And I will definitely be printing off some of these fun little games for our next trip.
You can print them too by clicking HERE
Monday, June 29, 2009
Are we there yet Papa Smurf?
Will you be traveling this summer? I don't know if traveling with your family is as fun as traveling with mine but, I would almost rather have a tooth pulled. Neither one of my girls have the ability to sit still so after a few hours, the whining sets in and I myself don't have the ability to tolerate whining. So, I thought it was quite ironic that I came across this site right after a road trip to Alabama. But, I thought that just maybe, that there is some poor mother out there that is carefully packing suitcases to make sure that her lovely's have everything they might possibly need. She will no doubt forget some necessity of her own in an effort to make sure that she doesn't forget the stuffed lamb that is missing an ear and once was white but now is brown and smells of who knows what because it's absence will result in a vacation of sleepless nights. But, maybe, just maybe there is hope that she can keep her sanity in the car...
And I will definitely be printing off some of these fun little games for our next trip.
You can print them too by clicking HERE
And I will definitely be printing off some of these fun little games for our next trip.
You can print them too by clicking HERE
Friday, June 26, 2009
Fun Friday = Giveaway
Since I have been so sporadic in blog postings lately, I decided that I needed to try to win back some bloggy love by doing a giveaway.
My criteria for fashion these days consists of trying to find something that is fitted enough that it doesn't make me look larger than I am but not so fitted that I look like an old woman trying to pour myself into teenager clothing. I must be able to bend over to pick up small toys without showing my tail. It shouldn't wrinkle after children have wallered (there's a southern word for you) on me and if ironing is necessary, you can forget it! Honestly, by the time I get my girls dressed with their matching outfits and pretty hairbows, I resort to whatever is clean and can be put on without a fuss. Usually, this amounts to jeans and a t-shirt. As far as jewelry goes, I rarely stray from my silver hoop earrings, silver pendant necklace and wedding rings (I know, stylish huh?)
So, when I approached Adam's Aunt Vicki who owns the etsy site, SoMuchImagination, asking her if she'd like to give away a piece of jewelry on my blog and she asked me what I had in mind, I gave her the above description. I further explained that it would be nice for all of us hard working moms to have something that we can throw in with our hard working wardrobes to spice things up a bit. But most importantly, since most of us have kids pulling on us all day long, IT MUST NOT BREAK EASILY!!!
So, I now bring forth to you, the super fun, TUSCANY BRACELET. Aunt Vicki not only made a bracelet for me to share with my fellow bloggers but she also made one for me! Yea for me! Thanks Aunt Vicki!
So, here's what you need to know about the giveaway.. It is open to everyone within the continental US. You do not have to have a blog to enter. Winner will be randomly picked and announced here on Thursday July 2.
How to enter:
1. For one entry: In a comment, leave me your e-mail address for Vicki's address list so that she can e-mail you when she's got a new piece of jewelry. If you aren't comfortable leaving your e-mail address here, you can e-mail me at everythingpictured@gmail.com.
2. For one entry: become one of my followers and leave me a comment telling me that you did. Or, if you're already a follower, leave me a comment telling me you are.
3. And for 5 entries: blog about my giveaway on your blog and comment telling me that you did.
4. For 5 additional entries, go to Vicki's etsy page and come back here and tell me what your favorite item is and why.
So, you can potentially have 12 entries.
Blessings,
Dana
Do you have a unique product? Let me help promote your product by hosting a giveaway for you. Contact me at everythingpictured@gmail.com.
My criteria for fashion these days consists of trying to find something that is fitted enough that it doesn't make me look larger than I am but not so fitted that I look like an old woman trying to pour myself into teenager clothing. I must be able to bend over to pick up small toys without showing my tail. It shouldn't wrinkle after children have wallered (there's a southern word for you) on me and if ironing is necessary, you can forget it! Honestly, by the time I get my girls dressed with their matching outfits and pretty hairbows, I resort to whatever is clean and can be put on without a fuss. Usually, this amounts to jeans and a t-shirt. As far as jewelry goes, I rarely stray from my silver hoop earrings, silver pendant necklace and wedding rings (I know, stylish huh?)
So, when I approached Adam's Aunt Vicki who owns the etsy site, SoMuchImagination, asking her if she'd like to give away a piece of jewelry on my blog and she asked me what I had in mind, I gave her the above description. I further explained that it would be nice for all of us hard working moms to have something that we can throw in with our hard working wardrobes to spice things up a bit. But most importantly, since most of us have kids pulling on us all day long, IT MUST NOT BREAK EASILY!!!
So, I now bring forth to you, the super fun, TUSCANY BRACELET. Aunt Vicki not only made a bracelet for me to share with my fellow bloggers but she also made one for me! Yea for me! Thanks Aunt Vicki!
So, here's what you need to know about the giveaway.. It is open to everyone within the continental US. You do not have to have a blog to enter. Winner will be randomly picked and announced here on Thursday July 2.
How to enter:
1. For one entry: In a comment, leave me your e-mail address for Vicki's address list so that she can e-mail you when she's got a new piece of jewelry. If you aren't comfortable leaving your e-mail address here, you can e-mail me at everythingpictured@gmail.com.
2. For one entry: become one of my followers and leave me a comment telling me that you did. Or, if you're already a follower, leave me a comment telling me you are.
3. And for 5 entries: blog about my giveaway on your blog and comment telling me that you did.
4. For 5 additional entries, go to Vicki's etsy page and come back here and tell me what your favorite item is and why.
So, you can potentially have 12 entries.
Blessings,
Dana
Do you have a unique product? Let me help promote your product by hosting a giveaway for you. Contact me at everythingpictured@gmail.com.
Monday, June 22, 2009
I'm so sorry....
my dearest Emma that your heritage lies in Alabama. I'm so thankful that your daddy came along and rescued me from my redneck family. And also my dear, I must beg for your forgiveness for the way that I am about to sabotage your birthday. I just can't pass up the chance to expose the humiliation that these significant women in my life have caused. Especially when one of them just posted a picture of me on facebook. IN A BATHING SUIT... But dear Emma, just remember, it could be worse. Think about your sister... She was born in West Virginia.
Emma and my mom planned out Emma's birthday party over the phone months before we made our trip. Emma had very specific requests for a tea party. I am still in contact with several friends that are still in the area but every last one of them have boys. Wanting to keep all of their masculinity intact, we decided that my mother, sister, my Aunt Nancy, myself and Chloe would have to suffice as her tea party guests. My mother had a list of items that she was to obtain. I must make it known that I do not allow my daughter to give me orders nor did my mother, her daughter. But as you might know, grandmother's tend to throw every motherly instinct that they have out the window and let their grandmotherly instincts take over, therefore, making a 180 turn in the direction of spoiling the involved child ROTTEN. In an effort to keep up her reputation of being at Emma's every becken call, my mother made a list as Emma named off the items that were of upmost importance to make her tea party a success. Among other things, the list included: fans, gloves, crystal tea cups and plates, roses, and mixed flowers. My mother and Emma talked regularly during the weeks that led up to the charming event. Pretending to be sure that she hadn't forgotten a detail, Emma repeatedly asked my mother to read her the list. I'm pretty sure that it was actually her clever way of making sure that my mother really did write the items down and that she was making it a top priority to keep up with the list. But my mother, being true to her word, found every last item and the the birthday party was set in motion.
It started out fairly normal. Emma opened gifts and blew out the candles. We all sang the traditional birthday song and even skipped the banjo accompaniment.
But, as fate would have it, trying to get my family to have a sort of sophisticated party could probably be equated to the difficulty of taking a monkey to the opera...
And here is where it all began to go off course.. My parents got a great price on an RV a couple of years ago. And Emma's favorite place to play at my mom's house is in the RV. It just made sense that with the RV being Emma's favorite, that we'd have the tea party in the RV. This story would maybe be what you would get if say, the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" and the movie "RV" had a baby... Did I mention that the reason my parents got a great price on the RV was because it was made in 1986?
I promise that we do not allow alchoholic beverages at children's birthday parties..
Besides, my mom and dad had finished up the last of the moonshine earlier that day.
Emma must have inherited some class from the Ellis side of the family because that child did not deviate away from the English accent that she has perfected in anticipation of this great event..
Somewhere, the crystal became paper plates. But if you look closely at the picture below, you will see that Emma did drink out of a very pretty pink crystal cup.
I know my dear Emma that you had imagined that you would have a tea party fit for a princess. And I promise my dear, next year, I'll make it up to you and splurge and have you a real nice party at McDonald's.
And I myself, sat and watched in horror and disbelief that I could have come from such uncivilized people. Because I myself am much too regal to ever participate in such shinanigans..
WHOOPS.. Who would have thought that my simple daddy could use my fancy camera???
PS: We visited many people that we love on our tour around Alabama. I have many more pictures to post including lots of pictures of cousins and friends and some of my beautiful niece and some shots of my handsome nephew doing his awesome wakeboard stunts and I hope to get those up soon.
Emma and my mom planned out Emma's birthday party over the phone months before we made our trip. Emma had very specific requests for a tea party. I am still in contact with several friends that are still in the area but every last one of them have boys. Wanting to keep all of their masculinity intact, we decided that my mother, sister, my Aunt Nancy, myself and Chloe would have to suffice as her tea party guests. My mother had a list of items that she was to obtain. I must make it known that I do not allow my daughter to give me orders nor did my mother, her daughter. But as you might know, grandmother's tend to throw every motherly instinct that they have out the window and let their grandmotherly instincts take over, therefore, making a 180 turn in the direction of spoiling the involved child ROTTEN. In an effort to keep up her reputation of being at Emma's every becken call, my mother made a list as Emma named off the items that were of upmost importance to make her tea party a success. Among other things, the list included: fans, gloves, crystal tea cups and plates, roses, and mixed flowers. My mother and Emma talked regularly during the weeks that led up to the charming event. Pretending to be sure that she hadn't forgotten a detail, Emma repeatedly asked my mother to read her the list. I'm pretty sure that it was actually her clever way of making sure that my mother really did write the items down and that she was making it a top priority to keep up with the list. But my mother, being true to her word, found every last item and the the birthday party was set in motion.
It started out fairly normal. Emma opened gifts and blew out the candles. We all sang the traditional birthday song and even skipped the banjo accompaniment.
But, as fate would have it, trying to get my family to have a sort of sophisticated party could probably be equated to the difficulty of taking a monkey to the opera...And here is where it all began to go off course.. My parents got a great price on an RV a couple of years ago. And Emma's favorite place to play at my mom's house is in the RV. It just made sense that with the RV being Emma's favorite, that we'd have the tea party in the RV. This story would maybe be what you would get if say, the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" and the movie "RV" had a baby... Did I mention that the reason my parents got a great price on the RV was because it was made in 1986?
I promise that we do not allow alchoholic beverages at children's birthday parties..
Besides, my mom and dad had finished up the last of the moonshine earlier that day.
Emma must have inherited some class from the Ellis side of the family because that child did not deviate away from the English accent that she has perfected in anticipation of this great event..
Somewhere, the crystal became paper plates. But if you look closely at the picture below, you will see that Emma did drink out of a very pretty pink crystal cup.
I know my dear Emma that you had imagined that you would have a tea party fit for a princess. And I promise my dear, next year, I'll make it up to you and splurge and have you a real nice party at McDonald's. 
And I myself, sat and watched in horror and disbelief that I could have come from such uncivilized people. Because I myself am much too regal to ever participate in such shinanigans..
WHOOPS.. Who would have thought that my simple daddy could use my fancy camera???PS: We visited many people that we love on our tour around Alabama. I have many more pictures to post including lots of pictures of cousins and friends and some of my beautiful niece and some shots of my handsome nephew doing his awesome wakeboard stunts and I hope to get those up soon.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Hello from Birmingham!
There are a lot of thoughts and questions running through my head right now..
1. Will heaven really have streets of gold and if it does, won't that be kind of tacky? I mean, haven't you seen pictures of Donald Trump's place? Surely that was a metaphor.
2. Have you ever met the kind of person that is frequently wrong but never in doubt? man that annoys me.
3. Or worse, have you met one of those people that has to out do you on everything? Those kind of people seriously make me want to take up poop scooping as a hobby just to watch them try to do it better than me.
4.What makes mother's feel the need to compete? Why can't we all just say, "hey, this is hard. Some days are better than others" and support and help each other?
5. Why is a parkway called a parkway when you drive on it but a driveway is called a driveway when you park on it?
6. Alabamians really do have a thick accent..
7. Was God just bored and decided to jazz things up a bit when he created women to fall in love with a species that couldn't possibly understand them?
8. Should I really expect my husband to understand me when I don't understand myself?
9. Does having a minivan really make me old and uncool?
10. Why didn't Obama respond to my e-mail where I laid out the most fabulous stimulus plan ever? Doesn't he know how important I am?
11. Why won't they close Walmart and let me shop alone without having to wait thirty minutes to get to the feminine products that I can't do without while the little blue haired lady reads all the ingredients on the package of the hemorrhoid medicine. Don't they know how important I am?
12. Why wasn't I thankful that it was the blue haired lady instead of the little old man that tested out every single one of those cheap Walmart colognes the last time I was brave enough to venture into Walmart. OLD SPICE, JUST GET THE OLD SPICE!
13. Did throwing the starfish back in really make a difference?
And so many more random thoughts and questions.. But, I can't land on anything specific so feel free to answer any of the above questions. It would be fabulous to check some of these of the list of things that keep me awake at night. But tonight, since I've not posted in a while, I thought I'd just give a good old fashion "we're still alive and kickin" update.
I am in Alabama at my parents. Adam went to camp and I just couldn't bring myself to drag two little ones and wasn't up for another week of single parenting. The four of us left on June 4th, and went and had a great visit with Adam's family (Yes, I do sing "The Adam's Family" theme song in my head every time I say that). Then, we went to our college Christian Student Center reunion at Troy where we got to see some of our old college friends. I was also very excited to see Stephanie, one of the girls that was in our youth group in Panama City that married one of the guys that we went to college with (that isn't as weird as it sounds. He is only five years older than her. We were very young when we were PC) My parents came and picked up the girls and me in Troy (no that is not incorrect grammar. It is the girls and me, not the girls and I. My parent's wouldn't come to pick up I). Adam will come over here to get us next week. Anyway, we miss daddy terribly but we're having a nice time living on central time, sleeping late but, realizing that it's still early when we wake. It's been nice to be away from everything. We had gotten so busy there at the end of the school year and I really needed some time away where my cell phone gets no service so that I can focus on them. And, of course, having doting grandparents around that consider it a favor when you let them do something for your kids is awesome! We are so blessed to have both sets of our parents so active in our lives. I've also got the chance to hang out with a friend from high school and I'm hoping to meet up with a few more before I leave. I have of course taken tons of pictures but, I had gotten backed up on some portraits I had taken and needed to upload them and my parents computer is as slow as getting off those last few baby pounds (Christmas comes quickly to me these days) so, hopefully, I will get them uploaded one day. But no promises, because we all know by now that half the time, I never get the pictures uploaded. It's like the modern day version of those thirty rolls of 35mm fill my mom has sitting in her middle dresser drawer still not developed.
And if you are the one person that has realized how important I really am and are just dying to get a hold of me. Even out in the boonies in Argo Alabama where my cell phone gets no service, windstream somehow made their trail up a red clay dirt road somewhere and I do have access to the internet.
Blessings,
Dana
1. Will heaven really have streets of gold and if it does, won't that be kind of tacky? I mean, haven't you seen pictures of Donald Trump's place? Surely that was a metaphor.
2. Have you ever met the kind of person that is frequently wrong but never in doubt? man that annoys me.
3. Or worse, have you met one of those people that has to out do you on everything? Those kind of people seriously make me want to take up poop scooping as a hobby just to watch them try to do it better than me.
4.What makes mother's feel the need to compete? Why can't we all just say, "hey, this is hard. Some days are better than others" and support and help each other?
5. Why is a parkway called a parkway when you drive on it but a driveway is called a driveway when you park on it?
6. Alabamians really do have a thick accent..
7. Was God just bored and decided to jazz things up a bit when he created women to fall in love with a species that couldn't possibly understand them?
8. Should I really expect my husband to understand me when I don't understand myself?
9. Does having a minivan really make me old and uncool?
10. Why didn't Obama respond to my e-mail where I laid out the most fabulous stimulus plan ever? Doesn't he know how important I am?
11. Why won't they close Walmart and let me shop alone without having to wait thirty minutes to get to the feminine products that I can't do without while the little blue haired lady reads all the ingredients on the package of the hemorrhoid medicine. Don't they know how important I am?
12. Why wasn't I thankful that it was the blue haired lady instead of the little old man that tested out every single one of those cheap Walmart colognes the last time I was brave enough to venture into Walmart. OLD SPICE, JUST GET THE OLD SPICE!
13. Did throwing the starfish back in really make a difference?
And so many more random thoughts and questions.. But, I can't land on anything specific so feel free to answer any of the above questions. It would be fabulous to check some of these of the list of things that keep me awake at night. But tonight, since I've not posted in a while, I thought I'd just give a good old fashion "we're still alive and kickin" update.
I am in Alabama at my parents. Adam went to camp and I just couldn't bring myself to drag two little ones and wasn't up for another week of single parenting. The four of us left on June 4th, and went and had a great visit with Adam's family (Yes, I do sing "The Adam's Family" theme song in my head every time I say that). Then, we went to our college Christian Student Center reunion at Troy where we got to see some of our old college friends. I was also very excited to see Stephanie, one of the girls that was in our youth group in Panama City that married one of the guys that we went to college with (that isn't as weird as it sounds. He is only five years older than her. We were very young when we were PC) My parents came and picked up the girls and me in Troy (no that is not incorrect grammar. It is the girls and me, not the girls and I. My parent's wouldn't come to pick up I). Adam will come over here to get us next week. Anyway, we miss daddy terribly but we're having a nice time living on central time, sleeping late but, realizing that it's still early when we wake. It's been nice to be away from everything. We had gotten so busy there at the end of the school year and I really needed some time away where my cell phone gets no service so that I can focus on them. And, of course, having doting grandparents around that consider it a favor when you let them do something for your kids is awesome! We are so blessed to have both sets of our parents so active in our lives. I've also got the chance to hang out with a friend from high school and I'm hoping to meet up with a few more before I leave. I have of course taken tons of pictures but, I had gotten backed up on some portraits I had taken and needed to upload them and my parents computer is as slow as getting off those last few baby pounds (Christmas comes quickly to me these days) so, hopefully, I will get them uploaded one day. But no promises, because we all know by now that half the time, I never get the pictures uploaded. It's like the modern day version of those thirty rolls of 35mm fill my mom has sitting in her middle dresser drawer still not developed.
And if you are the one person that has realized how important I really am and are just dying to get a hold of me. Even out in the boonies in Argo Alabama where my cell phone gets no service, windstream somehow made their trail up a red clay dirt road somewhere and I do have access to the internet.
Blessings,
Dana
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