Well, hello sunshine!

Awh, glorious sunshine is IN DA HOUSE. Yes, I'm a little happy, hey.. after all the rain that we've had, you would be, too. :) Although, those crazy loud birds just chirping away at 5am was NOT what you're looking for in the morning. ESP. when the stupid cat was outside when it started storming & the wind was blowing all crazy fast.. and then yours truly, the freakshow that she is, just HAD to get up & call for him (I have a tender heart, don't ya know... :)).. just for him NOT to come & waking up Courtney in the process. Nice.
Sadie, get a life and leave me alone, you're cramping my sleep. I mean, it's only been THREE nights in a row now. Ugh.

Anyways... we did some flower shopping yesterday after D got home from work. We loaded up Sissy & Addi, and off we went. Trust me, Aspen wanted no part of it. Don't ask me what kind of flowers we ended up getting.. I have NO idea. Although, I DO know that we got an Elephant Ear plant to go in the center of our barrel. :) I like him. We got some purplish flowers to go around the parameter of the barrel (which, I scored at Big Lots.. shocker, I know :))..


then, in the simi-middle of the barrel, we will be planting these yummy YELLOW ones.

That's the elephant ear guy in the background. He will go in the very center of all the colorful goodness. I'm excited. I'm getting ready to head out there now and plant them. :)

I planted these last night. The little planter was from Big Lots :) ... $6. SCORE.


No idea what kind they are, but here's a better shot.


And, I planted these, too:


I have a few more pots to fill.. then I need to go back to the flower place & get more flowers. I forgot all about the planters in the FRONT of my house, which are bare right now, so... need to add a splash of color out there. I've learned that those flower things? EXPENSIVE. (but).. I was VERY happy to ask the guy who worked at the place last night about soil. You see, my husband likes to do things his way sometimes. Hey, that's not a secret, so don't act like I'm bagging on him or something. Not the case.. right now. :) Anyways, he bought some GARDEN SOIL at Sams.. huge 'ole bag for $7.99. Thought it was quite the deal. However, I was not sold on the idea that this was the right soil. I mean, "Garden Soil" and "Potting Soil", (to ME).. means just that: Garden soil goes in your, I don't know.. GARDEN? And the POTTING Soil, well.. you get the point. So, as we were checking out last night I told D to ask the guy about the soil. He said, "It's fine.. it's going to work fine. Trust me.". Um, yeah... the whole "trust me" gig coming out of my husband's mouth? That ALWAYS means trouble. Sorry, just being honest here. SO.. I give my dear husband a smirking smile (it's me, what do you expect?), and shoot off the question to the sales guy about the soil we have and if it would work. He said no. :) He said he def. woudln't recommend it, potting soil would do the trick. My husband smiled at me. And I just grin and said, "Glad I asked!". :) So, we left there with a huge 'ole bag of potting soil and, we'll just take the good 'ole GARDEN soil back to Sams where it belongs. After all, you HEARD how our garden turned out.. errr. didn't turn out, should I say.. LAST year. So.. yeah. It's amazing the things you learn when you speak up and ask, huh? :)

Anyways... the hub & I went out to dinner last night. We had this awesome little "date" planned on our deck, but... he ended up getting a VERY important call relating to one of the biggest deals that he's working on right now, so our plans had to change a bit. Not a big deal. I had a coupon for a "B1G1" gig at the mexican restaurant :) and I wasn't afraid to use it.... expired and all. :) Hey, it was only expired for 3 days, the girl was either nice about it or she didn't even bother to look. :) We had a really nice time. The girls ended up having dinner on the deck while I planted flowers & D got a package out. :) So, it all worked out.

It's testing week at school for Addi and Aspen... blaaaah. They have this "challenge", Phillipo week, where you can't watch TV, play video games, or play on the computer all this week. You are challenged as a family to put God first & do more things as a family. Naturally, Aspen didn't even want to TRY. That kid... getting her away from anything electronic, yeah.. never a good thing. HOWEVER, my precious angel, Addi :) :) ... she was SO excited about doing it. They have this "bingo" card thing, where if you do certain things on the list you get to put an "X" through the number. She's already done 6 things. Does that surprise you? When she came home from school, after things settled down.. snacks, talking, etc. etc... Addi grabbed her book, went into the living room & started reading. If I could clone that girl, I would, I swear. She is just so stinking precious. Not that ALL my girls aren't awesome & precious & all of that.. :) but little Addi, she's just so GOOD it makes you smile. The kid will not lie. She fesses up to any wrong doing. She sings worships songs ALL.THE.TIME. She is just a little angel. AND.. speaking on her sweetness. When I picked her up from school yesterday, she presented me with this:




and, open the card & this is what it said:


melts.my.heart I'm So keeping this forever.. and ever. :) She's just so stinking SWEET. (and).. if that wasn't enough. Most of you know that I've been without a dishwasher for the last 2 years now. Not a big deal, the thing broke and we just never replaced it. It's only a couple hundred dollars, but it's just never been made a priority. Yes, I wash dishes by hand in 2010... I've had my days when it has gotten to me. HOWEVER, other than the amazingly OLD, dry hands that I now have as a result of it, it really hasn't been that bad. It's a little relaxing, that or.. I've just gotten use to it. :) The GOOD news is, Darryl is on a roll on fixing things around the house (more on that, my friends, in a minute.. DEF. blog worthy material there, let me tell ya!), and he is looking at dishwashers so we can get one of those bad boys installed next week. I'm excited. BUT... if I hadn't been washing dishes every single day of my life, I wouldn't have expierenced THIS precious little picture that darling little Addi made for me: :)


It's a picture of me washing dishes :), and Addi HELPING me. :) Tell me that just doesn't melt your heart. See what I mean? This little girl of mine, I could just eat her up.

This weekend was the big 'ole KY Derby. Chelcey bailed on school Friday (nice...) and I let her go to the Oaks race with her friend Brooke & her parents. Half the school was there anyways. :) She had a really good time.. here are a few pictures:






Aspen had a sleep over/slumber party on Friday night... and ugh, remember me saying how GROUCHY this kid gets when she stays over someone's house? Um, yeah... bingo! She has never failed me yet on this. The kid apparently stayed up until (get this...) 5am. She was a BEAR when D and I picked her up. SO grouchy, so I was THRILLED that she fell asleep in the car & we carried her inside & she slept the day away... exactly 3 minutes before 6pm when the Ky Derby Race was starting :) It was raining ALL day, so when the husband & I got home from picking her up, we both somehow fell asleep on the couch, too. :) I took a 2hr. nap, then had to wake up & take Courtney to my friend Cherie's house to babysit. But our way of celebrating derby? Apparently sleeping, eating chix mix on the couch with the girls, watching the race. :) LOW key day for us.. JUST the way I like it.

Sunday rolled around, church that a.m (which was INCREDIBLE!!!), then my husband decided to come home a changed man. Yes.. he took the initative to start working on all those little projects that I've been BEGGING him to do for, oh... YEARS now. No exzageration, might I add. He just came home, and started going to town. Don't ask ME what happened, but whatever it was... it hasn't gone away. He came home YESTERDAY (Monday).. after going to Lowes, he installed a new toliet seat, towel/toliet paper holder... patched 3 small holes, and PAINTED them (yeah.. I KNOW!!).. on Sunday he cleaned his entire work shop downstairs (you coudln't even walk in there, no lie!).. he cleaned up the bathroom downstairs, changed out the light bulbs in our crazy-tall ceilings... yeah, the boy got out the big 'ole ladder, TOO. He EVEN changed out the light bulb in our entryway.. again, VERY tall ceilings.. that thing has been burnt out for, I kid you not, 2-3 years.. AT LEAST. And now? IT WORKS. I KNOOOOOW.. right????? (and).. if that wasn't enough, he bought dimmer switches for our dinning room & bedroom.. he tried to install them yesterday but bought the wrong kind, so he is returning them today. AND... (I KNOOOOOW.. it just keeps on going, doesn't it????).. he woke up this morning to inform me that he had bought the replacement knobs for our kitchen cabinets that have been missing a few for a good YEAR. Dude, are you SEEING what I mean about this being BLOG WORTHY? This NEVER happens. Ever. He also set up our table/chairs for our deck... (and).. he wants to STAIN our deck this weekend. HOLY COW.. someone call the Dr., because really... something happened to this boy. He told me today that he'll do more stuff today when he gets home. Pffft.. like I"M going to complain. :)

Okay.. SO much more I could share (shocker, I know...) BUT... I promised D I would come over to the office for a few hours & work on a package that needs to go out this evening. He got a HUGE call yesterday about a AMAZING deal that looks like is going to happen. All I can say is pray-pray-pray for this door to open up, because if it does... oh my goodess. I'm a firm beleiver that if it's in God's will, it will happen. If it is not, then... well, there's a reason behind it. BUT, I need to do my part by helping and if you saw me right now, you would understand that I need SOME time to put myself together before I head over there. I just throw myself together in the mornings when I drive the girls to school.. and well, that just doesn't work when you're really going out in public. :) LOL..

So, in case you haven't been following my HAIR deaster on facebook. I went in to have my roots done. I had went from blond to dark auburn in December. LOVED it. Perfect shade, and I just honestly loved everything about it. THEN, I went in a MONTH ago to have the same color put on, cover the greys, brighten it up. I went to a different girl, who.. apparently, had only graduated a FEW WEEKS BEFORE. Umm, WHY didn't they tell me this BEFORE I let her do my hair? She turned it BURGANDY RED. It was BAD.. SOOOOO bad. I would never in a million years share this HORRIBLE picture of me taking on Easter, but... what the heck? Someone's gotta feel my pain. This is what I left with:


I THEN went back in about 1.5wk later, to have Haylee "fix it". WHICH.. she added brown on top to help cover up all the red/burgandy, but then messed up by adding carmel HIGHLIGHTS. Only, my hair absorbed the color WAY better than she thought (her words)... and the "carmel" highlights were ORANGE in some areas. SO, I had burgandy, red, brown, carmel, and ORANGE action going on in this head of mine. I don't have any "outside" pictures of my head then, but I'm telling you.. THAT'S when you could see all the colors.. it was like a flipping array of flowers on this head of mine. It would BLIND you.. no lie.

SO, I had to wait 2wks. to have them "correct it". That afternoon, I had Courtney take a picture of the "before" hair (the stripey mess) BEFORE I left for the salon that day. It looked a lot worse in the sun, however... looking at THIS picture, I'm wishing for ANYTHING that I would have just left it alone. It's sick people, just sick..... AND, on top of it ALL... THEY CHARGED ME HALF PRICE to turn it BLACK. $58 to look like I'm a Goth Mom. Nice... JUST the look I was going for. I COULD choose to say a lot of bad things about the place that did it to me, BUT.. I'm rising above it, cutting my loses (ugh-hem).. and just never-ever- going back. And, well.. warning anyone that even MENTIONS "hair" NOT to go to that place. Hey, it's JUST hair... nothing time won't fix. I've been every shade under the sun lately, what's one more? Afterall, "Black" is the new "Blond", umm. right????... Sure, whatever... I'll never be so glad to watch the calendar days go by.... brown will never feel so good. :)


So now, I'm BLACK. Which, is THEE worst color.. even AFTER that horrible burgandy RED stuff I had going on, that I've ever had in my entire life. The husband likes it. WHY or HOW, I have NO flipping idea. Me? I feel SOOOO "un-me". BUT.. I just roll with it, make fun of it, and will just wait it out to fix it. :) Hey, things could be worse... right? :) BUT, it's black. Nothing "chocolate brown" about THIS mess. I will share a picture of me yesterday.. it's rough. I asked for "Chocolate BROWN".. I left with "BLACK". I mean, did I ASK for "DARK CHOCOLATE?".. I've never even LIKED Dark Chocolate. This color makes me look SOooOOO washed out now and I'm actually sporting a TAN, though with THIS black mess, you would never know. Hmmm, I wonder if they are having any try outs for the Adam's Family? pffft.. ya THINK?????


the picture says all that needs to be said. "STAY AWAY FROM THATSTUPID SALON, YA FOOL!".... lesson learned.

I'll leave you with a picture of Courtney. Because she's cute, and well... it's best if you look at HER last, before me.. that way.. SHE'LL stay in your mind, and not that nappy head of MINE. :) LOL...



Have a wonderful day. :)