Long day...

I'm so tired, this is going to be a short one. We had Ari's 15 month check up today, he's being referred to a speach therapist for an "oral aversion" with food. The pediatrician is concerned about the lack of "big people" food that Ari eats and wants to have him evaluated. It caught me a little off guard and I've been a little bummy all day. I know he's going to be fine and our pediatrician is only doing his job, I just want my little guy to be perfect you know. I'll keep you updated! Ari now weighs 23 pounds and is 30 inches tall! He's a little on the short side but I like him that way, just means we have less pants to buy, hehe!

Other than that it was a very blah day. The weather is positively miserable. It was cold, cloudy and rainy all day. I've had a headache I think partially due to my stress this morning and the weather. I'm going to take a hot bath and curl up in my comfy cozy bed! My flannel jammos are totally calling my name and I have a few magazines that I forgot to read. Matt is feeling a tad bit better today, he's on Tamiflu, his fever is broken. Now he's just dealing with tons of congestion and drippiness. His poor eyes are swollen, red and watery. I haven't seen him this sick in quite a while. Ari was given a preventative perscription of Tamiflu so hopefully he can come through all of our sickiness without catching it himself! Our trip to Charleston is less than a week away, yay!!!

Matt picked a random number from my blog comments this weekend, the lucky winner of my RAK is JENN Z!!! Jenn, email me your snail mail and I'll put together a little something for you. Congrats and thanks for stalking me ;) Hehe... Oh, and *so, so sorry* that I have yet to respond to your email, I promise, promise, promise to do it this week. Promise!!! I have a few questions for you anyway!!!

Well, that's all folks. Sorry for the boring-ness. Just not much happening around here. Ari and I are having lunch with our good friends Alice and Charlie tomorrow and I'm taking my camera. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get some decent shots of the little guys. Goodnight, sleep tight!

I have a sickie in the house

Matt tried and tried to stay healthy while I was fighting my upper respiratory ickies. He was succesfull, that is until he went to work and his crew had the flu. Bummer. Needless to say, he's not feeling too hot. He's been running a fever of 102.5 all day and just lies on the sofa like a bump. I feel so bad for him, I can tell he really feels bad. To make matters worse, the cable box is on the fritz so he can't even watch tv. We've been watching DVD's from our "library" all day.

I'm pretty much back to normal. I still have the froggies in my throat but the inhaler works pretty well for that. I'm super tired today I think because I've been chasing a cranky toddler all day. Ari has a giant case of cabin fever. He was so used to being able to play outside every day last week, it's only been in the mid 40's for the past two days. No fun. He has his 15 month check up tomorrow and is due for another shot, really no fun.

I have a few more scrappy things to share with you, unfortunately it will have to wait. The gallery isn't open yet but you're definately going to want in on this challenge. The manufacturer is one of my all time faves, they never let me down. This kit was no exception! I'll leave you with this frame I altered today. You should have seen how ugly it was before, all white and blue and ick. Look at it now, it's perfect in the living room!



Well, I'm going to go be lazy with my husband. Ari went to bed at 6:30, I couldn't listen to him whine anymore. I feel like the only words out of my mouth today were "how are you feeling" and "Ari, NO"... sheesh. Oh, and be sure to leave a comment on Friday's post for a chance to win a little something from me. I'll draw the winner tonight before bed!! Enjoy your evening!

This is gonna be a long one...

I've come to the conclusion that it's not as easy to update the ole' blog when the weather is near 80 and sunny! I'd much rather be outside or *shock* cleaning my house. They're something about cleaning when the weather is nice, I open all the windows and let the fresh air in! Makes everything all bright and yummy! Anyway, due to the lack of prompt updates this one's going to be fairly huge. I have a ton of pictures to share, my poor husband begged me all week to upload pics and I just ran out of time. Of course, he'll be home today so there's no point in hurrying now...

Well, how about I start with my scrappy creations with the Crop Addict April kit. This kit was SO much fun, lots of scrappy goodies from American Crafts, Dream Street, Bazzill, May Arts ribbon... the list goes on. These kits are seriously packed and they sell out pretty fast so if you want in on the fun be sure to head over and nab one before they're gone! Without further adeiu...







I had fun working with this kit. I had a little creative block for a while since I was sick (it's really hard to scrap while you're sick, btw) but I like the end results! I thought part of my creative block could be the fact that my scrap space was a complete black hole, so disorganized and cluttered. I found some new wire baskets and splurged on the clip-it-up and it has made SUCH a difference! Even just looking at my clean, organized space has my creative juices flowing! What do you think???






I love it! I'm sure it won't look that good for long but I'm really going to try to keep it nice. There are just a couple other things I want to get but I need to work in my new space to see how it will all play out, know what I mean!?

Can you believe that my little guy is 15 months old today! Seriously, where has the time gone?? We had to run outside today because my neighbors little dog was loose and pawing at our fence. I was going to keep her in our yard because I didn't know if they were home, her name is Charlotte and she's a little black schnauzer puppy. Ari saw her, pointed and said "dog", it was the cutest thing! I'm so amazed and proud that he recognizes things and is learning new words. Now if we could just get him to eat "people" food... We're still plugging away at that. He has his 15 month check-up on Monday, I'll be sure to let you know the latest statistics! I'll leave you with these pics of him playing the other day, he looks like such the little man! I have to finish cleaning my house, Tara and Hannah are coming over for dinner tonight and we're taking the kiddos to the playground as soon as Ari's up from his nap. Enjoy your day, I know we will!!!






Oh, and if you've made it this far leave a comment and I'll send a little scrap RAK. I have a ton of stuff to get rid of from my spring cleaning, it may as well go to a good home. Don't worry, I won't send junk... it will be good!!! How about I'll pick a random winner Sunday night and send it out Monday! Happy Friday!

Check it out...

My fabulous new scrappy purchases...




Where, might you ask, is this fabulous new scrap loot from? Perhaps a local scrapbook store or a fun new scrappy website? Guess what my friends... Target! Yep, you heard right... seems Target has upped the quality in their scrapbook aisle. They had the entire Making Memories 5th Avenue line, both of them! Ki Memories Pop Culture, Cloud9 and the Making Memories Animal Crackers lines for boys and girls. I was in scrap heaven! I called Michelle three times but she didn't answer, I just had to tell someone!!! I also got the All My Memories Tote-Ally cool croppin' tote... on sale for $19! I've been in the market for a crop tote for some time now, I like the size of this one and the cool little magnetic revolving base that it comes with. Now I can just pop that bad boy on the table and spin to my heart's content!

In other news: I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, one I almost didn't make it to considering we had to drop $600 on the Vibe for 3 new tires, new brakes and some other things that I was too depressed to pay attention to when Matt was telling me. I know, you're supposed to buy either 2 or 4 tires but we just bought a tire last month because one was flat.

Anyway, I guess I should have gone to the doctor two weeks ago when I first started to get sick... turns out I have a sinus infection and asthmatic bronchitis. Nothing $30 worth of prescriptions including a new inhaler won't fix. I should be back to normal in no time!!

Anyway, the Bean isn't taking a nap so I suppose I should go get him. It's almost time for dinner anyway. Stay tuned for my April Crop Addict layouts. The gallery is up over there, I'll show you here tonight or tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

We had a super relaxing day, it was nice! I didn't even put non-jammo clothes on until my neighbor came over to warn me that the Easter Bunny was bringing something for Ari! It was so cute, I had no idea she was going to do that. He wasn't afraid at all, I was surprised! Even when she held him and gave him the chocolate bunny, look at that smile on his face...




It wasn't as warm today as I would have liked, but I heard people up north had snow, so I really can't complain. I mowed the weeds in our lawn and planted the Carolina Jasmine that I bought to camoflauge our hideously ugly mailbox. If it takes off it should be really pretty!

Other than that, we've not done much of anything! It's nice to have a relaxing day at home with nothing to do. I'm going to bake some cupcakes tonight, the ones I didn't get to last night, and scrap! I finally feel like my mojo is finding it's way back to me. I'm going to scoop it up while I can! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We have a fairly busy day planned tomorrow. We have to take my car to the shop and I think we're going to swing by a car lot to pick out a replacement. It's just not the same after my accident and I'd rather just be rid of it. Wish us luck, believe it or not but my husband has never purchased a car before. It oughta be fun!

So, So Sorry...

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this. Please don't hate me ;)



I may be the last person on Earth to have discovered the Google package that you can download with Picasa, Google browser, Skype and more. The little brother uses Skype to call me from Korea so I thought I'd download it, maybe now I can call him! Our plans fell through for today, I needed to drop my car off, seems we're having issues from the accident still but the body shop is closed for Easter today. Hmm, Easter isn't today... oh well. I need to go to the grocery, one cannot keep surviving on pizza and breadsticks. Actually, our plans for tomorrow fell through too... guess I'm left with not much to do this weekend. We need to mow the weeds in our yard. Yep, that's weeds... the grass died from the severe drought and our landscaper doesn't seem too interested in our business. I'm going to call some other places Monday. I know we're friends and all, but I don't have all year. I wonder why it is that nothing you want to grow can survive the drought but the pesky weeds and crabgrass are taking off like crazy. It's a mystery. Anyway, I'm off to order the groceries... anyone have any decent recipies they want to share?? Feel free to post them in the comments or link me somewhere! Enjoy your Saturday!

Seems I Jumped the Gun

In thinking I was back among the living. Well, I technically was since I did leave the house yesterday but I still feel really icky. I can't seem to kick this bug, whatever it is. I think it's a sinus infection, my head has the worst of it. I know I've been promising those pics of the album I made with Donna Downey. I did finish it and the pics are on my computer, I just haven't had the energy to make that slideshow.

My poor husband called me from the hotel last night asking if I was going to blog any time soon... talk about guilt trip. Just kidding, it wasn't a guilt trip at all, he just knows that if I'm not on the computer doing my normal daily routine that I must be feeling pretty punk! I think it really bugs him that I have to be here taking care of Ari when all I want to do is crawl in bed and sleep. Welcome to the wonderful world of "Mommy", you don't really get any time off to recover! It doesn't help that for the past two nights Ari's been waking up between midnight and 2am... I'm not really sure why, it's either his two bottom molars that are cutting through or he's sick too. I don't know which one I prefer it to be, teething does not suit him, then again I hate it when he doesn't feel well. I just need to prepare myself for a lose/lose situation!

Well, enough of my rambling (can you tell my head's not all there??), I'm going to lay on the sofa while Ari plays since he's refusing to take a nap! Have a good day, I'll work on that slide show I promise!!! Sorry...

Back among the living...

Sort of. I do feel better today, not 100%, but better. Matt let me sleep in until about 10:30, then I poured myself into the shower. We had a late breakfast, straightened up the house a tiny bit then headed to Target. Ari's been a little bit of a pill today, I really hope he's not coming down with what I had... he's boycotted every nap and is fighting sleep hard as we speak. I'm afraid he's just going to have to cry it out! Matt just gave him some Tylenol. He's still cutting those bottom molars and I think they're giving him a fit. His poor little face is all broken out from all the drool, it's so sad. We are still doing his easter pictures this week though! I got him the CUTEST outfit from The Childrens Place, a little button down shirt with a tie! He's going to look like such the little man.

I'm really trying to get some scrapping done tonight. I promised the girls over at Crop Addict the pictures of the album I made with Donna Downey on Saturday but I have yet to finish the last two pages. SO sorry girls, hang in there one more day. I'll finish it tonight I promise!! It's darling, perfect for my guest room (if I want it to be tucked that far away from public eye, I'm quite proud of it). I have some work to do with my April design team kit too, I just can't seem to find my mojo this month. I've changed up my "style" a bit and it seems to be helping. Let's just say the things you see from me this month are like nothing you've ever seen from me before!!! I'm trying things I've never attempted and it does seem to be working, for now at least.

Well, I'm off to whip up some dinner. Chicken Enchilladas, I think. Sorry Bro, wish you could be here to dig in with us. 5 more weeks bud, and you'll be back in the states!!! Then, it's homecooked food whenever you please! Oh, and I got the list of houses you're considering... I'll give my $.02 asap!!! I'm so proud of you {{hugs}}. That's all for now folks, like I said, I promise pictures tomorrow!!!

It's official...

I'm a sickie. I fought it hard, drank juice, took medicine and went to bed early every night this week, to no avail. I'm officially under the weather. I have a terrible sore throat, my nose is stuffy and my eyes are watery. My head feels like it's just floating around somewhere. Thankfully Ari let me sleep until 8:30 this morning. Not thankfully, Matt got stuck at work. He was supposed to be home at 7 this morning but they extended his trip to go to Wilmington, NC and back. He should be home by 11 *hopefully* because he took my car and I need it to go to my class in Mooresville with Donna Downey. I already paid for it and you don't get your money back if you cancel so I'm going with my cough drops and juice, even if I have to scrap in a corner by myself. We're supposed to have dinner with a friend tonight too, we are going to play that one by ear. If I feel icky or if Matt's too tired we won't be able to go.

Anyway, I don't want to drag you down with my sickies. I hope you enjoy your weekend! I will be doped up on medicine all weekend, hopefully I can kick this before it gets too bad!

Oops, I didn't come back...

Sorry about that. Matt and I had a lazy night watching TV and fell asleep! We had Gymboree this morning and it is such a gorgeous day, we've been working in the back yard all afternoon!

Anyway, I thought you might like to see the pics from my bedroom and bathroom. It's finally *almost* finished. We still need to do the baseboards in the bathroom and the bedroom is in need of some picture frames on two of the walls. Other than that, it's done! It feels so luxurious, like a retreat, we are really happy with it! Did I tell you the bathroom paint story? The contractors came Friday to replace our melted siding and about halfway through it started pouring rain so they had to leave. The guy asked me, "do people 'round here steal?"... um, no. So they left their equipment in the back yard since they would be back in the morning to finish. Sharon, my mother in law, said we should "borrow" the ladder to paint the bathroom! The far wall is about 14 feet high, we would have to rent a ladder to reach the top! Matt and Sharon sneaked it upstairs and we painted the whole bathroom Friday afternoon! We had the ladder back downstairs and no one noticed, hehe. Well, here are the pics...







Um, nevermind the unmade bed... we don't really make beds around here. I got the black scrolly things at Pier1, they are identical and really tie the rooms together! The walls in the bedroom are a taupe color, the same color as the bedsheets and one shade lighter than the bathroom. The white shelves are in the "toilet nook", it's the wierdest space, the ceiling is 14 feet tall and there's nothing there but the john, I think this fills the space a bit! Oh, and you can see the curtains Sharon made, the bottom piece is the same color as the walls in the bedroom! There are two windows in there too, they all match! So, that's that.

I'll share pics of the guestroom curtains when I get the new bedding. I just got the Pottery Barn bed & bath catalog, I'm sure I'll find something in there. It's going to be a dusty teal blue & mustard yellow with browns and ivory, I think...

Oh, and here's the pic of Ari's new climber. He loves it, every time he goes down the slide he claps and screams really loud. I'll try to take a video one of these days!



My frind Melissa and her hubs are coming out tomorrow to look at the yard, he has a landscaping company and is going to help us with the re-grading and sod! I think we're going to attempt the paver patio and walkway ourselves... we'll see! We are going to Home Depot in the morning to look at pavers, I'm so excited!! That's all for now, see ya later!

Bad Blogger Morgan...

I know, I've been a bad blogger this week. Sorry. Dick and Sharon were here all weekend, it's just not easy to blog when you have houseguests. We were too busy visiting and painting my house to be on the computer! It was a great visit, I'm exhausted after listening to Ari scream yesterday (all day, I might add), but it was really great to have the company.

I plan to tell you more about it later but I have a headache and need to eat some breakfast. This was supposed to be my morning to sleep in but the demolition crew is back at it again next door and trust me, you cannot sleep through a house being mashed down!

I'll be back later, promise!

A Little Insight to my rant below...

I just visited my good scrappy friend Virginia's blog and she had this neat little quiz. I thought I'd plug my name in and see what came up. I dont' usually put a whole lot of faith into these types of things, they're mostly just for laughs in my world but this is SO me, almost creepily so...

What Morgan Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

anyway, thought that was interesting... it may provide a little insight into my rant which I've posted just below this. Check it out, if you want to see another side of me that usually doesn't rear it's ugly head ~

**vent warning**

Just so we're on the same page, please be warned that this post may not be politically correct. Some things may be offensive to certain people, particularly those I'm venting about. I just need to get a few things off my chest, screaming isn't an option because Ari is asleep and I'd like it to stay that way for at least another hour.

1. I'm sick and tired of staring at a burnt up house every day. I can't even go outside because the smell is so incredibly offensive. It's pathetic, it needs to be torn down and hauled away before I go tear it down myself.

2. I'm sick and tired of people driving by to gawk at it. It's been six weeks, get over it already. How sad and boring is your life that all you have to do is drive through a completely private neighborhood and stare at someone else's tragedy. Get a life.

3. I'm really fed up with people that come to gawk giving me dirty looks and yelling at me from thier crappy cars when all I'm doing is getting my mail. If you're going to be so bold as to drive by a complete strangers house, point and take pictures you better be prepared to get some dirty looks from the people that put up with it all day every day. As I stated before, get a life.

4. I've had it up to here with another house in the neighborhood... they come and go at least a dozen times a day with super loud annoying exhaust and booming stereos. Have some decency, there are families that live in here and if you drive by one more time and wake my child up from his nap I'm going to be very tempted to throw a rock at said vehicle.

5. I'm really tired of having to chase my newspaper down the street every day. I've called 8 TIMES begging and pleading for the paper boy to please just put my paper in the very special "PAPER BOX" attached to my mail box, you know, the one that he cruises right by before hauling my paper in the front yard where it's then either blown away or stolen. Why on earth can't people JUST DO THEIR JOBS?? Is it really that much to ask...

6. Actually, I think I'm done. For now at least. Sorry about that, I just needed to get that off my chest. I hate that there are so many things in my life that I have absolutely no control over. I hate that it bothers me so much. I think I miss my husband, he's been working way too much lately. The first of the month is always the hardest. Things are looking up though, Matt gets home today and his parents arrive sometime today as well. We are going to have a much needed date night tomorrow, just the two of us. I think the last one we had was our anniversary back in early December. I'm looking forward to the visit as well, we haven't seen Dick or Sharon since Ari's birthday. It will be nice to be able to sit back and relax for a few days. I feel a little better, thanks for letting me get that off my chest! You're the best blogger buddies!!

The Energizer Bunny...

I just keep going and going and going... It's been a crazy week, I can't believe it's half over but that's the way life goes I guess. Ari and I went to Gymboree this morning, he had SO much fun. I mean, he always does but today he was ALL over the place. Sara, our teacher, said, "whew, Ari's pretty confident today huh." which is basically a nice way of saying "your kid is wacko"! Hehe, seriously though, I don't even chase him any more. He just goes and does his own thing. It's really fun and refreshing but sad at the same time. It wasn't that long ago that I had to carry him everywhere and hold him up to do things, now he does them all on his own. It's incredible!

After class we headed to Pier1 to find something to hang on the wall above our bed. The headboard I ordered from Pottery Barn will be here tomorrow, I painted the wall the other day so I'm all set. There's still a long way to go before the whole room is done but hey, one wall at a time, right! After Pier1 we went to the mall for lunch. Michelle and Ella were with us all morning, we grabbed a bite from McAlisters (surprise, surprise... I swear I could eat there every day) and went to the Gap where I bought a new pair of jeans. I'm oficially back in my "skinny" clothes that I wore pre-Ari. It's very nice!

We came home, Ari was wiped from all the excitement of class and jeans that fit momma so he took a nap. While he was sleeping Tara called and asked if we wanted to get together for a play date. Of course, my house cleaning can wait, so she and Hannah came over and we caught up a bit. We haven't spent much time together lately, it was nice to have a chat and watch the babies play. It was such a nice day that we ventured to the back yard (mud & all) and played out there. Instead of tell you about it I'll share some pics...







And yes, that would be my child climbing up through the bottom of his car. He must flip things over and upside down before determining that they pass his "inspection" and are worthy of play. He's such a little destroyer. When Tara and Hannah got here he picked up a basket full of blocks and threw them, I thought Hannah was going to smack him or something. She got this look on her face like "what's wrong with you", it was HILARIOUS! They haven't played together for quite a while, they're both very different than they used to be.

Anyway, after a while outside Ari had a meltdown so T & H left, we had dinner and another meltdown. We went to Target and had another meltdown (are you beginning to see a pattern??)... he's asleep, thankfully, and I'm finally getting around to that cleaning I've been talking about for the past week. Whew, sorry about all the words... good night!

I need a nap...

This one's gonna be short, I just didn't want you all to think I forgot about you.

Weekend Happenings:
1. Ari has massive diaper explosion, so much so that I have to repaint wall, disassemble and clean crib and steam clean carpet. At 7 am!
2. Due to massive diaper explosion I have to monitor him all weekend to make sure he's not seriously ill, considering the fact that he ingested contents of said diaper.
3. Weekend crop at Crop Addict, SO much fun but very tiring at the same time.
4. Matt arrives home Sunday night
5. Matt's new laptop arrives today, he's distracted all day setting up.
6. Paint wall in our bedroom since new headboard is arriving this week.
7. Clean my disaster of a house for being so distracted with other things all weekend.
8. Write down to hire babysitter since Matt's going back to work early tomorrow morning and I've not really acomplished anything on my to do list...

Needless to say I'm dog tired, Ari's just now back to his "normal" self, a good thing and not so good thing considering my energy level is scraping the bottom of the barrel. So, with that I'm going to go take a nap. That is, after I bathe my child and get him tucked in, and make and eat dinner, and clean it up...

Crop til you Drop!

It's official, the weekend crop over at Crop Addict has begun! We're on our second challenge of the day, it's not too late to head on over and join the fun!! Hope to see you there ;) I'll be back later with an update on my fantastic day *hint: italics usually equal sarcasm...