success!

you all get to hear from me twice in one day...arent you lucky.  you might wonder what i have succeeded at and i will tell you...i got the blinds and curtains up in the living room ...yay.  im posting this from my phone and it seems the only punctuation that wants to work at the moment is the period.  that makes me unhappy because i love the comma and the exclamation point.
anywaay...as i was saying...i managed to get the blinds hung after giving up on them the other day so that makes me happy.  i will post pics tomorrow of the window and a couple other things i got hung.
thats all for me...i need to go to sleep.  i am getting up in the morn to go get groceries and i want to be there and back before town gets all crazy.
hope everyone is having a wonderful night.
lisa

3 day weekend...finally!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while now...mainly just because work has been so busy ready to have some time away.  It has been over a week since I have been on here and there are a couple things that have happened since then.  First thing is I got glasses...yay!  This is actually the first pair of glasses I have gotten in over 6 years!  I never really bothered before because I wear my contacts like 24/7.  Of course, I hated the glasses I did have and they were an old prescription so I refused to wear them out.  Now I actually have the option to wear my glasses for the day...which I took advantage of today.  It is quite an adjustment though after hardly wearing them at all for so long! 

Last weekend I went shopping with Becky in the morning and then went and hung out with Beth later in the day.  Beth made me dinner, chicken enchiladas...yummy!  We wanted to go see Iron Man 2 in the theatre because I thought the first one was really good and we had heard a lot of good things about Iron Man 2.  It did not disappoint!  I thought it was really good.  We watched the first one at Beth's house before we took off for the theatre.  This was my start at one of my other goals to accomplish before I turn 30...#46 - see 10 movies in the theatre.  One down...nine to go!

Back to the shopping with Becky topic I spent entirely too much money last weekend!  However, i did buy a few things that I have been putting off for a while.  I bought some clothes, shoes, a couple decorative metal pieces, and miniblinds, curtains for the living room windows (which is a start at #19, window coverings on all windows in the house).  Unfortunately, I have yet to put it all up.  I actually tried to hang the blinds the other evening, but got frustrated with it all because I don't think I can do it on my own and the evening kind of spiraled down from there.  But we are not going to think about that...I don't break down much over the whole Michael being gone thing...but when I do it's a doozy!  I'm in a much better mood now though. :)

And then as if I didn't spent enough on Saturday I went shopping again on Sunday looking for a particular thing that will make this weekend much better.  That's when i really spent a ton!  Of course I also accomplished something else on my list...yay!  I will tell you what it is after I take some pictures!

I guess that's all I have for the moment.  Looking forward to the three day weekend and have lots that I want to get accomplished in the way of cleaning, organizing my house, and preparing for Sunday.  Sunday evening I am having my family come over for a cookout.  I don't really have anything ready for it yet and some stuff i would love to have done around the house first.  Then Beth is staying the night and we are going to do some crafting....I think some scrapbooking which neither of us have none in a while...especially her :)

see ya!

Lisa

blah..blah...blah...

This week has been, and will continue to be really busy at work and I am so ready for it to be overwith!  Nothing too exciting going on here.  I need to head to bed soon because tomorrow is going to be a long day at work.  I agreed to stay late so now I am working 8:30am to 8pm and you can bet I am so super excited about it!  That was sarcasm by the way.  Oh well, it will be nice on the check. 

I was going to post pictures on here yet from Mother's Day but that was over a week ago and I don't really feel like it anymore.  If you want to see pics head on over to Beth's blog to check out pics of the decor, the absolutely delicious food, and some peoples. 

I have nothing else other than the fact that I miss my husband and I am tired of the rain.  Although on a more positive note, I just made plans with Beth for Saturday night for some yummy chicken enchiladas and a double whammy of Iron Man.  The first one at home and then going to catch Iron Man 2 at the theatre. 

Lots of love,
LisaH

always good to see family...

I already mentioned in a blog post that my Aunt Jen, Uncle Jon, and cousins were all in town last weekend, which made for a crazy fun filled, but tiring weekend.  I ended up traveling to Fordland three times last weekend...on Friday, Sat, and Sun!  Luckily I only had to drive two of the times because I rode out with Beth on Friday. 

Friday started out with me going to meet Beth at her apartment afterwork and then us driving out to Fordland to pick up my cousin Savannah.  They already had plans for her to stay the night with Beth, so we made a quick drive to Fordland to pick her up and then back into Springfield where we went and ate at the Grotto upon Beth's recommendation.  It was my first time eating there and I had a hard time picking what I wanted because so many items sounded good.  I ended up going with a chicken sandwich with pineapple on, which was very tasty, but I don't remember what it was called.  I tried a bite of Beth's pizza too and it was also delicious, as were the bacon cheese fries she ordered for the table (oh yeah, my diet went right out the window last weekend and I spent this week getting back to where I was!). 

After eating we went to Walmart so Beth could get groceries and if you think there is not fun to be had at Walmart you are so wrong!  I took over my position as cart-pusher from back in the days that Beth and I lived together and always went grocery shopping together.  Savannah and I followed Beth around laughing as she wandered from aisle to aisle and back again (shame on you Beth for not having your list in order of aisle...just kidding!)  I ended up making some impulse purchases...chocolate milk and a new kind of M&M with pretzel inside, which were a good combo of sweet and salty.  After we got groceries we realized we forgot some things on the other side of the store so we kindof went backwards and eventually we found ourselves looking...and listening to...lots of Mother's Day cards.  I picked out some funny ones with sound for my Mama and MIL.  We talked about getting a movie at redbox when we left but nothing struck our fancy so we just went back to Beth's apartment where we hung around lazily for the rest of the night and watched movies.  It took the three of us a bit to settle on one of the hundreds available between what Matt and Beth have and while discussing realized we all liked Amanda Bynes so we watched "She's the Man" which is always funny!  After that I thought about leaving put succumbed to peer pressure and borrowed some sleepy pants from Beth and settled in for the night...and we watched Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.  Of course it was funny...what else would you expect from Ice Age!

Next morning I got up and showered and then drove home, just to drive back into Springfield within an hour because I had to work.  After work, I headed out to Fordland for the rest of the evening where we had a good cook out with yum food and homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert!  Actually we also had some chocolate mousse type thing that Laura made which I thought was fantastic also....see what I mean though, I mean how could a diet possibly survive?  Our family is loud just with us kids and our families...then it gets really loud when you add some other relatives into the mix.  Along with Jon and Jen's crew, Paul was also there with a friend and Olivia...there was a lot of people and a lot of noise, but I think it's fun!

These are pictures of Saturday out in Fordland.....

Becky and Miss Taylor Addison

Aunt Jen and Uncle Jon

Me trying to capture Cole for a picture

Our kiddos playing with our cousins in the sandbox

Laura and pretty Sasha

my beautiful cousin, Savannah, and I

the backside of Mama and Daddy's house

my dear father who isn't as gruff as he wants you to think, notice the smile playing at the corner of his lips

Beth and I, now that she lost all that weight she makes me look fatter :(  I'm going to try to catch her though...

What's a cookout without yummy brats...

Aunt Jen and I

Paul (well, Uncle Paul but apparently us calling him that makes him feel old) enjoying some of the delicious dessert...and the face is only a partial exaggeration.  It was delicious!

Mi wonderful madre and Beth

Well...that's all folks...hope you enjoyed.  I am going to go jump in the shower and go to bed.  I spent another several hours today working on the bonus room (in other words the room where everything goes to hide) and all the boxes/bags have been gone through now except for one.  Next will be time to tackle the stacks of stuff and all of my crafting stuff I piled in one corner.  Maybe next weekend....

Tomorrow is Monday and that makes me sad :(

Lisa

exhausted...

There goes another Saturday....but this one I actually got quite a bit accomplished which makes me happy.  I love going and doing stuff on Saturdays, but sometimes it is nice to just stay home and work around the house.  Becky came over today with her kiddos and she helped me hang some stuff in the bedroom, pictures and my vinyl cling that Beth bought for me Christmas 2008 and I finally put up.  Yay!  I did have to wait until we moved though because I did not want to put it up in the old house.  The following are pictures from my bedroom now after I rearranged it and put the stuff on the walls.  That also means that I have one more thing from my list of 50 accomplished....#25 - hang pictures and vinyl wall cling in bedroom.  Yay! again for accomplishing stuff off of my list.  I only have 4 completely done, but a couple other in process. 

After we hung the stuff in the bedroom (which took much longer than I originally anticipated) I made lunch.  We had chicken alfredo (yummy!) and green beans (which Taylor is crazy about).  While Becky and I had been working in the bedroom we tried to get the kids to watch Lady and the Tramp but they were just not interested.  That is one of my favorite older cartoons, but it did not hold their attention.  Of course, they requested to watch Aladdin, which did not hold their attention either...too much other interesting stuff going on I guess. 

After lunch we headed upstairs where we began to work on the horribly messy bonus room.  This room has been a catch-all since we moved in and it is getting out of control.  Becky helped me for almost an  hour before she had to head out, but then I worked on it another 5 hours by myself.  These are the before pictures....

And these are the after pictures....

As I said, still a lot to be done and I didn't even get to the corner over by the door.  Now instead of boxes for of miscelleous stuff, I have it all sorted into stacks...and the stacks Michael needs to go through are the largest...army and barbershop stuff. 

I guess that's about all for now.  This took me longer to get posted because Michael called in the middle and I got to talk to him for a bit, which is always nice.  I miss him so much and I don't even want to think about how much time we really have left...just focus on getting to R&R first.  I love you baby!

That's all for me tonight...

Lisa

playing...

So these pictures are from last Friday before I went to work...I was playing around with my new camera. 

Not much to say right now really.  I'm actually quite tired and need to be heading to bed soon...maybe do a bit of exercising first. 
I have a lot of pictures that I want to get up from this last weekend when my aunt and uncle were in town with their kids, also Mother's day.  I anticipate having that done by the end of the weekend. 
Don't much feel like chatting right now so adios!
Lisa

mail call....and a gift for me ;)

So I was really happy the other day because I received a sweet little card in the mail from Michael a couple days ago.  The card was very sweet and the envelope alone made me smile.  Look at the little hearts...doesn't it just make you smile.  <3 <3

I mentioned yesterday that I was a little later getting home Monday night because I ran an errand....well...this was my errand. 

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Ta Da!!

after wanting one for over three years I finally bought an SLR camera and I am so excited to learn how to use it.  You know what else...that knocks #3 off of my list of things I want to accomplish.  Yay!

It does have the nice easy full auto capability still, but all the other things I can do with it will be lots of fun to learn how to use...and I am assuming it will take me a bit to get it all down. 

so happy to have a new toy!

I wanted to go ahead and buy it now because I wanted it for June when Michael comes home for R&R and I figured it would probably be good to get accustomed to it some before then.  Now I will also have it for our trip to Philadelphia June 28th-June 4th!  I am so happy I get to see Michael soon and also excited for Philadelphia.  I love the Barbershop Convention aspect, but also just being in Philly and getting to look around will be fun.  Since we went to the one in Anaheim for our honeymoon it almost seems like International convention is when our anniversary is...even though we actually got married a few weeks before.  Of course that thought is also helped by the fact that Michael will not be home yet on our actual anniversary, but he will be home a week or so later and then we will again head to the International Convention.  Some people think this should bother me that so far two major times in our relationship will end up being spent at an International Convention, but I really don't mind at all.  Now if I wasn't going and he still was then it might bother me, but we are still together, still on vacation, and still experiencing new things together.  Obviously he loves the barbershop aspect of it more than I do, but I still find it enjoyable, and if it gives me a reason to travel then I am all for it! 

Hmmm....I actually need to find my lanyard that we bought me last year for my convention pass.  Now after this year I will have two convention pins and if I add many more to that number in the coming years I am okay with that!  These are the places we will probably be traveling in the next several years for more conventions:

2011- Kansas City, MO, which isn't much traveling but it will still be fun

2012 - Portland, Oregon, never been to Oregon so excited about this one

2013- Toronto, Ontario, Canada - I know its just barely into Canada, but I am very excited about this one. 

 I have been to Canada before but not since I was very young...maybe early teens.  We were already in Michigan visiting family and we drove up to see the Soo Locks and crossed over into Sault Ste. Marie (which is also in Ontario).  I remember very little about that trip other than the fact that we did visit a souvenir shop and I bought a Canada postcard (which I still have) and received Canadian change back (which was a big deal at the time).

Oh my gosh I am rattling on....I need to go take out my contacts and go to bed.  My eyes have been driving me nuts the last couple days and I am on my last pair of contacts.  I did call and set an eye appt, but not til next Friday. 

My aunt Jen, uncle Jon, and my 4 cousins (Savannah, Caleb, Isaac, and Sierra) are coming into town this weekend and I am looking forward to seeing them.  It has been a while and I am looking forward to their visit. 

Gotta go...LMH

For sale....

So on Saturday May 1st I accomplished #29 off of my list of 50 things to do before I turn 30...I had a garage sale.  This was actually the first garage sale I have ever organized.  I have thrown a few items here and there into other people's garage sales, but this was my first one.  I'm thinking actually the first of three this year because Mama, Becky, and I are talking about possibly having another one in July and September.  I'm thinking it might take me that long to get everything cleaned out of storage.  I got some stuff pulled out for this one, but there is still so much more.  :(

This picture is at about 7am right after the community wide garage sale was billed to start.  We opened our doors about 6:30 and had a few people stroll though before 7am.  It was so incredibly bright too with the sunrise right in our eyes!

This is our pretty little row of vehicles parked down the road a bit to give plenty of room for people to park along our drive.

Mama and Becky

The garage at about 1:30pm right before we closed up for the day.  We were all exhausted.

Me

This was our grand total...$494.15...too bad over $260 of it was Becky's.  She had a lot of kids toys, books, and clothes which sold really well. 

Overall I think it was a very successful garage sale and unfortunately the next one probably won't go as well since it is not a community wide one and will not draw nearly the crowd that this one did. 

After the garage sale on Saturday I worked on a couple boxes of stuff I had pulled out of storage Friday night that I did not get a chance to go through.  I had three boxes of stuff pulled out and ended up trashing enough to fill one of the boxes back up.  Tons of miscellaneous stuff in there and I even found an old bag car phone...now that's old!  While I was going through all that Waylon called and invited me over for drinks and a bonfire.  I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with them in front of a bonfire laughing and having a good time...and trying to avoid the rain.  I love sitting around a fire with good friends. 

The following pictures are from my deck after I got home from work on Monday...actually after I ran an errand (but you'll hear more about that tomorrow :)  Luckily my deck has a very nice view of the setting sun so I just need to accomplish #35 off of my list soon...buy patio furniture.  I was just so happy to be getting home and still have it be nice and light outside after getting off at 8pm all last month!  I just made myself a quick sandwich for dinner and stood out on my deck enjoying the wonderful weather and taking these beautiful pictures.  I already set the first one as the background screen on my computer.  I love how you can see the rays of light streaming through the sky!

I got a 4 drawer filing cabinet from work that they were getting rid of and now I need to work on moving everything over from my current 2 drawer filing cabinet.  I have been wanting a 4 drawer one for a while now so yay! for free shtuff!!  I think I am going to go through everything as I move it over too which is not so exciting but needs to be done. 

I guess that's about all for now.  My aunt&uncle and their kids are coming into town this weekend and staying with my parents so it will be nice to see them and hang out some.  Work right now is really busy and tons going on...which equals stressful.  I am definitely ready for the weekend!

come what may <3

LMH