Cartwheels for gas

Well, the day is here, folks. Gas is $1.98 at the good ole Walmart in town. Looks like I need to do some stretching in preparation for my performance, which my husband informed me will be this evening when he gets home. Go here to see what I am talking about.

Thrifty or spendthrift?

This week, the girls and I are focusing on the character trait "thriftiness". I pride myself on being an example to them of a thrifty person. Not to be confused with spendthrift. But I'm concerned that line may have been blurred yesterday when I got into a fight with the cashier at Goodwill over $1.50. In front of my daughter. Oh yes, I'm a good example.

Dreams and Sunday Scrappin'

My sisters and I have two dreams in life...

Expensive cosmetic dental work...

...and to sing professionally with a nationally known scarecrow choir.

We always have our dreams.

Anyway, on Friday I attended a crop at Ally Scraps, a local scrapbooking store extraordinaire. I met some great ladies there, especially Jessica. I only got two pages and some thank you cards done, but she and I had a great conversation. Anyway, here's the pages, bringing my yearly total up to 163. But since there have been so many events in my life lately, it will take a long time to catch up with current stuff.

(Amy came up with this cool meme where people share their craft ta-das and to-dos for the week. Go here to check out lots of other awesome creations...)







This last one is my attempt to do a page using just my own doodles. I plan on adding color to the design, as well as photos. It's fun, a way to use my sketchy, artsy tendencies. I'm going to start teaching on this skill in January. Weird.

Buckeye Bonanza Bash

this be my ma and pa.

so as it ain't surprising that BD and I got hitched.

we ain't that smrt. we need hlp. Please send money!

OK, OK, I'm just kidding. We ARE smart! At least that's what we tell our friends.

Seriously, let me tell you about the Burns Buckeye Bonanza, my mom's brainchild.

It started six years ago when the tree behind my parents new home dropped an amazing amount of buckeyes in the fall. So Mom (tradition starter extrodinaire!) created a celebration that included food that started with "B", the Buckeye Toss (a way to get rid of all those pesky buckeyes by throwing them at empty cans), and the Buckeye Guess where we guessed how many buckeyes were in the bucket (over 1000 that my mom counted out on her own each year).

Over the years, the Buckeye Bonanza has grown more and more elaborate with customized competitions, gifts, and prizes. Then my sis-in-law Leah (or Snizzle-Sis) got involved...

(Pictured here with my brother)

...and it got even more elaborate (and fun).

This year, Leah's mom...

...was visiting from LA and SHE LOVES this kind of thing so guess what? This year's bash was THE BOMB-DIGGETY.

So without further ado, here's some pictures from our sixth annual celebration at my brother and sister-in-law's house. In the words of my kids, it was, "...as much fun as Christmas!".

Peanut butter and chocolate buckeyes.

Birthday Boy Bronco cake. (It was my nephew's first birthday).

Buckeye Toss.

Buried Treasure Hunt.





Bubble blowing Contest.

Bad Teeth Bash.


Birthday Boy.

Bye-bye, ya'll!!!

practical joke

I have a friend who's a practical joker. I caught her trying to "sneak" and put a bumper sticker on the back of my minivan when I wasn't looking. I'm glad I stopped her because that thing could have been on there a long time before I noticed it. And for anyone who knows me, I would NEVER put this saying on my car. Hmmm. I guess that's why it would have been so funny!

practical joke II

Oh, you want to know what it said?

If I'm speeding, it's because I really have to poop.

Sunday Scrappin'

I have been hit and miss (mostly miss) for posting lately...I'm surprised there aren't cobwebs on here!

Anyway, Amy came up with this cool meme where people share their craft ta-das and to-dos for the week. Go here to check out lots of other awesome creations...

I have scrapped several pages the last two weeks. I'm up to 161 for the year I think. The ones I'm posting are all Christmas pages from 2003 and signal my completion of that year. Yay! I'm only about a month behind on current events, but a lot of stuff has been going on that I need to scrapbook. In fact, today is our 6th annual Burns Buckeye Bonanza, Thursday is my husband's birthday, Friday is our 16th anniversary, and Sunday is my 40th birthday. So I'm going to have LOTS of pictures to scrap very soon!

Anyway, here's my last seven pages...




Wani reminded me of something that happened when I scrapped this page at our church craft night Friday. The three little green punched-out reindeer are made from a frog punch that I mistook for a reindeer head. But Wani agreed that it "absolutely looked like a reindeer", so I'm going with that! :-)

She made me do it!

There are many mysteries in life. One of the biggest is why we as humans feel that bad behavior on someone else's part justifies bad behavior on our part. As we were in the car last night, one of our children said something mean and nasty to another. When questioned about why they did it, they said, "Well she said something mean to me" as if that explained it.

BD: "What in the world makes you think it's OK to so something you know is wrong just because someone else does something wrong to you?"

Child: "I don't know, Dad. I was wrong. I'm sorry." (Our children have learned that to admit they've done something wrong to their dad immediately is the only way the issue will be resolved quickly.)

As I was sitting there listening, I started thinking about it.

Since I have said the phrase Just because someone else makes a bad decision doesn't make it OK for you to do something you know you shouldn't. If someone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? hundreds, maybe thousands of times throughout my parenting experience, BD's question about "What in the world makes you think it's OK" seems pretty obvious. It's the way we are. We are born that way and we will always be that way.

As adults, our responses to thing may be more sophisticated, but let's say you're at work and you have the opportunity to steal maybe something as small as a six-pack of coke (I'm thinking of my flight attendant days). The company treats you bad. The company used to pay for uniforms, now you have to pay for them yourself. Isn't that stealing from you? The company deserves it. Plus, a six-pack of coke won't make any difference anyway.

It started in the garden. That's why my kids will always say, "Someone else made me do it!" I just pray that by the time they are adults, they will have the maturity to understand they can overcome their human response and call upon God's help to say against their nature, "Just because someone else does something wrong or unfair or bad doesn't mean I have to." Now if only I would always remember it!