My Funny Valentine!

I LOVE my boys, I especially love torturing them in dorky themed photos! The older 2 narrowly escaped the wild hair up my butt I had the other day! They were in school when I decided to dress Nicky up and drag him outside for some cute Valentine photos!!! Please take note that my almost 3 year old RARELY ever looks in my dang camera!

This 'shot' was torture to get, not for him, for ME! Hmmmmm.... wonder who he takes after??? That is actually MY toy camera! lol! Coming soon to a scrapbook page near you :)As always thanks for visiting and humoring me with my ramblings and sub-par photography!

Friday Fill In

I think Jill's http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/ Friday Fill-in is FUN.... so I am gonna for for it:

1. I'd really like _IT TO STOP RAINING, SO I CAN HAVE MY GARAGE SALE____ right now.
2. ___OUCH__ is the word you'd most often hear me say if I stubbed my toe.
3. Possession is __NIE TENTHS OF THE LAW___.
4. __JOHNNY DEPP ROCKED AS___ Captain Jack Sparrow.
5. Marshmallows and fire go together like __SALAD AND DRESSING___.
6. __ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON___ on and on.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to __FINALLY WORKING A FULL SHIFT___, tomorrow my plans include __GARAGE SALE AND CLEANING___ and Sunday, I want to __THROW A SUCCESSFUL BDAY PARTY FOR JOHNNY___!

Cinnamon Monkey Bread {recipe}

1 pkg. frozen dough for 24 Parker House rolls
1 c. sugar

1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 c. chopped pecans

Let roll dough thaw until soft. Grease a Bundt pan or tube pan well. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; set aside.
Cut each roll in half and roll pieces into ball shape. Dip dough balls into melted butter and then roll in sugar/cinnamon mix. Arrange in Bundt pan, sprinkling with pecans between layers. Cover with towel and allow to rise until more than double in bulk (follow package directions for length of time.) Bake at 350 degrees about 45 minutes. Loosen sides with knife and turn onto plate.

Gathering the goodies : Bundt pan, Pyrex for melting butter, pastry brush, thawed rolls, cinnamon and sugar.
Brush on the melted butter.

Cut thawed rolls in half. Roll in Cinnamon/ Sugar mixture.

Fill the buttered Bundt pan with the rolls. Set aside and let the rolls rise for 2 hours.

Bake according to the directions and enjoy! See one of the boys enjoying it as I take the photo :)

Some fun tidbits!

I will begin this miscellaneous post with a little sign that should be motivating me to clean for Johnny's birthday party on Sunday BUT, here I am ... goofing off on my blog, 2Peas, SIStv and Facebook!

Here are some cute photos of my eldest for the 100 Day of School :


Today was the 100th day of School and our school definitely goes all out! The students and teachers dress up like centurions, participate in projects that center around the number 100 and bring in 100 items. My boys brought in 100 baseball cards and 100 bottle caps. They collect these items, so it was very easy to count out a 100! Zach did not want to dress up, so he wore a button that said "I am 100 days smarter" and Johnny wanted to go all out! He wore his brand new American Eagle shorts with a polo, my Grandpa's sweater (I had saved for 30 years!) with some of John's socks and sandals, complete with cane and glasses. I found a birthday button and covered the "7" with "100" - that is where being a scrapper comes in handy (number stickers!)

I got this awesome blog award from leateach, Leanne, for having a blog with great recipes and being creative. I feel so honored to be thought of that way!!! Thank you so much Leanne!!!!!!!!!!! You are very talented as well... love the Valentine cards you just posted!


Have a great day, Everyone!!!!!!! Be back tomorrow!

Bloggy Carnival

I just entered my name for the day 2 goodies....

Here are some of the blogs I have visited:

http://stolenbonbon.blogspot.com/ Fireproof Movie and book (she is a friend and whom I found out about Bloggy Carnival from!)
http://moneyjarsavings.blogspot.com/2009/01/100th-post-starbucksbath-and-body-works.html Bath and Body GC and Starbucks GC


http://blondespoopmascara.blogspot.com/2009/01/giveaway-pair-of-eleven-fall-2008.html Kids Shoes


http://bella1104.blogspot.com/2009/01/giveaway-love-is-my-sun-print-from.html Love is My Sun PRINT


http://www.lifestarringellieandeve.com/2009/01/miss-ruby-sue-giveaway.html couture bag

http://momtrends.blogspot.com/2009/01/lands-end-fitness-giveaway.html Lands End fitness wear!

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=2319291935017188908&postID=8444130156648845212 Magnetic Scalloped Message Board

http://stealsdeals.blogspot.com/2009/01/crayola.html Crayola Gift Set

http://twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.blogspot.com/2009/01/boon-giveaway-part-1-frog-pod.html Bath Frog Pod

http://stephaniesmommybrain.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-ever-stephanies-mommy-brain.html?showComment=1233077700000#c2665480425325923904 $25 Amazon GC

BLOG CARNIVAL : http://www.donttryit.com/bloggy_giveaways/2009/01/bloggy-giveaways-quarterly-carnival-jan09.html

Have fun!
Rachel

I have to wear RED UNDERWEAR all year!

My neighbor Sherry is from Shanghai, we were discussing that this was my Chinese zodiac year, the Ox and it was good luck to buy red underwear!!! I am supposed to wear them all year for good luck, but she said as often as possible was good enough!

So I bought 2 pair from Target Monday... like these (this is the ad from Target... NOT ME!!!)

http://www.target.com/Gilligan-OMalley-V-kini-Rendezvous-Scroll/dp/B001AYUKJG/186-0757170-6471732?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Ared%20underwear&page=1

I also Googled this snippet with some fun info on the red underwear tradition:

For us the Chinese, red is the color of good luck and is used as a symbol of prosperity, blessing, happiness, vitality and of course good luck in many occasions, such as during holidays and weddings. Chinese babies are given their names at a red-egg ceremony.
One very important tradition of the Chinese New Year is exchanging gifts. A traditional gift that is given is small red packets filled with “lucky money”. These envelopes are given to children by their family and friends. The red color is used to bring good fortune, and the money inside is used by the children to buy holiday treats. These red packets symbolize the giving of good fortune.
Now, you know how much we like the red color. We like the color so much that we are wearing them under our pants.

http://www.hot-screensaver.com/2006/01/23/cute-red-underwear-brings-good-luck-to-the-chinese-new-year/

A Layout dedicated to my 35 birthday!

OF COURSE *I* had to do a LO dedicated to my very own Hello Kitty birthday party! Anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE Hello Kitty...

My girlfriend called my husband early on my birthday, back in December, and wanted to run her surprise by him. My husband was home all week with the CHICKEN POX that he got from my oldest son (who actually had the CP immunization at 12 months old!). Hubby was unable to do anything for my birthday, not even a hug (we were not sure if I ever had CP, so we didn't take unnecessary risks). She told him she wanted to bring me a cake and ice cream after dinner. So the plan was to keep is on the d-low and Cheryl and her family would come over to our house after dinner. I, for the life of me, could NOT figure out why my beloved was RUSHING me through dinner! Low and behold, a knock at the door, and it was the Cheryl, Dennis, Devin, Madison and McKenzie bearing birthday treats! Cheryl went out of her way to get me a Hello Kitty birthday cake, yummy Banana Split ice cream and a basket chock full of Hello Kitty goodies! OMG, a HK popcorn popper (and tons of popcorn to go with it!), a HK desk lamp (perfect for my scrap desk!) and even a HK alarm clock (I spared my hubby and put it in the scraproom!), a HK pillow, HK sticker (lots of HK stickers!) and Dunkin Donuts coffee (that is Cheryl's favorite) and Starbucks coffee (that's my favorite and we have a friendly war over the best coffee!) plus a sweet little plaque that says FRIENDS, that I keep on my scrap desk!

I am not only lucky to have friends that spoil me but I am blessed more over for having friends that love and care about me, enough to want to risk Chicken Pox from my husband to cheer me up! Thank you, Cheryl and gang- I love you guys, you are all very special to me!

Sunday afternoon gardening....

Yesterday was a high of 78 in our beautiful little slice of Florida, so John wanted to take advantage of the sunny, happy day and went to the garden center. He was on a mission to bring back herbs and vegi plants. He went out with Johnny and from the length of time they were gone, I thought I would need 3 acres to plant all that they would be bringing back! John's plan was to use the planters we had and make smaller gardens. They brought home peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, basil and dill. I made a special request for basil and dill!!!!

I was given the task of watering the plants everyday! Now that may sound simple enough... not for ME- I have a BLACK THUMB! John promised to do all the fertilizing and pest control! We'll see how that plan goes ;) Here is my hard worker, fertilizing the soil for the new plants.

He took special care to follow the care instructions when planting each individual herb and vegetable.

Here are the gorgeous strawberry plants.

Here are the tomato, basil and dill plants. We realized that he bought almost everything you would need to grow in a garden to make a yummy pizza! Florida is a huge onion producer, maybe that will be the next purchase from Lowes!

Doesn't my orange bell pepper plant look healthy and robust?

Made with My Cool Signs.Net

So I got this award from Cinnibonbon!!! Thanks Cinni!!!!!!!! I really do feel honored and you write the nicest, uplifting comments on my blog! I am new to blogland and hope I am doing the tagging right!

Here are the steps:

1. Say one nice thing to the man in your life: He is an honest hard working man that puts his family first. He doesn't care what people think about him and for that I admire him, because unfortunately, I care too much what people think about me.

2. List at least 6 ways you measure success in your life:
~ My children's happiness and successes.
~ My husbands happiness and successes.
~My Father's pride in me (he always is, so that is easy!).
~ If I can hold my head up high and proud.
~My family's love for each other.
~ When the children in my boys classes run to hug me when I go into to volunteer.

3. Assign 6 other blogs this award:
http://stolenbonbon.blogspot.com/ : Marla
http://skippingpebbles.blogspot.com/ : Rhonda
http://scrappykindofgirl.blogspot.com/ : Amanda
http://dragonflydremer.blogspot.com/ : Cyndy
http://vickery-vous.blogspot.com/ : Dana
http://creativeangiepalin.blogspot.com/ : Angie

Just having fun speading some love in the land of Blog!!!!
Have a great night girlies :) Rachel

Scrapping OLD photos I found in a moving box this week...

In the midst of re-arranging the entire house and everyone's bedrooms, I found a moving box chock full of unopened packs of photographs. As I looked through them, I was flooded with many different emotions and questions all at once. Where has 3 years gone? What happened to my sweet and innocent babies? They certainly grow too fast! Look how happy my Dad's looks. Why did we move from Boca? We were in a better position to spend money on the extras. Why did I pack up such beautiful photos without scrapping them. Why don't I use the Nikon N80 anymore? Do the boys remember spending quality time with Grandpa?

For now, I will just scrap them and enjoy reliving the memories.

This was taken when we attended a Miami Heat charity fundraiser on South Beach in the Spring of 2005. The photos of my little boy was too cute to just stow away in a photo storage box.

My nephew had just bought a motorcycle and was storing it in my garage, so my Dad wouldn't resist playing around on it! And I couldn't resist snapping a few photos... mainly because this is so not typical of my Dad!

I love dressing up the boys for all the holidays, especially in Old Navy's cheap t-shirts! I love green and could not resist a little photo shoot for St. Patty's Day, even if we are NOT Irish! I love Johnny's smile and innocents in these photos!

My typical Saturday afternoon....

A typical Saturday for our family starts with Judo, the guys participate in the kids class then John stays for the adult class. We are up and out of the house by 8:30 am and stay until noon. Today John had to work, so we were in the car on our way to get some errands done by 10:30. We ran into Walmart to fill the pantry and stock up ... on snacks!!! I actually did by milk, eggs, bacon and other necessities but who wants to see a photo of kielbasa???? I thought it would be more fun to gawk *OR* gasp over the crap I feed the family ;)

We stopped by the library for Johnny to get some new Judy Moody books. SO being the big reader I am, I wondered over to the DVD section and found some fun stuff! I looooooooove Eddie Murphy's Raw ans Delirious so I was siked when I wound Delirious!!! I never say To Kill a Mockingbird, so I snatched that up as well. And a bunch of other 60's Disney movies to watch with the kiddos this weekend. Bob the Builder is for Nicky!!!

Ha! Thought we were junk food junkies, huh??? I stopped by the farmer's market for some fruit and onions. We live in the largest strawberry producing area in the country so I bought some fresh berries and shortcakes!!!!

Off to Dollar Tree to stock up on my VERY FAVORITE sponges! Then I saw these cute polka dotted oven mitts and dish towels to help fill in in the Secret Betty Swap! I actually went for some birthday party plates for Johnny's birthday party next Sunday. Annnnnnnnnd of course, I bought some movies candies for the weekend DVD watch-a-thon we are planning!

Finally, my BBQ lunch from the street vendor by the farmer's market.... smoked white meat chicken, collard greens and BBQ beans with corn bread!!!!!!!!! YUM! STOP DROOLING :)

My "I'm Sorry" note from my 6 year old!

My little dude gives me such a hard time in the AM before school. He can't get up, he mismatches his school clothes, he forgets where his backpack is, he doesn't have time to eat his cereal or waffle. So on Tuesday, I complained to his teacher, whom I am friendly with, that he makes me want to pull my hair out!!! Low and behold, my little angel came home with this for me ........

Some Valentines Day Inspiratation (on a budget)!

I had been hoarding this empty candy box for three years! A good scrapper sees potential in every piece of garbage ;) I finally altered it with whatever I had on hand... since I am a major supply hoarder! The PP is Daisy D's from last year, I never used it! I used tickets, Maya Road chipboard swirls, pearl beads, chipboard CHERISH, white glitter and ribbon from Norway that I got in a swap!

This is a hand cut mini album I made last year. I save all the chipboard backing on my paper stacks and make mini albums! All you really need beside the chipboard is a binder ring (found where school or office supplies are sold) patterned paper (PP) and some imagination! I am a mini album FREAK and this has been my most favorite one!!!!

I made these projects last year too, they are embellished small tin mailboxes. I bought them at the Target Dollar Spot for $1 each! Then I wrapped them in my favorite papers and embellished. The wooden monkey was purchased as you see it, so cute how could you resist some monkey mail??? I know, I watch too much Playhouse Disney!!! lol!Finally, a little inspiration for some upcoming projects and goodies I plan on making for Valentines Day this year. I purchased the Valentines edition of Martha Stewart Living for my Secret Betty swap partner (sorry you ruined part of your surprise, Marla!!! lol!) and loved it so much, I bought an issue for MOI! I purchased these vintage particle board bingo cards from an antique store two weeks ago, I had my Inkadoodle Cupcake Stamps for a few months but plan on really opening that package soon!!! The OLD die cut of the conversation hearts was RAKed to me in a swap and I just found it Monday!!!!! Lastly, I am going to make my infamous sugar cookies with my heart cookie cutters. Just this morning Johnny's teacher put in an order for them for her birthday on the 18th!!! I gave her some for Christmas and she loved them.

So I hope you are all inspired to go and create some fabulous Valentine goodies on a budget! I would love to see them! Link them in the comments! And don't forget to let me know you stopped by and said hello. You don't have to have a blog to leave a comment!!!!!

Have a great Friday (I will- hubby and I are going to Outback for a lunch date!)

Is this Florida?????? It was 29 Degrees this AM!

I woke up to this .......

Ice blanketed EVERYTHING! The lawn, the roof, the car, the palm trees.... at first glance, one would think it snowed, NAH!

The Tribune even gave Old Man Winter front page (under President Obama of course!)