10 on Tuesday

SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!! Kids are in the final stretch of school and lots of fun stuff going on this week. Can't wait for summer vacation. We have no major plans this summer other than lots of baseball, but still looking forward to it.

1. Can't get enough of Blake Shelton's Honey Bee. Seriously love this song and love him on "The Voice".

2. Starting to work on stuff for the 4th of July. Thinking banners and pinwheels. Love all the pinwheels I'm seeing. Can't wait to make some of my own.

3. Working on little baskets for the kids for the last day of school. Things like sidewalk chalk and bubbles for Audrey, baseballs for Dart, coupons for trips to the park, etc. Any other good ideas to include?

4. Excited for the Women's College World Series to start as the MU softball team made it for the 3rd year in a row. Dart is very excited as well, although if you ask him if he wants to try batting against a softball player he runs the other way fast. So glad to see that he doesn't think softball is for wimps. He says their pitches scare him.

5. Speaking of Mizzou, if you are not a Missouri native you may not have seen the awesome shirts Mizzou made to help benefit the Joplin, MO tornado relief effort. Check them out here. Can't wait to get mine.

6. Working on my summer goals. Excited to share them on Thursday most likely.

7. Feeling very inspired today and have a million ideas of things I want to do and of course time is very limited today. But I have all of it written down so hopefully later I will remember it all.

8. Making lists of things to do with the kids this summer and one thing they said they wanted to do was have movie marathons a couple of times. Trying to think of some good movies to do that with. Dart said Harry Potter, that might take a couple of days to get through. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules comes out on June 21st so I'm sure we'll have a Wimpy Kid marathon at some point. Also can't wait to go see Cars 2 in the theaters. I LOVE Cars!!

9. Working on my list of books to read this summer too. I love curling up outside in one of the chairs and reading the day away. Especially while the kids play in the sprinkler. Any books on your summer reading list?

10. Also working on a list of summer pictures to take. If you have any ideas let me know. I will be posting all these lists here at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Thank You

Those words will never be enough, but they are the best I can do. Thank you to all who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice and thank you to all those currently serving.

An extra thank you and prayers to Dustin and Trever. We are thinking of you guys all the time.

Wooosh..

That's about how this week sounded!! This was the fastest week in a long time. I think it was because I spent most of it trying to catch things up, still not there, but getting close.

As many of you know Joplin, MO was hit hard last Sunday with an EF5 tornado. I have a very dear friend who has been in Joplin since Wednesday helping with whatever needs done. She is coming home today for the weekend, but then heading back Monday or Tuesday morning. The kids school started a drive on Tuesday to gather as much stuff as they could so that a family who was heading down to see relatives in Joplin this weekend. Since Wednesday(notes went home on Tuesday) this is what the school collected:

This was collected from Wednesday to Friday morning. A lot of the stuff was boxed up Thursday afternoon, but Friday morning I think we collected more than any other day. It was so amazing to see the kids come in with stuff and proudly add it to the pile. One little boy said "Look Mrs. Weaver, I brought soup to help the kids who lost everything. I'm so happy I can help these kids. It's my favorite soup, but they need it more than I do." Mrs. Weaver and I both almost lost it when he walked away. Friday morning it was decided by the student senate that some of the money they collected from the school store would be donated to Kids for Kids, a group helping the kids/schools in Joplin. Shepard is sending over $1,000 to help.

In other news:
One of my cards is featured in an Etsy treasury right now. Please take a look at all the great ideas for graduation, including my grad cap card.

I'm beginning to think we are never going to see the sun for an entire day again. I can't believe how cold and wet it has been. It is almost June and we are still in the 60's. Not that I want it to be 100, but the 80's would be nice. I'm tired of using my heater in the morning because it is still in the low 40's.

Working like a mad woman to get all my baseball pictures and all the pictures from graduation weekend caught up. I'm proud to say that all my May pictures that aren't baseball or graduation are edited and uploaded. Same for March and April. This is the first time ever!!

This Memorial Day weekend while you are grilling with friends and family, don't forget to take a moment and remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. And also for those who are serving currently. Without them our lives would be so different.

Catching up

Still alive. Busy catching up on laundry, house and life. Hope to be back regularly very very soon.

One of my favorite pictures from graduation night.

Be back soon.

...

Playing catch up after a very busy, but wonderful weekend. Graduation was amazing. Parties were amazing. So proud of my little brother and all his friends. They are all such great and amazing kids. Can't wait to follow their journey into college.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the tornadoes that hit Joplin, MO on Sunday.

You always think a hospital can withstand whatever comes its way, but I guess everything is fair game when it's Mother Nature.

Back later with lots of graduation stuff and getting excited about some new ideas and things on my plate.

A new found love

While working like crazy on a million things for my mom for the party this weekend I discovered a new love. Restoring pictures. Granted the one I discovered this on wasn't horrible it's still so much fun to watch it go from Ugh! to WOW!!

I was working on a picture from my brother's pre-school graduation. My mom had scanned it and her scanner bed must be dirty because there were spots all over the picture. It had also been bent at one point because there was a line all the way across it.

Before:

After:

If you click on each picture it is easier to see the difference in them. It is hard working with scanned photos, I think I need to do a little research on working with them. It seems like it pixelated it some once I started working on it. I wonder if there is a market for restoring pictures? Might have to look into that as well.

10 on Tuesday

Well on Wednesday really.

1.Working like crazy to get banners, cupcake toppers, card box and whatever else my mom wants done for the weekend.

2. Have decided that I hate shopping for clothes. It is not fun for me. Went to find something to wear to my brother's graduation and it's just not fun.

3. A piece of advice for all of you with younger kiddos; start a folder now for pictures you might want to use for graduation slide shows. I am starting one for both of mine. My mom is going crazy trying to go through all her pictures to get them together. Thankfully for all but about 6 months of Dart's life I have been completely digital. Should make things easier.

4. Can't believe my baby girl is almost done with Kindergarten. Seems crazy. She has been doing so good lately at reading much harder books. It's so fun listening to her read me a story.

5. Any Castle fans out there? I cannot believe how they ended the season. I'm still mad. Yes, I know it's a tv show, but OMG!!!

6. Excited for the Celebrity Apprentice and Biggest Loser Finales. I really hope John Rich wins CA. I like Marlee, but am a huge JR fan. As for Biggest Loser, I can't wait to see how some of the bigger people look at the finale.

7. I'm still waiting on spring to show up and stay. We had the heat on this week. I'm DONE with the cold.

8. I scored 2 free light bulbs today. Was paying our electric bill and asked about the exchange program they have. Usually you have to take in the old bulbs and they will give you new ones. Got 2 today even though I had no old ones to take in.

9. I'm really excited to show Audrey the new water bottle I found her. The kids recently started taking water bottles to school instead of Capri Sun or other juice. Audrey's was a little too big for her lunch box. Today while I was at Old Navy I found a smaller one, with monkey's on it. She is a major monkey freak, so this will be better. Now I can have her old one too.

10. Speaking of Audrey, she is wearing a dress today that was mine when I was little. Looks so cute on her. Must remember to get a picture of her in it before she changes after school.