Pumpkins and Pradas and Printers...Oh My!

Happy Halloween!!! I can't wait to take Bryce out this year. I hope it doesn't rain like it's supposed to. He's dressing up as a frog this year. I'll take tons of pictures tonight I'm sure.
This is the cute Prada bag my little sister bought me when she was in Italy. Is it authentic? I don't know, but I like it! I'm not above carrying designer knock-offs! I was so happy to get this. I've been carrying a Thomas the Train backpack as a purse for quite some time now. It's nice to feel like a woman!

We broke down and bought an all-in-one printer, scannier and copier. I LOVE,LOVE,LOVE this! I've already printed out four pictures this morning! It has great quality. I haven't tried scanning anything yet, but watch out! Once I figure it out, I'll be scanning in some old-school pictures!

This is a layout I did over the weekend from our trip to the pumpkin patch this year. I'm usually a Huge fan of the Doodlebug papers, but these were a little loud for my taste, so I had to use it in small doses. He's such a cutie! I'm a little partial though.

Happy Halloween!!!

Seriously

Last night.

Grey's Anatomy.

Rerun.

WTH?

scales. are. ass.

That's all I have to say. Scales are ass! I have totally been dedicated to my diet/fitness regimen for a complete month now. I snuck out the scales first thing this morning to weigh myself, feeling for sure that I would have a loss. Nope, exactly the same as 6 days ago. Why? I have been eating clean, which is SOOO hard for me to do when Chris doesn't eat that way. I have been to the gym for at least 5-6 days a week for a month. I have been doing 60 squats, 60 lunges (60 each leg!), 60 deadlifts, 60 pushups....you get the picture....I'm busting my rump....all followed by 20 minutes of SPRINTS on the treadmill. Granted, I feel the "heads" of my quadriceps developing, my triceps are firmer, my stomach feels flatter, etc, etc but yesterday I did my measurements and they were the same as in JUNE! I should've done measurements when I started this a month ago, but I didn't. I don't think I got THAT much bigger since June!

This is why I give up on things. I need results! I'm going to take a rest day today and maybe do some cardio, no weights. I'm just feeling bummed because of all I've given up (diet cokes/coffee) and what I haven't received.

What a wonderful weekend!

I think I had one of the best weekends that I've had in awhile. It was so low-key and laid back. Just the way I like it. On Saturday, Chris and I decided to go work out at the Smyrna YMCA. The wellness center at our Y in Murfreesboro will be closed for a week while they put new floors down, so we decided we would go get a feel for the other one. We liked it SOOOO much better than ours. All new equipment, TV's on all cardio machines, and they're expanding the wellness center. WOW! We then headed to "Smooth Move" to get some protein shakes. I'm obsessed with this place. It's beside Wal-Mart in the 'boro (formerly Smoothie Bear). I got the Orange Hawaii smoothie.

After smoothies, I had planned to take Bryce to Walden Pumpkin Farm since we haven't gone yet this year. Well, he REFUSED! He wanted to sit in the house and watch "memo" (Finding Nemo). I caved and let him watch it and we headed out after the movie. He was the cutest thing! He picked out a Mommy pumpkin, a Daddy pumpkin and a baby pumpkin. We brought them home and he was making them talk to each other. Super cute!

Yesterday, I pulled 24 hours of call. It sounds horrible, but I only got called in 2 TIMES!!! Once around 11am, and again at 2pm. I got home around 5pm (I had 5 ultrasounds to do the second callback) and stayed home! It's going to be my last 24 hour shift for awhile. Having that beeper on makes me a bitch. The fear of the unknown I guess. Chris suffers because I'm so totally mean when I'm on call like that. I don't want to get involved in anything around the house, because I never know when I'll have to go back to the hospital. But anyway, it was my last one atleast until after the New Year.

I'm meeting my friend Elizabeth at the Y this morning for a class and then we're going to hit up Bath and Body Works so I can spend my coupons. After that we plan on finding some healthy lunch!

My friend Roxy is going in today to have her baby girl Ava! Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Burgess Falls

Last Saturday was so beautiful! We wanted to do something outdoors, cheap and get some exercise at the same time. We loaded up and headed to Burgess Falls. The leaves were changing and the weather was awesome! We hiked 3/4 of a mile to the top of the falls. I would've liked to hike down to the bottom of the falls, but Bryce was already making me nervous around the bluffs. Maybe Chris and I will have to go back soon!

Has it really been that long?

I guess I'm not very dedicated to my blog! The only "excuse" I really have is just the normal life of a mommy.

I got very excited this morning when I logged onto my checking account. Today is payday for me, and I kind of have this "goal", or amount that I have always hoped to achieve (weird, I know). But anyway, I blew it out of the water today! My check was about $600 more than it usually is. Not because I worked that much more, but because my previous checks have been short, and they finally corrected it. I don't have any big plans for the money...all of the bills are paid and everyone here is fat and happy, so I guess to the savings account it goes.

Just a little catch up.....
The Blackman Volunteer Fire Department held a Fire Safety night last week. I was very impressed with their efforts! They had an army tank, a smoke filled house to educate kids, and FIRE TRUCKS! My child is crazy about things with sirens and lights. Well, when he got to put on the hat and "drive" the truck (lights flashing, sirens blazing) he was in heaven! It was a little boy's dream come true! The grand finale of the night was when Life Flight landed! There's just something fascinating to me about helicopters. The flight nurses were so nice! They let everyone (kids included) sit in the helicopter...not in the front though, too many buttons to push! We had such a great time!

This is SO SCARY!!!

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea faced a barrage of global condemnation and calls for harsh sanctions Monday after it announced that it had set off an atomic weapon underground, a test that thrusts the secretive communist state into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations.

And of course they think the US is a big threat to them. I hope this gets under control!

Is it Friday?!?!?

Thank goodness it's Friday. I woke up this morning and it feels like a Monday. I got called in twice last night. Once at 10:45, and again at 2:30. YUCK! Chris woke me up this morning and told me that Bryce had puked at some point last night. Poor little man was covered in it! I feel like such a horrible mom for not even knowing that he was sick last night. I just made a "small" pot of coffee. So much for my no caffeine.

We should have a pretty good weekend coming up! I'm playing bunco tonight with my girls, teaching a class at the scrapbook class Saturday morning, and we have a birthday party Sunday afternoon.

Please keep my friend Jenna in your prayers. She has been in Vanderbilt since the middle of September battling leukemia. She's a very strong woman, and please pray for her healing.

Bye Bye Diet Coke!

This is officially week 2 of my "carbonation/caffeine free" kick. I was drinking WAY WAY WAY too many sodas a day, and some days ZERO water! I decided to limit myself to two cans of Diet Soda per week. It honestly wasn't that hard! I haven't really even craved one the entire time. I had a couple of crabby days and some pretty bad headaches but all is well now. A doctor told me that carbonated drinks can inhibit weight loss. Have any of you heard of this? I was just wondering if there were any interesting articles out there on this subject. Anyway, I'm up to 96 ounces of crystal clear water a day, and I feel FABULOUS!

New shoes, a broken toe and a nasty washing machine

What a title, huh? Those have been the peak moments of my life lately. Let's start with the shoes. Bryce has had his toddler Crocs all summer, and when the temps started to drop I grabbed his tennis shoes from the closet and guess what? They didn't fit. I mean what was I thinking? Was I thinking? I know I have to buy a new wardrobe for him each season, so I don't know why I expected his shoes from last winter to still fit. Off to Shoe Carnival we go. I love to hate that place. But anyway, we ended up with a size 9 1/2 white pair of K-Swiss! An entire size and a half from his old shoes! Here's a pic of the little guy....very proud of his new kicks!


And then...the toe. My smallest, most unimportant little piggy toe on my left foot is still throbbing with pain.I stubbed the holy crap out of it Saturday evening. Yes, I was sober! I just wasn't paying attention. And you know what the craziest thing is? I have 10 toes...everyone has managed to step on the ONE BAD TOE I have! I'm in flip-flops now, which sucks at work. I have to wear those stupid blue booties. Oh well, it will heal.

Finally, my washing machine. I've had this washing machine for almost 9 years now. I knew it was getting sort of soap scummy so I bought some vinegar about 6 months ago with intentions of cleaning it. I finally conquered it yesterday. I have never in my life seen something so nasty! I'll spare you any pictures (well, actually I didn't take any pictures. That might be weird), but let me just suggest that everyone check their fabric softner dispenser atleast once a year. I about chucked when I discovered what was growing in mine!

In loving memory....Grandpa, We'll miss you!

My grandfather passed away unexpectedly this morning. He was such a strong, wise and inspring person. He was very loved and will be greatly missed. Anyone who ever met him was surely blessed.

Howard Lloyd Gunter
80 year old Howard Lloyd Gunter of Smithville died suddenly Saturday at DeKalb Community Hospital. He was a World War II Navy veteran, a Mason, and a retired employee of Genesco. The funeral will be Monday at 1:00 p.m. at the Bethel United Methodist Church where he was a member. Royce Martin and Wilson Williams will officiate and burial will be in the Bethel Cemetery. Visitation will be Sunday from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. and Monday from 9:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at which time the body will be taken to the church for the service at 1:00 p.m. He was preceded in death by his parents, Houston and Dovie Lee Blair Gunter and sisters, Mozell Cory, Odie Basham, Polly Simons, and Jimmie Shuler. Survivors include his wife of 60 years Norma Phillips Gunter of Smithville. Three children, Dan and his wife Kristen Gunter of Lakeland, Florida; Phillip and his wife Karen Gunter of Valdosta, Georgial and Sharon and her husband Harold Rader of Murfreesboro. Grandchildren, Leah Love and her husband Eric Orsbon, Monica and her husband Chris Dickens, Alex Rader, Matt Gunter, and Danielle Chamber. Great grandchild, Bryce Dickens. Sisters, Betty and her husband J.T. Hale of McMinnville, Dorcas and her husband Larry Medley of McMinnville, Ruth Payne of Jacksonville, Florida; and Naomi Sheppard of Jacksonville, Florida. Sisters-in-law, Mary Cantrell of Smithville, Fatama Walker of McMinnville, and Jane Eller of Smithville. A brother-in-law, Bill Phillips of Smithville. DeKalb Funeral Chapel is in charge of the arrangements. The family asks that donations be made to the Bethel Cemetery Fund in memory of Mr. Gunter, in lieu of flowers.

Puppy in training

This crazy dog of ours! I had a breaking point earlier this week with Duke. He's just OUT OF CONTROL! I had enough of the whizzing, chewing and disobeying that I could handle. Heck, I get enough of that from Bryce so why should I have to take it from the dog? I signed him up for Puppy Obiedience Classes at PetSmart. We started last night and we will continue for 8 weeks. All I can say is WOW! After only one class he learned the commands "sit", "watch", and "stand". I can finally get his attention now. She gave us some GREAT advice on house training. Things that I was doing wrong, like leaving his food and water out for him ALL DAY is a big no-no until he's trained. We're working on that full-force now!

Waitin' on Thursday

Watch this!
I love this "teaser" for the new season of Grey's Anatomy! I can't wait until Thursday night!

McDreamy, McVet...who will it be?

Dr. Phil stuff again

Alright, well I'm sure you read my previous post about going out to LA to see the Dr. Phil show. Let me tell you this story....We're back in town, and all of us gals are online trying to check on an air date for the shows we saw. My girl Jenni looks at the "Upcoming Shows" section and sees a call for people who put others persons needs before their own. She signs up our friend Misty (who also keeps Bryce for me) because that girl is ALWAYS doing things for other people and NEVER herself. An example of this...someone gave her one of the "filler-ups" from Bath Junkie..um I don't know about a year ago, and she STILL hasn't gone in there for it! I mean it's BATH JUNKIE! She's just never without her kids. I've offered on several occasions to come over and just stay with her kids for a couple of hours so she could go to the grocery store alone. She won't take anyone's help. So Jenni called Dr. Phil on her ass!

She sent in the letter along with some pics of Misty. She needs a wardrobe makeover in a MAJOR way! The next day, the producer was calling both of them...kind of a phone interview thing. That Sunday, the camera crew rolled up to her house. It moved SO fast! They filmed all of these segments trying to catch Misty in her daily routine, but it was Sunday and not a typical day for her. She called all of the moms that drop their kids off to see if they could come over and do a "fake drop-off" for the show. Unfortunately we were at the "Day out with Thomas" festival thing and we missed our National Television Debut. But anyhow, when the 14 hours of filming was over on Sunday, they informed the gang that they would be flown out to LA to tape the show that Tuesday morning.

Let me just say, if you can get on the Dr. Phil show I think you should! They got the rockstar treatment out there. A stretch Escalade met them at the airport to take them to their hotel (I can't remember the name of it, but it's right across from the Kodak Theater). The rooms were paid for, of course, but they also had $600 to spend on food!!! Unbelieveable! Granted, things are alot more pricey out west than here, but come on! $600 for food?!? LIVE IT UP!

Alright, so they get wisked to Paramount Studios 29 on Thursday morning (Wednesday was a free day for them) to film the show. It's an "Ask Dr. Phil and Robin" show. Kind of a hodge-podge of things going on. They're the LAST ones to come on the show. And remember the 14 hours of taping I told you about? They condensed it down to about 30 seconds! But anyway, are you ready for the COOL STUFF?!? Misty started crying while watching the clip onstage. Dr. Phil whips out one of his embroidered hankies for her to wipe her tears. She of course gets to keep it ;) But then the grand finale......Dr. Phil and Robin present her with some great goodies!

-$1000 gift certificate to Green Hills mall
-$500 spa package (an all day event) to Blue River Canyon Salon and Day Spa
-gift certificate for a hair "revamp" at a salon in downtown Nashville
-spa robe and slippers

Very cool! She hasn't bought anything yet or used her gift certificates. We're trying to plan a girl's day out to do some shopping.

We won the Powerball!!!

Well, not really....we had the Powerball plus one other number. That makes us a whopping $4 richer...actually $1 in the hole if you consider that I spent $5 on a ticket. It's still the fascination of winning that counts, right?

We spent our last "official" day on the lake today. I'm a little burned out on it, so I'm glad that we won't be doing that again for awhile. I enjoy being lazy on my Sunday afternoons. The water was FRIGID today! I guess the cooler nights are making a big difference in the water temps. Well, I'm off to catch up on some housework...oh, by the way, I decided I'll catch my blog up one day at a time instead of all at once. I plan on having a pretty low-key week so my past events will give me something to blog about :)

So much has happened!

I don't know if it's even possible to catch my blog up, but I sure can try!

Getting caught up

It's amazing that it has taken me almost a week to fall back into my regular routine. I got back home Friday evening from LA, so I didn't do much other than family stuff over the weekend. That left lots of laundry, mopping, etc for the week. I really felt like I was missed though!

The Dr. Phil show was awesome! It's so neat to see all of the elements that it takes to film a TV show. There were probably about 10 cameras floating around at all times (which meant no nose picking!). We were fortunate enough to see two back-to-back tapings (the 2nd show was not sold out). The first episode was "Revenge of the Ex's". Very cool! I love hearing the drama behind cheaters. The main guests were the people involved in a lawsuit regarding the website www.dontdatehimgirl.com. Which was interesting because I read an article in People magazine about this while we were on the flight out there! They couldn't give us a date for when that show would air, but I'll keep checking the website.

The second taping was about Dr. Phil's wife Robin. She has a new book coming out September 12th (and a very good book at that). That's also when the show will air, so look for me about 4 rows back from the stage (on the left side of the television).

I'll leave you with a quote from Robin's book. This really hit home with me.

"You can't control other people. You can't control what they say, what they think, or what they do. People have the right to say and think whatever they want to. But you have the right not to take it to heart, and not to react."

California Pictures

A little on the down side

"Life comes at you fast"

Have you ever seen that Nationwide commercial? That's totally how I've been feeling lately. Between work, home, family and tons of other commitments I've made, I seem to barely keep my head above water. Just when I seem to get caught up on things, I'm suddenly behind the next day.

I'm really unhappy with my job these days. I love the paychecks, but what good is it to have your "days" off if you're too tired to ever do anything? Not to mention I've been an ill little hornet. So don't ask me for any favors for about a week..okay? Just kidding. My trip to LA is next week and it's well needed!

I've decided to jump out of the fast lane for today and chill out with Bryce. I'm going to work out today (which will hopefully make me feel better), go get Bryce some flashcards (the boy's a SPONGE lately), and maybe blow up the waterslide for him. I'm planning on a fun, yet lazy day!

:me:

I am trying to become less involved in problems that are not mine.
I need reminders constantly that I don't have control over what anyone does.
I can control myself and that is all.
The energy I waste worrying about other people is too much. I need to let it go.
A constant struggle of mine.
Let. It. Go.

Last scrapper standing contest (or LSS for short)

I again signed up for another contest/challenge. I've needed a creative punch lately and when I stumbled upon this contest I decided to jump on it. This is a weekly scrap-related "dare" that must be completed on Wednesday of each week. This layout is week one's entry. The challenge: Journaling. You must create a layout that has all of your journaling on top of your photo. All of it. And it has to be a decent chunk of story...not just a sentence. We want to see you creatively include a sizable story on your photo (or photos). You may add a title, embellishments and whatever you like to the rest of your page, but all the journaling MUST be on your photo. Hmm, thank goodness for digital pictures!