the real life.....

this is what my life consisted of today.....

there were, at one time or another, 9 kids in my house

using my couch cushions and decorative pillows as a fort and/or armor... 

for an epic nerf gun war.

things got out of control pretty quickly

what is this, you ask?

besides a really dirty front door rug?  how about the front door handle

which ended up on the floor

how does a handle just fall off of the door?

since we are having a subdivision garage sale tomorrow and i will be participating, i made some 

goodies for the kids to sell....4 dozen cupcakes, a pan of brownies and banana bread which resulted in my kitchen looking like

this:

and this:

aah, a little visual reprieve....

nope. back to real life.....

the dog played it safe and hid out in his cage during all of the madness...

and what could be more craptastic than all of that?

the email i got from my girlfriend that said 

"good morning! 

your baby is now a high schooler"! 

yes, austen graduated 8th grade and hence is done with middle school.  he had his recognition ceremony 

tuesday night....

and today?

he turned 14.  fourteen!

and my stomach is sick.  he was just in kindergarten....how does this happen?

he is too young to be 14!

happy birthday buddy, you are a rock star.

busy, busy week

i can't believe that a week has already flown by... this has been a very busy week around here.  

the weather has actually warmed up a bit....in fact, it was in the mid 80's this past sunday..just two days after i whined like a baby about how cold its been lately.

however...

the following day it was back into the 50's and has stayed there since.  

and it was windy which makes it feel like the 40's...

i digress..

sunday's temps allowed us to finally spend some time outdoors.  

here is how our family spend the day...

don could not wait to get out into his garden

pruning the gardens and the rose bushes

did i tell you that our dog eats rose bushes???

it's true...when he was a puppy and before we had any control over him at all....he would yank the rose bushes out of the ground, roots and all, and drag them through the yard....

at least he doesn't eat his own poop....

austen spent most of the day golfing in the yard...

or as we like to call it

 fishing for balls in the pond..

doesn't the pond have a lovely green hue???  he could have teed off on the scum in there!!!

we went to home depot for some replacement parts to fix our 7 year old ( falling apart, burn everything you put on it, birds nest of a grill)

and came home with 

this

heaven, i tell ya!!!!  4 burners and a spit (that we still have to buy)

and the flames don't flare up and engulf our food and burn it to crispy ashes..ahhhh!!!

i scored an end table in someone's garbage pile...yup, totally slammed on the brakes,

pulled to the side of the road and hauled this baby into the back seat. because our cars were small and had no trunk space to be able to accommodate furniture....

so yesterday, we came home with this

an uplander with lots and lots of room

and seating for 7....people or pieces of furniture....

oops, how did that get in there???

i also worked on another piece of furniture for my friend lisa...

and when i uploaded this picture to send to her for a progress report yesterday, i noticed that there were some funky vertical lines on the picture....i googled it and learned that this is a major camera malfunction.  i was hoping that google was goggled in the head and bee-lined it to my beloved camera store where i bought my canon 7D.  they hadn't seen anything like that before and thought that it was an electronic problem and packed it off to the manufacturer......  :(

and i had a photo shoot to do this morning.....

so i got out my old canon xti and couldn't remember how to use it.  so i had to google that too.  but it worked and i was able to do the little mini easter shoot of these two lovelies.....

 so clear it almost looks like they are coming right out of the picture, doesn't it???

hey, how did that get in there???

it was actually warm enough to be outside in summer clothes....
i asked don to take a picture of me in my painting apron.  because it is a cute apron.

notice that he didn't get the apron....

hey, my eyes are up here.....(because i am so hugely endowed)

there we go.....

so i had to set it up so he could get the whole apron in the picture (i do wear it when i paint)

a bicycle, a couple of ladders, wading boots for the pond, the snow blower that hasn't been put away yet (i told don to get that dang thing into the shed before it jinks us again...crap..too late, they are calling for snow on saturday night, for reals!!!) a wooden sofa on its side, and numerous oil and paint stains on the garage floor. lovely isn't it?  hmmmmm...maybe the garage could use a little feminine touch, some pretty paint on the walls, and some curtains in the windows?????

nah, just a good power washing.....

i know your butt is cute, but can you keep it out of my post please???

i leave you today with an oxymoron of sorts

ruffles and skulls!!!

they are the same shoes as the raspberry ones in the photo above, only in mushroom.  

ok, i'm hungry now...

have a great weekend, friends!!!

seriously now!!!!

life has been pretty quiet around here lately......

but the house has been filled with kids because it is spring break week...

so just a few more random photos

danny is a neighbor....and his teeth are growing in just perfectly....

 i thought i'd play around with some textures on the one below...

 scarlett sure loves her champers!

 is she really 7 years old already??

 how can she only be three????

and how can she already be three???

sigh!!!!

a couple of random photos...

of my princess, scarlett....

 and a lovely princess she is

my lovely neighbor, megan...

who is more beautiful than she knows...

and my sofa pillows...

and the poor dog looking at his ball that rolled under the sofa....

i told you the pictures would be random....  :D