Surgery Tomorrow - Bye Bye Stoney!

Ya jerk! Stoney will be removed from my body tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM. Good riddance!

So I explained to the boys at bedtime that I would not be here in the AM when they woke up. Matthew (my stoic child) was just "Oh, ok Mommy". Mikey (not so stoic) had many questions. "They gonna get that stone out Mommy"? "Will they just dig it out"? I told him yes and that the doctor would be really gentle and it would be OK. He thought about it for a minute and then in a really small voice said "I feel really bad for you Mommy". Awwwwww! Of course, I told him I wouldn't feel a thing and I wasn't scared and the doctor was super smart. Also that I would be home when he got home from school. Mikey - my little mush!

All my boys working together!

All my boys are just so cute ... even the large one! haha! They really did a great job with the new plantings. We still have to mulch and get the white flowers for those two beds by the front door ... hopefully we'll get that done this coming weekend!

Gardening Day!

The boys LOVE to help us work in the yard. Their Gator is actually really useful for hauling stuff around and Scott also modified Mikey's 4-Wheeler so it could tow a little trailer. We loaded them up with all our new shrubs and they delivered them to the "job site"!

These are the Azaleas - gotta love the PINK!

We went to Pike's yesterday afternoon (while I was still medicated with painkillers) and got new shrubs for the front yard. We got Azaleas (6) for the front island and then these green and yellow shrubs (two for each side) for the two beds on either side of the front door. And we got this cool black Mondo Grass to put in front of the yellow and green shrubs (3 for each side). Now we won't have to buy as many flowers every season (spring and fall) for that area which will be nice. We will get flowers next weekend. I did get a couple of potted flowers to put outside the front door. I forget what they're called but they are bright red and very pretty and look nice against the tan and black of the house. Scott is going to be REALLY busy today planting all these beauties! I'll post pictures when everything is done!

These are the cool yellow and green shrubs and the black Mondo Grass

Our Little Bird's Nest!

A tiny little bird has built a tiny little nest in our arbor! The arbor itself is covered with Carolina Jasmine. I guess she felt it was a good safe place to build her nest. We're not sure if there are eggs in there but she is ALWAYS there so we are assuming so. She will tolerate us and even the dog roaming around below. Today when I was taking pictures she flew away to a nearby tree and "yelled" at me. I came back inside and peeked out from the back door and saw her fly back to the nest. I hope there are eggs and I hope we get to see and hear little baby birds! The boys are completely fascinated by the whole thing. Here's the best picture I could get - kinda hard to see through all the vines but she's in there! Sweet, huh?

I saw this today and liked it so much I decided to share ...

Five Simple Rules for Happiness:

1. Free your heart from hatred.

2. Free your mind from worries.

3. Live simply.

4. Give more.

5. Expect less.

Erin's Big Day!

LOOK at my friend Erin! I'm SO proud of her! She is a very talented stamp artist ... I have a link to her blog over to the right. She designed this stamp along with Gina of Gina K. It's awesome and something EVERY stamper needs. So if you stamp you must procure this set immediately! You NEED it!

Erin is like a little sister to me ... I adore her so much and I am just so dang proud of her! Congratulations Erin! You're a rock star!

Perpetual Kid

This website is so much fun! I love it and want just about everything they have for sale! Go check it out ... I'll bet you never knew you needed band aids that look like strips of bacon or a Hillary Clinton nutcracker or a Voodoo Doll toothpick holder. I love all the "citation" pads they have and really do think I'm going to have to get "Things You Must Do to Make Me Happy" checklist. I'm not sure how I lived without Count Chocula lip balm or ... are you ready for this? A LOST IN SPACE GIANT PEZ DISPENSER!!! I have a Robot action figure from Lost In Space that I found at a garage sale for a nickel ... but a Pez Dispenser? Amazing... I love this store, you prolly will too. Yes, it's all pretty silly but it's also fun and will for sure make you smile or laugh and that's worth something isn't it?

No Show Stone

So "Stoney" has still not made an appearance. Tomorrow I hafta go to the doc for a CT Scan and then we go from there. He said they would go get it if they can find it. That sounds really sucky to me so I'm hoping "Stoney" will decide to cruise on out on his own between now and 2:45 tomorrow. And I hope my appointment doesn't take too long 'cause Matthew's got a baseball game tomorrow night and I hate to miss my kids ballgames for anything. On a positive note I actually FEEL a lot better and my appetite came back (that's not so great cause now I hafta control it again)! But I do feel better and I'm feeling more comfortable.

House Stuff

Look at this cute candle thing I got for our powder room. My husband says it looks like some freaky circle alter. He's a freak. I like it ...

And I really like the new paint color ... it's kind of a greenish/grayish/blue.

And here's a picture of our new bannister. I love how it turned out. We used to have just the regular wooden kind with the round newel post. I wanted something different ... pay no attention to the brass switchplate covers ... those will soon be replaced.

Stupid Stones

Stones belong on the ground, in rings (diamonds), in rivers ... there are LOTS of places for stones. So why do a couple seem to want to set up shop in my kidney?? It's completely ridiculous... I denounce kidney stones ... officially. The doc today gave me antibiotics and told me to take my painkillers with me if I have to leave the house. Duh, of COURSE I have to leave the house ... I DO have a job and a life. Geez! Meanwhile, I feel like crap and that sucks. I thought there was just the one stone, but learned today there are actually two. He also gave me Flomax which I am afraid to take. It's for men with prostate problems. Weird. I don't think I'm going to take it. I'll drink gallons of water, take antibiotics, strain my pee but I'm putting my foot down at old man prostate drugs. Doc says if the stone (the large one) doesn't come out on his own he will have to go get it. I told him I wasn't interested in any of that ... he said he'd put me out for it. I'm still not interested in all that ... so I'm hoping stoney shows up on his own. Oh - he also told me to expect pain. That's a nice way to go through the day, huh. Sometimes we expect rain ... or wind ... I'll be expecting pain with a chance of surgery. Lovely...

Pretty Penny

This is the fifth member of our family ... Penny. And yes, she IS completely spoiled. Look how cute she is though - wouldn't YOU spoil her? She's a rescued dog ... we adopted her from The Atlanta Dog Squad. They are an AWESOME rescue group. I highly recommend them and encourage anybody looking to add a dog to their family to please consider rescue! There are so many great dogs out there that really need a home and lots of love. We feel very blessed to have Penny in our family. And by adopting her we made room for another deserving dog to come into the rescue program!

Baby it's COLD outside!

So it's April 15th and it's SO cold out that Matthew's baseball game was cancelled (well, postponed) tonight! What's up with THAT?!?!?! Poor kid - he was in full uniform at 5PM - ready to go. He was SO disappointed.

I also made my follow up appointment with a Urologist today. I was completely annoyed to learn that I had to go BACK to the hospital to pick up the CT Scan results. Hellooo... isn't this 2008? I kinda figured they would have some high tech way of transferring that kind of information from the hospital to the doctor. I'm pretty sure they do - I'm pretty sure they are a customer of my employer's so all that should be electronic. Oh well ... my Mom very sweetly offered to drive me down there and go with me which was really nice and made me feel good. I totally hate hospitals. Gives me the willies.

Tonight is PaperTrey Ink's release party! I need to cruise on over and see what's going on ... they always have cute stuff!

Maybe tomorrow I will stamp something ... maybe. And maybe I'll take pictures AND post them! I know you're super excited, huh? (I say "you" because I know there is only ONE person reading this - hehe)! Thanks Erin!

The BEST Brownie Pan EVER!

I paid $35 for a brownie pan. Shocking since I don't really cook and, well, it's a brownie pan. But it is awesome ... really, it is. Take a look HERE. EVERY single piece is either an edge or a corner! I only like the edges and corners so pretty much it was a no brainer for me. Scott made brownies for me on Friday ... they are gone now. Apparently my whole family really likes edges and corners too ... hehe! So I say the pan is TOTALLY worth the $35. I bought mine on Amazon.com. You should go buy one today. Right now...

ER

Friday landed me in the ER. Apparently I have a Kidney Stone. WORST pain of my life ... no lie. I was literally crawling the floor in pain. I tried to convince myself the pain would pass for about an hour and half and pretty much gave in when I started puking. I was out of my mind in pain. So off we went ... Poppy came over to watch the boys, Mom and Scott went with me. The 4mm stone was found on CT. They gave me heavy duty drugs for pain and fluids as well and after a few hours sent me along my way with a scrip for pain meds and a lovely little strainer to "catch" the stone in once it passes (it's Sunday ... no sign of it yet). I'm really glad it happened Friday and NOT at Six Flags the day before!

Spring Break at Six Flags

This past week was Spring Break for my kids. So Scott and I took Thursday and Friday off and took them to Six Flags Over Georgia on Thursday. This was their first time at ANY amusement park so they were very excited! We had a blast despite the fact that the park was SUPER crowded. We thought Mikey might be a little scared of the bigger coasters but he LOVED them! I wish I had photos to share but, as usual, we failed to really take any. I'll try to get better about that. I was surprised Mikey was big enough to go on the Scream Machine AND the Mind Bender. We didn't have time for the Mind Bender but DID go on the Scream Machine ... Mikey and Matthew LOVED it! We also rode the Mine Train, Sky Buckets, Log Ride (got soaked) and the kids did all the kid rides too. It was a perfect day...

Really?

Did I really just create a blog? Shocking ...

Not sure how good I'll be at this - or how often I will update - or even how interesting it will be.

I'll try to add pictures ... if I can figure that out.

Stay tuned...