A picture of us in Ireland

This is a picture of us in Ireland this past June. I just love seeing all of the smiles on our faces, the lush green of Ireland and the ocean in view. This picture was taken in the front yard of the house we rented for the week. We had the best time!!! Love the memories!!!!!

A bday card

This is a card I made for Benjamin's teacher. I made it 5 x 7 so that there would be enough room for all the kids to sign it.

This card was do much fun to make. I made 3 crepe paper flowers (2 pink and 1 white). Then I used glimmer mist on pink bubblegum to spray the white flower and the front of the card. I used pink polkadot crepe for the ruffle. The cupcake border was punched in white and then glimmer misted in lucky. The leaves were cut out on white and glimmer misted in lucky. The happy birthday is a rub on.

This was a fun card to make. I know the teacher liked it. The class presented it to her without an envelope and all had a Krispy Kreme doughnut to celebrate. Hugs

Decorated Mirror

Last weekend I was with some friends. We had a wonderful time. So much fun and laugher and friendship. Of course, we were also crafty. Some of us decorated mirrors. With Halloween the end if this month, most of the mirrors were decorated with that theme in mind. I made mine girly. Here it is. This really was a fun project. I learned how to use alcohol inks and also used crepe paper flowers that I made. The crepe paper flowers are my newest obsession. I just love them. Hugs

Yummy

Look at these yummy cupcakes my sweet mother in law brought me. Yummy. Yummy.

Today I am 43 years old. I have a pretty great life. I am married to Tim. He us the best in the solar system. I have two great boys. Peter is 12 and Benjamin is 9. They are my world

I have a great family and lots of wonderful nieces and nephews. I have great friends and we have lots of fun together.

All in all my life is fabulous. Of course we all have our moments. I still miss my daddy every day. I can't believe it has been 4 years. There are always little bumps but with my fabulous family and friends we can make it through anything

So thanks for being you and helping to make my life fabulous. Love to all

Love this book

I read this book and loved it. We were at Innsbrook enjoying family time. I am the only night owl in the family so I read after everyone went to bed. This book is great. The next day I finished it while sitting in the sun watching the boys fish. Just had to share!

Love this card

I learned how to make crepe paper ruffles by watching Heidi Swapp's web show. I am so excited!!!

Happy 17 years, Tim!

Happy Anniversary to Tim! We have been married for 17 wonderful years!!! We went to Maggiano's for dinner that night. It was Yummy!!!

I know I'm a lot behind in posting from the summer... More to come later and hopefully soon.

Hugs to all!

Memorial Day and Benjamin is now 9

What a fabulous day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today is Memorial Day which means a lovely day with family and friends remembering all the brave men and women that serve and have served our country.

Today is also Benjamin's 9th birthday! So we had a fabulous outdoor party. It sure is a hot day today, but everyone had fun. We had very large pitchers of lemonade and ice tea and Peter set up a sno cone stand. He made sno cones for everyone. So great!!!

We called it Benjamin's Backyard Barbeque Birthday party. Yummy food... BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, homemade potato salad, homemade slaw, baked beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and cake, of course.

We had a great day with family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Summer!!!!!!

Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone!

The boys have been enjoying the sunshine and riding their bikes! Hooray for warmer weather!!!

Scrapbooking with the Girls

Hello all,

Spent yesterday scrapbooking with the girls! How I love love love to hang out with my girlie friends and scrap the day away! I actually got quite a bit done.

I'm working on the scrapbook from our trip out west in 2007. Can you believe it? I am way too far behind... Anyway, a while back Kathy gave me some Bazill stuff (complete with album how to's) and I made the start of an album. Then yesterday I actually put pictures in it! I'm thankful I actually started the album. Now to finish it! This was the trip when we drove to Sioux Falls, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Missoula to see my brother, his wife and two adorable children, then to Yellowstone. What a fun trip!!! I loved seeing Michael, Julie, Alexia and Aiden. I miss them very much!!!

Hope all is well in blog land! Hugs to all!
Me

Our Family

This picture of our family was taken at Megan and Gregg's wedding in November. Megan is Tim's younger sister. The wedding was absolutely lovely!!! The boys all looked so handsome!!!

Thanks to all the amazing people in my life!

A while ago, I had the opportunity to share a few hours with some amazing women in my life! These women are all unique in their friendships with me. They each have a special place in my heart!!!!! Each and every one of these women bring something to my life to complete the circle of me.!!!!!!!!!!! I am grateful to each and every part of these amazing women!!!!!!!!!

Now, that being said.... There are many amazing and wonderful women in my life! I cherish every person that comes to be parts of my circle of life!!!!!

Thank you to all the amazing and wonderful people in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are all a true treasure!

Love to all that makes the world go round!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My birthday

So here it is on the eve of my 42nd birthday. I'm thankful for all of my family. Tim is wonderful!!! My boys Peter and Benjamin are fabulous!!! All my parents and siblings and nieces and nephews are awesome! My extended family are awesome! My friends are the best!

What can I say, I am truly blessed!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Tim!

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!!! Today, we have been married for 16 wonderful years!!! My life is complete with you in it!!! You, along with Peter and Benjamin, make my world go round and round!

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to School!

Big changes around here! Peter started middle school (6th grade) today and Benjamin started 2nd grade today. Both boys came home and said they had good days! Gotta love that!

I finally ordered the ScrapRack. I've been coveting Katie's for a long time and I finally ordered one. I told Tim it was for our anniversary and my birthday. So since half of it is for our anniversary, he says that a quarter of it is his. No problem, but I'd like a quarter of his help in organizing it. No wait, I don't want that because his answer is to get rid of it all and just buy what you need for each page. What???????? He obviously isn't a scrapper.... But I love him!!!!!

I am up to my eyeballs in centerpieces. Tomorrow I am making 48 centerpieces for the Kookin for Kids (St Vincent's Home) auction that is on Sunday. I am very happy to report that my friend Katie has graciously agreed to help me. Thank Goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She will be here with me tomorrow and may not like me very much after that. Just kidding!!! Seriously, thank goodness she is helping me. Otherwise, I may have quit! What was I thinking?

Ok, so that is my life in a nutshell right now. I know you know that there is always more. But that is it for today!

Have a wonderful day! Hugs to all!!!

Peter was Rockin'

I am so proud of Peter!!!! He did an amazing performance!!!!!!!!! He drummed and sang to two songs. They were "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi and "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks and Van Halen.

Remember this darling face... Someday he will be a famous Peter Gunn!

from our garden

We just picked these from our garden! Woohoo!!!!! The boys are really excited that finally stuff is growing. We lots more cucumbers growing. Lots of green tomatoes, but nothing red. Our corn stalks are bare. Peter is sad that we don't have corn already. The green peppers are doing just ok. The zucchini has the two that we just picked and the yellow squash has just the one so far. The orange mint is growing wild. I need to figure out how to transplant that a little farther over. It is crowding the tomatoes.

Ok, so I'm really not a gardener. But not bad for our first attempt.

Hugs to you all! Monica

Benjamin's bday

I know, I'm a little behind in blogging.... Benjamin turned 8 on May 31. We celebrated his birthday at Spencer's Grill. It was an awesome party!!!! Caroline and Lauren and Melanie are fantastic and really helped make Benjamin's bday special. We love that place and go there almost every Sunday after Mass.

Anyway, Lauren made Benjamin 8 pancakes with candles on top. Benjamin was so excited! I love this picture. It shows just how many bites make up 8 pancakes. So Fun!!!

Basement work has started

Woohoo! So it has only taken 2 months. It seems like forever!!!!!!!!! The water came on May 5 and today they have finally started the drywall taping. I so wish this could have been planned better. But the water didn't see it that way!

I can't wait to get things back to where they belong. Unfortunately, it will probably be another two weeks before things are back in order, but at least the process has finally started!

Hugs!

water everywhere

Tim woke me up this morning at 6:15 am to a major water problem. There was a pipe that broke under the kitchen sink and the kitchen floor was flooded and it leaked through the cabinet and the floor into the basement. The basement took the brunt of the mess. But the dining floor (hardwood) took water as well. The nice guys at Woodard say the hardwood floor and kitchen will be just fine.

The basement is a mess. Luckily Tim hadn't left for work, he was on his way out the door. So we have spent the day bringing everything from the basement to the garage. We have lost some things, but we are fortunate to be able to dry out most. At least it wasn't sewer water.....

The carpet and the pads have just been hauled away by Woodard. Thank goodness they are doing that work. The bags of carpet and pad were dripping wet as they put them on the truck. What a mess! We wanted to clean out and redo our basement this summer, but not this way. Ugh!

Please say a small prayer for me. Things come in three and this is #2 in two days. On Sunday we came home to fine our mailbox was completely taken out of the ground. After we called the police to report it, we found it about an hour later in our neighbors back yard. No, they didn't take it. In fact, he helped Tim put up the new one. Kind of strange. I guess it was someone that didn't have anything better to do on a Saturday night. Hopefully we won't get a third bad thing.

I hope you all are having a great day! I just want to go back to bed and pray that this was a bad dream!

Hugs to all!