Thankful It's {My Birthday} Weekend

What a busy and fun week!  It was birthday week at my house!  My son celebrated his 6th birthday, and I myself, stepped up one more wrung on the ladder  going up "the hill."  

1. Last weekend, Will celebrated his birthday a few days early by having a party with all of his favorite friends. The boys made their own pizzas to eat for dinner, they tie-dyed t-shirts, the killed  piñata, and they wrestled with my husband.  They had a fantastic time being wild little boys.

2.  On Will's actual birthday I brought him  a special lunch at school, then we went to build-a-bear and he made a new friend named, Shawn.  After that we joined up with the rest of the family and my mom and step dad, opened presents and then had dinner at Will's favorite restaurant, IHOP.  He chose all you can eat pancakes for dinner, and he ended up putting down 6 pancakes!!! 

3. The day before my birthday I  celebrated a little early with a special best friends pinup photo shoot with my best gal, Katty Delux, with one of our favorite photographers, Foxy Pinups!

4.  I found out I get to go to Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend this year and I am so freaking excited about it!  I thought there were no rooms left, but miraculously one opened up for my bestie and I to stay in and have the time of our lives!  It's going to be so much fun!

5.  On my actual birthday I celebrated with some of my girl friends, with a sweet, laid back, pajama party given by Katty.  We dressed in our favorite pjs, ate some amazing breakfast foods at night, drank mimosas,   and watched two of my all time favorite movies,  Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, and Mean Girls.   I'm lucky to have so many amazing ladies  to call my friends.

 

 

Catch Up

Geeze Louise, I have been on quite a little blogging hiatus lately.  My lovely little laptop's hard-drive crashed, then after it was fixed, the battery charger stopped working (and my battery needs to be replaced so it barely functions without being plugged in.)  Being the thrifty, frugal shopper that I am instead of buying the charger from Best Buy for $60, I found one on ebay for only $12,  however when I got it.. the term "universal" didn't apply to my laptop because the plug didn't fit.    Anyway with my lack of working computer this past month, I have not been able to post on here, and that has really bothered me.  But I am back now, and look for weekly features to start up again next week!  

So since I have been gone since right before Christmas, I  thought I would fill you in on how things have been since then.

--Christmas was one of the best Christmases I've had in a long time, I hosted my family in my home and everyone got a long super well, we ate great food, and exchanged great gifts.  My husband got me a super amazing and eccentric vintage tiger print coat that I love,  I got him a bank account to gather funds to spend on his 66 Mustang with a promise to deposit at least $50 per month in it.  Will got tons of stuff to do arts and crafts with which he is really into these days, and Shaylee got two pairs of boots that she has desperately wanted for some time. 

--New Year's we didn't do much, but we did eat some really good tacos.

-- My computer had drama

--My husband's car broke down  and it took over a week to get it running again

-- I used some of my Christmas gift money to get a new tattoo,  its a cute little birdy on my forearm that is holding a banner that says "worthy."  I chose this because #1 the bird is cute and reminds me of the birds in fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella that always help the princesses with their chores.  #2 My bird and his little banner helps  me to remember my worth, sometimes I forget.. now I have a constant reminder 

--I really want to get another part time job,  not having a real good reason to get out into the world and get dolled up on a regular basis is bringing me down a little.. plus the extra funds would be helpful, so I have been on a little search for something that would be a good fit for me... still looking. 

That's about it for now, sorry I have been away for so long!  I really love this blog and I always hate when I feel like I neglect it.    How have you all been? 

Thankful It's the Weekend

This week has been a whirl wind.. so much going on and so much to do!  Here are some of the notable happenings from the week:

1.  My daughter Shaylee performed in her end of the semester theater class review of Sound of Music, she was a nun and a very cute one at that!

2. Shaylee also got to be in her school's spelling bee.. she placed in the top 5 of her entire school!

3.  I got to go on Shaylee's (it was a big week for her!!)  special chorus choir tour as a parent helper and spend the day watching her sing! 

4. I am super thankful that my stylist is also my friend, so when I forgot about my appointment to color my roots, he called me and still fit me in.. in spite of his busy schedule!

5.  I helped host a girly "Kansas City Pinup Girls"  Christmas Party.  So much fun to get dressed up and laugh and exchange gifts with good friends.

6.  I exchanged Christmas gifts with my best friend, I was excited to give her goodies, and I was blown away with the gifts she showered on me!  She gave me  three amazing eye shadow pallets that I have been drooling over for months.  She also gave me two adorable coffee mugs ( she knows how much a cute coffee cup can cheer me up on a bad day)  and some amazing holiday tea!  It feels good to get a gift that actually took a lot of thought, and memory of things I had mentioned I loved.  I have the BEST best friend!!! 

7.  I tried to throw my husband a surprise birthday "gathering" it wasn't really a party.. but it was a dinner outing with friends in honor of his birthday. His birthday is actually Christmas day.. so he always kind of gets the birthday shaft. I really wanted to do at least a little something for him.  Unfortunately, I sort of gave away the surprise an hour or so before we were supposed to leave... then the weather got HORRIBLE (freezing rain, and ice rink roads)  We had to drive a good distance to meet our friends, we made a wrong turn, and went about 10 miles out of the way, and then to avoid hitting another car that cut us off, we ended up sliding into a curb and breaking my hubcap.   Dinner was great, but we didn't get to go to the movie we wanted to because the theater closed down due to the horrid weather.  The drive home was one of the worst drives of my life!  Our car lost control on over pass and was sliding so close to the edge that just dropped off to a huge, steep embankment!!  We ended up just spending the night at my grandma's house instead of driving all the way home.  The thankful part of this.. is that we didn't die.. haha, and that my dog actually didn't poop in the house after being home alone over night.


Now, Christmas is coming!!!!  I have all my gifts bought!  Just have to do a little cleaning, a little wrapping, and a little cooking!  I hope you all have a great week, and a very merry Christmas!!

Thankful It's the Weekend

I got a little behind in my blogging, so this post is covering the past two weeks! December is such a whirl wind month, so much going on, so much to prep for, and so little free time.. that I feel like I am behind in many things.. I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping, I haven't addressed any Christmas cards, and I haven't even began wrapping.. and the big holiday is only 10 days a way!  I am a procrastinator for sure!   Regardless of my procrastinating,  December has still been pretty good to me so far!  Here is just a short list of thankful things from the past {two} weeks!


1.  Christmas baking for the kids' school's bake sale

2. The kids getting to see Santa

3. Getting to be Santa's elf

4.  Christmas caroling with a group of wonderful friends creating amazing memories together!

5.  Epic thrift shop find of Teddy Ruxpin to bring to the most fun white elephant gift exchange party ever

6. Field tripping with my  little kindergarten man to Hallmark's world headquarters, and Kaleidoscope (a fun creative hands on craft extravaganza type of place) 

7.  My daughter's Christmas Dance Recital... hip hop drummer boy!!

8. Impromptu pinup photo shoot with an amazing photographer  {Atomic Photography}

9.  Apple Cider Vinegar and Nyquil helping me to get over an illness in 2 days that may have easily put me down for much longer

10. Letters from Santa

 

 

Thankful its the Weekend

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week!  So here is my weekly list of little things that made life great this week!

1. Shaylee won a spot in her school spelling bee and is absolutely thrilled about it, I'm so proud and super happy for her.

2. Hot chocolate as an after school snack on a chilly day.

3. Wednesday I took my kids to see a special viewing of the movie, ELF, playing on the big screen at a local movie theater again!  So fun to see it in the theater!  Shaylee brought a friend along who had actually never seen the movie, she loved it of course!

4.  THANKSGIVING... food... family... fun.. all of it.. (and especially my mom and step-dad who footed the bill for the family to eat out on turkey day, so we didn't have to cook or clean up)

5.  Getting good deals on infamous Black Friday.  I did not line up outside anywhere, in fact I didn't leave my house til noon, but I still managed to get some good stuff at a good price, without dealing with an angry mob!

6.  Christmas sweater party fun with friends!

 

 

 

 

Thankful It's The Weekend

This week my husband and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Yes, we married young (I was 19) , but yes I am older than you might guess (I'm 32)   We had a great day celebrating our "Lucky" 13th year and we gifted eachother with matching tattoos!  All though our anniversary day on Monday  was pretty amazing, the rest of the week had a lot of good bits to it too... here is my short list. 

1. Our Anniversary ... and 13 years of growing a strong relationship
2. A day to use my sewing machine to be creative
3. Putting up our family Christmas tree and decorations
4. Saturday Brunch and shopping with my bestie
5. A new haircut

Thankful It's the Weekend

I need to get back into the habit of posting these before 8pm on Sunday night, haha.  Just seems that  time to sit down and write on Saturday mornings has evaded me lately.  With the holidays approaching I am sure my weekends are going to become more and more full.  I already have many fun things to look forward to in the coming weeks.  Here is just a few things that made this week special.

1. A hot cup of tea at the end of the day..
2. My daughter's choir concert for Veteran's Day
3. Doggy cuddles from my sweet pup, Leo
4. Time to craft
5. Girls night with good friends
6. Sam's Club warm pretzels (so yummy and only 99 cents)

Not every week is super exciting, but being thankful for the little things is what makes life extraordinary.   What are some little things that made your week great? 

Thankful It's the Weekend ( AND I GOT TO GO TO A BUTCH WALKER SHOW)

The most amazing part of this week is by far the night I had last night.  So I am devoting this entire post to it.  I got to see my favorite musician of all time perform in a tiny venue that has a max occupancy of 240!  Butch Walker is his name, and I have loved him since I first saw him perform with his (then) band, The Marvelous Three, in 1999.  He doesn't tour much anymore since he has become a big time producer and spends a lot of his time making music for other artists (Weazer and Katy Perry just to name a couple) He even won a grammy for his production work in 2005. So this was a very special treat. Butch still stays true to his singer-songwriter, small venue touring roots.

Just having a date night with my husband was awesome, but to share the experience of seeing a musician  we both love perform was even better.  I had seen Butch perform a handful of times in 1999 and 2000, but its been 13 years since the last show I caught. 
 

Butch and I  October, 2000

 Geoff had never seen Butch in his performance glory, so I was excited for him to experience his "live" amazing-ness for the first time. 

Butch chose an amazing singer-songwriter named, Marc Scibilia, to open for him.  Marc was amazing, he was pretty easy on the eyes, and his voice was shear soul.  The lyrics to his music are the kind of words that resonate in your spirit and make you smile.  I had the chance to meet Marc after the show, and he was just as sweet and personable as he was talented.  Look him up and buy his music! 

 

When Butch came on stage and started singing, "Cigarette Lighter Love Song,"  a cappella,  I could have cried from the shear joy and emotion he brought.   I can't tell you enough how much I love his music. Truth is every Butch Walker fan LOVES him, there is no  half-sy liking this man, you if you know him.. you LOVE him,  and adore him. 

The show was just all around amazing, the most unexpected part was when Butch returned for his encore song and jumped off the stage into the middle of the crowd.  He told us to all kneel down and when he counted to 10 jump up all together.  As the music's intensity rose and Butch counted... we all jumped up at 10 and then all of the sudden the ceiling was snowing confetti on us!  This man knows how to deliver entertainment. 

pssst.. can you spot me in this pic?  I'm wearing a red dress!!

Most of you reading this blog have probably never heard of Butch Walker before, but let me tell you--you are missing out!  Look him up on itunes or youtube or whatever, and then enjoy!