I AM IN NY!!!! Day One

My most wonderful Charisse and her wife Jennifer gave me a wonderful birthday gift of flying me out to visit them in New York for 5 days!  I arrived today and they have many wonderful things planned for my short trip that I am SO VERY excited about.
Today I left DFW at 5:50am Central time and arrived in Ithaca, NY a little after 11am Eastern time.  They took me to a wonderful local shop for lunch, Ithaca Bakery. Around the town and to the grocery store Charisse is always telling me about.  I found some tea my oldest has been wanting forever.  We are now home about to eat dinner and head to bed early so we can get up super early to head out to NYC.  Probably won't be back till super late so will give day two and three together. 
Off to enjoy my vacation and my wonderful friends!

32 and Crafty again!

Yesterday I turned 32 and I feel very spoiled!  I had a relaxing no frills weekend but enjoyed it all the same.  Got to go spend time with the hubby's family and had dinner last night with mine.  Even had a nice waiter who asked to see my id when I ordered a strawberry margarita.  I enjoyed an entire week of birthday treats though thanks to the few places I enjoy and have signed up with through the internet.  Still have a couple more to redeem.
My big birthday gift is my best friend Charisse and her family are flying me out to New York to visit them for 4 days.  I am soooooooooo excited!!  My wonderful hubby and fabulous friends are all doing things to get me ready for the trip.
Other good news is I am finding time to get chores done, watch t.v, read and craft again!!  I finally am getting hold of my time and using it wisely.  Work is falling into a schedule which really helps.  I just hope it stays this way.  Right now I have a stack of baby gifts almost finished for a coworker who is due to have her first child, a boy, in December.  I then am going to make a case for my netbook for the flight, I also have some legwarmer in work on my kniffty knitters.  One of my birthday gifts from my parents was a neat little instruction kit to teach you how to knit with special made crochet hooks.  I looking forward to trying that soon.
So far leading up to and no being 32 has been so much better than I could have imagined!

IT IS HOOOOOOT!!!!

That is the word used so much around here lately.  I can't get on Facebook without seeing a post of someone complaining and/or posting a pic from their phone or car temp gauge that shows what temp.  But I think we all have the right to complain.  We have had triple digits since JUNE!  That is definitely not the norm and for the past couple weeks we are having highs of 11_! 
We got a little break a couple weeks ago by going to the coast.  And amazingly driving south turned out to be about 20 degrees cooler!  Lots of humidity to still make it hot, but we were able to spend 4 1/2 days soaking up the sun.  I got through one and 1/3 books which was just pure bliss and a lot of time in the water.  Wore my swim suit the whole time so little laundry to do when we came home.  Which was great because since then I have been working mostly 10 and 9 hour days with a rare day off.  And on those days off I have had to care for the family and do chores.  Rough working those long days but thankful to be in the a/c the whole time!
The kids get registered for school this next week so only 2 weeks and 3 days of summer vacation left.  It has gone even faster this year!
We did get my laundry room painted.  Little tip: DON'T purchase Behr premium plus paint with primer.  It does not stick to the wall!  Took an entire (and almost more if the hubby hadn't been so great) gallon of paint.  I also got a lot cleaned out and donated to good will.  I have also unearthed my sewing machine finally so with the kids return to school will also be the return of my sewing.  I am behind on gifts for a couple babies that are already here, but thankfully the gifts I like to make are enjoyed at a few months old.
Ok time to rest and cool down.  Another 10 hour work day tomorrow!

Slowly Ticking Off

Slowly....I am getting some of my summer to do list actually checked off.  Finally!

• I have been cooking me and Larry some healthier meals.
• I cleaned out my closet the clothes are all put away and the junk is out (It is all in Holly's bedroom waiting to be gone through but the first step is done)
• I cleaned out the laundry room of all it's junk (it is now in the dinning room waiting to be gone through but again the first step is done) I just need Larry to move the desk out so I can then go get my paint and get started on that portion of the job.
• I have finished 2 books already this summer and am almost finished with my 3.  Finally making progress with my reading.  Especially needed since I keep getting more books I want to read on my nook and at HPB.
• Today was day one of my serious push to get daily work outs in.  I have been trying this for a couple weeks, but I just feel much different about all of it this time.  Maybe because I am trying to tighten up on our budget and this is a cheap bill we pay that gets me out of the house and doing something that doesn't cost me extra....well hopefully it will with the need for new clothes, but I can happily handle the thought of that expense. 

I also am trying to workout and read more to help with a little depression I am battling lately.  I have always been a person who likes to be with her friends.  But with the rise of summer bills and such high priced gas along with not living close to most of my friends, it makes it difficult for most of them to be able to hang out.  The hubby's friends don't have as many problems with this so I am feeling a little abandoned lately. Hubby is doing all he can to help with this, but a girl still needs those outside of family.
Ok, enough being down.  Actually feeling pretty good.  Going to go jump in the shower and get to work also got the girls back from their mom's for the week so a few activities with them and getting a plan on baby gifts for our cousins' coming little boy!

Too Fast

I am happy to report that Paco is doing well.  His tail has healed over with no infection and is already beginning to regrow!
And after all that, I am crazy enough to add two more members to our zoo.  Meet Delilah and Pebbles.  D is at the top and P on the bottom. Here they are in their favorite spot.  The drawer in the coffee table.  They crawl in from underneath when the drawer is closed and hide out for naps.  They are 2 of the 3 kittens that my mother-in-law's cat had.  After a fabulous school year for Haylee we decided she could finally have her own pet.  When we went to pick up her kitten, I fell for the other little girl and had to have my own. 
The girls last day of school was suppose to be this last Friday.  Unfortunately the state has not returned the scores for their state tests so unless the scores come in tonight and we get a phone call the entire school is participating in Flex days and going to school tomorrow morning...ugh!  But no matter what day ends up being the last day of school, I will have a high schooler and junior high schooler this next year!  AAAHHHHH!  They grew waaaaay too fast!

Heart Broken

I try not to put downer posts on here too often.  I like to keep this my fun space.  But I am so sad right now and just really need to share this.
Almost two years ago we got a pet iguana named Dizel.  We worked hard to care for him and enjoyed him.  Larry even built an awesome cage for him that I posted about here.  Unfortunately he got sick the beginning of this year.  We took him to the vet and found out despite all our good intentions we didn't know quite enough and he was smaller than he should be and hadn't gotten all the nutrients he needed.  We set up a schedule to start on weekly shots.  But just a couple days after that visit he passed away.  We had started making the changes the vet told us to, but think they were wrong on some so we lost our buddy.  You can figure that turned us off from the vet.
A month later we got a new iguana named Paco.  We have done better with his cage and made changes that were better suited than the vets.  We also did a much better job with his diet and he is growing like crazy.
We have had to up his feeding to twice a day.  He will come to the window and stare at you to feed him and if you don't pay attention to that he will climb his long and jump down over and over till you get annoyed with the noise and feed him.  He was doing this on Tuesday afternoon so I had fixed him some berries.  He was running to greet me and get his treat so I decided to try and pick him up.  Normally he will just run from me.  This time he jumped over my hand causing him to jump out the cage.  My cat hearing this ran over.  So I was trying to get a hold of Paco and trying to yell at my cat to get back.  I got a hold of him but he moved right when I went for his back and I got a hold of his tail.  So he let it go.  So now my fabulously growing iguana with the over foot long tail only has a 2 inch tail.  Holly got home shortly after all this and was able to help me catch him.  I had gotten all the other animals locked out of the house.
He is ok we just have to keep his cage clean and keep neosporin on him to keep him from getting an infection.  Being so young he will be able to grow back his tail but it will take a year.  And now his body will focus on growing that so he won't get real big.
I am so worried over him getting sick and feel horrible since I had just been admiring how big he was getting the day before.  His tail gave him balance so he is having to learn to climb again.
Many say he is just a lizard, but he is a pet and I am attached to my pets.  So please say a little prayer that his tail heals without getting an infection.  And please pray for me to help me to forgive myself.  I am really bad at beating myself up over things.  I know this was just an accident and I was only trying to do what I thought I should, but I keep doing the "if I only had...."
On the good side he is telling me right now that he is hungry so I will go now and fix him a plate of greens and berries.

Tag Rag Returns!

Here is my best friend Lori's son Lucas enjoying my tag rags I made him back in 2009.
















And here is little brother Austin enjoying them in 2011.










Definitely one of my best enjoyed gifts.  And one of the easiest.  Guess I better get some more made for a few more babies that are on the way,