Happy Birthday, Tina!

My big sister is having a birthday today and I couldn't let the day go by without a big shout out to her on her special day. This picture was taken last year when she and Kim and my mom came to visit in September. I love this picture of the two of them.

Happy Birthday, Big Sis!

Someone else's birthday is also today - someone who I forgot shared a birthday with my sister. A long lost friend....Birthday wishes (and a pretty embarrassing picture) from her big brother can be found here.

Photo a Day - Day 17 & 18

I had to work late last night so didn't get a chance to post the photo of the day, so you get two today.

Day 17 - Maggie looking out our guest bedroom window out on the golf course.

And Day 18 - In honor of our seven year anniversary....(You gotta love self portrait mode...it really flatters the fair skinned, don't you think? Wow, a double chin, even! And I still actually posted this - amazing!!)

An additional big shout out to Del's nephew, Ben. Happy Birthday, Ben! Hope you had a fabulous day!

Happy Birthday, Del!

Happy Birthday to my favorite person in the whole world! We're now the same age!! :o) Happy Birthday, honey. Thank you for growing old with me.

Life Happens...

Man, can a lot happen in just one and a half months. So here are a few of the highlights (and a few not so "high"lights)


Sept 5 - Tammy travels to Toledo for the weekend
Sept 6 - Tammy's great-nephew, Jesse's first birthday party


Sept 7 - Tammy's sister, Jenny's bridal shower in Toledo

Sept 26 - Tammy leaves for her girls only birthday cruise to the Bahamas
Sept 27 - Tammy's 40th birthday
Oct 1 - Del's business trip to Minneapolis and the Mall of America (without Tammy!!)
Oct 3 - Del's dad visits NC for the weekend
Oct 8 - Del's dad admitted to the hospital
Oct 9 - Tammy and Del travel to Toledo for the weekend
Oct 10 - Del's dad has surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm
Oct 10 - Jenny and Brian's rehearsal dinner
Oct 11 - Jenny and Brian's wedding

Oct 11 - Del's dad comes home from the hospital


And just because you've been waiting so long, here are some of my favorite pictures from our Montana trip (finally!).



Hopefully, our routines will be back to normal until the holidays start - whatever normal may be.

I will try to not wait so long before my next post! Until then...

Just me and the children....

I was a single mom this week.


While Del traveled to Salt Lake City Monday through Thursday, I was home alone with the children.


Maggie was such a good girl staying in her crate all day long while I was at work. She still so desparately wants to play with Chalupa, but Chalupa wants no part of it.

Poor Chalupa had an extremely rough week. She had to have three teeth pulled on Friday (the vet suggested doing it on Wednesday, but with Del away, I didn't want to be here by myself if anything happened to her). We were very nervous, particularly when the vet told us there is added risk when a cat over 10 years old goes under, especially when she is FIV positive like Chalupa. Leaving her at the vet in the morning was extremely difficult, but she came through it beautifully and is recovering nicely now at home. I think she is still a little loopy, but she is acting more like herself a little each day (while keeping her distance from Maggie, of course!)

Maggie is as cute as ever and is getting bigger every day. Here are some of the newest pictures of our not-s0-"baby"-girl...

She got a new toy today after her class...

And here is one with just her hanging out with Dad...

It really is amazing how big she is getting. She weighed 30 pounds at the vet last Saturday. She is finally starting to grow into those big feet of hers. :o)

On another note...a very special shout out to my mom who celebrated her birthday on Friday and a very belated birthday wish to my sister, Tina, who celebrated a milestone birthday on the 6th of this month. (This picture was taken of the three of us when they were here visiting in September.)

Happy Birthday, mom and sis! Lot of love to both of you!

Happy Birthday, Kim!!

Why can't I seem to wish people a Happy Birthday on the actual day?? This is definitely a character flaw of mine. It's not because I don't remember when their birthday is or that I don't think about them on their actual birthday! I just never get around to saying something on the actual day.

Yesterday was our brother-in-law, Kim's, birthday - a significant, milestone birthday, nonetheless. Although I won't tell you which one it is, since I don't know how he truly feels about it, but I'm sure you are able to guess.

I'm disappointed in myself as a scrapbooker because as I was going through all my pictures, I realized that I do not have a good recent picture of Kim. So here is a picture of him and Tina from our cruise four years ago. (As a disclaimer - I do have more recent pictures of Kim, just not ones that he is looking directly into the camera, so I thought this would be the best bet!)

Kim - We hope you had a great day, yesterday, and you have many more wonderful birthday's to come. Please forgive the tardiness of the well wishes.

Happy Belated Birthday, Bruce!!

A big shout out to Bruce, our brother-in-law, for his birthday, which was yesterday! Sorry for the late greetings, Bruce! Hope you had a great birtday!

For those of you who are wondering about the picture above - you can read the story HERE

Better late than never...

Del's sister, Laurie, asked the question on their blog "Have you made any New Year's Resolutions?" In previous posts, I alluded to some of the resolutions that Del and I made this year, but today, I actually committed to them even more by creating a layout of them.

I stole (or what is better known in the scrapbooking world as "scraplifted") the title for this page from one I saw in one of my scrapbooking magazines. Some of these intentions are pretty lofty, but having them down on paper will help us remember throughout the year what we should be working on.

I also started the projects from my scrapbooking class. The first project was to decorate an ordinary composition book and make it into a daily journal. I've never been very good at journaling, but I hope to use this book to write down a few words or statements each day to remember at least one thing special from that day I want to remember.

Well, another weekend is about over. Since Valentine's Day falls during the week this week, and since Del is scheduled to have is Lasik surgery next weekend, we decided to go on our Valentine's Day date last night. We were going to go to a very upscale restaurant for dinner, but Del ended up taking too long of nap and I ended up watching a movie too long (a movie I had already seen, none the less), so we had a little change of plans. Instead of going to The Capital Grille, we went to Hops before going to see the Charlotte Symphony. Since neither Del or I have ever been to the symphony, we can count this as our "new" thing this month! Yeah!

Although I talked with her on her actual birthday - I wanted to wish a very Happy Belated Birthday to my niece, Lisa! Her birthday was Thursday, February 8th. Hope you had a great day, Lisa! Lots of love of wishes coming your way!

Until next time...

Mom Update...

Mom had her surgery today. She did not need to have surgery on her right heel; the doctor believes it will heal on its own as long as she stays off of it. He fused the bones together on her left ankle with screws. He said her bones were very soft and brittle and he is a little afraid that the screws won't stay in place, so he has ordered her to stay off her feet completely - no pressure on the feet whatsoever - for three weeks. So she will be going back to the nursing home for the proper care and therapy.

The part that really stinks is her birthday is Thursday. It's never good when you have to spend your birthday in someplace like a hospital. It sounds like she may have a long haul ahead of her yet, so please keep her in your prayers.

Maybe for a belated birthday gift and a you-made-it-through-recovery gift, we should take her on a vacation. I'm sure she'd be glad to go anywhere other than a cruise! :o)

Happy New Year!!

Ok - so I'm a little late in wishing you a Happy New Year! Our New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful, we were both asleep by 11:30 (how sad is that?). We spent New Year's day taking down Christmas decorations. I get really hiped up about Christmas beforehand, but once it is over, I am ready for it to be done. Out with the old...in with the new.

I want to send a special heartfelt Happy (belated) Birthday to my sister, Tina, whose birthday was yesterday. She tells me this is the last birthday she is celebrating - she will be holding steady at this age (which, for fear of her disowning me, I won't tell you what that age is!) Happy Birthday, sis! I love and miss you tons!

Del and I started our Saturday at Dream Dinners. I somehow convinced him to go with me. He wasn't thrilled with it and has vowed never to go again, however, I have proof that he went at least once and even wore an apron. He was thrilled that I had my camera with me. (Being the scrapbooker I am, I resolved to take more pictures this year, so I can even be more behind in scrapbooking my pictures!)

Last night we went to see Edward Scissorhands at Belk theater. A really good show - very well done. I never saw the movie, so I didn't know the exact story line. I was also expecting a play and musical, however, there was no talking and no singing. Just a theatrical epression through dance - a modern ballet, if you will. I really enjoyed it. Del said he actually thought it was better than he expected, too.

After church today, in response to another resolution, I spent the day doing laundry and scrapbooking (well, kind of) while Del watched football. I was actually doing some crafting that wasn't really scrapbooking. As soon as the two projects I am working on are finished, I will post pictures here. Until then...