Lush Cosmetics

Have you tried these?

Nicky has been bringing me some products from Lush Cosmetics every once in a while.  Usually a bath bomb or something else fun for the tub.  I really like these products.  She gets them in Kansas City, we don't have any stores around here.  This is the lava lamp.  It's fun to try something different!

Sissy Came to Visit

Nicky came over to see us today.  She is now living in Springfield with one of her friends and will start school at Ozarks Technical College on the 20th of August.  She and Kasey played outside while I tried to get pictures.  It’s almost impossible to get a good picture out of Kasey, he just doesn’t want me to take his picture.  He’s in for years of me taking his picture, so he better get used to it, don’t you think? 

 

I think she was pretty happy when she left, I sent her with my old cookware set, 3 skillets, 2 pans and a big pan with a strainer and glass lids.  She said her room mate only had a couple of skillets and the handles were falling off.  These pans should last her for years.

I’m such a good stepmom!  It will probably take her years to realize it.  HA!!  Oh well. 

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Living Room Edition

Kelly's Korner is a blog I like to read and have been reading for over a year. She is hosting a show us where you live Friday challenge. This week is the living room. So here's our living room.

Mark made the cat stand for our cat. I think he did a great job on it. Our cat sits on it a lot and scratches her nails on the post.

This is the gas fireplace. We painted the wall to match our foyer. The picture to the right is one we bought at an auction. I think it came out of a funeral home, but I like it anyway.

The hallway to the left goes into our bedroom and the one right behind the chair goes into the garage. The picture on the wall is a collage that my step-daughter made for me one year for Mother's Day, I think. It has pictures of me, Mark, Kasey and Nicky. She had them developed in black and white and sepia. It was probably one of the most thoughtful things she has done for me. It took her time to get the pictures together, get them developed and put them on the frame.

I didn't get a good picture of the coffee table but it's really a small hope chest. I got it from our neighbor for my 16th birthday. We don't have anything in it, sometimes we use it as a toy box. I really like it.

This is looking out into the foyer, see the matching green walls? The big vase is one that I got from my Granny by way of my mom. I really like it, but Kasey knocked it over one day and broke the handle on it. Mark said he has the pieces and we can glue them back together someday, but I haven't seen them. I thought that my Granny got this from India when she went there one year, but my mom told me that she got it from New Mexico or Arizona.

Well, that's it for this posting. You'll notice that there aren't a lot of things on the coffee table or the end tables, that's because I have a 2 year old and it's just not worth the effort to put anything out. He'll just knock it off or destroy it.

Ha Ha Tonka Trip this weekend

Last weekend, we went to Ha Ha Tonka, it's a state park in Camdenton. It's a castle that burned down in 1942 and only the remains are left. It was such a beautiful day. Here are Kasey and I.

Here's a view from the top of the castle, looking down toward Lake of the Ozarks.

This is the river that runs from the Spring. The water was really pretty. We walked from the Spring to the castle, which seemed liked 2 miles, but it wasn't. There were about 300 uphill steps. Wheh!

Here's another view from the top of the castle.

Here's where we parked.


This is the castle walls.



Here's Nicky and Kasey on the window of part of the castle.

Another picture of the castle walls.


The water tower.

Chalk Outlines

Kasey loves playing with chalk. We thought it would be fun to outline his body on the concrete.

I hope this picture shows up ok, by the grass is Kasey in one pose, then he rolled over and posed again and toward the front he is curled up a little with his hands by his head. We got our cat to lay down too and took her picture.

Kasey talked his daddy into doing it too, so we outlined him.

Isn't that the cutest thing? I am so glad I took a picture of this.

Kasey went to Cricket preschool this week. He cried when I left him but he did really good after I left. My little boy is growing up...

Sissy can be mean to Kasey sometimes, I think she really wanted a little baby sister. She put his hair up in a barrette. He wasn't real impressed. I think his expression is really cute... :)

Nicky's Friend Meagan Had A Car Wreck

So tonight, Nicky called her friend Meagan to ask her about something and Meagan said, "I'll have to call you back, I just had a wreck on Fremont." So Nicky raced out of the house and went down to the road to check on her best friend. Here's a picture of Meagan's little VW Bug (I loved her car). I guess Meagan was getting ready to turn onto our road and pulled in front of another car. Her car circled around and landed up on this stop sign.



















Here's Meagan standing next to her car, Nicky to the left and Meagan's dad heading toward them. You can see Kasey in the stroller. I walked down the street to check on them.














Here's her car once they got it out of the ditch and off the stop sign to tow it away. Thank goodness no one was riding with her because I am not sure they would have come out of it in very good shape. And the crazy thing was that Meagan wasn't wearing her seat belt. Can you believe that? I think Meagan almost always wears her seat belt, but the one time she probably didn't, she had a wreck. I understand that completely because the one time I had a wreck and totalled my car, I wasn't wearing my seat belt either. I almost always wore mine also except for that one time.















We are so lucky that she wasn't hurt. This could have been a very sad story. Meagan and Nicky are both seniors this year.

It's a Small World

Nicky, Kasey and I drove down to one of Nicky's favorite "scary places", Wilson Cemetery. It's over 200 years old and she has been there probably 10 times, late at night. Supposedly it's HAUNTED! So I decided it was time that I ventured down there to take a look. It's about 20 miles from our house on a lonely gravel road that ends right at the cemetery. I think you could get a little scared by the road if you were inclined to be scared anyway. The drive down there was really pretty, with the trees over the road and views that you could see miles from. The cemetery was really overgrown. There weren't hardly any houses close by so I'm not sure who owns the cemetery and apparently no one takes care of it. There were some really old grave stones, the newest ones were 1945 and one in 1993.


I thought these were really pretty. The grave to the left was one that was 1945.
Here is Kasey and Sissy outside the cemetery. I didn't get a very good picture though, it's a little blurry.
Then as we were heading home, there was a truck pulled over at the side of the road, and a guy standing in the woods with a dog on a leash it looked like. We hadn't seen a sole out on the road and thought it was really weird. Right after that, I got a call on my cell phone from a guy that I work with. He said "Are you driving on a gravel road?" I am thinking, how did he know that? Could he hear the road noise? I know crazy thinking, but he said you just drove by me. I mean, how small of a world is that? He said that he and his family were taking pictures of a natural bridge. So we turned around and took some pictures. The river was just down from this bridge. It was really neat.
Here's a really good picture of the bridge. Nicky carried Kasey because she said I was too clutzy and might fall with him.... Well, she might have been partially right! Considering my last scooter accident...
Here's a picture of my friend and her family under the rocks. It was really neat.

It's amazing the things that are just off the beaten path. It was a really neat find.

Long Time No Post and Running Around Naked

I can't believe it was July 20th since I posted last. I have no good excuse except I have been lazy. But I am healing up well from my scooter wreck. I know, I should not have worn shorts and flip flops... But...

Do you ever wonder why people think certain things are just not appropriate? I mean, it is really not appropriate for your 2 year old to jump in his pool with all his clothes on, then proceed to take them all off and run around the house naked? I mean don't you wish we could all do that? Not have a care in the world, just run around naked?

Well, okay, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea... HA!!! But it is just so cute when a 2 year old does it, his little white butt disappearing around the corner of the house... No, I didn't take any pictures, just wanted to post about it and reflect...

And Sissy coming home and appalled because one of her friends is coming over and her brother is romping around the pool NAKED! Oh my!!

A Wyland Wall on a Truck!

So, I have this fascination with Wyland Walls. They are walls painted by Wyland all over the United States and other countries. He has a goal of painting 100 walls, I think he just painted his 99th in June, but I can't remember where. I guess I could look it up but I am too lazy.... (imagine that?) The first wall I saw was when my mom and I went to Hawaii, there was one on a building in Honololu. At the time I thought it was neat, but didn't take a picture of it because I was driving. So when we got ready to leave, we got our pictures developed at Sam's so we could put them in the album on the long trip home. There was a Wyland book will his walls in it and I bought it. It was crazy expensive (or so I thought at the time), I think it was $26.00.

The second wall I saw was downtown Chicago, I just happened to be walking down a street and looked up in the sky and there was one on the side of the building. After that, I have started looking them up before I go to a new City. I actually started a scrapbook of all of them I have seen. I bet I have pictures of at least 30 of them.

Last week, I rode my scooter to work all week on a 1/2 tank of gas, which cost $2.00! I just love riding it, but this week, I had some things to do that I needed my car for and then it rained Monday and Tuesday. So I rode Wednesday and Thursday. Well, tonight on my way home, a truck was in front of me crossing the Interstate. It was a Wyland Wall truck. I could hardly believe it. He didn't want to turn on the Interstate, guess he had made a wrong turn, so he went straight and turned around in the new round-about we have and went back the other way on the Interstate.

I pulled off the side of the road, got off the scooter, pulled out my handy dandy Casio Exilim Camera that's credit card size so I can carry it with me all the time and took a picture of the truck going around the round-about.


This is a good close up I got as he drove passed me. I am sure he thought I was crazy because I was standing on the side the of the road taking his picture. He might be used to it, because he hooked at me and smiled and I just waved at him.



Here is a picture of me and Wyland. I have seen him twice now, once in Florida and once in Springfield, MO at the Bass Pro Shop Museum. He is such a nice guy and really believes in protecting the environment and the water resources we have. When I was in Florida, he painted a picture, in a matter of minutes. They auctioned it of and sold it for $10,000. Can you believe? Most of his paintings go for $1800 and up, but they are just copies that he signs. This one was an original.

Anyway, I thought it was a great day, that I got to see a Wyland Wall in my town.


Nicky made it home tonight. I will post some of the pictures of her coming home this weekend.

Plus we are having a garage sale Saturday so have to get all of my junk ready for that. Ah....

Kelly

Nicky's Washington DC trip

Nicky's leaving for Washington DC today and they have setup a blog so we can see what she's doing.

http://moyouthtour.blogspot.com/

More Prom Pictures

Here is everyone that was in Nicky's group. All the girls were really pretty. We took pictures for about 40 minutes, they were all sick of smiling!

Here's Nicky and Kasey. He kept his shirt clean for pictures, but right after this, he started playing next to the pond and got dirt all over his shirt. Typical boy.

Here they are getting in their limo. They were packed in like sardines! This car came from a local funeral home......

Getting Ready For Prom

Today is Prom! So the first thing that happened was Nicky got her hair done. Here's the front picture.

View from the back. Our hairstylist, Lori put glitter in her hair, not sure it shows up but it really looks good up close.
Here she is putting on makeup. Nicky and I are both Bare Escentuals fans. Between the two of us (and my mom, who's a fan too) we have a ton of colors. Nicky's dress is plum (picture to follow) and she used a light lavender on her eyes as liner.
Here she is in her "going out to dinner" dress.

So at 3:00, we're heading to take pictures of her and her friends. I'll have some pictures to post after that. Then they are heading to Springfield to go out to eat. After that, they come back to town, dress up in their finery and head to the prom. It's a big deal to walk into prom, we'll watch that this evening and take pictures. Then after prom, they go to "after prom", which is a big, non alcohol party sponsored by the parents and a lot of the community supports. The purpose is to keep kids at a location where they are safe. They have a ton of giveaways for the kids to entice them to go.

We're hoping Kasey does pretty good tonight. This evening may be hard for him because it will be after his bedtime when they walk into prom. I'm hoping he doesn't get too upset and tired.

Free Rice to Hungry People

www.freerice.com

We donated rice today to feed hungry people in the world, it's through the UN World Food Program. It was fun just to see how well you could pick the answers to the questions. I bet my Grandpa Bob would like this. (Post what your vocabulary score was on here!)

Nicky is the one that showed me the site. She donated 8,000 grains of rice one time. Not sure how much rice that really is, maybe a bowl full?

Nicky Won Electric Company Essay Contest!

Nicky entered an essay contest at our local rural electric cooperative. There were 124 entries and the judges picked 10 that they liked, Nicky was one of those 10, 5 girls and 5 boys. Thursday night, she had to read her essay to the judges. After everyone was done, they announced the runners up. They named the first girl and it wasn't Nicky, then they named the 2nd and it wasn't her, then the 3rd and it wasn't her! We were going crazy, it was so close, then they named the 4th one and it wasn't her either! Which meant SHE WON!!! Oh my gosh, it was so exciting.

She won a small PDA device, I don't know what it is for sure, but I guess it has Office 2007 on it, Internet, a GPS system and all sorts of things. I can't wait to see it. But the BIG prize was an all expense paid trip to WASHINGTON, DC in June! Oh my gosh, we are just so excited. There will be 82 kids from Missouri that get to go for 6 days! I dont' think it's sunk in for her what an honor and what a prize this is!

Course, she did forget that I had told her the week before that if she won it, I would give her $100 spending money! When I told her that I was out $100, she was like "Oh, yeah, I forgot!" HA! I told her she had to buy me a t-shirt. Course in DC, you can usually buy t-shirts for 5 for $10, so she'll be able to buy everyone a t-shirt real cheap!

Here's her proud pappa! He said it was really his night to shine... :)

New Washing Machine, Cat Food and MicroFiber Towels

Well, here's a picture of my new washing machine. It's an LG. The really cool thing about it is that it has a delay timer, so when I want to wash something to put in the dryer for the next morning, I can tell it to start in 6 hours and it will start the load and be done when I get up and everything doesn't sit in the washer for hours getting moldy. The only bad thing is that it doesn't match my dryer. I can't really justify buying a new dryer just so that they match, can I? I am trying to tell Mark I need one and we can use that economic spending tax money on that... But he doesn't like the idea too much. So the little yellow sheet that comes with the dryer said that if you wash 8 loads a week, it only costs you $15.00 a year! We got it from Home Depot, they were a lot cheaper than Sears, plus they had a 10% off coupon and free shipping and handling. It was a good deal, they hauled the old one off too.

So I have to explain a couple things on the washer/dryer picture. The cat food is on top of the dryer because if it isn't up there, Kasey will eat it! That being said, when the cat jumps up there, she scratches the edge of the dryer (another reason we need a new one, right?). Then there is a note on the front of the dryer that says "KEEP THIS DOOR CLOSED". Which was only put on there because Nicky tends to leave the dryer door open all the time. There's a light inside which means it's on all the time when the door is open. The note helped some to reminder her to close the door... Ah, teenagers... :)

Then there was the cat food container that I found tonight when I came home. When we were at Sam's, I bought 10 lbs of cat food. Mark put it all in containers today and I guess decided to put the rest of it in the fabric softener container. He made sure it had plenty of labels on it, just in case we might decide to pour it in the washing machine as fabric softener! I was wondering if that would hurt the cat, but I opened the container and it doesn't smell like fabric softener, so he must have cleaned it out really good. I wondered then if he dried it out really good, I picture water in the bottom and the cat food in there and then it all MOLDS! YUCK!

Ah... husbands... :)

So the other thing I have to tell you about are my new microfiber towels. I love these things towels. I got them at Sam's - there are 32 of them in a package for $10, I have bought 2 1/2 packages (my mom and I split a package). I got a full package of blue and a full package of orange, then we split the green and yellow. These are wonderful for everything! Windows clean great with them and they absorb water really good. The only bad thing is that you can't wash them with fabric softener (also known as cat food.. ha) because it breaks down their absorbency. I just store them in a laundry bag and throw them in with something that doesn't need fabric softener. I have enough of them that I can go a month or so. Then my mom said she cut hers in 1/4ths and uses them as washcloths. So I followed her lead and cut them up, they work great in the kitchen. I even love the smaller size too.

So I think this must be the longest post I have ever made on here.

I am really excited because my Grandpa Bob called me today and wanted me to show him how to start a blog! I can't believe it, he just had his birthday this week (and I forgot !!! - bad Granddaughter!) and he's 85! (Hope that's right, maybe that will make him post a comment on his real age, he's either 84 or 85.) I think he's going to post all about politics, but I guess that will be ok. I will post a link to it on here when he gets it started.

Well, maybe my mom with post a comment too, she reads each one of these about 10 times but never posts anything, except these anonymous ones that say "what a beautiful child" or something like that. She tends to be a little proud of her grandson.

Kelly

Finally, A Post From Me

Well, I have been terrible about posting the last 2 weeks. I had originally planned to post at least every couple of days, then I just fell off the face of earth for awhile! Not too much going on in my life, so wasn't sure what to post! I took this picture the other day outside of my work. The City is doing some road construction and put up "Detoer" signs. I thought that was so funny. Apparently, it looks like the U came off the Detour sign so they put an E on it.

My mom, Nicky and I went to Springfield shopping today. Nicky needed to get some shoes for Prom (why, oh, why is prom so expensive now????) and a dress to wear out to dinner before prom. So we hit all the stores, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Kohl's and Gordman's. She found a dress at Kohl's and then we went to Gordman's. I laughed and said, "I bet you'll find one in here you like better." She said, "No, I won't. I'm really happy with the one I got." After wandering around a while, I found her and guess what she had? Yes, another dress! I really liked this one better than the first. So we got it and took the other one back to Kohl's. Plus she found some really cute silver shoes with rhinestones on them. Our last stop was Sam's Club for diapers and wipes. I found Kasey a couple of books, I Can Cut and I Can Trace. Retail price on this website showed $13.99, but Sam's had them for $7.49. That was a good price. They also have I Can Color, I Can Fold and I Can Paste. I thought I Can Cut and Trace would be pretty good for his age right now, 22 months. We did a little bit with the I Can Cut, but he was tired, so I will do a little with him each day. It's really cute, they are colorful pages and you can tear each page out as you do it.

Here's a pic of Kasey, we had hamburgers and corn on the cob. He is pretty good at eating the corn, but liked to pull the skewers out and stick them back in. I am going to have to remember to use the ones that are plastic screw type rather than the metal stick ones. He could hurt himself on those. He thought it was fun eating the corn with those.

Here's what we did tonight before going to bed. He loves to play with this magentic farm book. He takes all the magnets out and puts them on the page. After he's played a while, he wants to put it all up in the plastic holder and put it back in the bookshelf. Usually we read a couple of books every night. My favorite are the Dr. Seuss books. I have a ton of them, probably at least 75! I just love the rhymes and silliness of them. I think he's going to like them too!

I haven't been doing much on quilting. I worked on my Triple Treat Quilt some, but nothing really to show.

Nicky's Back from her Cruise

Nicky made it back from her cruise. She came over wearing shorts and flip flips. It was nice outside, but not THAT nice! They left out of Miami last week and went to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This is Nicky on the right and her friend, Meagan on the left.

Here's Nicky kissing a Sting Ray! They went out on the boat and ended up on a sand spot in the middle of the ocean that they could stand up on! There were lots of sting rays around.

Nicky was happy to see Kasey. She brought him a cute t-shirt with little crochet guys on the front of it. (Course, I am thinking, I can't wait to make that into a t-shirt quilt someday!!!).

Kelly