A random trip to Taco Bell last week got me thinking. The brood and I needed to waste time between pick up time at the Bigs' school and the start of Girl Scouts. Seeing as I'm already making 2 round trips (VA Beach /Suffolk) every school day til summer vacation, I'm staying in Suffolk in the afternoons when we have scouts in the evenings. I mean c'mon... as it is I'm driving 160 miles per day or 800 miles a week. Well, last Monday, we cleaned up at our old house, did some homework, and then headed to Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat before dropping Julia at Brownies. With Donk in town, I really don't bring all 5 very many places these days.

So, I was reminded of what those days are like by a random comment from a bunch of older ladies passing our table as they left Taco Bell. Now mind you, the kids were behaving very well enjoying their tacos and helping the little ones with their taco sauce and taking them to the restroom. While one of the ladies was cooing at the kids' cuteness, she made a remark that stuck with me... "Is someone having A PARTY?" I'm soo familiar with these types of comments that I quickly retorted, "You should see our house, it's always a party". This sweet woman thought I was entertainig a group of my child's friends. I couldn't POSSIBLY be the lucky Momma to all of them, now could I?!? When Patrick was on his IA in 2009 and on his deployment to Afganistan in 2010, I got comments EVERY SINGLE place I went. Most people were well meaning, even when they make the most callous comments... are they ALL yours?!?... were they planned? well someone has her hands full! are they all YOURS (meaning are some Dad's, some mine, and some "ours?" and some of my personal favorites... are you done?!?... are you crazy?... better you than me... Well, you get the picture.

I know most of the people who made these comments and the like really only intended nothing malicious. They're just curious, and that is totally natural. But, I will never forget the woman in the checkout line at aisle #7 at Wally World who stared at the brood as we waited nicely behind she and her husband while they checked out. When I couldn't take the staring and nervous edging further and further away from us, I exclaimed something like, " Aren't I just the luckiest Momma ever!?" That sure shut her up. With hubby starting workups this month that will continue until he deploys a year from now, I'm sure looking forward to doing my shopping/eating/playing here on base. Those comments, at least the clueless ones will be few and far between because I'll be with my own people. People who get it. People who understand what I'm dealing with and will be happy to support me when I go a little crazysauce from all these darn kids I have!

A little scrapping, not my favorite, but at least I'm getting back to it...


Bye!!

Welcome to Hidden Valley

The new house isn't quite ready for it's closeup. (We still need to fill the walls with all of the pretties, and find a home for the last couple of boxes of cr**, I mean toys). But, since I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long, I thought I'd show you a sneak peek. Yep, we just moved into the Hidden Valley commercials.

I'll give you a second to let that set in.

No, really, I'm serious. This place is THAT wonderful. I love letting the Bigs have free reign of the couple blocks surrounding our house including a park! As long as I know about it, they can play unmonitored whenever they wish. The twinnies can even ride their lowriders in the alley behind our house. The neighborhood is amazing. There are kids and dogs on every corner. You see families taking walks or riding bikes every way you turn. Little boys show up at your doorstep in matching sweater vests bearing homemade cookies with THE MOST PROPER introduction I've ever heard. Moms show up with dinner for 7 including veggies grown in their gardens!! Thump. No, really. It's totally like Mayberry 2011.

So, so easy living, I tell ya. I love that I took 4 of them for a walk to the NEX and we came home with a curling iron (for Julia's big night), a bottle of wine for Momma, and 4 packs of gum for the kiddos. A win, win situation I tell ya. My life is already easier and Donk hasn't even deployed yet!! Can I get a Woot Woot?!?

Hid out in my scraproom on Do over Mothers Day and made a few...







Be back soon with pictures from the Daddy Daughter Dance and some more fun stuff made with paper & glue.

I REALLY Shouldn't Be Doing This

No, I really shouldn't be doing this. The twins are asleep. Julia is off for the weekend at a campout with Brownies. Reagan and Bubba are headed to bed shortly. Hubby is steam cleaning the last of the carpets. After that, I'm on mopping duty. Tomorrow morning Donk's crew will be here to pack the truck. The kids will be dispersed amongst friends. By tomorrow evening we'll all be in the new house. Sigh.

While I packed and Donk made trips to the new house. The kids did this...

And I dreamed of doing this in my new scrapbook room. Please go check out my first layout for Crop Suey. You really should join in. Lots of inspo and you know there will be goodies involved HERE.


Will be offline until Sunday morning. sniff sniff. I pity the fool from Cox Internet who shows up even a minute late. Til then...

171 Cardboard Boxes on the Garage Wall

Taking a quick break from the boxes and packing tape to give you a peek at the brood plus one on Easter morn and to share some scrappiness.

Lots of scrappy stuff to share... Every quarter Creative Soup puts on a free AMAZING crafty class. K did some wonderful stuff with this one. Come check it out and play along at Creative Soup. Here's a little tease.

Creative Soup Free Spring Class: Get Messy!

Class Overview: We are gonna get messy!! This 10 lesson class will try to help you to incorporate multiple fine art (and fun art) supplies into your everyday scrapping projects!

We will be working with some really fun and messy art supplies--some which have already worked their way into mainstream scrapping, and some which might seem a little further out there!

We'll have step-by-step lessons, photographs illustrating each technique, and unlimited Q&A sessions!

Please join us starting Monday, May 2nd for our first lesson!

There is never a fee for any of our Creative Classes! So come join in on all the fun!!

In other scrappy news, I put together a simple tutorial for Scrap That Baby. You can find it here. I changed up these cheapy little notebooks into these fabulous creations. These would make great gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week.



Be back soon with my first reveal from Crop Suey...