Friday Awards Day

Happy Friday!  So glad it was a short week, I’m looking forward to another great weekend.  I have another cousin getting married and we are going to do our cemetery hopping that we had to cancel last weekend. 

What are your fun plans?

Two lovely ladies were kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster award.  I have answered their questions below.

First up, Erica Dee.

1. What is your current long term goal?  My current long term goal is to buy between 10 and 20 acres and build a house on it.  If we didn’t have to live in this county we’d have our little piece of heaven already, but since we have to live here we have a small area to look for a piece of land in (Requirements: in our current school district, and in this county – we are on the edge of the county so only have a thin,narrow swath to look in).  Who knows when this goal will come to be.  Might be more of a dream at this point.

2. What is your favorite food to eat?  Pizza, hands down!  I love pizza!!!  I could eat pizza every single day!  Every restaurant makes it differently, which makes it seem like you are eating something different, not just pizza.  My most favorite pizza is Pagliai's, second favorite is probably the Flying Tomato at Wig and Pen.  Then Dino’s and George’s are tied for third.

3. Where do you spend most of your money?  At restaurants.  We eat out entirely too much.  I wish I spent most of my money on clothes.  Should I say on my boys?  Whoops, failed that mommy test!

4. Do you like Bloglovin'?  IDK, haven’t really used it.  I still use my blog feed on Blogger.  If you’re not following me on Bloglovin yet, click on this handy little button!

5. What keeps you interested in blogging?  The friendships I have made.  I look so forward to chatting with my girl friends every day.  If it wasn’t for them I’d have gone bonkers long ago!  I need the adult interaction during the day when it’s just me and the kiddos.

6. What is your favorite outdoor activity?  I love playing in my flower beds and garden.  I also love to get on my mower and mow the yard.  So I guess the short answer is ‘gardening’.  I also love sitting around a campfire while hanging with friends and laughing and having a good time.

7. Do you workout? If so, what is your current routine?  Yes, I workout.  I am currently finishing up C25K (have 2 more days to go!!!).  After that my plan is to run 3-4 days per week, and on the other 2 days (1 day for rest) I will do some Pinterest workout I have pinned.  (Find me HERE on Pinterest) 

8. Do you have a big family or a small family?  Both.  My immediate family consists of my parents, my sister and me.  My extended family is VERY big.  We are Catholic, so the generation before my mom all had 5 or more kids, so as that trickled down it created a very big family!

9. What is your favorite HEALTHY snack?  I don’t snack like I should.  If I do have a snack it’s usually a Nature Valley Granola Thin Dark Chocolate, only 80 calories. 

10. What is your favorite online shopping site?  I don’t do much online shopping, but it seems like when I do I go to Amazon.

11. Are looks really that important? Honestly.  Are we talking in regards to dating someone?  If so, a first impression goes a long way, which translated means looks matter.  However, someone can become much more attractive if they have a great personality and a sense of humor.

 

And now, SimplySami.

1. What is you dream job? Are you doing it now?  Growing up there were a few things I always wanted to do.  1 – work in a bank (check), 2 – be a hair stylist (check), 3 – be a SAHM (check), and 4 – work at Seiferts and be an artist (not yet, but there’s still time).  Basically, I’m saying I have done all of the things I really wanted to do in my life, not sure if any of them were my dream job, but they were all jobs I’ve dreamed of doing.  I have liked them all, maybe loved them all at times, and would be fine doing any of them again.  NOW, what is my DREAM job???  I have no idea!!!

2. Have you ever tried escargot? Nope, and don’t plan to either!

3. Are you a picky eater?  Used to be, until about the age of 26!  Now I am much more daring (if adding onions to things could be considered to be ‘more daring’).  I still cannot bring myself to eat much fruit, I’m working on that.

4. How many kids do you have? 2 on earth and 1 little angel in heaven (stole that line from my dear, sweet Grandma).  Hoping for 3 on earth within the next year.

5  How many do you want? Oops, answered this one in the one above.

6. What is your favorite thing to do?  Spend time with Andy.  Aside from that, I love to read, garden, and scrapbook/make cards.

7. What is your sign? (pssst....I'm an aries!)  Pisces!

8. Who is your man/woman crush?  JOHN EFFING SLATTERY!!!!  Hot hot HOTT!

 

9. If you had to stop blogging tomorrow, what would you want your followers to know?? That I am so thankful for all they did to help me through the darkest days of my life.

10. Do you have an annoying laugh?  (Some say I do because I snort!)  Yes, I do.  It’s loud and boisterous and obnoxious.  I can’t help it! It is what it is.

11. What is your biggest pet peeve? When people who clearly know who I am walk right past me and don’t say hi or even give a courtesy smile.  This small town is full of those people.  I smile at and say hi to everyone, even people I don’t know, and it doesn’t kill me so I know it won’t kill those other people.  Just say hi, dammit!!  Oh, and bad drivers.  They really tick me off!

Thanks to Erica and Sami for nominating me!  I had fun answering their questions.

Happy weekend to all!

Erin

So What Wednesday

Happy Wednesday-Tuesday all!

I love this link up and look forward to reading what Shannon has to say every week.  I read her blog daily, actually, and she is such a fun blogger!  I am always surprised by what she says because if you look at her, she looks like the sweetest little quiet gal ever, but then you read what she says and I think “hoy cow, I want to hang out with this gal!” 

Anyway, I’m linking up for:

Today I’m saying SO WHAT if…

~ I will open and shut my windows 5 times a day just to get cool, fresh air in the house before and after the hot and humid stuff sets in

~ I rearranged the furniture in my living room and am not sure I like it and might just move it back to where it was before

~ I mopped the kitchen floor and it won’t dry for hours because it is already humid in here (and I’m holding out as long as possible before I have to shut the windows and turn the air on)

~ I am watching Baby Aspen’s big brother (age 7) and sister (age 10) today and am planning on taking them to the park to play and have a picnic so all 4 kids won’t be in the house tearing it apart and driving me insane

~ I am watching Mad Men on Netflix with my husband just to catch as many free glimpses of John Slattery as possible (SSSOOOO hot!!! ow ow!!!)

~ we want to take the boys on a summer vacation but I haven’t even started planning or booking or even figuring out where we are going yet

~ it has taken me 12, possibly 13 weeks to complete the 9 week C25K program (I have week 8 to go, then I’m done!!! I made it!!!!)

~ I cried my eyes out watching the tribute to Jeanne Cooper on Y&R last night, it’s like losing an aunt that’s been around my entire life

~ soap opera characters are like my friends and I miss them when I don’t see them every day

That’s what I’m saying SO WHAT to today!

OMG!  A Baltimore Oriole just landed on my hummingbird feeder and drank from it!!!!  Holy smokes!!!  I’ve never had one of those before!  So cool! Wish I had my new camera so I could have taken a picture!  Speaking of which, it should be here end of this week/beginning of next!  Can’t wait!  More on that later.

Have a great Wednesday-Tuesday!

Erin

Craptastic Weekend

Happy Tuesday-Monday!!!  I’m going to be so messed up on what day it is all week!  Aside from Monday being ‘Sunday’, today is Aiden’s last day of school so he will be home the rest of the week which will totally throw me off, too!

How was your long weekend?  Our was wonderfully crappy.  Crappy because it was a wet, wet weekend.  Lots of flooding again.  And so many fields were finally planted but are now under water, which means replanting. And replanting this late in the season is going to be really, really tough. 

This looks like a really neat lake next to the road, but no, it’s a field.

You can see in this picture where the crick is supposed to be, right between those two rows of grass, and can clearly see how far out of the banks it is.  That’s another field all under water.

The flooding is never a good thing, but when it hits after the farmers have their fields planted it’s ever worse.  It affects everyone, from gas prices (ethanol) to the cost of food. 

The good part of the weekend was that Saturday my cousin, Bryan, got married to the sweetest girl.  Roxanne is such a beautiful, awesome, amazing addition to our family and I’m so happy to call her my cousin! 

We arrived at the wedding about 45 minutes early so we hung out in the car watching it rain. (Warning, if you follow me on Instagram {homemadehappenings} you have already seen some of these.)

They were supposed to get married outside on the college campus they met at (and her dad is a professor at), but with all of the rain it had to be moved inside to one of the buildings on campus.

It was a great night to celebrate Bryan and Roxanne.  The food was amazing, great dancing, awesome company…  I can’t wait to watch these two grow their family!

We visited the cemetery this weekend, but did not do the cemetery hopping we were planning on, due to the rain.  But I did snap this picture of the entrance to our hometown cemetery where most of our family is buried.

While driving around this weekend I looked in the backseat and saw this, it made me so happy! 

Aiden has become quite a good reader, which makes this reading mommy’s heart smile!

One more picture.  The card I made for the wedding.  I was super happy with how it turned out.  I sewed the ribbon on with my sewing machine.

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy your short work week!  Talk soon!

Erin

A Random Post for Hot Mess Express

Thank heavens it’s Friday!  What a week this has been!  So busy, so much crammed in to one week, it’s ridiculous!

Because of the Mother’s Day makeover at school that Aiden gave me, Brennan insisted on painting my fingernails.  Here’s a picture of that.

And I forgot to show you a picture of my little guy on his last day of 3 yr old preschool.

They had a water day for their last day so he wore his swim trunks to school.  Look at how excited he was for that day!

Last night Aiden had ball pictures taken, I can’t wait for those to come back!

Today is my last day with Baby Aspen.  I am so so sad!  She will be here periodically this summer, but I won’t get to snuggle her every day.  I’m hoping she’ll be back in the fall.  Brennan is going to miss her as much as I do, that boy is in LOVE with that little girl!

Aiden is feeling much better today.  I did take him to the doctor yesterday to be sure it wasn’t something more serious, and they did test him for Appendicitis, so I wasn’t so crazy after all thinking it could be that!  It was just viral, it’ll run its course and I have been on him to drink drink drink.  He’s back at school today, his last full day of 1st grade.  On to 2nd grade, I guess.  Boo hoo hoo!!!! Waaaaaa!!!!  Why do they have to grow up?!?  But I guess that’s fun, too, watching them grow and change and mature in front of your very eyes.

We have the first of 3 family weddings this summer this weekend.  I’m so excited that my cousin’s fiancé is joining our family! She is so sweet and amazing!  We love her and she fits in great with us!  Sunday we are cemetery hopping.  We are going out in search of family members that we never knew but want to pay tribute to and to see their final resting place.  I think walking through all those cemeteries trying to find that needle in a haystack will be fun, as long as the rain holds off!  Otherwise we’ll be going sometime in June when it’s sunny, and probably hotter than hades!

OMG, did you see these pics of Maya Rudolph spoofing funny family photos?  Hilarious!  That girl is so dang funny!  This one if my favorite!

Better get moving, we are meeting my mom for lunch today.  Brennan is bouncing off the walls with excitement!  Have a great, safe, FUN Memorial Day Weekend!

Erin

My Phobia

Happy Thursday!  We’re almost to the long, holiday weekend and I can’t wait!  Except now I have to worry about one of my biggest phobias – getting the stomach flu!!!  Yesterday on the way home from school Aiden tells me his stomach is hurting.  After that he never says another word about it and he ate supper last night.  Then at bedtime he says his stomach is hurting again.  To bed he goes, falls asleep and I start to panic that it’s going to be a long night.

An hour and a half later we hear a thump.  Andy goes to Aiden’s bedroom to check things out and doesn’t come back for about 10 minutes.  When he does come back he says “Aiden’s sick.”  No, he didn’t throw up but he did have diarrhea and was complaining that his lower abdomen hurt really bad.  Andy put him on the floor of our bedroom to sleep.  Aiden laid there writhing around in pain, he just couldn’t get comfortable.  We went to bed about that time and listened to Aiden squirming around on the floor next to our bed.  I finally fell asleep but was woken up a number of times through the night by Aiden’s moving around and going to the bathroom. 

This morning he got up, put on some clothes and ate breakfast like nothing ever happened.  He says his lower abdomen still hurts a little, but is feeling much better.  Throughout this whole thing he has never had a fever, never thrown up.  I’m at a loss and of course I start to panic and go through all the awful things it could be – Appendicitis anyone?  Scary! 

Because Aiden says it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad and he’s not writhing around in pain anymore I called the nurse at the local clinic to get her advice.  She said there are a lot of viruses going around again/still and to just keep him hydrated, give him small, bland meals and to keep an eye on him.  We scheduled an appointment for late in the day but if he continues to get better to call and cancel it.  So basically it’s a wait and see kind of game.  Boo.

Now, on to the phobia part of this.  I have a crazy, intense phobia of getting the stomach flu.

I panic more about getting the flu than I do about bad weather.  When I hear that someone else has the flu I go into freak out mode.  And if someone I’ve been around gets the flu I immediately have flu-like symptoms – my stomach aches, I have diarrhea, I feel faint and icky all over.  I panic myself into having the stomach flu!  It’s so bizarre and totally stinks!  I boycott  Facebook in the winter time because I’m worried I’ll read that one of Aiden’s classmates has the flu and then I’ll be worried sick until he comes down with it himself.  I have no idea why the flu freaks me out so bad.  No one likes to throw up, obviously, but most do not have the same freak out fear as I do.  Maybe I need psychological help, ha ha!

This weekend we have a family wedding that is an hour away so I will panic the entire time and worry that one of us will start throwing up (even though that doesn’t appear to be one of the symptoms of this particular virus, if that’s what it is).  I have panicked myself into not going to events before because I’ve been so worked up that we would get the flu.  This is obviously a big problem for me. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, today I have both boys, both who feel relatively normal, and they are driving me NUTS already!!!  And it’s not even 9:00 yet!  Tuesday is Aiden’s last day of school (they are out at 11:00, why are they even going?!?), so today is giving me a taste of what is to come.  I’ll be kicking them outside quite a bit to burn off energy I think! I need to get my summer plan together so we aren’t bored.

Send me good, healthy thoughts today so hopefully I don’t get whatever it is/was that ailed Aiden! 

Erin

1st Grade Field Trip

Happy Wednesday, all!  Yesterday I was MIA from blogging because I was chaperoning Aiden’s 1st grade field trip to the zoo.  We had a great day for it, the weather was PERFECT!  I was lucky enough to get to ride in a car with 4 other mom’s, so I didn’t have to suffer through the LOUD and CRAZY bus ride! 

Here are a few fun pictures.

I was so exhausted last night when we finally got home!  I am not a relaxed kind of mom and these trips make me super anxious and uptight.  Each mom is given their own kid plus one more, so I have someone else’s kid’s life in my own hands!! I panic.  So I am constantly reminding Aiden and the other kid to stay with me, stop doing that, don’t stand on this, PLEASE stop yelling, OHMYGOODNESS don’t fall in!  I mean seriously, I am not the fun mom!  But I am so nervous to have that responsibility of bringing another mom’s baby back home to her safe and sound that I go bananas!  Luckily yesterday I had a good kid with me so he was pretty easy to manage.  It was a great day, all in all.

I can’t sign off without mentioning the tragedy that happened in Oklahoma this week.  There are many organizations that are helping the victims of the storms, but one in particular is the Red Cross.  Just text the word RedCross to 90999 and $10 will be charged to your phone account and the money will go to the Red Cross to help those in need. 

See you here tomorrow!

Erin

Weekend

Another fabulous weekend come and gone.  Luckily there’s always another one just around the corner!

We had a busy weekend!  3 graduation parties, our niece’s 13th birthday party, another niece’s dance recital and our 11th wedding anniversary.  Because our anniversary was on Saturday, and your anniversary is rarely on a Saturday, we decided to go out to supper that night. Then the grad party invitations started rolling in.  2 on Saturday at 4:00.  It worked out to hit up both parties on our way to the big city to celebrate our day. In hindsight we should have celebrated our anniversary on another day because the parties both served awesome food, we could have had supper for free!  Oh well, next time we’ll know better. 

So for our anniversary we had planned on going to one restaurant for their bruschetta (the most amazing bruschetta I’ve ever had!), then go to another place for their pizza (our favorite!).  But because we snacked at the parties we decided to skip the appetizer and go straight for the pizza.  After that we ran to the mall for a quick stop, then stopped at the gas station for a drink and a Powerball ticket.  We didn’t win. Not the most glamorous wedding anniversary but it was a fun and we spent the whole day together, which is all we really want.

Sunday we had another graduation party.  They served soft shelled tacos, a great idea for a big party like that!  While there some storms started firing up.  We only got sprinkled on but a lot of people left because they were worried about driving home in the bad weather.  We lucked out and the storms didn’t hit until 10:00 last night.  Strong winds (60 mph), they snapped a bunch of power line poles in half, took down a lot of big limbs and ripped the tin off at least one hog building.  We had our bedroom window open when the line of storms came up, laying in our bed watching the lightning.  All of a sudden the wind really picked up just as it started raining.  It was blowing in the window so Andy jumped up out of bed to shut the window and it was like he got power washed!  I laughed so hard, he was soaked!!!  Then the electricity went out.  It’s always so eerie when the electricity is off!  So that came back on about 1:30, so we reset the alarm clock, then the electricity went back off again until about 4:30, so we reset the alarm AGAIN.  We were lucky, no damage at our house.  We send prayers to those who were hit by tornados down in Oklahoma and Kansas.

I hope you all have a great week!  Next weekend is a long one – yipee!! – so we all have that to look forward to!

Erin

11 Years

Happy 11th Anniversary to my dear, sweet, amazing, loving husband!  11 years, WOW!  It has been the best years of my life!  Here are 11 things I love about my husband, Andy.

1. On a really nice, pretty, amazing day he’ll say “It’s really Erin out today”
2. He calls me sweet nicknames, like Flower, because he says I’m like one – fragile, pretty, need handled gently and with care
3. He is always thinking of me, and sends me texts saying so
4. He always spends his first 5 minutes when he gets home with me, and tells the boys he will play with them when he’s done “flirting with your mom”
5. The boy can make me laugh like no other, and he kind of gets my jokes.  If he doesn’t get them he laughs anyway because they are so off the wall!
6. I have more fun with Andy than with any other person in the world
7. He can’t keep his hands off me, which makes me feel beautiful and wanted
8. He lets me pick the music to listen to in the car, which is most often oldies, and doesn’t complain when I sing along (badly) to every.single.song
9. He agrees to go to whatever restaurant I want to eat at, even if it’s pizza – again – for the millionth time
10. He works hard so I don’t have to – meaning he goes to work every day while I get to stay home and play house, then he brings me home a Mt Dew when I call him whining that the boys are driving me nuts
11. He reaches over to play with my hair while we’re driving down the road

Thank you, dear husband of mine, for an amazing 11 years of marriage!  Never a dull moment, always a house full of laughter and fun.  Growing old and gray with you is FUN!!!

Erin, a.k.a. Flower

Thirsty Thursday Link Up

Hey!!  Is this week flying by or dragging on, I can’t decide!  Either way it’s been a good week, but I’m really looking forward to our weekend, lots going on!

Today I am linking up with one of my new favorite bloggers, Brew Mama, for her Thirsty Thursday Link Up.  Now, I am not much of a drinker, but I do have a couple of go-to drinks for those rare times I have a drink (ahem, St Louis). 

Drink #1 – Amaretto Stone Sour.  This is like an Amaretto Sour, but the ‘Stone’ part is adding in Orange Juice.  I don’t like Amaretto Sours but I do like this drink.

Drink #2 – Shirley Temple.  This is a 7-Up with Grenadine added.  And don’t jip me my Grenadine, or I will send it back and ask for more!  Who wants a diluted drink?

Drink #3 – My old stand by: MT DEW!!!  Ha ha, how could I do a drink link up without mentioning my favorite drink of all?!? 

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I am going to tell you something that is a little nuts but I just have to share anyway (because you already think I’m bonkers since my dinosaur revelation was shared!).  I like to spend time in cemeteries.  For instance, when I worked at the bank in a small town I used to eat my lunch in the cemetery there.  The one park in town didn’t have any shade trees to park under, plus there were always people walking through there.  One day I thought I’d go check out the cemetery, found shade trees to park under and it was QUIET, no one to bother me!  So I started going there to eat my lunch! 

This week, after Andy and I met for lunch, we hopped in the car for a quick drive around town, something we do often.  All of a sudden I see an entrance to an old cemetery that is planted way back in a field.  Of course I decided to drive back there!  It was so perfect and quaint!  If it wasn’t for that other car that came back there we’d have sat there and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a little while. 

And last night we went for a walk, right to the cemetery here in town.  It’s so peaceful back there!  There’s a cattle pasture right next to it, so it smells good and it’s fun to watch the cows.  I also love looking at the different headstones, the rich farmers spend their money on nice stones for their loved ones, with family pictures carved into them, or pictures of their farms.  They are really neat!

So, as you can see, I do not enjoy cemeteries in a morbid, mean way.  I enjoy them with appreciation for their beauty and peacefulness.

See you back here tomorrow!  I have a special post planned so stop back by and check it out!

Erin

They Say It’s Your Birthday (Party)

Happy Tuesday!  It’s a beautiful day in my neighborhood, sunny and going to hit 90 degrees today!  Holy smokes!  Because of the beautiful weather Brennan’s class is having a ‘pool party’ for their last day of preschool this year.  He was so darn excited, he got to wear swim trunks to school today!

I am linking up with some fun, crazy, amazing ladies today for their birthday link up. 

I hate saying one birthday story is my favorite because I love all of my birthday’s (just not the getting older part).  BUT!  One that sticks out in my mind is my 7th grade/13th birthday party.  I had a HUGE crush on a boy name Steve.  Cute cute cute, he was!  My mom rented the pool at the Y for me to have a big party with a bunch of my friends.  We swam and had a great time. Then it was time to open presents.  My one friend, also named Erin, got me a carpet square rug.  Now that in itself is NOT a good gift for a 13 yr. old!  BUT, she told me that Steve was at her house because her parents were friends with his, and he stepped on this rug!!!  I freaked out!  I had that rug in my room until I was 15!  Ha ha!  Dumb story!  Dumb thing to get excited about!  But for a newly minted, hormone raging teenager I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!  No pics of that birthday to share, I can’t find them. Buried in some box I have yet to unpack since we moved almost 2 years ago.  I think I need to get on that!

Instead, I will share these two pictures.

I was OBSESSED with My Little Ponies when I was 3 and 4, so my grandma (our family cake maker) made me a cake with a MLP on it!

This was my 6th birthday.  My aunt gave me a tent for my Cabbage Patch doll!  I loved that tent, I played with and in it all the time!  And yes, that’s my CP doll in there.  Her birth certificate name is Joyce, after my grandma (suck up!), but I don’t think I ever called her that.

Two weeks from today is Aiden’s last day of school. I need to get my ducks in a row and get some things planned for us.  Aiden has a busy June with a few camps he’s attending and swim lessons.  After that, it’s 2 months of free time, eek!

Welp, it’s way too beautiful of a day to be sitting in the house.  I’m heading out to weed some flower beds and soak up the sun!  Talk soon!

Erin

Wilson Phillips!

Wow, what a weekend!  I’m exhausted today, which is always a sign of a good weekend! 

Mother’s Day was wonderful, the boys and Andy spoiled me rotten.  Breakfast in bed!  Mt Dew!  Flowers!  Family time!  I couldn’t have asked for more!

Saturday was a great day, too.  Spent all day with Andy and the boys, then had a girls night out!  First supper, then we went to a Wilson Phillips concert!  OMG, I was so excited to see them in concert!  There were 5 of us that went together. 

They only had a few hits so they sang some of their dad’s songs (their dad’s were in The Mamas and The Papas and The Beach Boys).  Then they asked if there were any dancers in the crowd.  Uh, YES!!!  So three of us ran up and got on stage with the band!  We danced to two ABBA songs, on stage, with Wilson Philips!!!  We were on such a high! 

The gal with her hand up is Chyna Phillips.

The Australian guitar player, Molly and Heather.

Carnie!!!

Wendi!

It was a fun night!  So glad I went!

Another exciting thing about this weekend – morel mushrooms!  I love morel mushrooms and you only have about a 2 week window every spring to have them.  Andy’s brother loves to hunt for them but doesn’t like to eat them, so he was kind enough to share some with us.  Morel mushrooms are very expensive, they go for upwards of $20 a pound!  So, to get some given to us is a big blessing!  And they were delicious yesterday when I fried them up!  A few at a time to make them go farther, so I will make some again tonight with supper!

I’ll leave with a picture of my mom and boys on the 4-wheeler yesterday.  She’s a great mom and a wonderful grandma!  (And don’t mind the weird get-up she has on, they were out mowing just before we got there!)

Have a great week!

Erin