My first Miche bag

I went today and picked out my very first Miche bag. I won it online at Woman to Woman magazine. It was donated by my local Miche bag representative Sherry Hammond. I was very excited to win because I have known about the Miche bag for several years. The concept is so simple yet so ingenious. You have a basic "shell" of a bag, and the outside design is interchangeable so you don't have to remove all your stuff from the bag each time you want to use a different color or design to accentuate your mood or wardrobe. You just remove the outer design (it is magnetic) and attach another...and presto--new bag! (minus the hassle of moving everything from one bag to another).
I have to say that Sherry Hammond was a pleasure to meet and deal with. She was very informative and just as patient as she could be seeing as I couldn't make up my mind to choose just one LOL.
I have a party in the works, so if you want to get your own Miche bag just let me know if you can attend or if not, just get with me and I will hook you up with Sherry!

Kasey catches her second fish

I fondly remember my outings with my dad to the river to fish. Myself and my husband try to pass on all that was instilled in us as kids by our parents. Bonding with our kids is very important. It is great when you discover that many of the things that you did as a kid and still love as an adult, are also loved by your children. We took the girls on another outing to the lake to let them cast out their poles...Dora and Barbie respectively, LOL. Well, believe it or not, our oldest Kasey managed to catch her second bass with her Barbie pole. It was great to see the surprise on her face and to hear her laughter. The youngest, Kori, looked on and she was just as excited as Kasey...loving making these memories!

Backyard fun

We recently came across a great deal for a playground for our backyard. It originally was from a city park. It is 33' by 33'. I helped my hubby to put alot of it together, but towards the end we really needed more man power to complete the assembly. We had a pizza day and some family came over to help us out. It is all pretty much done except for some braces under the slides, and the smallest slide needs new bolts since we broke them off in the threads when we took it apart when we bought it. The girls have definitely been enjoying their new play area, especially the shade underneath it. My husband plans to square out an area underneath as a sandbox and also a small deck for their two little chairs. I can't wait to plan a playdate to get all the girls' little friends over to have some fun!
Thanks to uncle Kenny, Shawn, and Perry for helping us out!

My 6th Wedding Anniversary

This Mother's day marks two special events in my life...the holiday of Mother's Day and my 6th wedding anniversary. I was also born on Mother's day (May 12th, it falls back on the holiday every four years).
The last six years have marked some major changes in our lives...losing a child, having two daughters, gaining a mortgage, going back to work, and all the little things in between.
Our daughters are Kasey, she just turned five and Kori, she will be three in August. They are our number one priority in life. Jason and I are blessed to have them. We are also lucky to have the family and friends that we do.
We met on the job and started out as friends, who would of thought that we would marry each other LOL. Jason is a very devoted husband and father. I am grateful to have him in my life...happy anniversary baby, I love you.

And baby makes three...

Jennifer

Today I attended a baby shower. My nephew and his wife Jennifer are expecting their first child in July-a son! This event was a very nostalgic time for me...I got to see lots of friends from years gone by and my neice. I always love seeing her for several reasons. When she was first born, I laid claim to her LOL. I was just a teenager but I had that mothering instinct kick in and always wanted to care for her. Another reason is...she reminds me of good times, and the brief moment in my life when my son was alive. I lost my first born in 1992 from SIDS, this was during my first marriage. I must say when he passed I was very, very angry with God-so I was unable to find solace in him. My saving grace was my neice Melissa and my nephew James. I felt that I needed to be strong for them...it was hard to explain to them why D.J. had to go to heaven. They both helped me through a very difficult time in my life, and they were just little kids. I am sorry to say that I let our connection fade away after their parents divorced and I divorced their uncle. I have alway thought of them both and kept them in my heart.
So, in knowing all this, it is so hard to look at "baby James" and know that, wow, he is going to be a daddy. And Melissa (who I have always called Sissy), is in college and in a relationship with someone she really cares about.
I just want them both to know that even though they don't see or hear from me every day, I do love them just as much as I did when they were little.

D.J.

Me and Melissa in 1992 (I'm pregnant with D.J.)

Me and Melissa today

James and Jennifer

Me the clown with Melissa, James and uncle Larry on Melissa's birthday

Our Valentine's gift to us

This year, my hubby and I decided to set aside some money for new living room furniture. We knew essentially what we wanted...something brown, leather or "leather-like", somewhat kid proof. He and I are not what you would call shoppers. I do not go out very often to just "shop". My favorite time of year to shop is Christmas, and then it's for other people.
We visited alot of furniture stores. Some places we found something we liked but it was out of our price range...other places, we couldn't find one piece that either of us remotely liked. Believe it or not, shopping is very time consuming and tiresome. But, we did not give up the fight. We continued looking.
My biggest surprise was that the furniture we found that we liked and was in our price range--was at Badcock Home Furniture! It is called the Golden Hops Collection. We bought the three piece set: couch, loveseat, and chair. One other great thing was that we purchased during a great promotion, spend $1,000 and get $200 worth of free accessories...my favorite piece is the hugging couple. My husband's favorit piece is the cross.


Needless to say, we felt like we got a good deal and we both are enjoying our new living room.

A gift from the heart

We recently underwent a big change to the girls' daily routines in our home. My husband just changed from administrative shift to midnight shift. On his first night of change I knew he would need lots of rest. So, I took the youngest, Kori, to her granny's to spend time with her and me and the oldest, Kasey, went out on "date night". She loves art, coloring, and drawing, so I decided to take her to Picasso's in Lakeland. She said she wanted to make something for her granny for Valentine's day. With all that she wanted to put on it, I knew she would need a pretty big canvas (she just turned five). I chose the large plate and gave her free reign in design and color selection. I must say that for her age and not being used to using brushes to make her art (she mostly prefers crayons and colored pencils), she did very well. Plus, we had a great time together. She was very excited to see the finished product and didn't want to wait until Valentine's to give it to her granny, so she presented it to her tonight. We will definitely be a return customer and do another project soon.

Missing my family

My youngest sister Jessie


My middle sister Faith


I just have to say that lately I have really felt that void of my family not being near. I usually talk to everyone via land line but we turned it off for a few months and will turn it back on first week of February. I haven't lived near my family for many, many years. I have two sisters and two cousins who were in the same household as kids so I call them my brothers.
I am the oldest of us three girls. My baby sister has one child and she lives close to my mom. The middle sister has four kids and lives about an hour and a half from mom but near our aunts. I am down here and all my family is in either Iowa or Nebraska. I got a letter from the middle sister Faith the other day. I love her and I know she loves me, but when I left home as a teenager, it created a huge distance between us. It was nice to have her say that she misses me and that she wishes we lived closer together so our kids could get to know each other.
I am hoping once the girls are a bit older that we can take a vacation to go visit all my family and to show my hubby where my life started.
My oldest daughter Kasey asks about my family all the time. She says that she loves Tavio and Jaylen (two of her cousins that she has met) and misses them.
There have been some major life events in each of our lives that we have had to experience alone due to the distance between us and our financial situations. I just want my family to know that I love them and miss them and think of each of them every day.

They love to learn

I just have to say that I am blessed. My girls LOVE to learn. Whether it is throught a t.v. program, a book, art, coloring, or song. They are like two little sponges "sopping" up knowledge.
After lunch is free time for the girls to do pretty much what they want. Kori usually goes down for a nap at this time (she fell asleep earlier today). I found Kori in her room on the floor with the book that teaches shapes, "reading" the book with her safety (LOL) glasses on. When she saw me, she started saying the shapes, the only one she missed was oval...very proud. She then stood up and took her pamper off and said she had to go potty.

Kasey is my little artist...She was in the living room drawing. She brought me her art...it was two drawings, one was Pat (the hammer) and the other was Philipe (phillips screwdriver) from the cartoon Handy Manny. They both just learn and retain soooo easily.

I have to say that I am blessed that Kasey has such a great teacher for Pre-K at Highways to Tomorrow in Bartow. Her name is Ms. Ann and Kasey loves her to death. The class is working on putting together three letter words for recognition of letter sounds and word recognition. When we arrived at school this morning, I told Kasey the usual, that I hope she has a fun day and that she learns a lot...I asked her "Kasey, how do you spell tan?" And wouldn't you know she looked at me and said (with her eyes rolling up in her head because I should know the answer) T-A-N...mom. I loved it!

On the homefront...my dishwasher has been very sick. I had a service man come on Tuesday from Apex Appliance who was sent through are home warranty company...and of course the crazy machine worked perfectly. I still had to pay the service call fee (which is good for 30 days). He told me if it messes up again, to just call the company and they would send someone out. Well, today I finally got enough dirty dishes accumilated to warrant washing a load. Hmmmph...it didn't work. So, being the smarty britches that I am, I got my camera out and started the video, showing how each button was not working. Then, I called the company....no answer. I have called two more times since with no answer. I am pretty miffed at this point because now I will probably have to wait the whole weekend before someone comes out. Ok, I vented, I am better.

It is that time of year again-income tax time, or what I refer to as "pay off some bills time". Do you have any special plans for your return? Are you a devoted customer to any particular tax office? Let me know. I used to complete our returns until last year when we bought the house and got the tax credit. I was nervous that I would leave something out and the IRS would come knocking on my door. So last year we went to Liberty Tax Service. Well, this year we are having the credit amended and I have been to my tax office twice in the last two days to have it amended and the person that does the amendments was not in office. I called them right after calling the service guy the second time. I pretty much said that if someone wasn't available this evening to complete our return, that I would go elsewhere and they would lose a customer. Someone is supposed to be there to help me at 5:30 tonight. We will see...

This weekend our area has lots of fun things going on. I try to take Kasey to all of the Build and Grow clinics at Lowe's. Tomorrow we will build a tic-tac-toe board. Let me know what fun things you will be doing with your kids this weekend.

Day one of blogging...bear with me.

Today is my first day of blogging. My daughters are two and five. Just within the last 4-5 months I have started to be able to make "me" time without one or the other (or both) having a meltdown. My husband is a very considerate and caring man...he has always been a tremendous help with the girls. I decided to try to get fit at the beginning of the year. I have been watching what I eat and walking every evening. The girls are used to it now and just say "see ya when you get back momma!". I love the free time but on the flip side, I can see them gaining their own independence from me...oh, to be a mom.

I am using the Weight Watchers point system to watch what I eat and walking atleast two miles every evening. Anyone have any pointers, tricks, tips, do's or dont's? Let me know.

With my oldest getting ready to start school next fall, we have had to look at prospective schools. My husband is VERY adamant that she is not riding the bus. Our public school that we are zoned for is not currently an "A" school, and we have to wait until summer to see if we qualify for a transfer. So, in the meantime, we applied to Brigham Academy in Winter Haven as a backup. The whole lottery process, waiting list, etc. is new to us...

I am a member of a playgroup and I also get my "adult interaction" there as well with Mom's Night Out (MNO) about once a month. It's great for me because I tend to be a real homebody. I am not a big shopper for myself, I don't drink, and I still sometimes feel guilty if I go out alone.

Well, I will cut it off here until I can form some more thoughts in my head.