Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ahhhh

We landed at Sangster International Airport yesterday without any issues...there were a few incidents with turbulence during the flight but nothing like our last two flights home. The ride to the hotel was non-eventful as well; I did start to believe that the Husband was going to push the driver out of his seat and drive all by himself because the guy was driving slooooow (we have never driven with a slow driving Jamaican before!) the van was like the little engine who could ... I think I can, I think I can. We made it though, safe and sound onto the beautiful grounds of Couples Sans Souci in Ocho Rios. We have abeachfront room which is awesome because the famed penthouses are up on a cliff and I don't think I could do the stairs to the cliff more than once a day then still have to walk the steps up to the rooms too ... Sorry, I am just to out of shape.

We had lunch yesterday at the beach grill then headed out into the ocean for a bit. Lots of people kept telling me that I need to keep reminding myself that I am not on Negril and now I know why. The beaches over here are beautiful but a little rocky and there is seaweed in this cove, making the walk into the water a bit less pleasant than the sandy bottoms of Bloody Bay. Not that I am complaining, it is simply beautiful, as I am sure I just said ten times already.

I am sitting on our porch now listening to the waves, the sprinklers and the purple martins banter to one another. It is very relaxing. I will have to make it a point to call home later to check in on mom and the kidlets, especially since some punk stabbed Twink in the hand at school yesterday with a pencil!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

A new month, a new catalog!

Well, I am still a consultant for CTMH, a junior consultant. Which, other than not receiving a 22% commission on items I've sold (which really just amounted to 22% off of what I had to pay for the items I purchased to hoard...) and not being on the catalog autoship list isn't really that different than being a "regular" consultant. Oh wait, yes it is ... it means that at the end of this quarter, or maybe at the end of next quarter, my CTMH Website, will cease to be operational.

While I have your attention for a few minutes, check your scrapbooking supply ... corner, bag, room, whatever it may be ... see if you have everything you need for your upcoming crop or work on your newest album. There are many, many new products which are making their debut today. Here is a quick link to the online shopping page. Plan your holiday cards, vacation scrapbook albums and even get ideas for your next page layout.

The new catalog is wonderful - although I don't see that it is accessible online yet - it will be very soon! :-) Happy scrapping!

Monday, August 24, 2009

School? Not soon....

With a late Labor Day this year, our older kids aren't starting school until Wednesday, September 9th. Can you believe it? Two weeks from now. That's a long time away....I guess it will go pretty quickly if you're 7 or 8!

On the other hand, I think they are ready for school to start again. They're starting to fight a little more each and every day and they're finally complaining that they're "bored". We still don't have their teacher assignments so we can't even finish their "back to school" shopping. DinoBoy is going into the third grade and Twink is going into the second. DinoBoy's list for school is 2 pages long and Twinkletoes' is almost that long. There is only one difference: DinoBoy's is teacher specific. That's an issue when you have no idea who your teacher is going to be. I looked back at the Principal's last bulletin in June promising teacher assignments in the beginning of August (she indicated like we had last year - I don't remember getting them that early.) Here were are with just a few days left in August and I still know no more than I did the first week in August. Its frustrating. I have plenty of other things to complain about but that is all I will blog about today.

I lost two pounds last week. Yippee!! Of course, I probably gained them all back last night eating a piece of the jello poke cake I made (Mom and the kids frosted it, so I can't take all of the credit.) It was so gooooood though. The Husband actually had two pieces (shhhhh!) I never make sweets and I was actually going to take it to a picnic that we went to on Sunday but I couldn't pull it off in time. I sure do hope my Mom took some of it over to Mommom today. If not, I am going to have to borrow someone else's willpower in order to keep away from it tonight. :-)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Just a cute picture


Trying out my new "used" camera which replaces the one we took to Jamaica this year (the lense fell out while we were there...) SweeTart is getting so big and her personality is ENORMOUS! Love those curls!!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Gymnastics!!

Twinkletoes has started gymnastics again. Although, this time, it is NOT classes. It's "pre-team" - which is different. Different in the sense that it is now gymnastics "practice" instead of "class". Same thing? I think so but maybe a little more intense, and definitely longer. Last night was her first night back.

She is thrilled. Excited beyond belief. Motivated to learn and try new things. Happy to be part of the "team" even though she is still with the "little" girls. They can't be much younger than she is - in her "section".

Practice was from 6:30 - 8:00 last night. DinoBoy, SweeTart and I took a ride to Walmart after dropping Twink off at practice. (She was so excited that she can now come in by the "side" door instead of the front entrance since she is part of the team!) We did fairly well in Walmart, grabbing what we needed in less than 1/2 hour, also picking up some school supplies (can you say 24 packs of crayola crayons for a quarter a piece?) and made it back in plenty of time to see the end of her practice. DinoBoy was estatic when we left Twink at practice and he began his "whole hour and a half without" Twinkletoes. Too funny.

We made it back in time to see Twink working on the trampoline doing spotted back handsprings. How cool! Her coach then showed us how she could get on the bottom bar of the uneven bars, by herself and perch there to jump off. She hasn't had a class since the winter so she's moving right along ... she got to ring the gong too to show that she mastered a new technique and the entire team stopped and cheered for her. (See why she is excited??)

We made it home around 8:25 - got her showered and SweeTart to bed. Twink was so excited that she couldn't stop talking about her practice and talking and talking. She was the energizer bunny - she finally went to bed at 9:45. When I shut the door, she was still talking. She is lucky she didn't wake SweeTart up!!

Looking forward to Wednesday - our new practice schedule is causing me to have to rearrange my meal plan for the week but all is good! She is happy in her new adventure!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

August

We packed the truck, the kids and the wave runner yesterday and headed down to Ship Bottom to R&D's vacation spot for the week. It was awesome!! We were able to corral the little ones on the first floor - the deck had a gate - thank goodness!! They didn't get into too much trouble and I think that SweeTart and her cousin TMW had a great time playing together. Its amazing that they're so close in age and so different in size. For starters, SweeTart must have ten pounds on the kid - but he is over a head taller than her and skinny, skinny, skinny. Funny that his mama told me that he is back in a size three diaper and we're moving right along into fives all the time. I guess I can pack up the fours that we have left and give them to him -- at least he'll grow into them. LOL

The husband, DinoBoy and Twinkletoes had a fantastic time on the wave runner. We all got a turn - but the kids had the MOST turns. They couldn't get off of the thing. When they weren't on the wave runner, they were swimming in the bay right off of the dock at the house. Reminds me of summers when we were little...running up and down the docks. Very fun!! I will post pictures later today.

Today, I am aiming to get a meal plan for the week, or even two done. I need to get myself back on track with weight loss. We've been eating okay but not well enough lately. I have cookbooks galore from the library: weight watchers, south beach diet, warehouse cookbooks - you name it, I've either got it here or it is on hold waiting for someone else to finish up with it. I am determined to drop 20 pounds. DETERMINED. Which means that I need to focus, stay on track and be accountable.

I found a few little sites that may or may not help me with this mission of meal planning. Check them out - if you're in the same quandry I am - getting home later than anticipated, having nothing in the fridge for dinner (we have it - but it is located in the freezer and is still a block of ice!), stopping on the way home spending extra money at the supermarket to get something that should be either quick or healthy but is usually neither (even if it is good) and wind up spending extra money that I shouldn't. So ... here are a few of the sites:

I am sure there are plenty more but I am going to do a little more research, grab another cup of coffee and get to work. First order of business is cleaning out the fridge. Its a yukky job but I've been neglecting it for too long!!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Farm Fair - Farewell

This year is/was the last year of the Farm Fair at the Lumberton Fairgrounds. That means no more crazy parties at the Hewitt house. This year they didn't have a party. Ok, they didn't really plan on having a party but all of their friends and family pretty much decided otherwise for them. There were plenty of people at their house enjoying the beautiful, albeit hot, Saturday. They were enjoying friends and family and having lots of laughs, catching up on old times and looking forward to new moments. Thanks for a great day Hewitts!

Although we were at the fair last year with SweeTart, she was hardly old enough to understand what all the fuss was about. Although she didn't go on any rides, she sure did have a great time looking at all of the animals. Her Daddy took her through the small animal tent, then to the cows, goats and sheep. Later in the day, I took her back to the horses and tried to catch a few of their competitions. She loved all of the animals, especially the horses and cows. She did get a kick at looking at some of the rabbits but she's still not quite old enough to touch the little animals yet. I managed to truck right through some horse poop with the stroller. Her Daddy was not happy about that! Oh well. That's what soap and water is for right? After all, it was the FARM fair - what did he expect?

Twinkletoes and DinoBoy had a fantabulous time enjoying the rides. They were tall enough this year for all but one or two of the rides. They enjoyed the fun house, the "free fall" type ride, the ring of fire and another round about type ride. And that was just when I was with them. When Jerry's aunt took them back to the fair to enjoy the last part of their "wristband" time, who knows what kind of fun they had!!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Mid Summer

Hi all - its the end of July...it's almost DinoBoy's 8th birthday. How quickly that time has passed us by.

The kids are looking forward to going to the Farm Fair today. Wristbands for unlimited rides are from 1-4 p.m. Only downside of the entire thing is that it will be hot (90+) and humid. SweeTart does not like the hot and humid. I purchased a squirt bottle with a fan on it while at toys r' us yesterday. I am hopeful that will help us out, if only for a little while.

Have a mac 'n cheese in the oven to take to Hewitt's. I made cupcakes last night and Twink helped me frost them this morning. I should not be allowed to bake ... they are lopsided and look strange but we managed to hide most of their irregularites with the frosting. The Husband pointed out last night that they were no more strange looking than the cupcakes we purchased for the swimming birthday party a few weeks ago and they came from a "real" bakery in town. So - I am feeling a little bit better about them but, man, are they strange looking. With the scent that is wafting through the house right now, it smells like I did a much better job on the mac 'n cheese!

Will hopefully have pictures to post from the fair ... I will not say when since it took me six months to post before ... have a super weekend!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Seven? months in a jiffy.

Things are going well in our Crazy House. So far, we'll have had an ear infection, 6 new teeth since 1/1/09 (in the process of cutting 8 more!!), the entire house had the stomach bug, a trip to Disney, two patients with strep throat, a first birthday party for SweeTart and a trip to Jamaica for the harried parents. Yay! You'd think that I would have had more time to blog with just those few things going on! LOL



SweeTart is growing like a weed! She turned one on 4/10. I cannot believe that we've been blessed with her for a year already - she's fabulous and quite the drama queen! She is now walking - running around the house - having skipped the crawling phase entirely.


Twinkletoes has lost both of her top teeth! She's pretty funny looking - beautiful, but funny! Her older brother is FINALLY getting his top two teeth - they were gone Forever!!! It is amazing how big secondary teeth look in someone so small. I am beginning to dread the orthodontic bills we will have for these guys. Seems like for every tooth that comes back in, at least one, sometimes two teeth get knocked out of the way of the incoming tooth. It definitely is not a good situation to be in. I am not sure their mouths will grow as quickly as we need them too.

We have just finished baseball and softball seasons! Yes, I said softball. Twinkletoes played on an 8U team this year. It was hysterical! She had a ball though and shows no fear!! DinoBoy played Slugger 2 this year and is doing well too. He played 3rd base for a spell last game and made a fantastic play getting the force out over that way at third. He was so excited!! He gave anyone who would listen the instant replay.

Ok - so I started this post in April - on to bigger and better things - it is July after all!!