A proud mommy moment

This past Sunday, my oldest daughter left with her fellow drafting/vocational classmates to participate in the Arizona Skills USA competition in Phoenix, AZ. The school competed in several areas, and Haley and her partner competed in the Team Home Design category. Their jobs are to complete plans for a home based on specifications given to them. Haley's partner does the interior plan and the site plan, and Haley draws the front elevation and the wall section.

THEY WON FIRST PLACE!!!!!!

Here they are up on stage:



First place!!



Her partner and Haley with their medals:



I'm so proud of her that I can't even put it into words. She wasn't even going to participate in Skills USA, but her teacher saw potential in her and pushed her to do it.

Look out world. This girl is going to do great things. :)

Putting myself out there.

I decided that today I would bare it all. Now, before you all run screaming and throwing bleach in your eyes...not ME baring it all. I mean what my house looks like RIGHT NOW.

Now, I've been "sick" for about five weeks, and am finally on the mend. When I say sick, I mean that I was sick sick, but since then I haven't been able to get rid of my horrendous cough. It keeps me up at night, it keeps me down during the day, it just exhausts me.

And my kiddos have taken advantage of my lack of attention, as evidenced by my "before" pics.

So, shall we proceed?

Here is my front room, looking in from my kitchen area. If you were to come through my front door, you would see this room right away and back right out the door. I was even gracious enough to stand back far enough so you could see my messy dining table too. It's kind of dark, but if you look closely enough, you can see the piles of laundry on the couch. These were done intermittently, and my family was lucky enough that I took the clean clothes out of the dryer, much less folded them. But apparently they can't take the folded piles and put them away.



We're walking, we're walking...

Next we visit the kitchen. At one point, in the past five weeks, EVERY. SINGLE. DISH. we owned was dirty. I think my kids have forgotten that we have running water...and a dishwasher. Oh, and apparently "empty the dishwasher" means take all the clean storage containers out and leave them on the counter. I'm such a proud mom. I feel sorry for all future spouses. And your eyes do not deceive you: that is an iron on the kitchen counter.



We're walking, we're walking...

As we walk toward the family room, we quickly pass by the newest addition to our home; our back room. Notice the vacuum cleaner neatly displayed in the center of the room? My children have to walk past that vacuum cleaner each and every time they let the dogs out. God forbid they actually wrap up the cord and put it away.



Now! We've made it to the family room. Oh, the family room. Notice all of the empty dishes on the end tables? This is what happens when mom isn't right on top of them at all times. Because, after almost 17, 14, and 10 years on this planet and under my care...my kids STILL don't know that dirty dishes go in the kitchen after you're done. And yes, I allow them to eat in the family room WAY too much. That's my bad.



Turning to your right...

We have the other side of the family room, complete with a bajillion video game systems, movies scattered everywhere, doors wide open on entertainment centers, cords everywhere. And a yellow chair?



Now, I'm hoping that you haven't, but if you have clicked on these pics, you can probably see how much dust is in my house. Heck, you can probably write your name in it from where you're sitting. I am NOT duster. It's always been the very last thing on my cleaning list, and most times I just don't do it. I'm trying to change, though. Also, my carpets are filthy. Remember the vacuum cleaner a few pics up? Yeah. It's been there for a LONG time.

After a few hours of clean up this morning, this is what my house looks like now!!!












It's not completely spotless, but I would be just a little less horrified if someone dropped in unexpectedly. Still lots of dusting and windexing to do, but I'll do that later today. It's lunchtime now.

I always say that it just takes a few minutes, but I never seem to do the few minutes it takes. But like I said before...I'm trying to change. *Ü*

Be sure to have your barf bags ready...

Last night, we decided to have a "free night" for dinner. Hubby and I had eaten a late lunch so we were not hungry at all. Little man had a chicken patty and when she got home, Cass decided she wanted a frozen pizza.

I had gone grocery shopping earlier and found Tony's pizzas, the larger size, on sale. I picked up four of them.

Cass heated up the oven and proceeded to open up her pizza and get it ready to bake. As she opened the plastic wrap she said, "Um...there's a HAIR *in* the frozen cheese!!" Upon further examination, this is what we found:





Not one, but TWO hairs intertwined with the frozen cheese and pepperonis!!!!

I don't think that I have ever purchased an item at the grocery store that has had human hair in it.

I was disgusted beyond belief. I wrote "DO NOT EAT!!" on the box and stuck it back in the freezer. I will be calling the 800 number right away. Someone told me they may send me coupons to keep me as a customer. I think they lost any chance of that when I found the SECOND hair.

Lesson learned and a PSA.

Recently, a good friend of mine told me of the usefulness of baking soda. The cleaning aspect, the freshness aspect. I also discovered the money saving aspect of it as baking soda is merely 50 cents at Walmart!

In my grocery shopping excursions this weekend, I neglected to buy dishwasher soap. And, since I am a mother of three and we have five people in our family, dishes (and laundry!) are the bane of my existence. I hopped on the computer to see if anyone out in the 'net has used baking soda in their dishwasher. I mean, it cleans pans, it cleans and freshens the sink...it could do both in the dishwasher. Right??

Not wanting to overdo it, I half-filled the lidded compartment of the dishwasher with baking soda, turned it on "heavy load" and let the magic begin. Later, as I went to unload the clean dishes...I was horror-struck.

My dishes looked like this (click for closer view):



Baked on baking soda.

Let me tell you. This stuff does NOT come off. Not even after re-running the dishwasher twice. Ask me how I know.

In order to get this lovely baked on film off of my dishes, I had to SCRUB the heck out of each and every dish. Rinsing them off simply does not work. My arms ache, my back aches, I have cramps in my fingers, and my water bill is going to be sky high this month.

So, take it from this wanna-be Martha: Baking soda in the dishwasher? NOT a good thing.

Perpetual reorganization

I am forever reorganizing my scrap room. Or should I say trying to. There is a challenge on twopeasinabucket but it is way too time consuming, my room would be in disarray too long...and I am just too impatient and want it done NOW, right or wrong.

This is what it looks like now:



So, I've been going into my room a little bit here and there, grouping like items together in baskets/totes and just sorting, for the time being. Once I get shelves and cabinets up, then I can start streamlining and buying containers that fit those areas.

Until then, I'll just keep trucking along! Hopefully I'll get to a point where I can at *least* whip out a layout or card!

Trying to change

Lately I've been examining the way I dress: extra-large t shirt, husband's shorts or my sweatpants, flip flops, hair in a bun.

Not very attractive.

I'm trying to re-do the way I think about dressing, which requires some new wardrobe items. I purchased an adorable black/white skirt on ebay, which I absolutely LOVE. But I'm trying to "funk" it up a little and am looking for some fun shoes to go with it. After that...I'll look for the oh-so-important shirt to match.

Look at these shoes:



Don't they just scream "FUN!!!" I'm not sure if they would go with the skirt I bought, but I might have to find SOMEthing to go with them!!!

In the meantime, I'll continue my search for the perfect shoe!!

Wow. Where has the time gone?!

I cannot believe it's been so long since I have updated my blog! I almost forgot how to find it and sign on!

Since I am trying to make all kinds of new changes in my life, I am reopening my blog! I'm ready to dive back into it and make it my own once again.

So, look for new entries on organizing, scrapping, shopping, and life in general!!