VGNO - Super Freak Out Mommy Barbie

It's that time again! Time for Virtual Girls Night Out, hosted by the wonderful Ann at Ann Again... and Again. It is a night full of pj wearing, blog hopping, new friend meeting, blog buddy chatting, game playing fun! And DON'T FORGET to head over to JAM's for even more fun, its an all around good time! =)


Booooy do I need this Virtual Girls Night Out!!! What a DAY! I took Jimmy over to Oma's house for a visit. Well, then we discovered that her cat had peed all over her sleeper sofa and it had soaked into the mattress! Oma didn't know because she doesn't have any sense of smell anymore. I sure noticed though! So we took the mattress out to the garage and the cushions outside. She decided that she just wants to get rid of the couch and get a new one since it is old and worn anyway. So Jim and I will have to go haul it away for her soon. After that incident we went and got some lunch. Jimmy didn't seem to have much of an appetite, but I didn't think much of it. Then we went and did a little grocery shopping and afterwards Jimmy and I came home. When we got home I noticed that Jimmy felt a little warm and took his temperature after I remembered he didn't eat much. He had a temp of 102.8! Yikes! After a wee bit of freaking out by me, calling the dr. and Angie and my MIL, we decided it must be because he was getting another tooth. DUH! Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Angie! ;-) He totally did this once before when he was getting a tooth! It just didn't occur to me because most of his other teeth came in without much fuss. So anyway, we gave him a nice cool bath and some tylenol and now his temp is down and he is sound asleep. And he devoured dinner, so I think he is feeling much better! And me, I am ready to sit back and relax and hang with my girls! Now, on to Ann's!

Her party game is to see which Barbie we are. I am Sunscreen Barbie according to the chart, but I think I am really Super Freak Out Mommy Barbie after today lol!

Ok, here is a video of one of my fav songs by one of my fav bands, The Benjamin Gate! Unfortunately, this band broke up, however, Adie, the lead singer, married a guy named Jeremy Camp (if you listen to Christian music, you have probably heard of him ;-) ) and she put out a solo album. She is just so awesome! I hope you enjoy it, it always "Lifts Me Up"!



Happy VGNO everyone!

Thankful Thursday

I am Thankful for:

~ It raining today, we really needed it and now I don't have to water the garden, my flowers or our still to be planted trees ;-)

~ The birds that visit our place - I just love to sit and watch them and listen to them sing. I find them so entertaining and relaxing. Check out my new bird blog here. I will be posting pics and updates every now and then.

~ My carrots are finally sprouting in my garden - shew! I thought they were goners!

~ And my rhubarb came up too, didn't think it was going to. I bought it a while ago and the root didn't look to great when I put it in the ground. But it now has 3 or 4 leaves! I even mowed it over, not paying attention because I forgot about it. That is how much I didn't think it would survive! =)

Do you have something to be Thankful for? Let everyone know about it! Just enter your name or name of your blog and add the link to your specific Thankful Thursday post (not your blog's homepage please!) Also, please add the Thankful Thursday logo or link to my blog in your post. Have fun and thanks for joining me!

Happy Memorial Day!

This is a bit late, but I have had a very busy weekend! We had a couple cookouts and some shopping and a lot of outside work to be done. I spent a lot of time planting some more of my garden and I got my flower beds (mostly) taken care of. I got my mulch put down and then I planted annuals. This year I decided to go with a patriotic theme. I planted red and white impatiens and a few red and white wave petunias along with some blue Lobelia (some in planters)......so cute! Here is a pic, I can't wait until they spread!

Oh, and notice in the upper left of the above pic, a stack of shingles! Yay! Our roof is getting worked on this week =)

I hope everyone had a very lovely Memorial Day Weekend and honored our country's finest and bravest!

Thankful Thursday

I am Thankful for cardboard boxes, lip gloss and junk mail (yes, I said junk mail lol!)

AND our sweet little man turned 16 months old yesterday, the 20th!

Do you have something to be Thankful for? Let everyone know about it! Just enter your name or name of your blog and add the link to your specific Thankful Thursday post (not your blog's homepage please!) Also, please add the Thankful Thursday logo or link to my blog in your post. Have fun and thanks for joining me!

No 'Poo Update.....FINALLY!

It is Day 20 of my No More Poo experiment. Wow, has it really been that long?? I am sorry I haven't updated in so long, but it really hasn't been very exciting. Until today that is..... ;-)

I finally got some apple cider vinegar so here are some pics. And a little surprise....I cut my hair! It feels so much better now. Ok, now for the pics:

This is what it looked like after hubby cut the ponytail off:

Then I trimmed it up and washed it with the baking soda and used the apple cider vinegar for a rinse. Then this morning I straightened it and trimmed it up some more.

Sidenote: When I had cut my hair before it was at my dad's old house where I had one of those mirror medicine cabinets with the 3 doors so I could angle the mirrors the way I needed them so I could see my hair from all angles. WELL, I kinda forgot I didn't have that anymore so I was trying to hold a hand mirror and see where to cut then look in the big mirror....etc...etc...wasn't working so well. So this morning I propped up my full length mirror on the bathtub and I was able to angle it so I could see the back of my head hands free! Shew! So I fixed my hair up pretty well, it could be better, but I really don't care lol. Plus, when I let it air dry, it is wavy so it is harder to see the uneven-ness.

And here is my part, all nice and clean, no ickyness =)

I really am liking washing my hair with baking soda. I have always liked to be "different" so this fits right in! It does take some getting used to, it is kinda strange to put gritty stuff on my scalp, and there have been a couple times where I see my shampoo that is still in my shower and just feel like dumping it on my head and massaging it in! But I know in the long run, the baking soda is just so much better and cost effective. Now, as for the apple cider vinegar, my hair feels great after rinsing the ends in it, BUT I could smell it after I got out of the shower and my hair was drying. I can't smell it now, so I think it is ok, but that would be one thing to be careful about. If you decide to try it, make sure you rinse it really well if the smell might bother you. I will have to have Jim give my hair a sniff test ;-)

Ok, now one last photo: Me with my shorter hair! Not the best pic, but I thought I should try to show my face a little more around here lol!

They're Here, They're Here!

My Mother's Day gifts that I won from my lovely friend at Old Centennial Farmhouse! She had a Mother's Day Giveaway last week, and 'lil ol' me won! So exciting, I hardly ever win ANYTHING! I won a beautiful little tea cup and saucer (complete with tea bags!) and the book "Susannah's Garden" by Debbie Macomber. I also received a lovely hand written card. I am SO excited to be able to sit out on my porch and read my new book while sippping some yummy tea. Ahhhh! Now I just need to find a minute to relax!

Oh, what's this? I guess Duke has decided to join us! Sorry Duke, I am NOT sharing my tea! ;-)

Thank you so very much my wonderful friend, I truly appreciate your generosity!
Alright everyone, now go on over and check out Old Centennial Farmhouse, it is a fantastic blog!


Now for some random pics of the Blessed Country House

Ahh my front porch. It needs A LOT of work - you should see the concrete, it is all cracked, its HORRIBLE - but we love our porch. I would love to get a porch swing and 2 rocking chairs someday, (and build a deck onto the back of the house so I can put my table and chairs out there) but who knows when that will happen!


And notice the blue tarp on the roof, now imagine it on MOST of the roof lol!


And a random pic of one of my foxgloves. So cute! =)

VGNO - Sweet BonBon

It's that time again! Time for Virtual Girls Night Out, hosted by the wonderful Ann at Ann Again... and Again. It is a night full of pj wearing, blog hopping, new friend meeting, blog buddy chatting, game playing fun! And DON'T FORGET to head over to JAM's for even more fun, its an all around good time! =)

Since we are talking candy tonight, I thought I would post a recipe I found for Peanut Butter BonBons, in honor of my Candy Name of course!

I have not made these yet myself, but I linked to the original recipe on Allrecipes.com above and it had good reviews. And they contain Peanut Butter. Need I say more??

Peanut Butter BonBons

Ingredients:

• 2 cups peanut butter
• 3/4 cup butter
• 4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups crispy rice cereal
• 6 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan, melt together the peanut butter and butter, stirring occasionally until warm and smooth. In a large bowl, stir together the confectioners' sugar and rice cereal; pour the peanut butter mixture over the cereal mixture and use your hands to blend well. Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and chill.
2. In the microwave or in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt chocolate chips, stirring frequently until smooth. Dip the peanut butter balls into the chocolate using a toothpick. Place onto waxed paper to set.

I hope they turn out great, I will be making them as soon as I get some of the cereal. We don't have any in the house, boo! =(


Now for a game. Ann posted this one:

Sweet As Candy

If you were to have a candy bar named after you what would it be called? Just for fun follow the guide below to create your candy bar name. Ex. If your first name starts with an 'A' and your last name starts with an 'H' your candy bar would be called "Sweet Confection". Try it out.

Your First Name
A - C = Sweet
D - F = Honey
G - I = Lucious
J - L = Sugar
M - O = Precious
P - R = Savory
S - U = Delightful
V - Z = Heavenly

Your Last Name
A - C = BonBon
D - F = Tart
G - I = Confection
J - L = Chunk
M - O = Honey
P - R = Blossom
S - U = Bits
V - Z = Buns

Let me know what your name is, would love to hear it!

Hope everyone has a great VGNO! Have a wonderful weekend =)

Skywatch Friday #44

Sunrise from Wednesday morning. I was actually up early enough to take some pics!
(please excuse my backwards flag!)

Wanna see more? Check out Skywatch Friday.
Click their logo or the link for more awesome skies!

Thankful Thursday

I am Thankful that the rain we had last night and this morning finally stopped because our roof is leaking AGAIN. We had a LOT of wind yesterday and last night and our roof is still not fixed from Hurricane Ike and the bad wind we had near in December. SO....now one of the tarps over the roof is leaking and I have this in my dining room:

Not the greatest pic, but you can see three drips. Our walls are going to be a mess inside. So anyway, I am thankful it stopped raining (for now) so this mess doesn't get worse before we can fix the roof. I am a wee bit frustrated right now (as Angie knows lol, thanks for hearing me vent), but am trying to count my blessings! =)

Do you have something to be Thankful for? Let everyone know about it! Just enter your name or name of your blog and add the link to your specific Thankful Thursday post (not your blog's homepage please!) Also, please add the Thankful Thursday logo or link to my blog in your post. Have fun and thanks for joining me!

My Desire

I ♥ Faces #18 - Laughter

Here is my entry for the Kids Category at i ♥ faces

My sweet little dirty faced boy. I think he just ate some PB&J ;-)

Make sure you head on over to I ♥ Faces to check out all the great pics!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did NOT try to stick my bank card in the receipt slot when I got gas the other day. Luckily I put the gas nozzle in the right place! lol

I did NOT just find Duke chewing on Jimmy's Foogo sippy cup! Arrgh! Luckily no damage was done.

I did NOT put my seedlings outside (sheltered in the shed) to harden them off and then find them dead. I am NOT that silly and I did NOT not think about planting them and then putting a cut off milk jug over them to act as a mini greenhouse. Oops. Off to buy some tomato plants =)

I am NOT super tired from a long weekend and I totally did NOT let Jimmy skip his naps on both Saturday AND Sunday!

I am NOT now trying to get Jimmy to take a nap after 2 days of no naps and he is NOT resisting.

Happy Mother's Day

I know it is late, but I still wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Mother's Day. I hope all you mothers had a very wonderful day with your families. And I hope the mommies who have lost loved ones had great days too, even though they may be very sad for losing loved ones. I lost my mom 3 years ago, so it is a difficult day for me. But it was also a very lovely day spent with my in-laws and then my Dad and step-mom Kathy.

Here are a couple pics of my mom:

Not sure if she was married yet, but she is probably 18 or 19 in this pic:



And here are myself, my Oma (mom's mother) and my mom, 3 generations, at my high school graduation =)


Happy Mother's Day to my mommy, I miss you! And also, I want to say happy Mother's Day to my step-mom Kathy, my mother-in-law Karen, my very good friend Joy Marie, my Oma, and my Grandma. I love you all very much and am so blessed to have you all in my life!

And.....Happy Mother's Day to all my bloggy mommy friends!

VGNO - Happy Mothers Day

It's that time again! Time for Virtual Girls Night Out, hosted by the wonderful Ann at Ann Again... and Again. It is a night full of pj wearing, blog hopping, new friend meeting, blog buddy chatting, game playing fun! And DON'T FORGET to head over to JAM's for even more fun, its an all around good time! =)

I am a bit late tonight, we had a long day and I just got little Jimmy into bed. I have been in kind of a "blah" mood all day, so I need this VGNO to get my spirits lifted! =)

This is going to me my second Mother's Day. Nothing too exciting going on, just heading over to my in-laws' house to make lunch for my MIL. Then I suppose we might go over to my Dad and Kathy's house afterward.

As far as Mother rants, I really don't have any yet, except, they grow TOO FAST! Other than that, I am thankful I don't have any. I know the day will come though, lets hope it wont be TOO bad lol =)

Tonight Ann wants to know if we have ever had a "walking into a room and everyone is staring at you and you realize you tucked your skirt into your underwear" type moment. I don't think I really have, except maybe the "I had a piece of spinach in my teeth the whole night and no one told me" type thing. But nothing comes to mind. Oh well, I am sure it will happen some day!

And make sure you check out the giveaway Ann is having too!

Alright, now on to JAM's. Tonight we are headed to Disneyland! I have never been there, but have been to Disney World. Which ride will I be starting out on? This one:

Jungle Cruise

Followed by, of course:

Pirates of the Caribbean

and then, a relaxing ride on:

The Disney Railroad Train

Happy VGNO everyone! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Skywatch Friday #43

(can you see my Red-tailed Hawk in the tree to the left of the sunset?
This is the best pic I have gotten, though honestly I haven't REALLY tried yet lol)


Wanna see more? Check out Skywatch Friday.
Click their logo or the link for more awesome skies!

Thankful Thursday

This is gonna be real short, but I just wanted to say that I am so Thankful for all of my bloggy friends out there. You all are so wonderful and thank you for all of your sweet comments and support. Thanks for all of your thoughts & prayers too, as our family is going through this tough time with the passing of Grandpa Walt. I really am Thankful for each and every one of you. God Bless you all!

Do you have something to be Thankful for? Let everyone know about it! Just enter your name or name of your blog and add the link to your specific Thankful Thursday post (not your blog's homepage please!) Also, please add the Thankful Thursday logo or link to my blog in your post. Have fun and thanks for joining me!

An Update

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you all know that my step-grandfather passed away yesterday after a long and up & down battle with cancer & complications. I will probably not be around too much in the next few days, but will try to catch up on everyone's blogs and get back into the swing of things when I can. Thanks for understanding and know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth if you don't hear from me for a few days. ;-)

Also, would appreciate your prayers for the family as they/we go through this tough time. I was not as close to Grampa Walt as his REAL grandkids, but he was a great guy and will be greatly missed! Thanks again, you all are awesome!

~Ali

Tag, I'm It!

I got tagged by my lovely friend Jan over at Jan's Place... I have to list

" SIX UNIMPORTANT THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY "

1. Walking around our property taking photos
2. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
3. Drinking lemonade on the porch on a nice summer evening listening to my fountains (haven't been able to do this since we moved, don't have anywhere to plug in my fountains =( )
   
4. Watching lightning bugs flying over the fields on summer nights
5. Horseback riding
6. Relaxing with a good book, knowing I have NOTHING else to do

Ok, now its time for YOU to participate! This is a fun one, so anyone who wants to, please take part!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

I ♥ Faces #17 - Hats

Here is my entry for the Kids Category at i ♥ faces

Make sure you head on over to I ♥ Faces to check out all the great pics!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I am NOT so excited that Stellan is finally home!

I am NOT excited that Not Me! Monday is back =)

I did NOT start a bird photography blog in memory of my mom. You can NOT check it out here.

We did NOT take Jimmy to the playground the other day, and Daddy did NOT take him down the big slide and he absolutely did NOT get stuck lol!


I am NOT totally behind on reading everyone's blog posts, not me!

I have NOT been having a wonderful time enjoying the nice weather and I have definitely NOT been out working in the garden and flower beds a lot.

I am NOT going to go do some more of the above mentioned right after I am done catching up on some blogs.... =)

Day 3 of No 'Poo

Quick update, I washed my hair again with baking soda today, came out a little yucky feeling this time, but I blow dried it and straightened it and it seems pretty normal. Here is a pic:

Also, if anyone with curly hair is trying this or would like to be a guinea pig and blog about it too, let me know. I would love to link to your blog so that all my curly haired readers could see how this works on curly hair. Thanks!