! He gave me a little sting, and apparently that is what woke me. I of course was wigging out. He was obviously not afraid of me even after I jumped up and turned all the lights on. I was convinced the kids would find me dead in the morning. Ended up sucking him up in my vacuum and flushing him. Then googled "Texas Scorpion stings". Obviously I did not die, just some light itching and redness. Called my pest control people and they were johnny on the spot and came out Thursday morning bright and early and did a thorough treatment of the house and yard. Maybe I can sleep in my room again now.

***I was so torn Monday night. The Carolina Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys. Sigh. I'm a Carolina girl through and through but I've been a Cowboys fan for years too, and now I live in Texas. I decided my plan was to just cheer for every touchdown. TT had no problem choosing, he was all about the Cowboys. I let him stay up to watch it end and he went to bed happy.

***I started Christmas shopping! Not sure what made me do that this early. I always say I will but never do. I was out running some errands recently and saw something that I thought would make a great gift, so I grabbed it. That inspired me I guess. I have most of Princess', TT's stocking stuffers, and about half of Boom's, plus a couple of gifts for other family members. I've also decided what I'm getting the mother in law and Man O Mine. I guess I am just really looking forward to this holiday season. Man O Mine will be home, and we are planning a couple of gatherings. We are also going to go "home" to SC and visit some family near the holidays too!

***The other night Princess woke up during the night crying. She didn't seem to be fully "awake" and was asking for something, but I couldn't understand what. I was making guesses, and she finally said "NO. Like this 'MWAH'" (making a kissing sound). I said, "Oh, you want Mommy to give you a kiss?". "Yes". My heart just melted, even at 0330. I gave her a kiss and she promptly laid back down and went back to sleep.

***Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I promise to post Saturday with the winner of the Vera Bradley book. Please go comment HERE if you want a chance to win it for yourself or someone you know!