sketch #18

not quite finished with this one, but I'm not going to worry about taking another pic...

Just a Quickie!!

Quickie update......

Had a great mothers day, my son came for the weekend from Vegas. We went to see Wolverine, (not much better than seeing Hugh running around buck nekkid!!) I participated in a 5k walk, met some fantastic and inspiring people that are part of Transformation.com, and had a great dinner with my parents.

On May 12th, my baby boy turned 18~ :(
I can't believe he's old enough now to vote.
We are preparing for his graduation on the 8th of June, and are gearing up for the summer. Ash usually spends a few weeks in Vegas with her dad, and I'm left to my own devices... ;) While it does get lonely, I do enjoy the time, I just need to make sure I do something productive and not waste it......hmmmm, maybe some painting is in order.

Oh, and my 20 year class reunion is coming up................that coupled with an 18 year old, sure does make it hard to not feel like my life is half over.......well, I guess if I live to be 76, then it is half over. ;)

I'm going down to Cali.....

Well, we are actually back from Cali and have been for a few weeks, but I'm just now getting around to posting pics!! I was really lookin forward to this trip because I haven't had a real vacation with my kids since their dad and I divorced 7 years ago. The interesting part about this was that their dad, (my ex) invited me to go with them. I thought, eh what the hey. We get along better now than we ever have and it would be nice for us all to go on a fun vacation together as a family. SO we did!!! And, get this...........we had fun!!! My ex and I were even talking about how nice it was that we could get along well enough to do this, and it was the second vacation we had ever taken where we didn't fight!! Awesome!! So we loaded up and headed out from Vegas. Our destination Knotts Berry Farm, Downtown Disney, and the beach!

We went to Crescent Bay which is in Laguna, I love that place.........it is so very cool. The shopping is fantastic and the shops are fun. We went to the Candy Baron, check that out!! Rows of barrels filled with candy..........all kinds of salt water taffy, hard candy, licorice, candy from when I was a kid.....it's really cool and brought back some fun memories. Remember the wax bottles that were filled with colored liquid that you could just chew for......well not for very long before ya spit it out, but that's not the point! They had snaps, razzles, foot high pez dispensers, you name it, they had it. It seriously is a super cool place. We ended up spending about $35....just on candy. HOLY COW!!

Ashlie, always ready for pictures, me and my kids, me and Jordan, dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.
Me and Ash at Knotts, and Logan, Ashlie's pride and joy!

We had such a good time, ate good food, laughed so hard we cried, and just enjoyed spending time together.. I hope that this is something we will be able to continue doing, as it is a blessing to spend time with my children and for them to spend fun times with both their parents!

On a quest

to become a coupon queen. Well, maybe trying to be a queen of coupons is a little too far reaching....maybe a princess? Or a lady in waiting...yeah that's probably more like it. I've tried the coupon thing before and I've had limited success, however, I really want to change that. I'm very impressed with people that can cut their grocery bills by more than half, or especially with the ones that can walk out of Walgreens or CVS and actually paid pennies out of pocket. So, im heading into research mode and scouring different websites for the easiest way to figure this game out. There's all kinds of information out there, lots of websites that offer free samples and coupons, different techniques on how to organize coupons, which stores to shop....all in all there is just a lot of information out there that can be a little overwhelming. So, I'm just going to take some time reading up on info and then start a game plan. I found this cool site Couponing 101 which has a TON of really good information, plus kind of breaks down the good deals, free deals and other great savings on the site. Check it out, and if anyone out there has any other great tips, hints, or websites..please feel free to share!!

52 sketches #11 & 13

Just a quick post with a couple LO's.... I have pictures from our vacation to CA & Lake Havasu a couple weeks ago that I'll post....um, sometime in the next decade!! :)~

UGH!

So Im sitting here watching the Bachelor..........what crap!! and thought I would just post a few LO's based on sketches from 52 sketches 52 weeks.......

This pic of my son was taken 16 years ago and is my all time favorite pic of him. Crazy how in May this kid will turn 18!!!

Okay, so back to the Bachelor, who in their right mind would go on a show like that to find true love? Helllooooo..........no way in hell would I want to try to get to know a man let alone date one while 24 other women were all vying (sp?)for his attention. How can you get to know someone on the level to propose when the situation isn't even reality? UGH, that's all I have to say!!

So, this sweet sweet girl is such a blessing to me. Ever since her dad and I divorced almost 7 years ago, it's been mostly just her and I. Jordan did live with us on and off for a couple years and we loved it when he was with us, but in the end, he decided to finish out school in Vegas.

So, it's just been us girls for the most part. She is sweet and a little sassy at times, she's a total goof and is really lovable. She loves to cuddle which is good for me, because I'm not a huggy touchy person, so it helps me get more comfortable with cuddling. ........ She plays violin, LOVES soccer and the color green. She collects My Little Pet Shop pets, and Webkinz...I won't even go into how many she has. She could open her own store!! This picture is a couple years old, so at present time come next Friday she will officially be a teenager. AHHHHH!! She hasn't gotten too outta control though and I'm hoping we can keep it to a dull roar. I'm not so good with lots of tears and raging mood swings.....anyway, just wanted to do a little tribute to my awesome kids, just very blessed to be their mother!

Love these kids!!

I do have to say that this is one of my more favorite pics of Jordan, my all time favorite one is him when he was about 14 months. I just finished a LO of that picture and will post it soon. He's grown into such a great young man. He's kind and respectful, he's polite and well behaved, he is really really good with little kids, and hasn't given his parents too much trouble. Really as parents (even divorced parents) we couldn't ask for better kids. We've really been blessed. I don't say this just because I think so....I had one of the coaches from his baketball team come ask me if I was Jordan's mom and he just wanted to tell me that my son was a very good kid and that he was pretty impressed with him. Mike has had several people who know Jordan from school tell him the same kinds of things....it's just a good feeling to know that other people think highly of your child. Jordan is pretty quiet, loves music, loves video games, and loves to just hang with the family. I'm going on vacation with my ex and our kids next month........I know kinda weird...but we've actually gotten to the point where we get along and can be friends, and I haven't been on any kind of vacation with the kids for years......so I am really looking forward to it.