TGIF and more.....

Never was I so happy to see this week end!  I swear the days get longer and longer (and not in a good way)!  Today there is "supposed" to be sunshine, I'll believe it when I see it.  It has rained here for what seems like MONTHS!  The state of Texas is under a drought, which from the latest reports are expected to last for the next 5-10 YEARS!  Holy sh*t!  I'm not super religious, more faithful I'd say, but damn, I gotta believe, someone is trying to tell us something!  Earthquakes, tsunamis, raging heat, drought, pouring, unending rains, starting to think that this "Global Warming" thing is true.  Well, I'm going to try to be optimistic, I'm hopeful everything will turn around soon, not just for me but for everyone.  The economy has to turn up at some point, the jobs situation will improve, and hopefully everyone will benefit.

Like Ive said before, I'm still reeling from the death of my Dad, the collateral damage that has come from his passing.  I guess I really never thought that I'd still be in the "soup" so to speak.  I think it's funny though, the friends who turned away from me and weren't there for me in the darkest hours, are now ignoring me and acting as if I owe them attention and I should reach out to them.  Really?!  Are you kidding me?  How can I allow you to treat me so crappy and then act as if nothing has happened?  WOW!  I'd love to know what it's like to live in their world, I guess Peter Pan and the Easter Bunny are truly real in their heads, cause let me tell ya, there's no way in hell I'm going back to be treated like the bastard at the family reunion again. 

I know, don't hold onto the anger, "let it go", I'm not knocking all the theories of forgiveness out there, but for once in my life I'm not going back for more grief.  I've lost enough over these past few months. 

I don't want to be such a bummer, but someone has to say it. I found out the hard way, people aren't who or what they say or portray themselves to be all the time. Take inventory of yourself and trust those who have time and time again given you reason to be joyful, to be happy, to feel love.

Would you believe it Wednesday?

Well after LOTS of rain and flooding, my craft room is somewhat back to normal!  We are still having water seep in, because it has literally rained EVERY STINKIN' DAY for weeks since Hurricane Irene.  With the ground so saturated the only place for the water to go in in my craft room!  UGH!  I am optimistic that it'll all be over soon! 

Here's my creation for Erica's Cricut Craft Room's Can you believe it Wednesdays?!  What that means is I can use ANY Cricut cartridge, but I can only use the feature keys, not the main image keys (so if you open up a cartridge handbook, the big picture on the left is the main image, off to the right are all the extra , wickedly cool, fun things that we sometimes forget about!)

I used Car Decals for my creation this week!  LOVE LOVE LOVE this cartridge!  So much fun stuff!  The "I "heart" Cats" is from the phrases keys, while the cat on the left is actually 3 layers cut from, the Athlete, & Sports keys.  My cat's name was Casey and that was cut out from Cuttin' Up! 

Casey was an amazing companion and we miss her very much!  She passed away in October 2009 and we all still have a special place in our hearts for her!

A Captain & A Chef!

Busy week here at our house! Jordan was picked this week to be a captain at her field hockey game! So proud! Her and her fellow Lady Hawks tromped the Gateway Gators 6-0! Impressive huh! She has been playing since 3rd grade and I have been fortunate enough to be the assistant coach for her middle school for the past 2 years. This winter will be my last season coaching field hockey. I'll have coached over 11 seasons! I just love it!  Kinda of sad though, Hannah wants no part of playing field hockey!  She's "sticking" with the flute!

Jordan #29 

Speaking of Hannah....

Hannah is our in-house Sous Chef, who has since graduated to full Chef this week!  She has always liked to help me in the kitchen, but just a few short years ago (Jordan was about 9 and Hannah was about 6) my kitchen was a diner.  Let me explain... 

 I was making 3 different meals every night.  Jordan only ate hot dogs and chicken nuggets, Hannah only ate rice, and plain pasta, with an occasional yogurt thrown in.  Then I was making a meal for David and myself.  One summer a few years ago, after weeks filled, with Build-A-Bear, Chuck-E-Cheese, the movies, playdates and a trip to the toy store, one of my cherubic children, informed me that they were bored, and that we never do anything fun. 

OMG!

Talk about the proverbial straw that broke the camels' back!  I freaked out!  I said,

"THAT'S IT!  I QUIT!  NO MORE COOKING, CLEANING, DRIVING ALL OVER THE PLACE!  YOU CAN CALL ME LISA, YOU CAN CALL ME 'HEY YOU', BUT DO NOT CALL ME MOM!  I AM DONE!",

 and with that I retreated to my room and "retired".  My husband came home to two crying, confused kids who told him, Mom's gone nuts!  When I explained it to him, he got it but was really worried about his dinner situation, MEN!

So after about two days, I caved.  (I let them eat whatever they wanted for each meal, if I remember correctly the meals consisted of chips, chocolate and pretzels.  Apparently the girls were shooting for the all-carb diet those two days). 

I sat them down and told them that from here on out they will eat what I cook.  They don't have to love it, but they have to try it.  They now eat, pasta, meatballs, chicken, pork chops, tacos, steak, stew, vegetables, salads, fruit.  Not bad huh?!

Oh yeah, when I asked them what they wanted more than anything, Jordan responded with, "I just wanna call you Mommy (insert sobbing here with TEARS galore)", Hannah on the other hand answered with, "I'm good with Lisa." (Lord give me strength!)

So jump forward to today, Hannah's favorite dinner is Chicken Marsala over pasta, with broccoli, cauiflower and a salad.  So she now cooks for us at least one day a week (with me as the Sous Chef of course!).  Who said freakin' out never paid off?!

Chef Hannah!

It's Fall Ya'll!

My utmost favorite time of year!  No, it's not because the kids go back to school, I honestly love having my girls home!  I just love the chill in the air, the smell of  leaves, the start of another field hockey season, fireplaces burning, when it gets dark early.  I just love the colors!  This is yet another "first" in my year of "firsts" without my Dad.  I made it through the "first" summer, which honestly sucked.  It's really hard.  I just miss him so much.  I just hope as time moves on that the hurt will become less and the memories I have will fill the tears with smiles instead.

Here is some new pictures of my beautiful girls! Another reason to love fall, they are too busy to complain about the camera being constantly in their face! LOL!