Where did it go?

The weekend that is. They all go by fast, but this one flew! I am happy to say that I am finally finished with my nieces rooms for the time being. Really all that is left are the drapes. Saturday, Eric and I went and spent the afternoon getting things done for their return home yesterday. It was lots of work, but lots of fun also. I had tons of pics to post, but blogger won't allow any. Not even one! Will try and post later today with all of the pics.
Saturday night, we went to my mom & dad's house. My mom cooked a corn & crab bisque (yummy)! And my sister and brother in law from Texas were there so we got to hang out with them. Hoping to make a trip there in a couple of weeks. Take a long weekend and drive out with mom & dad.

Need to start exercising again. Really bad! I am the most unmotivated person on the planet when it comes to these things, seriously. Every Sunday night I say I am going to start on Monday and then Monday comes and goes with no exercise to be had. Frustrated, aggrivated, unmotivated, LoL!

Another thing that I want to start today is ebay again. We were going through Cameron's closet on Saturday morning and the amount of clothes and shoes that do not fit him that I could put on ebay is astounding. Serious money waiting to be made sitting in the top of Cameron's closet in a storage tote. And about 12 more in the attic. We have been saving just in case we decide to have a third child, but really, who knows if that's ever going to happen. And we could always buy more clothes when that day comes, if it comes. Of course there will be a ton of cuter more stylish clothes when we do have a third (if we do have a third). Right now Eric & I are saying no on the third child, once Cameron starts school, check back.

Eric has been going on about Cameron's school supply list. He tells everybody that will listen how crazy it is that they have to have some of the things on the list. He says " if they would have tried this when we were in school they would have never gotten away with it". LoL. I have to admit it is a little much. I mean 2 rolls of paper towels, box of kleenex, hand sanitizer gel, baby wipes, Clorox wipes, Clorox sanitizing spray, paper bags, ziploc bags, paper plates, 2 packs dry erase markers, 3 packs construction paper on top of all the regular supplies (glue, crayons, etc.). Wow! I remember having to get paper towels and kleenex, but not all of the cleaning supplies. Anyway, Cameron is happy. He got a camouflage backpack for the Gap that he loves. He loves walking around the house with it and taking out all of his supplies and putting them back in. I remember doing that when I was little. But one of the best things was school clothes shopping. Unfortunately, they took that fun away. Now there is the option of the blue, red or white polo with the khaki or blue shorts or pants. WooHoo! I can understand the reasoning of uniforms, I just remember how fun school clothes shopping was. So glad they didn't start mandatory uniforms until after I graduated. That is all we have left to get for Cam are his uniforms. Oh and have his teeth sealed. LoL. Not for school, but he had a dentist appt. on Wednesday and apparently he has very deep grooves in his back teeth (that he gets from me) and there are some spots in them. The dentist wants to seal them before they turn into cavities. So that's an unexpected back to school expense. I had the same problem when I was a child. My mom took me to the dentist every 6 months my entire life and I have a mouth full of seals and fillings. Eric never went to the dentist once in his life (until he was 21), and has nothing. No seals, fillings, nothing. I have tooth envy. LoL. Not to mention that I had to wear braces for two and a half years and Eric's teeth are straight as can be. And the dentist already informed me that Cam "will be an orthodontic case"-yeah, something to look forward to. I really was hoping the kids would take after him with his teeth, but no such luck I guess.

Well, I think I have rambled on long enough! LoL. Have a great day everyone. Will try to post some pics later! Thanks for dropping in!

Sewing, Painting & Pooping in the Potty

Today started off great! Payton pooped on the potty! Now that's what I call a good morning. LoL! I got a letter in today about Cameron's kindergarden testing. He goes in on August 16th!!

Trying so hard to sew a throw blanket for my neice, Caroline's room. The thing is giving me fits! Have ripped the seam out more that once. I have 2 sides done, but the last two sides have not been at all cooperative. I definitely don't have my mom's mad sewing skills! LoL! She sews so well! I have done 2 throw pillows for her. Those were pretty easy. But having to sew the loooong blanket is what is not working out. I start off all perfect and pinned and then I get to the bottom and the sides are all uneven. I think I will stick to painting & scrapping in the future! The girls are going out of town for the weekend, so while they are gone, I am going in and doing their rooms, when they get home, they will be finished. My sis-in-law is not gonna tell them. We want them to be surprised.
It was pretty funny last night I went over to there house to pic up some photos. I found a pic in Pottery Barn Kids with 2 shelves and lots of frames all matted in coordinating colors (you know that famous pottery barn look). Anyway, I printed the pic out, went shopping and found the frames and mats. So I get to her house last night, and ask her for some photos that I could make black & white to frame and I show her the pic of what I wanted to do. She starts laughing, goes into the kitchen and brings out a PBK magazine opened up to the exact same photo and tells me she had planned to show it to me to see if we could do it. At least I know that we are on the same page! I love love doing this! I am not so comfortable with the rest of the house, but I love doing kids rooms. They are just so much more vibrant and fun!

I have been thinking about painting some canvases to try and sell on ebay to make some extra spending money. Some different prints for kids rooms. Thinking hard. Once I finish the girl's rooms, I may attempt it. Haven't used ebay in soooo long. I used to be so addicted, but I got burnt out on it. Once Cameron starts school, I will have a lot more time on my hands.

Hope everyone has a good Wednesday. It has pretty much been cloudy or raining here for the last several days but at least that beats the heat! Not a big fan of the scorching summer months! Ready for the fall!

Invasion

Well the blog has been invaded by the robots. LoL. They leave comments on the blog like "I find useful info here" and it is a link to some website. No thanks! So now to leave a comment, you will have to do word verification. Must get rid of the robots! Gonna post some recent Layouts for you all!

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was good. Saturday we were busy all day. I brought what I had finished for my nieces rooms over to their house. They loved everything thus far. Now it is round 2. This time, I am sewing pillows and even attempting a throw blanket (Mom, I may be knocking on your door soon for help, LOL.) But so far so good. I am also off to Hobby Lobby to buy some canvases to paint the artwork for their rooms. I am really enjoying doing this. It has been a lot of fun (& work)! Love it though!

On Saturday night, we cooked for Eric's mom & dad and brother & sis-in-law. That was nice. Except for the fact that while we were sitting outside grilling, it started pouring down raining so we had to move the grill under the patio and run inside. It rained almost all day Sunday too. So of course we had to get a nap in, but I was still able to get to sleep at a decent hour. We went to church on Sunday morning. It was quite hilarious. The sermon was about Myspace & Tom (the one who created it). He was comparing Myspace & Tom to our lives and God. It was a really good sermon and quite funny too. Then last night we had movie night. Much to Cameron's dismay, we watched Cinderella. Of course he loved it, but wasn't too thrilled to be watching a girl's movie. We popped popcorn and curled up under blankets to watch while it was raining outside-so nice!

Payton is beginning to be a little sneak. I was in the living room yesterday and I heard her in the kitchen asking Eric for a snack. He said "go ask Mommy". So she comes in the living room and says "Mommy, snack". I told her "not right now". She tells me "Yes, Daddy told me!". LoL. We had a good laugh about that. She is so smart that little girl!

Cameron got his new booksack yesterday. He has been walking around with it on his back ever since. I bought a few of his school supplies, and he put them in it the second we got home. He is so excited. Still have lots more to buy. Want to finish that soon, I don't want to be one of the ones who goes the week before when you cannot even get down the aisles. We bought his mat to nap on also. I've never seen a child so excited about a mat. He really cannot wait to start.

Well hope that everyone has a good Monday. It is a dreary rainy day over here.

Once Again, TGIF

Well I told you all Wednesday about helping my neices with their rooms. Been working on some things for them. Just wanted to share some pics.

Painting each of them a set of wooden letters with their name to hang on the wall. Love doing these. About to start on my other set this afternoon. Their names are so long-LoL! Also did these lamp shades for them. They picked out their own fabric and trim. The polka dot one has some air bubbles on the front that are driving me crazy, so the chances of it being taken apart are pretty high right now.

Had lots of fun shopping with these girls. Shopping with 4 kiddies instead of 2 was very interesting. The girls are older, so they are a big help. But it was still interesting! Not much planned for this weekend. I think tomorrow night, we are cooking for Eric's mom & dad. It is both of their birthdays. Isn't that strange? His mom & dad were born on the same day. Although it was a few years apart.

Payton has been walking around the house for two days now with Blue's Clue's ears on saying "Ho, Ho, Ho Berry Christmas". LoL. Where does she come up with these things? Yesterday, Cameron had a friend from his preschool class come over and play. I think he & Payton played together more than anything. He even came up to me and asked me if Payton could come play at his house. LoL. My neices left their game boy at our house when they were here the other day, and Cameron has been playing it non stop. I kept having to tell him to put it up and go play with his friend. But the little boy and Payton had a ball, it was quite funny. Most kids that come play with Cameron run from her and try to hide from her, but he kept telling her to play with him.

Wanted to leave you with a scrapbook layout (Ali-LoL). But blogger says no ma'am. At least he was polite about it-lol. Been scrapping up a storm, I think I did 11 pages in the last week and a half. I bought the kids some colors, markers and a huge tablet, so they have been creating right along side of me. Love that!

Have a fabulously wonderful weekend, blog readers of mine! Will have more for ya Monday!

Finally!

The banner is up. And that makes me happy. Unbelievable how difficult it is to do these sorts of things on blogger. And if anyone needs to know how, don't ask me, lol. It was basically dumb luck that I have it up. Tried many many things before I finally got it.

Going shopping with my nieces today, to decorate their bedrooms. Quite nervous about this! I think my decorating style is good-for me and my family. But helping someone else makes me nervous-and excited. I just hope that they like whatever turns out. If it looks good, I'll post pics. They both love Payton's room, so that makes me feel a little bit better. Their rooms are painted and bedding is in, so it's really just a matter of decorating.

Wanna hear something funny? Because our last name is Castro, people tend to think that we are Spanish/Mexican/Latin. We get phone calls and mail in Spanish all the time. Those Columbia House fliers that you get in the mail? Yeah, ours are all in Spanish, with only Latin music. Even credit card applications in all Spanish. When the caller id says "Los Angeles", I know whats coming before I even answer. Most of the time I don't answer, but sometimes I am curious to see if it is them calling again. Usually the lady goes into this long monologue all in Spanish, then I say "I don't speak Spanish", then she says "sorry", click. Ok, so I think it's funny!

We went to meet Eric for lunch yesterday. Tried a new restaurant-a Mexican one-LoL. Very good food. I was impressed. We absolutely love Mexican food, so it's always good to find a good restaurant. Then we drove home. Took over an hour to get home. Sat in traffic for about 30 minutes and went about 2 miles. Which is super fun with the kiddos in the back seat! As soon as we walked in the door it was naptime. Not really--but I made it naptime. When the kids woke up, they went out in the back yard to play while I cooked dinner. When I looked out to check on them, Cameron was pushing Payton on the swing. It was the cutest thing ever. She was smiling really big, and he was just standing behind her pushing. I teared up. I know silly, but I just realized how big they really are and despite the continous fighting, they really do love each other. It was one of those moments.

Well, have I bored you all to tears with my rambling today? Will stop now-lol! Hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Birthday

To my hubby! Well his birthday is actually tomorrow, but the chances of me blogging again tomorrow are slim. We are driving out to meet him at work to have lunch with him and that always takes up half of the day. 33 years old. When I met him, he was 24. Amazing how fast the time is flying. Friday night we had planned to go out for dinner for his b-day, but we ended up ordering out and staying home and watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns. We never used to watch Raymond when it played, but we got into watching reruns. They are especially nice this summer while nothing much else is playing. I tape all the ones that play on the DVR and once the kids are in bed we watch 3 or 4 of them. Such a funny show! Can't believe we had never really watched them before. Our other favorite to watch at night is the forensics. Forensic and cold case files. Love those!

Well I was not sure what to get him and he told me he wanted a new drill because his other one had given out. So that was easy, he got to pick it out and buy it. That is a load off of my mind. He is becoming increasingly harder to buy for. It used to be so easy. It's easy for him. He's a jeweler, so you can guess what I get for most birthday and holidays!

This weekend was hot! We worked out in the yard all day Saturday getting some things done around the house. So stinking hot! We also finished our bathroom on Saturday! Yay! It is finally done! Sunday it stormed for most of the afternoon so not much got done. Except for a nap that of course kept me up until 2:00 this morning, so I have been dragging all day!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Try to stay cool in this miserable heat!

TGIF!!!!!!!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!! So glad the weekend is once again upon us. The kiddies are sleeping at my mom & dad's house tonight. We are going out to eat for Eric's birthday (which is actually not until Tuesday)!
Gonna share some pics with you from yesterday. Eric put some meat on the grill and we just enjoyed our back yard. It is so nice to have grass. He mowed it for the first time yesterday.

The kids love being able to run around in something other than dirt & dust in the backyard. We have lived here a year and a half so it was long overdue. We have been battling wasps like crazy though. A few days ago, I went in the backyard and was spraying some nests down with the hose. They were swarming everywhere! When I went back inside, there were 6 or 7 of them waiting at the backyard, daring me to come back out-LoL. Anyway, I bought some spray and have killed tons of them this week. They are everywhere!

Sweet pic of Eric cutting the grass huh? Cameron snapped this one! He informed me that we now need a riding lawnmower after cutting the yard.

Already thinking about Cameron's birthday party. I love doing the kids parties. Although, Eric thinks that he's at the age this year where we will just go somewhere. We have a place called the Kart Ranch, where they have gokarts, bumper boats, puttputt and tons of games and a huge play area. We are thinking we will have it there. I am pretty sad about this. I love the decorating, making favor bags, food, the whole nine yards. I told him that he can't take Payton's away from me yet-lol. I plan to have at least 2 more parties here for her. Cannot believe Cameron will be 5 years old already. Note the new haircut. He wanted to cut it short so that he could spike it. He looks so much older!

And Payton, she cracks me up. I was in the bathroom putting on makeup this morning and she comes in saying "me makeup". I told her you don't need makeup you're beautiful. Then I proceeded to do a horrible rendition of the song "You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful to me". (Be thankful you can't hear me singing). And she puts on her poutiest of faces and says "no me bootful, no me bootful". She was very upset that I had the nerve to tell her she was beautiful (or maybe it was the horrible singing). Yesterday I bought some toilet paper at the store. When we get home she takes it and brings it to the bathroom. She comes out telling me "put up paper toilet". She calls toilet paper-paper toilet. Pretty funny, that little girl!

Oh and the crab cakes were delish! Someone had told me about Paula Deen's recipe on foodnetwork.com. Well I tried them and they came out great. Even the sauce to go with them was really good!

Well that it all I have for today. Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!!

Summertime Blues

Just finished reading my friend Brandy's blog. She had a baby born with a heart defect. The baby underwent surgery when she was just a week or so old, well that was last August. She was due to undergo her second surgery tomorrow to finish repairing her little heart. Well, the same virus that got our family also got their family. And she lost too much weight from the virus, now her surgery had to be pushed back to the end of August:( This poor little girl has been through so much already, and now the nasty bug is preventing her from having her surgery. So please keep little Drew in your prayers!

Not much has been going on here. Too hot to take the kids outside to play and we really haven't left much which is making for a long, uninteresting summer. We used to have a pool at our old house, and the sad thing is that we sold our other house the same year we put the pool in so we never really got to enjoy it too much. Well the pool is definitely calling our name. We plan to put one in here eventually, which means we will have to dig up all the grass we just planted, but that is definitely years away.

This is the scrapbook page that I wanted to share on Monday. Eric is talking on my pink phone. The title is "A real man uses a pink phone". In honor of the soon to be birthday boy. It is so hard to surprise your hubby when you do not have a job. Any money I spend, he knows about it. And if I ask for money to get him something nice, he tells me, that's not for a gift for me is it? Because I don't need anything. AHHH! Yet every birthday and Christmas, he gets me these nice gifts and I feel bad. For Christmas, I actually had to dig out an old credit card and charge his gift, then hide the bills until Christmas. So he got the gift and the credit card bill-LOL!

I am attempting to make crab cakes for supper. We had a ton of crab meat leftover from the fourth. Have a great day!

Nothingness

Well--Monday again! This weekend went so fast it is unbelievable. Friday I did lots of shopping without the kids. Went to all of the stores that I had been wanting to go to. Especially the scrapbook store. How I love that place!

Saturday morning I met my mom and we did a little bit of shopping for her living room. She just got new furniture and needed something big to go on the wall above it. Eric had to run to the mall Friday night, so I ran into Kirkland's and they had a lot of pictures on clearance for very cheap. So anyway, my mom and I went back on Saturday morning and she found one for $15. Regular $130. It was a little bit damaged with some scratches here and there. She also found some crackled glass sconces for $19. We made a stop at Micheal's on the way home and bought a gold paint pen, and some other paint for a grand total of $3. When we got home, we doctored the painting up and it looks brand spanking new. You can not tell it was damaged. So for $18, she got a huge painting for the wall. So anyway, I started thinking, why in the world didn't I look for a pic for our bathroom. So anyway, I went back Sunday afternoon and of course everything was gone:( I knew I should have looked Saturday!

An update on the bathroom, we have still not finished painting it. We started over a week ago and got one coat up on the walls, and we have yet to finish. I guess it has a lot to do with our being sick last week, but the kids were gone for 2 nights last week, and we were so lazy we just couldn't do it. This is the longest we have procrastinated on painting in our lives. Just can't find the mojo to finish it. Soon, hopefully soon.

Eric's birthday is coming up. He will be 33 years old next Tuesday. I know that he doesn't mind me sharing that, because he has no complex whatsoever about his age--LOL! Well yes he sort of does. He teases me because I will be 30 this year, but I have to keep reminding him that he will always be older than me! In honor of his upcoming birthday, I want to share a LO (LOL Ali, that's Layout as in scrapbook layout for all you non-scrappers:) with you. Ok never mind, blogger won't allow pics today.

Got a school supply list in for Cameron. Oh my goodness! Cannot believe that my little boy is going off to Kindergarten next month! I know I am going to cry that first day. With him in his little uniform and his backpack on his back! I still have a little while to get used to the idea, but it's coming so soon!

Very random thoughts today-I know. Thanks for bearing with me. Hope you all have a great day!

Spoke Too Soon

Ok, so on the last post-spoke way too soon. I guess it was wishful thinking on my part because Wed. night + me= sick, sick, sick. Up all night sick. Really and truly it could not have come at a better time though because I could not have seen me being sick trying to take care of the kids. Actually my mother in law wanted them to spend yesterday, last night and today at her house, so I was able to lay around without having to worry about the kids. I watched more TV than I have in a really long time. Eric got a free day off too. He brought the kids to his mom's house and by the time he stopped at the store for stuff for me, he did not feel like driving all the way to work. This was one bad bug. I called my mom yesterday and she had been sick too. (Sorry mom!) She got it from us!

Here are a couple of pages from vacation. Trying to stay on top of these things, I have so many that I want to scrap. Really don't want them all to end up in a box like all my other pics. (I have 2 Disneyworld trips worth of pictures that I have not even touched yet.)

Love this pic of Payton driving the pink car in Dollywood. She wanted a pink one so bad, Eric said he was even going to let the people behind him go until they could get a pink one. But thankfully, as they got to the front of the line, the pink one came up at the same time. She was so cute all short, with her pink hat on driving the car and Eric in the passenger seat with his arm around her.

So glad it's Friday. It has truly been a crazy week though. Eric was off Monday because he was sick, Tuesday for the fourth, Wednesday he worked, off yesterday because I was sick and he works today. The kids are not coming home until tomorrow morning. It is so nice to have a break after they were sick for 3 days. What is supposed to be a 24 hour bug (and was for Eric and I) had them sick for almost 4 days. So today I am off to the scrapbook store and Hobby Lobby with no kiddies in tow (my fave way to shop at these places). I only bring the kids to the scrapbook store if I know exactly what I need and I am just running in for a minute. So wish our scrapbook store was like the one in Gatlinburg with the huge play area and men's lounge. So cool. You could not get them out of there easily.

Anyhoo, hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. And Jenny,Ali & Dad- I hope that none of you got the bug from us! If you did, I am sorry:(

All Better Now

I am very happy to share that the family has been de-bugged. I am even happier to say that I never was sick. It amazes me that everyone in the house was sick all weekend and I never caught it. On Monday night I was actually contemplating staying up all night, because it seemed to hit in the middle of the night for Eric and Cameron. We had a very long holiday weekend with everyone sick and a lot of ruined plans but now, all is well.

On Tuesday we were able to have a crab boil with my mom, dad & sister and BIL from Texas. That was originally planned for Monday, but with Eric sick, it got pushed to Tuesday. And it rained for most of the day Monday & Tuesday anyway. Just a dreary holiday weekend all around! The good thing though, is that we have not had to water our new lawn. The rain has been doing that for us, so that's been good.

I am going to try to include more pics of Payton's room today that I could not include on Monday. She has only slept in her bed once, because if she would

have thrown up all over this bedding, I would have cried. I seriously did enough laundry in the past few days to last me a lifetime. But I'm not bittter. LOL.

My mom brought over her old sewing machine Friday for me to play with. So far, I have sewn 4 cord covers for some of the lamps around the house. Haven't been brave enough to attempt anything else yet. That is about all I have for today. Other than a virus, not much has taken place around here. Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th weekend!

One Cute Room & One Nasty Bug

I am very happy to say that after a lot of waiting, Payton's room is done! I love it, and I think that she does too. I will try to include as many pics as blogger will allow.


Her bedding comes from Bombay kids. The first time I saw it, I fell in love with it. It is so cute and so girlie. Her second birthday party was a french poodle theme and I absolutely loved it. It was my favorite party yet. I had tons of fun doing this room as well. I hand painted her name above the bed and the pics on either side. This is one of the pics and the other one is of the eiffel tower. The bed is my absolute favorite. I love all of the pillows on the bed. So, so girlie!! Her favorite color is pink and she wanted to paint her room pink, but since everything in the room is pink, we went with the blue.

We finished the backyard on Friday night. We had help laying the grass both nights. Thanks Mom & Dad! It looks so good. To actually have grass is so nice.

On another note, after we finished laying the grass and came in to eat, Payton threw up everywhere. I was hoping that something had just upset her stomach and it would be over. Well, about every 15 or 20 minutes she was throwing up. If that wasn't bad enough, Cameron woke up at 1 o'clock in the morning throwing up. They basically took turns all night on Friday. Eric & I got absolutely no sleep. And the fun continued for most of the day Saturday. By Sunday, they were finally feeling better. They missed their cousins swimming/pony ride Saturday so they were pretty upset about that. Payton got her new bed in on Friday, and could not sleep in it until Sunday night. At about 2:15 Sunday morning, Eric wakes up throwing up. As I type this on Monday, he is home from work sick. So alas, I guess more plans ruined. I am hoping & praying that I am not next in line.

Well that is about all for the pics today. Blogger has once again cut me off. Will try to include more next time. Have a great July 4th everyone!!