The View From My Back Porch

Wow it's been a while...

2011-11-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

Really, I'm here for the contest!!! That's right, a contest and I need to win it badly. I have ALWAYS wanted a KitchenAid Stand mixer and I have the chance to win one. Here's a link to the contest.

http://www.familyfreshcooking.com/2011/11/06/kitchenaid-stand-mixer-giveaway/

Wish me luck!

2008-12-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

Kevin and his mom cooking Thanksgiving dinner.... right before we drove it down the street to Uncle Bill's house.

Cody wrote a poem and other rhymes...

2008-11-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

This is from when we went to California... I just wanted to post a pic of my cute boys!!!

Cody wrote a poem yesterday... goes like this (ps - don't tell him I told, he is shy!!!)

Christmas is here
it's Christmas Day
Today is a special holiday

I get lots of presents
and cookies too.
Christmas, Christmas is passing through.

Just a minute ago he and Chad made up a new rhyme for thumb wars. Goes like this....

4, 3, 2, 1
let's see who has the strongest thumb.

He doesn't like it when I win all the time, so sometimes I don't (if you know what I mean!)

Blogging about Lola!

2008-11-15T18:22:00.000-08:00

My incredibly talented friend is doing a 300 post give-a-way!!! You should all go visit her blog here.... http://www.lolaagain.blogspot.com/

Carving a pumpkin....

2008-10-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Cody and his miniature pumpkin

The final result

How much do I love this little boy...

2008-10-13T20:21:00.001-07:00

Carter is the cutest little boy... he makes me smile every time I see him. I wish it wasn't just every other weekend. He can say Grandma now and says Thank You a LOT. Cherie got married last Friday, so I guess my hopes of her working things out with Tyson are pretty much dashed. I wish her happiness and luck in her life.

Tyson is going to move up to his moms on Wednesday. He needs to get away from the bad influences around this town. I hope so many things for him from this move, especially since he won't be here for me to watch over him.

If only I knew what I was doing....

2008-10-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

I am now a proud owner of a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator website. Anyone can go there, look at the catalog, order anything they want, see what specials are going on, etc. etc. etc. I have seen HUNDREDS (well, it seems like hundreds, anyway) of demonstrator blogs that show pictures of their websites, catalogs, specials, etc. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT ON MY BLOG!!! aaargh.

Good thing I don't have to have a technical mind in order to be creative!!!

My new baby niece

2008-10-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Chad, Katie and Dakota.

Chad, Katie, Travis, Cody and Dakota.

The cute cousins!!!

We have had a great time hanging with the family. Kelly and I took all the cousins (minus the baby) to the pool at the hotel last night. Good thing the pool was outside because 4 kids ages 7-9 are awfully loud when they are all together.

A quick update...

2008-09-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. One, Stampin' Up! ROCKS!!! Since I am unable to give the details of the deal - I'll just give the details of why I'm happy! I now have EVERYTHING back that I had initially ordered and that my husband threw out. 'nuff said!

Two, a lot of traveling - going to weddings, baby showers, etc.

Three, Tyson is living with us now. It's too much to get into now, but we are trying to help him get his head straight and back on his feet!!!

I don't have a picture, since it's gone....

2008-09-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Those of you that know me, know that I tend to run on the cluttery side. Luckily I have my husband to positively influence me to keep things picked up.

You also know that I am an excellent shopper (which contributes to the clutter) I CAN'T pass up a good deal.

I also sell Stampin' Up! Well, I don't really sell it, I just buy it. I mostly keep myself active as a demonstrator so I can get the small discount. At the end of July, I had the opportunity to buy some products at a discount and pre-order some stamps before the new catalog was released. I jumped at this chance because I was able to get a demonstrator only bundle of the new stamp and paper colors, as well as being able to buy some hostess only stamp sets, which I don't usually get because I don't spend enough at one time. I spent almost $200 dollars on new stuff!!! I was soooo excited.

Cut to last night. I've been ORGANIZING my craft (crap) room in the basement... yes, me, putting things away, in a set place, labeling, etc. I realized I didn't have the new stuff I bought, so I went in search. Looked everywhere possible last night. Today I ask my husband about it. He says he wouldn't have thrown out a box of stuff like that. A few minutes later I tell him it was on the bench by the front door, waiting for me to take it downstairs, with some empty shoe boxes that I was saving for Christmas. It then dawns on him that 2 WEEKS AGO (yep, I didn't notice it was missing for 2 whole weeks) he was frustrated by the mess by the front door and threw out all the boxes of garbage...... Yep, threw it out.

It's not tragic, but it feels tragic. I cried a couple of times today over it.

Our garbage comes on Monday's... I was thinking that it probably just went to the dump a week ago and maybe I could find it if I went and looked..... hmmmm, dumpster diving! Is it worth it???

If you were doing the math.... I had the box sitting on the bench by the front door, for close to 6 weeks. It's normal for my husband to think it was garbage since it didn't move from there. I knew that I had been too busy to be crafty... this just proves that I should make more time to be crafty.... or, it may tell me that I have tooooo much stuff!!!

No time for the treadmill....

2008-09-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Is that a valid excuse for not exercising? I'm wondering if I should go to bed earlier (would have to stay away from facebook) so I could get up earlier, so I wouldn't be so tired and would want to exercise? Well anyway... I'll let you know tomorrow. It's already after 11:00 tonight... so "no time for the treadmill"

10 years together....

2008-08-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Saturday! I'm glad that he's put up with me for so long.

We had a great time, I planned a surprise trip to Vegas and we spent 4 days/4 nights without kids or responsibilities.

We hung out with family and went to the Hogs and Hefers saloon one night with Kevin's cousins and their co-workers. I had "just" enough to drink that I happily danced on the bar. Yes, it's true - me and a bunch of other "girls"

It dawned on me the next day that I was one of the "Hefers".... Kevin and I got a great laugh out of that one!

More and more fishing...

2008-08-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

The boys all caught some fish!

Josh caught a 21" fish. Too bad it had to be 22 " or more or 15" or less to keep.

Kagen and Cody having a good time!Kagen not enjoying his first fish up close.

We ended up having a blast!

One day down....

2008-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

After the disastrous attempts at knee boarding yesterday at the lake, I decided to start working out. I really think that treadmills are of the devil and really should be avoided at all cost. Here are a couple of good examples why:
1. Carter was injured (face burn) on one a couple months ago when he went to crawl on it, while it was running, at his other grandma's house.

2. Chad was injured (face and knee burn) on the one at our house a couple of days ago, when he pulled a Carter and tried to climb around it while Cody was on it. (I finally gave in and let them use it...see!!!)

3. Today while I was using it, the power in the house went off. I took this as a sign and finished for the night. I got 34 minutes in before the power went out and no injuries to speak of, so I think I did pretty good!

I did finally pull out the exercise ball / set that I bought at Costco months ago and finally pumped the ball up. I did a set of the exercises in the book. The video made me laugh... not that I watched it or did it, but when I read the back, here's an excert from one of the dvd's. "Enjoy a 106-minute...." I'll stop there. Did you notice that it said, enjoy a 106-minute class. Are they kidding... that is almost 2 hours. Who in their right mind would enjoy that?

No pictures to post... hee hee hee hee. Maybe someday there will be an "after" photo that I will want to share.

A day at the lake

2008-08-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our friends have asked us a few times to go to the lake with them and we ALWAYS have something else planned... Yesterday, they asked again and I turned them down in favor of a birthday party my kids had planned to go to. (not any b-day party either.... one of "those" birthday parties that are themed and have costumes and big prizes and lots of treats, etc, etc., etc....)

They said "how about tomorrow?" Now even though I am not much of a lake/water type person. I said yes immediately. These are good friends and I didn't want to keep putting them off.

Even though I said yes, I kept hoping something would come up (like bad weather) and we would get to cancel. I don't like going to the water for just a couple of reasons... One, I get motion sickness. Me on the boat after a while equals a little green. Two, I hate getting into a swimsuit in public. I am a chunky girl and I don't like the heat and water and the lack of clothing that those two things together call for.

So this morning, it was BEAUTIFUL weather and we went to Quail lake and much to my surprise, had a FANTASTIC time!!!

My kids loved it soooo much, I don't think Rick and Stephanie will be able to go to the lake without them again. Chad took to it right away and looked like a pro. He got up on the knee board right away. tried surfing by himself, surfed with his dad and did great!!! Cody didn't even want to get in the water at first and then did all of the above and by the end of the day, he was the last one in the water.

I forgot my camera had the video portion til the end of the day, so Cody was the only one with a video (sorry Chad!)

I'm glad I was the photographer and that no one thought to bring out the camera while I was trying to get up on the knee board and instead had to opt for being drug around the lake like an anchor....

This chunky girl did not have the upper body strength to drag myself up out of the water... Oh well, I am sure we'll go again and I will try again. Maybe I can do a few pushups in the meantime.

I've been busy....

2008-07-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Well, to be perfectly honest.... I have been busy, but I seem to get sucked into spending too much time on Facebook to get everything else done that I would like to.

Facebook is FUN... it is jam packed full of useless games and pointless activities. The fun part is that I get to do them with friends and family that I don't get to see very often. I have loved seeing people online that I haven't seen in years. This really has been the year of reconnecting.

When I'm not playing on Facebook I have been trying to clean out my stamp room. I have collected way too many rubber stamps and will be selling some of them on ebay!

Carter....

2008-07-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Carter dancing with Robo Sapien. He's 14 months old. (Carter, not robo sapien)

The note cards...

2008-07-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

The note cards.... used different stamps that say things like smile, thank you, happy birthday. Turned out really cute. I also made a holder that turned out too "Christmasy..." (is that a word?) I ended up making Christmas note cards.

What a week....

2008-06-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

My Mom moved back in with us this week. She has been living with my sister Julianne in California for the past 6 months and will now stay here at least until winter. Kelly, Julianne, Travis and Katie (Juli's kids) drove up to spend a few days with us as well, so we had a full house. 4 children ages - 7, 7, 8 and 9. Whew....

Anyway, my sisters left late Wednesday night and on Thursday I threw a Stampin' Up open house. We made the cutest note card holder with note cards. I "borrowed" the idea from someone else online... Hopefully I will have time tomorrow and I'll take a picture of them.

Friday night was Mesquite with some friends. We like to spend Birthday's / Anniversaries with them because we are all linked together.... Michelle's birthday was on Tuesday - same day as Jared and Rachelle's anniversary. Rachelle's birthday is on mine and Kevin's anniversary. My birthday is on Rick and Stephanie's anniversary.(although they were not in Mesquite with us) So the 6 of us, as well as a dozen other friends of Jared's met at the Oasis. The plan was to dress up for the 80's theme party in the club. We never made it into our costumes (thank God!)but we did make it into the club. I proceeded to drink and dance like I was still the same age as I was in the 80's... not such a good idea. My neck is not used to head rolls and head banging anymore.

Tonight was nice. After dinner Cody asked if he could have some of my tickets. These came from the roll of tickets that I have guests fill out at the Stampin' Up parties. I gave him a few and he went downstairs. A little while later he came back up and asked for more tickets. I asked what he was doing and he said he was making a carnival. His carnival was a big hit. He made a marble toss game. If you landed in the right spots you earned points and with 3,000 points you could win a prize. He also made a basketball game, a bulls eye bounce and roll game and a game that uses a foam ball gun to shoot a target. I donated the large stash of bead necklaces that I somehow ended up with last night as prizes. He charged a Nickel for every ticket and a ticket for every game. Not only was he very creative... but smart too. I gave him money for the tickets and he kept it.... =)

How I named my blog....

2008-06-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day I took several pictures of the kids and grandkids playing outside in the yard. One of my favorites shows the beautiful scenery in the background. It's not even one of the best pictures, just one that gave me joy.

My first post....

2008-06-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

I decided today to blog.... I've thought about it a few times over the past couple of months and decided today to just do it. It's late now, almost 11:00pm, so it's probably not the best time to start, but what the hell....

I found a friend and former employer today online... It made me so happy! Happy to hear that she and her husband are doing well. Happy to hear that her son (the one I was a nanny for, oh so many years ago) is doing well. I found her blog and started reading and looking at pictures of her family and I just couldn't stop. It was almost like a memory. I knew some of the people in the pictures, yet they were so different.

Is it weird that I felt like a voyeur?

My son came to stand by me while I was looking at pictures of them and I showed him a current picture of the "boy" that I used to watch. My son just turned 7 a few weeks ago. The "boy" I used to watch is around 25 now... His parents look exactly the same.

It was a good day!

Kagen, my grandson, turned 2 today. That's a story for another post.