Crafty Scrappers - one crafty mama!

In Loving Memory of Gerda H. Moore

Beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and just all around wonderful lady.  We will all miss her, and pray she is finally at peace.

We love you Grandma Moore!

Jakey Baby is SMOKIN' HOT!

So, folks, I know my Kiwi friend SHell is probably really peeved at me for neglecting my blog over the last few weeks (or maybe couple of months), but I swear I have valid reasons!  I PROMISE I SOOOO DO!  I got a promotion, we moved, my family is here now...  the list goes on!  But I've got an  uber bodacious treat to make up for it!

Every year here in Chattanooga they have a music festival that lasts over a week long called Riverbend, and they always have really awesome and diverse acts all week!  Like last year, Bailey got to see ZZ Top, Rodney Atkins, among others.  So it kicked off last night, and we got to see Jake Owen...  MAN he's easy to look at!  LOL.  He played a really diverse show with something from almost every genre - a real hidden talent!  He played some Steve Miller Band, some David Allen Coe, Hank Jr, Sublime...  even some Fresh Prince (Will Smith).  And he climbed up un the rigging...  mmmmm!  LOL.  Here are some pictures I snapped:

 

I've got some more pictures of the family, but I can't blow all of my blog ammunition all at once, now can I?  LOL

We also saw Willie Nelson - well, for about 15 minutes.  I am an old girl now, and I just couldn't hang.  My legs were so swollen and hurting so bad it was a chore to walk back to the car.  Plus we were standing and there were buttloads of people in front of us so we barely got a glimpse of Willie.  Luckily they have big giant screens all over the place.

Anyway, I'm really having a great time with my family being here, even in spite of the reintegration issues, LOL!  More on that later!

Aren't they so CUTE?!

ok, so you KNOW I had to share this picture...  This is my son Tyler, and his girlfriend before going to the Spring Dance.  I bet you can't guess what her name is?  Yep, it's Taylor, and she is just a doll!  They make a really cute couple, wouldn't you agree?  I took Tyler over to Taylor's grandma's house, where Taylor's mom took them to the dance.   But not before we got some pictures in front of the fountain :) I picked them up from school and apparently all had a great time! 

*sigh*

I must say - he cleans up well...  now if we could just hold him down and shave his head, LOL...

 

Sleepy time!

Man sakes alive!  I am T-I-R-E-D... sleepy, wiped out, bushed, zonked, exhausted, so on and so forth, LOL!  I was supposed to get to bed early tonight, but that didn't happen!  Why you ask?  Because I am so used to going all the time that I sit there thinking of all the things I SHOULD be doing.  It's just pitiful, lol!

Tomorrow I'm getting a new upright freezer AND a large dog pen doo-wap for Princess to run round in so we dont have o take her outside to potty.  Cause let me tell you folks, it gets OLD putting her on a leash every time, and having to stnd out there wiht her.  Yeah, not fun.  I'm a little bent though, cause they won't tell me anything about when they are coming with the freezer.  The chichk couldn't even tell me when the "might" be coming or what the hourly range might be.  SO I am STUCK here until they call, and hopefully the whole day won't be spent waiting on them, lol!

Tyler also has his spring dance tomorrow, and I'm dropping him off at his girlfriend's grandparents' house so her mom can drive them.  Then I'll be picking him up at 10 freaking PM..  we all know how PAST my bedtime that is, don't we?  LOL - they should change it to an adternoon tea...  yeah, that's what they should do!

LOL, anyway I better get to sleep.  I bet my post is already all jacked up and makes no sense, LOL, so lets call it a night!  I'll post more hopefully later in the weekend.

Bloggy CPR

So I've noticed that it's been a L-O-N-G time since I've updated my blog... well, I've noticed since my Kiwi friend has so subtley points it out to me every chance she gets, LOL!  I used to be so much better and prompt about posting, but over the last several months, I have barely had enough time to make sure I showered every day, LOL...  seriously, I shower, but not much of anything else!  My days start at 445am, and consist of work @ my day job where I recently got a promotion, rushing to pick kids up from school, go to my daughter's ROTC gigs, or my son's track meets, or her prayer group, or his practice, or buying her shoes cause a wild animal made off with it (serious on this one folks), stopping at the vets for Frontline, weedint the garden, squeezing in a workout at the Y... I even took a leave of absence from my digi store for awhile until Kurt gets here and I can get a handle on my life again.  When I'm not the only resource for running this entire household and the people in it, I'm hoping I get some personal time back in my life!

Anyway, here's a little bit of what I've been up to - in photgraphic representation!

These first pics are of a picnic we went to for our church a few weeks ago.

 

This next pic is Bailey wearing the popcorn bucket to impersonate a marching band member while I was taking her and her friends to the movies.

Next are some snapshots of the trip to Pensacola.  My son and I went to watch my oldest daughter Andria compete with her Navy JROTC company from Colorado in the National Finals.  We visited the Naval Aviation museum, but they were closing in like 7 minutes, so we had to take some pictures FAST!  Also, we stopped for a few seconds at a civil war fort and at a lighthouse.  It really was a whirlwind weekend trip.  Oh, for the record, the took 4th in the nation in one of the running events.

  

Hopefully this will make up a tiny bit for me not posting as often as I should...  I am definitely living La Vida Loca!!!

My Son the Track Star!

We spent all evening yesterday at Tyler's first track meet, and I must say - he is a lean mean track machine!  He did the high jump (topped out at 4 ft 4 in), ran the 400m, the 800m, and the 1600 relay.  He took first and second in the 400 and 800, but I can't remember which place goes with which race, LOL!!!  The other team didn't have a team to run the 1600 relay, so they just ran it for fun.  Here are some pics - the high jump shot is a bit blurry, cause I was trying to catch it fast, and it was over before I knew it!

 

 

     

I am just amazed at him - he always doubts himself, but he pulls it out in the end!

My New Addiction

My Brooks Addictions that is!  You guys all know that I'm going to be walking in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in August, and you also remember how I hurt my foot a few weeks ago with that pesky nerve damage business, right?  Well, the walk is 39.3 miles over two days, and I need to make sure I take as good a care of my feet as I can so that I can finish the walk in decent shape.  A friend gave me some good advice (Thank you Renee C.) about how to find the right shoes, and I took her advice and went to a running store today where they did a gait analysis to determine what kind of shoes I need based on how I walk.  They had me walk back and forth, brought out several pairs of shoes, and then had me walk on a treadmill and videoed it so I could see exactly what they were talking about.  Basically my right foot really pronates, and so does the left, but not as bad.  They determined that I need shoes with alot of stabilization, and based on fit, and price, we chose the Brooks Addictions.  They feel phenominal, and he said they'll last about 350 running miles, but since I do more walking and little running, I'll get much more mileage out of them.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be a runner like in the old days, but I'm not there yet.  Ideally, my ultimate fitness goal is to complete a triathlon, but I've got a long way to go before I'm ready for that.  I've got to re-learn how to ride a big girl bike, and learn how to swim with proper stroke technique (I hear it's stroke-stroke-stroke-breathe).  For now, I'll stick to walking!  Next weekend, I'm going to be doing a 5K, and I'll be arranging my first hosted training walk soon.

Anyway, here's the new prized posessions...  my first and only pair of shoes that cost a dang site more than $20 at Wal-Mart...

My favorite Naggity Nag Nag

Thanks to my Kiwi friend Shell, who has pointed out multiple times that I have slacked on my blog, I'm now hopefully back on top of it, LOL!!!

SOOOOOO much has been going on these days that I barely have time to remember to put on clean clothes every day much less remember to tell everyone all about it, LOL!  But, I'll see if I can give you a decent synopsis of what's been swirling around my crazy world.

FIrst of all, I get to see my Kurty Wurty this coming next weekend!  WOOOP WOOOOP!  The kids and I are flying back on Friday for a long weekend - we have to come back on Monday, but we are going to squeeze in as much bonding as we can.  THe kids have already made plans to spend a good bit of the tiem with their best friends from back home, and I get to attend one of my good friend's wedding while I am back there.  So hopefully we'll come home feeling refueled and recharged!

And, Andria might be coming out here to TN early!  I am pretty sure she's suddenly eager to come here permenantly for a dumb boy, lol, but hey, here is still here - she still will be here with her mama, LOL!  We've just got to get the final lo-down on her college credits and how things will transfer and all.  But she's  an honor student, and most of her CO stuff will transfer - she's only going to lose a couple of her credits when she comes to the high school here.

Annnnnnnd....  there are some big things happening at my work.  I can't really spill the details just yet - mostly because I don't want to jinx things until we know the outcome.  We were supposed to hear last week, but you know how the corporate decision making process is...  sometimes it happens a little slower than we would like.  But it looks like we should hear tomorrow - so I'll either have a really exciting bit of news, or not, LOL!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAnd....  I'm so poroud of Bailey.  Most of you know how much Bailey and I struggle with each other.  But we have made so much progress and are coming so much closer together, and it has alot to do with being here in the south and just the different set of societal values in place here.  And she's involved in a prayer group after school, and we are really loving the church we go to here.  It's helped us both learn how to honor each other.

Anyway, lol...  there's so much more to tell, but my brain is going 90 miles a minute right now, and I just can't slow it down enough to get the details down, LOL!

I'll share some pics of Bailey's military ball soon - she looked drop-dead gorgeous!

Who is up for a challenge?

A template challenge, that is!  I'm running the new template challenges over at CSD, and the February challenge is up!  If you like templates, this is the challenge for you!  This is the template you're playing with:

You can add anything you want to the template - the only rule is, if you take something OFF, you must put something else in it's place from whatever kit you've chosen to work with.

This is the prize for the winner - the Valentine Template Trio from my store:

Good luck - can't wait to see what everyone does!

Fashion Footwear

Ok, I finally got my camera to work properly to get a picture of this snazzy foam shoe I'm sporting these days...  so without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for...