Hello!
Sam mowed this weekend…
Needless to say, it is a bit dry and dusty in our yard!
Not Good…
Welcome Back!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable three day weekend! Unfortunately, Jason’s started off pretty rough.
On Saturday morning he walked into the house after going for a run and stated, “That didn’t go so well.” I looked over and he had blood dripping from his arm and running down his legs. Basically, without all the details, he tripped, went down hard and landed on his right elbow and both knees.
Off to the Urgent Care because his elbow was split and would not stop bleeding or would begin to bleed each time he bent his elbow.
Ended up with three stitches!
The biggest “hurt” was his pride. He has prided himself on never falling when running. Well, that streak was has ended. “At least I didn’t land on my face,” was all that he kept saying.
PS…How did I do? Not good. I tried to help him clean up his elbow, but the skin was flappy. Then he showed Jack how he could separate the skin so it looked like a mouth talking and kept saying, “Ouch! This hurts!” At this point, I went down, seeing stars, nauseous and had to put up my feet.
Just About There…
Hello!
Here’s what it looks like when you are done mowing, heading back to the garage and run out of gas.
Oh so close and no amount of jerking your body forward will make that machine move.
A New “Hobby”
Welcome Back!
The boys have decided to try out their skills at making a model car. There are real differences between the boys and how they approach a new project.
Jack: Sits and paints, read directions, cuts the pieces off, glues them together, checks on them.
Sam: Gets his area set up. Paints one tiny piece. Knocks over paint jar and spills half of it on the table. Spend 5 minutes trying to scoop pack back into tiny jar. Less then half ends up in jar, rest ends up on floor. Spends 10 minutes trying to get paint off table. Spends next 10 minutes cleaning up the floor. Spends 5 minutes trying to get paint off his nails.
Comes back in and say, “I’m done.”
So True…
Hello!
At least once a week!
Twice last week! 🙂
Coffee Needed…
Hello!
On Sunday I needed a coffee. I wanted real coffee, not one made out of my coffee machine. So I headed to Starbucks. Jack tagged along with me. 
When we got inside Jack states, “Oh man. I am TIRED! I think a coffee is just what I need.” As he yawns and stretches .
I looked at him and h.e was. dead. serious.
Well, I know how he felt, so I got a coffee, he got a mocha mint frapacino drink with whip cream (no coffee) and a vanilla bean frapacino AKA sugar drink with whip cream for Sam.
We were all feeling much better after out coffees. Then an hour later, our blood sugars crashed and so did we.
Freezing Corn
Welcome Back!
Before school started, my mom came over and we froze sweet corn. I have not done that since I was a little girl. I was pleasantly pleased to find out it was super easy…especially since the boys (sam) chipped in to help.
BOTH kiddos did help shuck the corn.
We then headed in to cut the corn, microwave it for about 5 minutes, (my job) cool and then put into freezer bags. Super easy!! Mom used a bunt pan to hold the corn cob, which helped keep the corn from flying all over due to falling right into the cake pan!
Mom showed Sam how to cut the corn, which made the process go just that much faster!
Soon it was all business about cutting corn.
It wasn’t long until we were done! Plenty of corn to get us through the winter. Though, we have already ate two bags this week. 
We might have had more, but I love sweet corn and was eating it right out of the pan. I think I ate three months worth…
20 Books Read!
Hello!
I just finished my 20th book of the year, Final Girls by Riley Sager.
Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls.
A Final Girl is the last girl left alive in a horror movie. Quincy is a final girl as well as two other gals from different massacres.
This book kept my interest, wanting to know what happened on Quincy’s horrible night at Pine Cottage, where five other friends were killed. The last third of the book starts to twist and turn and I really didn’t see any of it coming…which I loved. But after finishing, I would love to know more of those “back stories” that developed in the last part of the book. To get to to this part, there’s a lot of build up and looking back, some of it not necessary.
This is a fun summer read that will keep your interest and twist at the end which is always enjoyable!
I would give this 3.5-4 out of 5 stars.
Organizing My Dies…
Hello!
Monday, I shared how I organized my stamps. Today I am going to share with you how I organized my dies.
I don’t have a photo, but trust me, my dies were a mess. Most of them were in a wire basket, in their original packaging and I would sift through all of them, trying to find he one I was looking for. It was time to get this under control!
Once again, I credit this idea to my friend, Jennifer. For this project, I also used the small and large Avery Elle Pockets that I used for organizing my stamps.
Since I was organizing dies, I needed to use magnetic sheets, instead of cardstock. The magnetic sheets that Jennifer uses are actually magnetic covers for air vents that can be purchased at your local hardware store.
I had already invested in (and used a few for dies) Taylor Expressions Magnetic Pages, so I decided to use those sheets, instead of purchasing the vent covers.
The only difference between the two sheets are that Taylor’s sheets are heavier or thicker then the vent covers, and the vent covers are a bit less expensive!
For the dies, I cut the Taylored magnetic sheet to the size of the Avery envelope I was storing the die. The dies fit perfectly onto the magnetic sheet and stayed put! This shows a large Avery Elle envelope.
On the backside of the pocket, I cut the label for the die to fit in the pocket, and slid that down inside. 
Some of the dies were stuck to the original packaging with tape, so I just trimmed the packaging down to fit into the envelope.
For this die, which wasn’t very large and had many smaller pieces, I cut down the original packaging and cut a magnetic sheet to fit the smaller Avery Elle envelope. 
Here are all my dies sorted by categories and, at this time, by size. It makes me happy! 
I do have some Tim Holtz dies that are already packaged in nice plastic envelopes and plan to keep them in those at this time. Jennifer has taken hers and placed them on magnetic sheets due to the tendency for them to fall out of the edges of the packaging.
The best part of getting this all organized is knowing what I have and how easy it is to put things back after using them on a project.
Back to School!
Hello!
Today the boys head back to school. I always have mixed emotions about the beginning of school. At times, I am excited to get back into a routine and have some “me” time, enjoy some quiet around the house. But on the other hand, I love having the boys around, friends hanging out, sleeping in, doing whatever we want, eating whenever we want and staying up late!
Either way, I will miss having this guy sitting across me telling me all about his plans while building Legos across from me.
And I will definitely miss the noise and laughter these two provide while hanging around the house.
Only 180 days (plus vacations) until we get to do all of this again!