Monday, September 21, 2015

And Just Where Have You Been?!?!?!....

Well I have to say that this has been a YEAR!
 
I know this has been a long lost blog for some time now and I have to say GOD HAVE I MISSED IT!
 
 
Last August I started working overnight back in the real working world and though for the most part I LOVED what I did and mot days LOVED the people I worked with the overnight life as a mom, wife, business owner and human needless to say SUCKS ASS!
 
Your days consists of work and sleep, then repeat. Even if you were like me and only got 2-4 hours of sleep a day it still seemed like that is all you do.
 
I recently took some time off of work to be home with my kids.
My oldest D as you know is a sever case of ADHD along with some other diagnostics and needless to say we have had a rough transition to Junior High with meds and thanks to her GT (Gifted and Talented) Teacher this year she has brought to my attention that she may not even be ADHD!
So we took her off ALL her meds and now we are waiting to have her retested.
If you don't know much about the ADHD meds let me tell you. It is basically legalized crack in a pill we shove down our kids throats to make their brain waves keep up...
 
When your child is 13 and has been on this "crack" since she was 5 she is going to have some with drawls.... hints why mommy is home to help her and us cope with the changes she is and will be going through.
 
 
I hope that this process will not take as long as it has for us to learn and educate ourselves as it has with the ADHD, Insomnia, Anxiety, Mood Disorder and who can forget the ODD that we deal with on a daily basis with her and on top of that the ADHD with our 8 year old...
 
So many changes in so little time for them...
 
 
In the mean time I thought I would take this opportunity to finish organizing and un-packing the house that we have lived in for over a year now (don't judge me).
Work on building my photography business so one day I can open my studio and maybe look for a day job to I can leave the overnight world, but I will be back to my overnight position if these things don't pan out by the time we have our oldest back on the right path!
 
 
 I will also be spending this time caching you all up with what has been happening here!
 
Let's just say you are in for some HUGE things!
Its amazing what a year can bring!
 
Here is a sneak peek of what's to come!
 
 
 




Thursday, March 12, 2015

Where Has The Time Gone...

As I sit here and try to sleep I can't help but think that today is the day we go and line out classes for my oldest for JUNIOR HIGH!!! 
Hard to believe that Monday she turned 13!!!
That's right folks I am officially a parent of a TEEN! 

Jeesh! 

Seems like yesterday I was in labor with my first kid! 
Now we are registering her to go into the 8th grade in the fall!

I can not begin to explain the amazement I feel that we have survived already gone through these 13 years! 
D is a very special girl and I am beyond honored to be her mamma! 
This last weekend we celebrated her birthday with a HUGE party (16 kids included!) 
I will share more details on the blog tomorrow on her party...


If iI thought the last 13 years went quick then this last month flew even faster!!! 

One month ago today my 5th god baby was born! 

I was given the honor of being chosen to be the god mother to my youngest brother in  laws  lil girl. 
Unfortunatly I was not able to be there when she came to join us in the world but I did get TONS of pics! 

Newborn

One month!

I can not wait to spend the whole summer with this girl!!!  


Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Tatted Tuesday: Keeping Family Alive

One of my childhood friends sent me such a sweet meaning of  some ink I HAD to share!
 
Her mother in law wrote out her last name in Chinese Calligraphy for her one day and she immediately went and made it into something she would never loose or could ever replace and of course that would be ink!
See the lil "Samurai" character? Well not only does it stand for Wong (her now last name) but it is also in the penmanship of her mother in law!
How awesome is that!
 
Location of ink: Inner elbow
Pain Scale 1-10: 2
Artist: Cathy Hennessy
Location of Studio: Riverside, California
 
 
Thank you girlie for sharing your ink with us!
 
 
If you have some ink you'd like to have featured send us a message on our NEW Facebook page!


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Tips N Tricks Tuesday (Wednesday): Intoducing Social Media for Kids

Let's face it we now live in a world consumed by social media, we are always connected now days no matter the distance between us.
First the cell phone then the obsession to texting...
Now we are in an era where we not only have one social media account but several...
and if you just happen to meet someone not in the social media circle your first thought... what is wrong with you?!
(My hubby is one of those people!)


Social media has a lot of wonderful things that we can benefit from but there are also come major issues...


With my kids generation it is not uncommon for them to already have accounts for 1 or more social media outlets and as of the Christmas holiday this last year my girls were allowed their
"Social Media Privileges"


The first thing I did was decide on who was going to have which social media and which ones we would leave off.

Once I was done I set up all of their accounts and printed off the logos for each kid with their user names and passwords written on the back.



All three now have an Instagram


The older two are hooked up with Yahoo emails

the youngest is enjoying gmail


The older two are loving Pinterst  and of course...


All three are enjoying the world of faces :)

With these I typed up a special note for them to accompany them...

Here is what it said...


Social Media Privileges


Welcome to the world of social media.

Social media is a privilege and such things should NOT be taken lightly.


You have been awarded the social media but remember there are rules and guidelines to follow.

If you do not choose to follow these rules then you choose not to continue to possess the privileges granted to you.


Here are your rules:


You are not allowed to have your profile picture set as a picture of you.

All friend requests WILL be APPROVED by mom

You will NEVER give out your phone number or address to anyone on social media without talking to mom first. 

Be respectful: You will not say things on there that you would not say at home.

You WILL NOT BULLY!

You may not send a friend request without permission.


Your accounts ARE monitored!

If I see something I do not approve of you will be spoken with

I see it again and you have LOST your privilege.

Do NOT change your passwords and or your user names.

DO NOT change account settings.

I am trusting you girls to use these correctly to keep in touch with friends and family members. These again are privileges and I have control over all of them.

Rules are subject to change as I see fit,

I hope you enjoy and you make wise choices.




These bad boys were boxed and wrapped...
Much to my surprise the most excited one has been my middle child!
They have all done really well with this and I am pleasantly surprised...

What are your social media rules or guidelines for your kids?

We would love to hear them!
 

Our Lives in a Nutshell

To say that so much has happened in the last few weeks since my last post is a HUGE understatement!
 
We have been CRAZY busy with this roller coaster we call life that my ability to get everything done is well lacking to say the least...
 
 
Though we have had a BUSY BUSY BUSY few weeks we have lots of things to catch up on...
 
 
On the 10th my dad went in for yet another surgery on his neck... He is a retired USAF Firefighter and has had to have several surgeries to fuse his disks in his back and neck over the years. Luckily this is the last for his neck and we are so very blessed that my grandmother from Cali fly out to go ol' Oklahoma to help the old man manage things.
 
The last surgery me and my girls were able to getaway from reality here in Arkansas to help them both out but since I am back in the working world I was denied this luxury but was kept up to date thanks to my grams who is a rock star and texted me updates.
 
A lot of people are not blessed to have an amazing family like I do and my dad always says he's "cool" and "hip"...
Well he proved it with his own Facebook status on the 12th when he was waiting to be released from the hospital...
 
Good ol dad posted a selfie!
 
I couldn't help but think of that annoying song...But first lets take a selfie...
he defiantly needs a few photog lessons but I was happy to see he was in great spirits after being stuck in a hospital...
 
 
 
 
On the 12th when dad was released to go home and Grams fun REALLY began in Oklahoma something exciting was happening in Alabama...
 
My brother in law and his future wife were at the hospital too but this was because my future sister in law was being induced to give birth to our niece! I LOVE babies and love all my nieces and nephews but I was extra excited about this one because she is also my 5th god child!!!
 
I hated that we could not be there for her birth but again thanks to the wonderful world of technology I was kept up to date with the process!
They went in at 5 am and our lil girl made her appearance that afternoon and she was BEAUTIFUL!
Not that I am bias or anything of course :)
 
 
2/12/2015
1:11pm
8 pounds 4 ounces
and
21 inches long
 
Needless to say I got NO sleep that day but it was WELL worth it with her making her appearance and dad being safe and sound at home.
 
 
As for here in Arkansas we have been very busy with school, work for us adults, party planning for our birthday folks this spring, appointments for the kids and so much more!
 
These last two weeks we have had winter finally show up here in the natural state and let me tell you what... Mother Nature is ON IT!
 
 
Last week we were 1 in 4 out from school and this week we are batting 0-3...
 
 
Maybe this will give me the chance to catch you all up on my other posts!
 
We have had another phase to Operation Brace Face, New Geek Gear, Date Nights, Ink and more!
 
Stay tuned guys they are all coming soon!
 
 
 
 


 
 


Monday, February 2, 2015

DYI: Outdoor Furniture Part One

With the new home in our lives and the ability to have some creative freedom my mind has gone 90 to nothing on decor ideas...

One of thproofingsed areas in our home especially during the warmer months is our yard. With this in mind we have a HUGE idea for a corner of our lot. 
Though I will not giveaway what we want it to be I will tell you that it will be epic and so fun for our family and friends! 


In this unmentioned area we are in desperate need of outside furniture...
I don't know about you but as a mom of 3 outside furniture is EXPENSIVE!!! 
So I thought it would be a fun project for me and the hubby to DIY some...
I have not fully decided on how I'm going to do the seating but let me tell you I have the tables 80% planned out.


Since my man man is an electricsion we are lucky enough to have some access to some HUGE wire spools... Which when my hubby brought two small ones home last year I planned on using them as photo props but what they ended up being was tables for our wine nights but the fire... When it hit me... PERFECT!


So last week he brought me home two of these as a surprise!




Our plans for these are to make them into tables for our side and with a coat or two of pain, some custom cuttex glass and some weather proofing to help preserve them. 


Now what I can't decide on is colors BUT I have already requested at least two more so  I am excited...

Here are a few color schemes iI'm liking right now...






Which one would use choose? 



Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Tattoo Tuesday: Friends Forever

I had asked via Facebook a while back for friends and family to share with me some of their ink and the stories.
 
 
Many moons ago I met this guy we all know as Cheeze Burger...
 
 
Cheeze has always been himself and so fun to be around! If you know him and become his friend it is a life long friendship for sure. His musical talents are amazing to boot and he is an ink addict too!
 
Location on body inner left arm
Location of shop redlands ca
Time in chair 6hrs
Price free
Pain level 9
Artist bobby
Age 28 when I got it
  Shop name empire tattoo
This is Vanity she was the first dog Cheeze got when he moved out on his own.
She was a true roll dog and lived a lot of life with him and was his best friend for years.
She had a litter of 10 puppies and he kept one and gave the rest to friends who all still have them to this day.
Sadly Vanity passed with no warning do to a heart murmur ..but still lives in his heart and protects him to this day.
 
 
 
Thank you Cheeze for sharing your story of Vanity...
 
If you are interested in having your ink featured here feel free to email us with the subject: Tattoo!
 
 





An Angel In Heaven...

Sunday morning the girls' great grandmother lost her 4 year battle with cancer.
 
 
I met her when I was 16 and from the moment I met her she earned a special place in my heart. She was always patient, loving, welcoming to be honest the best way to describe her was she IS the definition of southern womanly charm.
 
Her home was always welcoming, always organized and cleaned and there was not a holiday that was not held at her home.
 
 
The feeling is so unreal at this point as they laid her to rest yesterday in her home town of Mobile Alabama.
 
To the family our prayers and thoughts are with you at this time.
 
 





Friday, January 9, 2015

Dating Your Spouse

The hubby and I have been togetherfor almost 11 years. It is so hard to believe some days. Then others it seems like forever which I think is true for all relationships no matter how much time as been sent together. 

To be honest we have been very (coughs) spoiled in our 10 years together. 
The majority of the time (like 99.99%) we have been able to spend every night together. There has been VERY few nights where we were separated or didn't get to see each other. We never had to really "fit" each other in our schedules.
Back in August I went back to the working world after three years of being a stat at home mom. Though going back to work was a HUGE change not only for us but for our kids we decided I would work overnight... This has been an even MORE change for us because now mom is on a different planet.. 
I have a different schedule than every living soul in our house.
I sleep during the day and they are at work or school, my days are thier nights, etc. 
This has taken a HUGE toll on not only family time (more about "dating" your family later) but also on time me and the hubby has together. 

With 2015 among us I thought it would be a great idea to start "dating" my hubby again.

Now I will be real with you. With 3 kids, schooling for us all, work schedules, school functions, house to do's and life in general having a REAL out of the house date for us is like winning the lottery... Literally!!! 

I hit Pinterest hard with at home date night ideas and we kicked it off this week...

Here is the plan:
We each swap weeks to plan date nights. 
There is not a set night so its flexible with all of the other life happenings. 
Only rule is that there are NO CELL PHONES allowed (only exception is a text or call from one of our kids) 
The hubby claimed the first week to kick off and let me tell you. I was pleasently surprised! 

Monday night our "date" consisted a candle lite bubble bath... It was a great way to start off my weekend (since Monday nights are my Friday's) and it was so nice to have that alone time to be able to chat about things.

We originally made the goal for one night a week but we were lucky enough to squeeze in two!
Wednesday night while the kids went to church with the neighbor girl. We snuck in another date night.

We decided we would "beat" each other up on the xbox aka I got my ass kicked and like all are loosers do I had some wine ;)

  
I will be sharing a few at home date night with you all next week.

What's your favorite way to share time with your spouse? 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Pinterest for the WIN!

There are two VERY huge trends right now that I am a sucker for...
Pintrest and Chalkboards

I got this amazing chalkboard for my 30th from my best is in Cali and I LOVE it and use it ALL the time. Down fall it NEVER came clean... 
So... 
I got on a mission through Pintrest to find out how to clean it to where it looked brand new every time I erased it...

I did not want to have to go buy a special product either so when I saw several pins stare to use coke I was a little skeptical. I mean who thinks of these things?! Really?! 

Yesterday while on my cleaning spree I decided why not. What could it really hurt? So I got the coke I didn't finish the day before and hasn't thrown away yet and tried it...



My results? 





Short of amazing right? 


I was amazed the Chalkboard was like it was brand bew!!! 
I even kept what was left of the coke and added it to my cleaning cabniet. 

Is there a pintrest win that you have found? 



  

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

New Year brings CHANGES

With 2015 among us I have really spent a lot of time thinking about the things in my life that need to be revamped.
 
Some of these things are personal and some of these are geared towards my business adventures, blog and other things.
 
So here are my personal goals:
 
 
Time:
 
I want to spend more time with the hubby and kids, I feel like with me on a different schedule that this is something I don't do enough of.
 
The hubby is back in school so that gives me a "date" night with my girls!
I am excited about this and I hope to be able to utilize this to the fullest.
 
Also the hubby and I are now swapping weeks for at home date nights.
 
With three kids, and opposite schedules we don't get a lot of time to have our time and we thought this was a great way to spend time together.
 
This is our first week and the hubby called grabs on it ( which was a nice surprise).
So he gets to plan and set up as many date nights as he would like...
 
 
Blog:
 
The blog will continue (no fear) but I want to try new things, pinterest hacks, DIY's, home décor and things like that. I WILL be keeping our Tattoo series her for you all. Seems like that is one of the best read ones here and I LOVE my ink just as much as the rest. :)
I will also revamping it and making it more of my own versus the style I have now...
so stay tuned.
 
What the Photography
 
I will be revamping my photography biz... I will share the info as soon as I am done working out all the details but the changes will be HUGE!
 
Creative flow:
 
I have not been in a creative mood in well forever so I have started a 365 photo challenge project!
I invite you all to follow us on the dedicated blog for it here and join us!
Link up with us and encourage the other, comment, give feed back, share with friends and family and even ask them to join us! You don't have to be a photog, grab your cell phone and have fun!
 
I am really excited about this year and I hope that I will become a better mom, wife and overall person!
 
 
 Our Home:

As sad as it is to admit we have been here since August and we have yet to unpack everything...
Our home is our space, our safe place the one place we should WANT to be and ENJOY being at...
Well we will be working on just that. As a family we plan on making it more of a home and less of a house. We plan on unpacking and revamping it to be OUR place of serenity and safety and a lace where we enjoy.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Thursday, January 1, 2015

Welcome 2015: Our NYE Recap and Resoltions

Well we are OFFICALLY out of 2014!
If you would have told me that we would NOT be flying cars in 2015 about 20 years ago I would have told you were CRAZY!?
Hard to believe that we have made it to another year already!
I swear the older you get the faster time goes by and well I don't like it...(pouts)
Since I was lucky enough to have New Years Eve off I threw (literally) together a family fun NYE Party...
My guest?
4 girls ages 12 and under... I am STILL a WILD CHILD :)
Decorating was BARE minimum lol with party hats and noise makers and my handy dandy chalk board...


As you can see we ended up with buffet style meal with JUNK food and goodies that they could snack on into the new year... I did do some last minute change ups to the menu due to lack of time...


We enjoyed "wine" in fancy glasses


Ok so mine really was wine :)


The hubby was unable to ring in the new year with us since he had to work today so I decided to (again) throw together some activities to keep the girls busy, partying and quiet until the stroke of midnight...

See THROWN together... I started these at 4 pm and the first event was set at 6pm AND I still had food to prep... HAHA

#waytogomom

They all took turns (youngest to oldest) opening the activity and reading them out load...


Then it was off to have fun and enjoy the activity!




The activities went well until closer to midnight when the kids started loosing the battle to stay awake started... then they dropped one by one like flies LOL


We had activities like dressing up, makeovers, resolutions, favorite memories, crazy hair, charades, pedis, and a few others...


I think that this is something I will do next year too BUT actually make it LOOK good, this year the activities were ALL girly but I hope we can do one more versatile for boys and girls if needed and for all ages!


We (and by that I mean me and D) rang in the new year with our own "champagne" bottles!


Overall I am happy with the way the night turned out.. I didn't get my New Years Kiss from the hubby and I wish he could have celebrated with us BUT I got to spend it with my girls. Soon they won't want to hang out with mom...
 
 


Now for the REAL FUN!
 
Resolutions!!!
 
This was one of the activities last night and I have to say I was pretty impressed with what they came up with.. well minus a few
(we can't ALWAYS be serious right?!)
 
So here we go:
 
Boo:
 
Be nice to the cat...
Clean my own room more often (PLEASE JESUS!)
AND
Have more fun!
 
Lo:
 
Do the best make up for one year (insert eye roll)
AND
Learn to use liquid eye liner (eyes are officially stuck in the back of my head)
 
D:
 
1. Learn to cook
2: She will no longer be a vegetarian but a pescatarian now
  3: She forgot the rest
4: Oh Well TGINY (Thank God It's New Years)
(Totally her words...promise)
 
As for me and the hubby we decided to set a few 7 goals TOGETHER
and I have a few personal ones for myself,
 AND a few for my businesses and blogs
 (I will share these tomorrow)
 
(I PRAY this works better for us)
 
Here are a few of our 2015 goals:
 
1: Pay OFF certain bills:
 
There are certain bills we need gone asap like umm car payments etc... We have a few of these like we would like to kiss good bye in 2015...
 
2: SAVE $:
 
We have set an undisclosed amount to save every month each of us contributing half... NOTHING HUGE but it is a start and that is what counts
 
3: DATE NIGHTS!
 
With me back in the wonderful world of retail AND me working over nights our time together is less than it has ever been... I have found this to be MORE important than ever!
 
#anyonewannababysit
 
4: FAMILY DAYS!
 
Again another MUST DO I am off in the middle of the week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and he is off on well the weekends... so our family time is SLIM!
 
Time to set time aside and make memories...
We do only have 5 years before D graduates high school! EEEKKK
 
5: BUDGET:
 
So this is something we don't do a lot of and that is where we mess up the most, don't get me wrong bills get paid but we don't take in consideration savings and school fees and then some thing comes up and we STRESS lol
 
6: CHORES:
 
With the kids 12,11, and 7 AND both of us working full time it is time that we ALL help.. I have started the chore charts for the kids this will help us with everything really more time to spend with each other when we all help
 
7: OUR education:
 
I took a break from college when I started working, I couldn't get a grip on a sleeping habit and kids and work and EVERYTHING else (hell we are not even unpacked all the way) this is something I think we BOTH need to get back to doing better...
The kids learn form example right?
 
 
I hope you all had an amazing New Years!
 
Does anyone else think D will win again?
LOL