Just a fly by posting...

I have gotten on here several times the past two days to post, but something always calls me away. I'll be posting tomorrow about my Uncle Chooky's wedding and my scrap projects I got done today during the ACOT crop.

Oh Yes, It Feels Good...

to be so productive!!! It's amazing me to me how clutter overtakes us. And then I swear I just get used to seeing it for so long, feels like it's always there. And then all of a sudden you just need to get it out. That was me this week with my spare room. This room is our everything room. My scrap area, Eric's fly-tieing area, the half bathroom is in that room, and and all of our clothes in the dressers and closet. So yesterday I spent a few hours and de-cluttered that room, coming away with 5 - 45 gallon trash bags. And I got my scrap area re-organized some. Gearing up for my first on-line crop this weekend at ACOT , which I am so excited for! I also got the upstairs bathroom cleaned, upstairs vacuumed, did the dishes twice, cleaned the kitchen, and cleaned the inside of my van. It was one of those days that you just keep going and it felt great! Here are some pics of my clean & organized scrap space:

I've been meaning to pick up those foam letters/numbers for the bathtub for Emma. I thought she would like them. She not only liked them, she L-O-V-E-D them! They are just numbers, but she kept calling them numbers and letters, and up and down she'd stand and sit picking them up and putting them on the wall and then the tub. She threw a fit when I went to get her out, thankfully, she was content carrying around the number 5 until bed time though. Here's a couple pics:

And as I was looking through my pics I forgot I had taken these on Sunday. I love driving home from wherever we are coming from because I get to drive by the river and the city. Especially at night with all of the lights in the city. I fall in love everytime. So here's some pics...during the day, but you get an idea sort-of.

A Good Reminder

My mom sent this in an email to me this morning. Made me think and it's a good reminder we all need now and then!

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known
yesterday. I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because we cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the> living-room carpet.

We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer.

One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas.

Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The
other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now. go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would
you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi'?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND. If it comes back to you, then you'll know you h ave a circle of friends. To those I have sent this to.. I cherish our friendship
and appreciate all you do.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!

Puppy Dog Nose

If flowers of any kind come in Emma's view she leans forward, scrunches her nose and takes a big inhale and will go "hmmm". I walked into her room this morning, with my flowered pj's on and she said flowers and then leaned forward to sniff them. Cracked me up! And if anything is cooking, she'll come out to the kitchen inhale and go "yumm!" over and over!

Emma Earned Another Sticker

Before bath tonight, Emma sat on her potty and peed. Go Emma!!!

What? Dill Green Beans?!

I get a call from my Gram today inviting us over for ham, green beans, and potatoes. Yum Yum. So Emma and me get there, Gram asks me how many cans to put in, I said I'd put 3 of them in. She can only fit two, but decides to dump in the 3rd can after we all dish up so there will be more room. So, we're eating outside, I take in Emma's plate and get a little bit more for myself. I sit down and take a bite.

Me: OMG...it's super hot! (trying to cover my open fanning mouth with my napkin not very successfully)
::I take a bite of the green beans, and woah do these taste funny, they are like super sweet and sour!::
Me: These green beans taste funny. Is it brown sugar or something?
Pap: They probably aren't cooked yet.
Me: No, they are like super sweet or something.
Gram: They are dill beans.
Pap & Me: Huh? Dill?
Gram: Yeah they are speciality green beans.

Gram then takes Emma in to get some ice cream.

Me: Well, enjoy those leftover's Pap!

One Class DOWN! Several more to go...

So, it's official. My first class session for LAC ended tonight. I start two new classes tomorrow (or rather later today). I downloaded the books earlier tonight, so back to the school grind tomorrow.

Maryland Zoo Here We COME!

So, this morning we all got up early, bathed and dressed and out the door to head to Baltimore around 7:30. We stopped for breakfast on the way down. We arrived at the Zoo about a half an hour before they opened. Emma loved just running around the pavillion they had where the other families were gathered waiting for the Zoo to open also. We went straight for the African Safari area, b/c we wanted to see baby Samson the elephant, who was only out until noon. Our favorite exhibits were the elephants, polar bear, and the monkeys. I could have just watched the monkeys forever...they were having so much playing around, and there were two siblings, the older picking on the younger. Just amazing really. We ended up getting through the whole zoo in approx. 2 hours. It took us 30 minutes to trek our way out of that zoo. I swear it must have been half a mile walk between the entrance and the actual zoo exhibits. It was horrible with these crappy hills...no fun pushing the stroller through all of that. Now for picture overload!

She is very excited to be on the road towards the Zoo!

This was a big tree outside of the entrance.

Saying "tree" to Daddy.

Two turtles.

A rhino! After this pic he plopped himself down in that mud hole.

Loved seeing the zebra's.

Baby Samson!!! He was adorable!

Samson's mommy and him walking over to all of the people to show off.

A penguin.

Giraffe's who were being fed by visitors to the zoo.

The Nocturnal Lion...

This is just one of the monkeys, he just sat there scratching his hand.


On the ride home, Emma and me both fell asleep for a little cat nap. And it's definitely proven that Emma is me through and through. Lols. Eric was saying that we both were constantly sleeping with our heads the same way, one of us would move it to the other side, and seconds later the other person would do the same. Lols. Just made me giggle on the inside.

#1 & #2 - WAHOOO!

So, tonight after dinner Emma is standing in front of me, and all of a sudden she goes up on her toes, with a pained expression and you could tell she was pushing. So, I hurried up and put her on her toilet. And she went poopy & tinkled!!! I of course did a happy dance with lots of claps and we then grabbed a piece of construction paper and she put a sticker on it for using the potty. She loved doing the sticker part of it the most!

And here she is in all of her glory!

The Roller Coaster of Hell from this week...

The week started as a high, and lots of ups and downs through the middle of the week and I've decided this morning that this weekend is going to be the up of my week.

To sum it up, this person, who I have now named the Bastard but will refer to him as "B" from here on out, hacked into my paypal account. And bought a character for the PC game World of War Craft for $1200. Now I only found out what the "B" was purchasing when the police officer asked the seller in a phone conversation yesterday. And of course all of us were just dumbfounded that people pay up to $2500 for these characters on this game. I mean seriously...I want to learn and partake in this lucrative business if the money is that good! So, anyways, the police officer said that a detective will most likely be contacting me in a few days, and they might end up forwarding it to the FBI since they have Dept's that specialize in these cases. So, in the end I just want the "B" caught and punished somehow.

And in other news Commerce Bank is horrible! I called them Thursday to put a stop payment on my account so that the $1200 wouldn't hit and we wouldn't be screwed with no money. I was told I had to physically go into a branch and fill out a form and pay a $25 fee. So, I do it Thursday before heading into work. Yesterday (Friday) I check my account and the $1200 has hit our account, locking up all of our money. I call them and they can't find the form I did the day before. So, we end up going into the branch last night, here the guy had me fill in the wrong form. And because it was "after" hours at this point we now have no access to our money until Tuesday. Then we are going into the bank and closing all accounts with Commerce and opening up new ones with a different bank.

So, in other news, this is my last week of my first session back at school. Then starting on Monday I'll be taking two classes. Am looking forward to getting into some actual material with my degree that I'm doing for.

Today we did yard work and played with Emma outside. She's down for nap now, which means that I should be working on school work and turning in my last assignments. Tomorrow we are heading to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore so am looking forward to that. Will have lots of pictures to post tomorrow.