What do you get when you ask a redneck for new bathroom addition? Yep, I sure is proud, the newest terlet on the block and how thoughtful my ole redneck is... right there on the curb for the whole neighborhood to enjoy. Actually I think we kinda got our wires crossed, I asked for an addition on the back of the house with a full bath and garden room, he thought I wanted a cabana. Oh yeah, the jokes are endless on this one but the sad truth is this lovely green box, 10 non-English speaking men and 2800 cement blocks cost me what that full bath addition would have. The cement blocks have now replaced/supplemented the pilings under my house, the men are gone and the only visual proof of this costly adventure is the porta-potty that they seem to have forgotten. Jim has insisted that the shoring is what has held up the whole walls, ceiling, floor thing....so, shoring done, let's see where we go from here.

Just a quick post to prove that I've been productive... 4 cards, 3 mini albums and a 1 creepy cat, spiffed up and waiting for Miss Kylie to pick him up this weekend. A girl does have to have her own decorations for her room afterall, hhhmmm, thinking she might need a banner to go with that cat. Kinda got sucked into "research" (def of research: hours spent recreating things you or your friends have found on the internet but refuse to pay for and it's also way more fun to figure it out), which then led to serious scal play, that darn thing is just addictive!!! And just for the record, yes, that is the U2 site on my 'puter, gotta check on my little Waldo.

The calendar pages are way to quickly flipping over and what used to be my favorite time of the year is just about here. Every September in days of ole, I frantically did my fall cleaning, all in anticipation (love that word!), anticipation of the holiday season. Around here, the holidays started off with my favorite, Halloween. I always decorated on October 1st and spent the month planning and making treats and happies for the kids' school parties and our party here at the house. Yep, any surprise that I was one of "those" moms? School parties called for spiders on a stick. The kids and I would make our trek to Metairie playground and gather pods from the gumball trees, come home to a table of balloon sticks and pipe cleaners and create what now would be a lawsuit waiting to happen but hey, back in the day, kids loved those darn things. I most loved our party at home though. I spent beaucoup time on the tablescape for the buffet and trying to find a new "freaky" food to delight my babies, can't tell you how many versions of graveyard cakes I did. And just for the record, so my children will bow down with appreciation when they read this...do ya'll remember your first "after party"? it was not easy to convince Daddy that renting the roller rink from 10 to midnight was a much needed expense, think I ended up lying and telling him Aunt Jane footed the entire bill, of course she told Michael Mayonaise that I covered it but whatever, if I have to say so myself, that was the most supreme, kickass Halloween celebration that any kid could ever want! Um, yes, even if I did fall and bruise my coccyx and had to sit on a pillow for the next 2 months. Anyhoot, excuse that tangent and back to my point...I am totally chomping at the bit to create in black, orange, purple and green. A trip to Michael's this week has created a mass of bags in the corner of my scraproom, all filled with the makings of holiday projects and new things I wanna try out. My intention is to be wildly productive and come back next week to share. Fingers crossed that my "experiments" go well cause I have promised a Christmas craft party and I have to have something really great to teach my little chicklets.

As for the past several months that I've been mia, as usual it's been a wild ride. I've stuck my toe back in the sewing arena, made several aprons for Mamp and Kylie, a twirly dress that has to be hidden from Kylie or she'd wear it everyday and even have a LSU smocked dress almost completed (just have to make sure she has her hair down when she wears it so nobody can see the flubs on the back).

The scrapy highlight was the escape Heather put together for us. A long weekend at a scrap house in Lake Charles with some dear friends that we've met on our travels and don't get to hang out with nearly enough. Throw in sisters of friends, daughters of friends and friends of friends and a perfect mix was made. Only problem was the long weekend wasn't nearly long enough, so we're thinking a week in the Houston area for our next escapade. And I have to admit, I left Lake Charles thinking it might not be so bad if Jim drug me to TX for a while, the time spent with HoHo just left me wishing that I could schedule a playdate with her once a week...think she's my new hero, she scraps like a dream, was a smocker for hire and of course she's funny as hell. Lucky for her that she's in Houston cause I'd so be beating on her front door with boudin in one hand and a margarita in the other. Both HoHo and Glo left me kicking myself that I didn't sign up for CE this year. Forgot the point of scrap travel isn't about the classes you take but about the time spent with farflung friends. Leaves me on the lookout for what events I want to attend next year.

woohoo! It's Carnival time and I've decided to celebrate my way ~ fridge is stocked with no cook fare, vodka punch is made anda yep, I'm on my second glass, George Michael's kicking outta the Bose and I'm gonna do nothin' but play til Ash Wednesday. Figure if my only Mardi Gras loving child is a 1000 miles away, snots on the rest of'em, I'm at least gonna get buzzed and dance and scrap. Sniffle, sniffle, sure makes me miss Lynn though, we had some great Fat Tuesdays....think she's the only one who doesn't mind the Wham marathon.

Aaaaarrrgggg, it's da debil's work I tellya. Be forewarned, vent comin' on and hmm, maybe a tiny little lesson in courtesy!!! People, I bow to those of you who spend time spiffing up your blogs. I delight in the fabulous headers and creative use of color, layout and font usage, some blogs are just pure eye candy, waiting to awe and inspire and many are filled with great recipes or hysterically funny views of life. BUT for the love of all things gracious, please please please do not inflict the pain that is audio. I listen to internet radio, classical in the morning and an eclectic mix ranging from big band to techno in the afternoons and it's really quite annoying when Yoyo Ma is suddenly competing with some random country song or right smack in the middle of "Faith", Celine Dion's caterwauling jumps on board (no offense to to Celine fans but she kinda scorches my ears, maybe I'm not quite old enough to need those high notes to pierce my hearing loss). I'm just thrilled that you have an appreciation for music, I respect your choice in music but please reciprocate. Really, it's a damn shame the number of blogs that I'll never ever visit again because of that freakin' playlist box, only a handful were worth preceding the blog name in my fav list with the word "mute". Just for the record, there are a couple of blogs that I actually enjoy their playlist (cough cough Jess & Paradise cough cough) and I do appreciate song or video suggestions, following links from blogs have led me to some great stuff but it's all about choices here people. If you want repeat visitors to your blog, scratch the auto playlist. Snort, it's not just me either, I've had friends tell me that it doesn't go over very well at work or the library when they sneak off to check out a blog and some hideous song comes blaring out of the speakers. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm off to crank up my Culture Club and get my house clean.

My poor child... Mamp's newest tour has thrown her right smack dab in redneck central, she just called from the Daytona 500 qualifying rounds. She wanted to tell me that she'd be having a fried bologna sam'ich for lunch, was keeping her eyes peeled for her uncle and staying entertained by reading the passing t-shirts, her favorite so far, "You have to believe in something, I believe I'm going hunting". She had to get off the phone fast cause she spotted Hamburger Helper Man and couldn't let that once in a lifetime photo op slide. Sadly I can't find the picture of her decked out in a pit crew jumpsuit. Back in the SOBE days, her club hosted Dale Jr's b'day party and of course every event deserves a costume. Sigh and to think, if she had accepted his request for a date, she might'a been at Daytona today, sitting pretty in a private trailor, surrounded by the royal redneck court of the Nascar Nation, having her fried bologna delivered on a silver tray. LMAO. I love my little chameleon.

Think this must be the month of "supposed to", maybe it's the January thing, kinda thinking it's just me but only a few of my intentions have actually been checked off the list. Put my nose to the grindstone yesterday and did manage to order Kylie's summer wardrobe for Grammie's house ... her closet at home is filled with perfect little dresses, Meme takes care of that but I kinda think that 4 yr olds need comfort clothes, shorts and tops that they can wear to dig in the dirt, catch lizards and climb trees, Gymboree fits the bill perfectly so Pops takes a hit to his bank account a few times a year. LOL, of course Meme kinda has issues with "clothes that everybody has" but sorry Meme but our girl sure loves her chihuahua shirt and we've gotta keep her happy.

Knocked out the laundry, grocery and JoAnn's. Fridge is stocked with soups and sandwich meats and I'm planning on a long weekend of playtime ~ my goal is to actually make the window treatments for my sanctuary and figure out what to do with one of these old picture frames I have. Real toss-up on bulletin board, chalkboard or picture collage. Might be nice if I finished off the picture grouping I have planned for Jim's office to. Fingers crossed that I do actually get some things checked off the list.

Of course January does stand out as Jacob's birthday month.In celebration of "the baby" making 22, Jerry took half the day off and we followed tradition with shopping, lunch at Dixie Chicken and Ribs and the movie "Bedtime Stories". Our arrival home was met by the delightful sight of Jim cooking birthday boy's favorite meal, steak and chicken cooked fajita style but served on a bed of wild rice, boiled new potatoes and roasted corn. Josh, Kristie and Kylie decided to stay the night turning it into a slumber party and yet another opportunity for Kylie to watch her new favorite movie, "Labyrinth". Snort, you can sure tell Kylie has uncles that are concerned with her artistic tastes. Both Jerry and Jacob were worried that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" was her current fav and they are horrified at the thought that she lives in the same house as a copy of "High School Musical", so they have set out on the mission to educate the little one. Sigh, I was not a happy camper when they first introduced her to "Labyrinth", especially since she called it "the goblins take the baby" but no nightmares ensued and she now calls it "David Bowie and the goblins". On a brighter note, for Christmas I did order 2 copies of Samantha's favorite childhood book, "My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes", one for Samantha and one for Kylie and sure enough, Kylie loves the book and quickly had it memorized. Guess I should just be thankful that she's not running around singing Tube Snake Boogie, Unc had Samantha singing that constantly when she was little.

Off to play, wish me luck, I'm going to cut the fabric for my valances and hold my breath while I tea dye it. Oh and thought I'd share the recipe my poor frozen little bunny called form

Chicago wanting, Baked Potato Soup.

2 large baking potatoes
2 cooked chicken breasts
1/3 cup butter
1/4 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp pepper
3/4 cup shredded velveeta
8 green onions
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups milk (I use half milk, half cream
4 slices crisp bacon (I use jar bacon bits)
shredded cheddar for garnish
Directions
Bake potatoes in microwave, let cool, peel and dice.
Cube and cook chic or use leftovers.
In large pot, cook green onions in butter til tender. Stir in flour, dill, salt and pepper, blend. Add milk all at once, cook while stirring well for one minute more. Add velveeta, stir til cheese melts, add potato and chicken, simmer til heated through. Garnish with bacon, cheddar and additional green onions if desired.