It's Hard to be Humble...

Just kidding!!! But......... LOOK AT WHAT I MADE ALL BY MY LONESOME with no "husband help"! I made a matching pair of Trumeau mirrors!! And they are precious!! (I can't help it...I love them!).

Head on over to La*T*Da if you're interested in a tutorial.

Thanks and HAPPY DAY!!!

Sunshine's Bedroom

I was re-reading my old blog posts of mine last night and I realized that I never showed you the "after" pics of Sunshine's Big Girl Bedroom. Back in June, I wrote a post titled, "While You, Sunshine, Were Out." She had gone to my parent's house for a few days and I played "While You Were out" in her bedroom.

Here is the BEFORE: And here are the AFTERS:

Sunshine wanted a "Fancy Nancy" bedroom, but I wasn't willing to go too far with a theme. So I tried to use a "neutral" (no theme) fabric for the window treatments and bedding. I found some "Parisian" fabric that I used for a few pillows to throw in the Fancy Nancy/Parisian feel. I was really happy with it, and more importantly, so was Sunshine.

I found the blue square pillow (raw silk, btw) at a yard sale for 50 cents! I bought two of them!! Score! The chaise lounge doesn't really match in here, but I tried to make it work by adding some blue ribbon to the base of the chair, and adding the coordinating blue pillow and Parisian pillow. I covered the marker and glitter glue stains (no joke!) with a fancy blue throw that I found at TJMaxx.

I must confess, however, that the idea behind this bedroom (right down to the paint color!) came straight from Janell at Isabella & Max Rooms.

But I L-O-V-E how it turned out. I kinda knew I'd like it since I liked Janell's version so much! That's one thing I love about blog-stalking! People are so generous with their ideas! I'm still working on Sunshine's mirrors and dresser, but I hope to have an "after" for you by the end of the week!

Have a great week!

New Orleans Take Two

Mark and I spent a few days in New Orleans last week while Mimi kept the kiddos. I've always known that M would like New Orleans if I could just get him there!! But he has had zero desire to go to New Orleans, especially since Katrina. But when I was in New Orleans this summer with my mom and sisters, I discovered that New Orleans had a WWII Museum. I knew I could lure Mark to New Orleans with the WWII Museum! It worked!! And he liked it!! And I don't just mean the museum! He really, genuinely liked New Orleans!

We ate, and drank, and walked, and toured, and ate, and drank, and walked some more! It was a much needed break for us! And we can't thank Mimi enough for taking care of the kids! I KNOW the kids had fun and I am certain that they weren't ready for us to come home. M and I aren't even sure if the kids went to school while we were gone. My neighbor was supposed to take and pick up Sunshine from school every day. I asked her is Sunshine even went to school while Mimi was here, and her only response was, "You'll have to ask Mimi." Hmmmmm.

When I called Mimi on Friday to remind her to read with AAA's class that afternoon, she said, "We are on our way." "Who is we?", I asked. Oops! Busted! "Um, Hannah is with me. I had to read to her class too." So I asked, "Oh - and then you checked her out after lunch?" "Um, no. We ate lunch at home", she replied. Then I asked to speak to Sunshine. I asked Sunshine if Mimi or my neighbor, Miss Ashley, took her to school. "Mimi checked me in", she replied. Well you only get checked in if you're late to school. So like I said...I'm pretty sure the kids weren't ready for us to come home!

By the way, the WWII Museum was awesome! Truly. I highly recommend it, although I must warn you that it is very depressing. But I think it's important that we all understand as best we can the sacrifices that those men and women made for our freedom. It's almost more than I can comprehend. Most of the patrons there were well over the age of 65. There were a few men there, some in wheelcahirs, with badges that read "WWII Vet". I can't wait til my children are old enough for me to take them there. They have no idea how much our freedom cost. It's humbling, to say the least.

Just shoot me! (with that one bullet in your breast pocket)

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I were running late for a birthday party that was way out in the middle of nowhere. I needed to run into OfficeMax and make ONE copy. It was going to take all of 60 seconds to do this. So I pulled into the fire lane, handed AA my cell phone, told her to lock the doors, and said, "I'll be right back". I darted into Office Max, ran to the copy counter, asked for one transparency copy, and paid my 53 cents. About the time I handed the cashier the last penny, I heard a loud ,deep voice yell, "Who owns the white car parked in the fire lane?!" You could have heard a pin drop at that very minute. I swear I think the background music even stopped playing (at least that's what it felt like). So I smiled politely and said, "I do." The whole store looked at me and shook their heads in disbelief (at least that's what it felt like). The police office put his finger by his face and motioned for me to "come here". He had a smirk on his face and I knew I wouldn't be getting out of this one.

We stepped outside and he yelled, "See that sign right there?!", referring to the large sign with bright red capital letters that said, "NO PARKING. FIRE LANE ONLY." Well obviously I saw the sign so I said, "Yes sir." "Well then why'd you park here?!" he yelled. "Well", I explained, "We are running late and I was just going to run in very quickly to get a copy made and I knew I'd only be a minute." The he yells even louder,"Well now you're going to be late AND twenty five dollars poorer!" Secretly I was jumping up and down inside because, truth be told, I was standing there thinking, "Oh my gosh! I bet this ticket is going to cost an arm and a leg." I was SO HAPPY when he said "twenty five dollars." But don't worry - I wasn't about to let on that I was happy with this news. Then he yelled, in front of everyone who was now stopped and staring (at least that's what it felt like!), "AND...YOU LEFT YOUR KIDS IN YOUR CAR!!!" Oh boy. I knew this was coming. "Do you know how EASY it would be for me to bust out your window and steal your KIDS AND YOUR CAR?!" he yelled, as he dangled his billy club (or whatever it's called) in front of my eyes. I had no answer. So he took a QUARTER out of his pocket and said in his best 007 voice, "I could bust your window out with a quarter." I think I was supposed to be impressed, so I put on my "most impressed" face. He put the quarter up to my nose and rubbed it between his fingers and said, "Yep. That's right. I could bust your window out with a quarter. What do you think about that?" I absolutely COULD NOT THINK OF A SINGLE THING TO SAY. What was the right answer?? "Wow, that's awesome! You're amazing!"? or "Oh no!" or, "Obviously you don't have children. No one would want a Camry with four kids in it!" or "Gee Officer, you 're making a great point." or "A quarter...who knew?" I mean, I was at a total loss. I won't even tell you what I said because it's just plain embarrassing! So then he said, "I want your driver's license, your proof of insurance, and your registration!" Gulp. I was pretty sure (but not totally confident) that I could produce the license, but I was a little concerned about the other two things. I fumbled around in the car searching frantically for the registration and insurance. I know the officer was loving this part - watching me panic. So I called M and said, "I'm getting a ticket and Barney Fife needs my insurance and registration." You know what M said?! He said, "I wouldn't call him that to his face." Really? Wow. Gee honey, I'm so glad you told me that. Otherwise I might have slipped up and called him "Barney Fife" to his face. So I said, "Honey, can you just tell me where they are?" So - like the awesome husband that he is - he told me exactly where he put them. I've never been happier to hand a police officer my registration and proof of insurance. But to make me sweat a little more, he continued to question me, "Is this your car?" "Yes sir" "Is it in your name?" "Yes sir". Gulp. "Did I just lie?" , I wonder. So I stutter and stammer and say, "I mean, I think it's in my name. It's my car. But..um.. my husband paid for it. It might be in his name. But..um... I think it's in my name. I don't know. I mean, if he can pay for it and put it in my name, I'm sure that's what he did. But if you can't do that, then it's in his name." UGH!! This guy was making me sweat and he was loving every minute of it! FINALLY, he gave me my ticket, which I THANKED him for (I hate it when I do that!). And I got in the car, completely lost it, and cried like a baby all the way to the birthday party that I was really late for by now! I have no idea why I cried (other than the fact that it was total PMS!). And then I had to explain to my children that we didn't need to "talk about mommy's conversation with the police office " at the birthday party. Talk about raining on their parade! They were devastated when I told them not to tell their friends. Apparently this was going to be a big hit as far as conversations go among the "ten and under" crowd!

Shew - I'm sweating again just writing about this!

No worries, though. I've already paid my ticket and I learned my lesson! I will NEVER EVER park in the fire lane in Opelika ever again! And probably not anywhere else, for that matter! H "nipped it in the bud" (as Barney would say!)

This image makes me happy...

Today I was cleaning the kitchen when I looked to my right at all the backpacks, the football, and the "disguise kit", and I kind of "had a moment". Needed to capture this image!

Poor Little Thing...

Kit Kat came home from school the other day with her head hung low. I asked her, "What's wrong, baby?" She replied, in the saddest voice ever, "Some other people got smiley faces, but I just got a face with one eye and a mad mouth like this," as she signaled a straight line across her mouth. I said, "Really?? Let me see." And sure enough...I saw exactly what she was talking about. A face with one eye and a mad mouth.

Or...to anyone else who isn't in first grade...a minus 1 with a circle around it! She was so relieved when I told her it was a minus 1 with a circle around it and that a "G" meant "Good!"

(But check out those dot letters! Maybe if she wasn't so busy dotting each of her letters, she'd spell "back" correctly!)

Silly girl!

Next...

It seems like I'm always moving from one project to the next. We just finished up with the Back to School Bash at the elementary school. I took a three day breather, and now I'm gearing up for Sunshine's Birthday Party.
The good news is that she wants the same kind of party as KitKat. So not quite as much "work"!

Can't wait to post pics next week!