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girls' night out

WHAT A GREAT NIGHT!!!!!  Last Saturday night, a couple of friends & I had a Girls' Night Out.  We started out by meeting for an awesome mexican supper & margaritas.

 

From there we headed to Lakeside casino for our first ampitheater experience.  WHAT A FUN TIME!!

Ashley has such fun perks for her job! She gets to meet, hang out & introduce her entertainment.  Awesome!!

 Neal McCoy is SUCH  a fun Entertainer!! WOW.  Definitely will see him again & definitely recommend the ampitheater experience!!

 Such a sweety to stop for a photo w/us after the show.  He was hurting w/rotator cuff pain all evening but was a trooper & didn't let it effect his show or our experience. What a great guy!

Wonder what we will do for our next GNO?!

please follow directions

follow directions. please follow directions. 

I find myself saying this 1000x a week w/my littles & even a few times w/the bigs.  It makes me wonder if they hear my voice at all.  It also makes me wonder if I am talking too much which makes them block me out.  It makes me wonder if I am directing them too much, maybe I shouldn't be telling them every single step of the way, maybe I should be letting them figure some things out for themselves.  Maybe I need to release some perfectionism, control, & chill a bit. 

Summer is coming! That leads us to less schedules, more free time, less hurry up & wait, more waiting until they are ready, less following directions, more winging our days. I.Cannot.Wait! Some people get more uptight in the summer with more munchkins to care for, but I get more relaxed. I really look forward to summer as a vacation from our school time routine & schedule which we have little control over vs the summer one that we are able to control ourselves.

ok, that's enough rambling I think.  How do you feel about following directions? are you one that follows along or do you  buck the trend & make your own rules?

Whirly Pop

 

I have no idea how I survived with out this beauty in my kitchen!  I love popcorn, the kids love popcorn and after reading lots of articles about the chems in microwave popcorn I started buying & popping corn in a pan on the stove.  almost always burnt at least have the batch every time.  So when I started pining over this beauty I thought it was way out of my price range so expected it to simply be a dream.  Imagine my surprise when I happened upon it in the kitchen store in the MALL-of all places- and in my price range to boot!  Kismet, I tell ya! So for $19.99 plus tax, I was able to bring one home complete with a popcorn 'kit' inside.  a swish & swipe w/a little dab of soap to get the factory & packing dust off & we were in business! popcorn for snack. OH the house smelled so great, they ate an entire pan-full the first day!  a couple of days later they ate another pan-full! Super easy, healthy (since I don't use additives-just a tiny bit of EVOO to start the popping, a bit of butter melted over top & some salt to taste), fun snack to eat! win-win-win in my book!! 

 

My only complaint, is that its not recommended to be washed in the dishwasher.  :( SUPER BOO!! I usually don't buy anything that can't be, so I will probably try it as the lid with all of its hinged parts is harboring some of that 'oil' from the original kit even tho I have washed it twice. ICK.

 

(all opinions are entirely my own, I am not benefiting in any way from the Whirly Pop company)

dropbox

Have you ever been somewhere & wished you had a file or photo from your computer handy?  With laptops becoming smaller, & Kindle, Ipad, etc becoming more accessible, that is much more of a possibility.  I however, don't have a laptop I am comfortable toting around, nor do I currently own any of the other possibilities, I do, however, love the capacity of my smart phone.  But as the phone becomes less of a form of emergency contact & more an appendage, life line, pocket computer, etc,  I found the need to access files on it that were also on my computer, welcome, dropbox. 

Now, with dropbox, I can perform Scrap Pink 'work' over the weekend, without firing up the laptop,
or access phone pics from my computer, & (the final push to find such a program) read a friend's original book, that was emailed as an attachment, on my phone!  This my friends, is almost earth shattering, ground breaking excitement for me! I love the freedom to access files stored or created on my computer from my phone & vise versa!

I do have to put them in the program folder for them to be accessible, but a little bit of pre-planning goes a long way in this instance.  Putting them in the program folder doesn't change their format or alter the file in any way. So far, in my dropbox are all my Scrap Pink files, all phone pics & the email attachment book. all are items I like to be able to access from either device.

Part of me despises feeling the need to be forever tethered to electronics, to be a simple phone call, text or facebook post away, longs for a simpler time even, but change & adjust with the times we must. Finding a healthy balance for ourselves is the key, whatever is comfortable for  you and your family.

Where do you sit on this type of issue?

(all opinions are my own-I have not been contacted  by nor am I employed by or  receiving any type of benefit from dropbox)

currently

smelling the fresh spring rain that fell this morning.

listening to the 2 groups of littles. One coloring at the table talking about their drawings, the other playing by the mirror & talking about their faces.

tasting leftover coffee I warmed up this morning-not my favorite & homemade pumpkin bread for morning snack.

looking forward to a mini-girl's night out on Saturday to the Neal McCoy concert.

counting down the days until Memorial weekend. 4 days away from home+work+all other commitments-yesplease!

craving campfire food, sunshine & the sound of the water lapping on the shoreline.

loving that I am still in a scrapping mood.

enjoying gently figuring out a balance for all of my different 'hats'.

planning out our summer schedule.

updating the calendar on my phone w/all of our lake weekends vs all of the other activities-so far there are no conflicts.

wishing I made more time to quietly play with my camera.

reading The Spirit, an original book written by a friend.  I am loving it, excited for her, & thrilled to be one of the first to read it.

watching a lot of season finales this month.


show me your currently list.

Love-checking in

Each year since 2008 I have chosen a word for the year.  All of mine have multiple meanings to me. All can be interpreted differently by others.  All help keep me on track, keep me grounded, & inspire me to keep moving forward. 
words like Focus, Appreciate, Do, Simplify, Journey, & now Love.

So how am I doing so far this year?  I am back to Loving & taking care of me, Loving our current home & taking care of it with all of its quirks, Loving my current routine, Loving scrapping time, Loving my family & friends with all of their individualities, Loving my job & all of the little people I get to care for, Loving the change of seasons... Wow looks like I am doing pretty good as I am sure I could bore you with quite a list of Loves that come to mind immediately!

Did you pick a word this year? Talk to me about it.