the back door

i had been thinking all week about today. i knew hubby was going to be gone for most of it, and lately i look forward to the days of being alone in my house. i also knew i had a lot of work to do, but last night decided i needed to just enjoy today - forget the work and everything about it and just be me today! so i woke up this morning with a happy heart! had a cup of coffee and put the kids on the bus. enjoyed some oatmeal and read my bible. helped hubby get ready to leave. then took a trash bag, pledge, a dustrag, and my vacuum cleaner up to mapboy's bedroom! i stood there and smiled. this was definitely going to be a good day! i start with the bed. you know, i think i will just watch all the sheets. and guess what? i can hang them on the clothes line to dry. a good day! 3 hours later i emerge....one full garbage bag and 2 boxes of garage sale items sat at the top of the stairs. i had collected an entire canning jar of pencils, found the missing library book (lost ...

so my hubby was gone last weekend...took a whirlwind trip with a few guys to gettysburg. i rounded up some movies and prepared to settle in for a quiet weekend. okay, so i still had my kids, but quiet evenings anyways... saturday afternoon i took the kids to the local zoo. it was beautiful outside and i think everyone in a 2 hours radius had the same idea. but we had ice cream, got hair cuts, set up for church, and made it back home around 5. the kids started playing nicely. i had washed all the rugs in the house and had them hanging on the line. so i went to start bringing them in. our neighbor was outside with her 2 little girls. we started talking. then out came princess - she was of course crying because mapboy had been mean. a normal occurance these days. so i instruct princess to let him have some alone time and she opted to stay outside with me. i chatted over our fence with the neighbor. then the phone rings and princess brings it to me. my sil is on the phone. ...

so i was scanning my yahoo news page and checked out the big news on 9 things to make you happy in the 30 minutes. frankly, they seemed a little lame, but i decided i'd share 9 things that currently help me get happy! 1. running!!! i never thought i'd say that but when i run i just get so happy. just yesterday i ran hard and had a blast. i had my ipod on, i sang loud, i just ran and end in the end was HAPPY! 2. idol!! yep...i'm an idol junkie what can i say!!?!?! idol makes me HAPPY! 3. loving my hubby! whenever i'm feeling a little lousy or down all it takes is me hugging and kissing and loving on my hubby! my hubby makes me HAPPY! 4. starbucks!! need i say more???? starbucks makes me grin from ear to ear and makes me very HAPPY!!! it is only better when shared with a dear friend and i've missed that this week. 5. sunshine! that makes a lot of people happy......it just seems to nice and warm and inviting and beautiful! sunshine makes me HAPPY!!! 6. country music!! ...

here are some highlights of our spring break trip! we spent 10 days with my parents in tampa...i know, i know, that was weeks ago, but well, i had to kick hubby off the computer long enough to scan these in. he thought he would need the camera while i was gone....geesh! so mapboy is not really into contact sports. oh he loves to watch them, but definitely not play....but shuffleboard is right up his alley! ha!! he was actually quite impressive and beat me fair and square! i think he played about 8 games! here we are swimming.....mapboy had started with the noodle. when grandpa tossed him in the air, he lost the noodle, and just started swimming...that was that and we now have a swimmer! of course, princess then decided she could swim. she might still need a little more practice! here we are heading out to catch some waves! we had a blast and apparently missed out on the dolphins playing about 20 feet behind us. everyone else saw it..but not us...the waves were too much exci...

it has been quite awhile since i last blogged...life has been busy, quite busy. let me catch you up with where we have been. the kids and i ventured to tampa, florida for some spring break fun with my parents! we had a great time taking in bush gardens, the zoo, the aquarium, the beach, strawberry shortcakes, shuffleboard, games, and classic cartoons. we delayed our trip home a day, but nevertheless returned back to snow and cold. boo hoo! well, okay, so i was ready to see my husband after 10 long days. apparently, he was too well taken care of by a host of young men... returning home found me catching up on work i missed, hubby catching up on work that he didn't do, and the kids struggling to catch up on sleep! but we are back in a routine and life just keeps going.... there's been snow and spring sunny days. our daffodils are in bloom. the hyacinths have opened up and the tulips have popped out of the ground. the kids have been outside and i've sat on the porch a...