It all happened on Friday

Yesterday was quite a day! It was the day after a HUGE storm ripped through the greater Phoenix area Thursday night. This storm brought lightening, wind, rain and hail larger than peas. And as we saw the next day, lots of trees ripped out of the ground by their roots and many more with huge limbs snapped off. It came in two waves (that I know of). The first one was before our kids went to bed. Of course we had to go outside because we are true Arizonans and we actually think a good storm is like a show. "But Crissie, isn't it dangerous to be outside while there is an electrical storm?" Of course it's dangerous but at least here at my house we are willing to risk the odds on being struck by lightening.

Round two of the storm came after Jason was sleeping. I was in the kitchen and I heard something hit the house (I'm still not sure what it was). I went to the back door and saw the rain in the glow of a streetlight blowing sideways. This was one powerful storm! I went to bed and during the VERY early hours between 2 and 3 a.m. I was awakened by Jason tossing a cat out of our bed. He said that Elvis had been digging under my extra sheet I use to keep me warmer. He had been awakened earlier by the cats wrestling around in the bathroom over something. So he tosses my extra sheet back and I can tell there is something in the bed. I remember thinking to myself, "Please don't let that be a turd". So Jason goes over to the light switch and asks me if I'm ready. On goes the light and this is what is in bed with us....

OMG! It's a dead bird!

I can only assume this not so little bird was wounded in the storm and one of my cats came across him. I'm sure which ever one of them brought this thing in must have been thinking he was a total warrior! And when we went downstairs for the day, we found feathers all over the floor in the downstairs hallway and family room. Downstairs was obviously where they had the most fun with their new friend.

After getting rid of the bird and changing the sheets we caught a few more hours of sleep. Later that day we took my sister Bev out for lunch to celebrate her birthday. Here are a couple pics of the little Rolodex scrapbook I made for her. I wish I would have had more photos to use but there were none to be had.

There were a few more pages but this gives you the general idea.

Then, I went with Bev and her girlfriends Teri and Becky out for her birthday dinner to a fabulous Italian restaurant called Vincitorio's. http://vincitoriosrestaurant.com/

This was my first time there and I will tell you that it will NOT be my last. For starters, the atmosphere is lovely. But most important, the food is wonderful! And I will tell you that even though I was totally stuffed after eating almost all of my Capellini Campagnola (that tasted SO good) I still had my share of sampling the 3 desserts we ordered to share. YUMMY!! And Bev had a wonderful time. Which is the reason we chose to be gluttons for the night.

Yes, it was a VERY long day. Some great, some not so great, and all of it just another day in my life....

Am I wasting time again?

So here I am taking another Blogthings quiz. I figured since I love to download great fonts that this was a good quiz for me.

What font are you? You Are Palatino

You consider yourself to be creative and artistic. And you'd like everyone else to know it! You take design and aesthetics seriously. You like everything in your life to be unique and beautiful - but never gaudy!

What Font Are You?

Oh boy!

I don't know where the time goes. It's almost the end of August already. My oldest sister Bev has a birthday coming up on the 29th (also my niece Sarah) and I still haven't finished my gift to her. I think I may have to get my old pictures out and scan them so I can complete the project.

I also have a birthday coming up on the 13th of September. I hit the big 39. But at least I'll always be younger than my sisters! LOL! I have no idea what I want for my birthday. When I think about it all I can hear in my head is my mom's voice saying what she ALWAYS said when asked what she wanted for her birthday or Christmas... "A CLEAN HOUSE". Ah, yes! I finally understand how that was always her greatest wish. Of course, I think I do much more of my own house cleaning than I remember my mom doing. I'm pretty sure she and my dad had kids to do the cleaning. It's been more than 4 1/2 years since she died. I really miss her.


I used to keep my cats indoors because we seem to be helping the food chain here in our neighborhood with my last 2 cats. They both found their way out through our doggy door and soon after were never seen again. Well, I had this idea of making a cage to butt againts the house outside the doggy door and I would house their litter box in it. It worked great. Cats would go out there and do their business and do the death chant while bird watching. It was so safe. But one day Elvis and JB had reached my last nerve after they thought that walking on me at 3:30 in the morning and pawing my head was a good idea. They had been waking me and Jason up pretty regularly through the night and poor Jason has to leave by 3:30 a.m. (hence the cats assumption I should be up, too). So that morning I opened the trap door that used to keep them in the cage. I told them that there was a coyote out there somewhere needing a meal. Well, so far they haven't become coyote chow. Of course I hope they never do. I think they are pretty fun most of the time. Let me show you some photos of my brats...

JB and Elvis in the cage of safety and misery.

JB practices his "Mighty Hunter" move.

Elvis is most likely making JB laugh!

Now remember folks, my birthday is still a couple weeks away so you have time to get me something nice. LOL!!

New header!

I got tired of the photos in my blog header so I redid it. I thought it would be nice to go for a girlie look. As you can see, I ended up leaving the layout like it was. In case you're wondering, I used the digital kit "Princess of Lala Land" by Sweet Shoppe Design. Such a fun kit!

You animal!

I took this quiz this morning.

ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Your Result: Tan Giraffe Loner. You're a sort of a loner, but you are very brave and a quick thinker. You have a little secret: you like to help others. Soul Mate is the Red Jaguar, but you hate the Marroon Panda.
Ocre and Gray Dolphin
Silver and Red Wolf
Gold Falcon
Teal Cat
Red Jaguar
Blue Fox
Yellow Trout
ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I think that being a Tan Giraffe sounds cool... but who in my life is the hated Maroon Panda?

Where have you been?

I have just been waiting around for something good to happen so I could blog about it, but if I keep that up I will never get around to my blog.

This month I was trying to do the "Photo a Day" to scrapbook some pages but I missed a couple days. I suppose on those days I can just say "oops". Let me tell you, finding something interesting to take a picture of every day is hard. And how bad of a mother do you have to be to not take ANY pictures of your kid on his birthday? Yup, Jacob's 15th b-day came and went and I didn't even get any pics of him on his big day. It's not like he was here all day...it was his dad's weekend and the boys didn't get home until after dinner so I'm going to use that as my excuse. Do you suppose I should make another cake and fake some pics? I'm sure Jacob would go along with it if it meant more cake!

Well, that's about it for tonight folks. I'll just leave you with this photo of my kitties...

Elvis & JB: Just showin' the love

WOOHOO! School is back in session!

I have to tell you how glad I am that the kids are back in school. My boys are out of the house and I have peace and quiet again. This means I now have a sophomore in high school and a 7th grader and my hubby has an 8th grader and 4th grader. Jason and I joke that we only have 9 more years and then we can move away! Or maybe we aren't joking...

This Sunday, Jacob (my oldest) turns 15. I won't see him until that evening since this is their weekend with their dad. I plan on baking a cake so we can celebrate when he gets home. German chocolate is always popular with our kids so that's probably what I'll end up making. Hopefully they will eat most of it because cake tends to call to me when I'm in the house with it.

I'm trying to find some great recipes for dinners. I plan to put together a recipe file filled with meals that have proven to be eaten by most of us. Jason and I both hate to cook if nobody is going to eat. A while back I came across a recipe for Bourbon Chicken on Miss Kim's blog http://misskim.typepad.com/justmisskim/. It's wonderful! She has others I plan to try. Thanks Miss Kim! If you have any meals that are well received by children, let me know.

This morning I realized there was no milk in the house. I hate when that happens. My boys are HUGE milk drinkers but terrible informers about the milk status. Also, we have the whole gang here tonight and I need to make sure there is food to eat so it's off to the store! Guess that means my day has to start for real. Bummer.