Catching up (pic heavy)

So I've been up to my usual.......taking care of my 2 men, working hard, keeping up on the sports world and papercrafting. Speaking of sports, I am SO happy that the NFL season has started? Love me some football :-) We usually catch 3-4 home games for the hometown team, but this year we're gonna travel to Atlanta to catch the Falcons vs. Eagles game. That should be interesting.

We've also been doing some traveling at the end of this Summer. Mr. R and I, along with our good friends and business partners, went to Atlanta to celebrate our anniversary. We've been together for 12 years, married 6 and I still love him :-)). Here are some pics from the trip:

**at the Georgia Aquarium**

**at the Botanical Gardens**

**at the Botanical Gardens. Don't they look like triplets, lol**

After that, I went to Vegas with my mom and baby brother to visit my other brother. He moved out there in April and has been asking us to come visit ever since. This was my first trip to Vegas so my expectations were REALLY high. Um, I didn't realize it was so damn hot out there! OMG, I had to go clothes shopping immediately after we got off the plane! I packed some jeans and that was NOT gonna work! I'm used to heat by living in Florida, but er um this was some dry ass desert heat! Here are some pics from that trip:

**at the Eiffel Tower restaurant**

**the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge over the Colorado River**

**on the observation deck overlooking the Hoover Dam & Colorado River**

I really enjoyed myself, but I couldn't cut loose like I wanted to with my mom there. I plan on going back with some girlfriends. Now that should be fun.

Last week was RJ's 3rd birthday! I can't believe my baby's already 3 :-( For his birthday, he kept telling us he wanted to "ride the train with Mickey Mouse!" So we took him to Disney last Saturday. He had a blast and we enjoyed watching him experience it all. It rained ALL DAY, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pics from our trip:

**my little man after he got his Mickey hat**

**Mr. R & RJ posing with Pooh & Tigger. That hat is NOT a good look for Mr. R, lol**

**The last pic of the day. My baby was T.I.R.E.D.**

I've also been getting some papercrafting done. I'll post more on that later. Sorry to be MIA for so long, I'll make up for it......what, I will!

weekday recap, a lil' football and a lil' card making

So what did you do with yourself this weekend? I spent most of yesterday re-organizing the garage and purging (yet again!) some clothes and shoes. I'm trying really hard to only keep things that I use. I've found that my life is much less stressful when things are decluttered, organized and in their respective proper places.

Now today is somewhat different. I'm spending the better part of my morning completing work for Mr. R's business. Did I mention that we're small business owners? Probably not.....anyhoo. I have handled the admin/HR portion of the home healthcare business since it's establishment 1 and a half years ago. I try to support him as best I can and making sure all employment guidelines are being followed is my way of doing that. Of course this is free of charge (as best he can tell), but here lately it has begun to interfere with my day job.....you know, the one I actually earn a salary for doing. So, I've decided to set office hours for the homehealth business. This week was the trial run and everything went pretty well. Aside from one of the employees thinking it was okay to yell at me because her trifflin' tail submitted a direct deposit form for an account that her bank closed! In her words "I went in to close my savings and they closed both accounts." Now yall know that heifa knew that was a lie when it left her lips! So she got a "Mmm hmm. Well per the authorization form you signed, you will be responsible for the $35 rejection fee." That's when the yelling started and that's when I had to remind her that this is a business and her place of employment so she *might* wanna lower her tone! We'll see how my evening and weekend schedule works going forward. I'll keep you posted.

So, what am I doing with the rest of my day.......preparing for Super Bowl XLIII of course! We've invited over a few friends so I have plenty to keep me busy before the first guest arrives around 6:00. I'm not making the wide variety of food that I normally do. I have my eye on a dvd/navigation system for my truck and I was not about to drop $300 to feed this group! Here's what I have on the menu:

• Wings (honey BBQ, mild buffalo & teriyaki)
• Fried fish sandwiches
• Spicy Spinach, Artichoke & Shrimp Dip
• Seafood Pasta Salad
• Fruit Salad
• "No Yo Mama's Banana Pudding" (this is a Paula Deen recipe & it's the best I've ever had!)

I was also able to get a lil' card making done this week. Here are some Valentine's Day cards I was able to finish for my friends:

After today, it's back to the grind. I hope you all have a fun, productive and stress-free week :-)!

Weekend Recap *Pic Heavy*

Whew! That about sums up my weekend! Friday was a crazy day and it all started with work. Have you ever had someone come to you in the 11th hour and demand request something that they need ASAP? My director did this to me on Friday. No big deal because he's a good guy and an even better boss. Another thing, why is it that this ALWAYS happens as you are about to leave for lunch or decide that you are leaving work early?Add in the commotion coming from the daycare lobby and it was a hectic day! Who brings FOUR children with them to apply for a job? It wouldn't have been so bad IF they were mannerable or quiet. These children were jumping from chair to chair and playing with the computer workstations! Of course, the applicant got a few 'side-eyes' and a little unsolicted, but very much needed advice about controlling her children. After work, I had to pack up my supplies for the all-day crop that I was attending on Saturday. I couldn't decide what I wanted to bring so I brought a lil' bit of everything.......sad shame :-(

One of my LSS usually has one of these crops at least once a month and I make every attempt to attend and show my support. My friends and I had a great time at the crop. We got a lot done (pictures to come)! I finished 7 pages of a baby boy album I'm working on (can you say PROGRESS). One of the ladies in my group was a newbie. I was LOL observing her reaction to some of the things you could do with paper, pictures and adhesive! I think we've converted another one, LOL! We played fun games and had excellent food and snacks! I won three 20% off 'everything within your reach' prizes and my table won the Scrappin' Squares game to earn 40% off any one item (which completely blew my budget)! Here are my 20% and 40% off purchases:

I love minibooks, they're my latest addiction. I've wanted more of the Bazzill In Stitch'z line since I purchased my 1st set of templates. I've also been stalking all the craft stores for the scalloped square punch, no one ever seems to have it in. I guess it was my lucky day because I found everything I wanted and I got it all on sale :-)! Here are the pages I completed for a 'baby boy' album I'm working on:

*sorry about the quality of the pics. I'm working on figuring out the scan & stitch technique*

Sunday was a cleaning and laundry day. Well, what I could manage in between watching NASCAR, NFL and the women's final at the US Open...LOL! Did I mention that I love sports? Of course, at this point I was missing my little man so I put down the remote long enough to scoop him up from Granny's. Now I have to "re-train" him to get rid of all the bad habits he picked up this weekend :-(! What is it about grandparents and their need to spoil and cater to everyone of their grandkid's needs? So, what did you do this weekend?