Hangin my sign

Nuff Said ! See you in a week ....

Love ya!!

ahhhhhhh quiet and no rain

Ok, so you think you can dance ?? LOL oh he is my son ! sorry Josh :)

Now that is ONE happy boy ! After 4 days of rain , he was so happy to get in the pool today . Grant it kids have no idea that the water in the pool is too frigin cold to be swimming in , he was having too much fun.
Hey mom , this picture is already printed !! You know after seeing that commercial I had to print this out today !!

In other news , I made it to 44 years old ...no sweat , still kickin and lovin life .
Josh is so excited about rehoboth , he was even explaining the whole thing to the walmart cashier today . They are going to learn someday not to ask Josh " how are you doing today." Cause he will tell them !
It has been an adjustment to the summer , trying to juggle the store and Josh . I think it is working pretty good right now . Josh seems to be doing well with it . breaking up the routine is working well .

So we are off to the Beach in 2 days .

Got the dog sitters all set up

Got all our clothes on the dining room table

Pick up Mom at the airport on Friday

Check the bike tires

Get an oil change

Just a few more things to do ...then 7 days of relaxing , chilling with our friends and just having some plain great times !

Ok this one is for Kim ....

WARNING ...don't have anything in your mouth ...it may come out your nose !! LOL

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2006/06/gaymarriage.html

Yeah I might be going to hell on a bobsled ...but there will be plenty of company!

Yes Cocktails will be served!!

There she is ...one week after opening it , ready for lots of splashing , floating and just plain summer fun !
We need to get the table and chairs on the deck and some of the floats blown up , but Josh jumped right in yesterday . Along with Cody and Cricket of course. So come on over for a refreshing dip and some kind of frozen drink ....served daily on the weekends!

This is the other place I hope to spend sometime this summer. My NEW Scrap space. I am in the process of moving things right now , so it isn't finished..but is it ever really finished ? So anyway , it is so fun setting this up and finding embellishments I forgot I had ....Sarah shhhhhhhhhhh!!

Ok so this jar just makes me giddy ! Pure eye candy !

On the Josh front ...he has just been my cuddle boy this week ! I can't believe he has just gone with the flow so well. I really expected boredom after school let out. He has been taking the vacation attitude in stride. I have also changed up my hours at the store a couple days a week to spend a little time at home with Josh. It is a good thing ! Baseball is done so we are taking a break till Football starts up . We are going to enjoy the pool , some days at Dorney Park and of course our Rehoboth Week ! Coming up just 8 more days !!! Wahooooooooooooo!
So not much else going on . Kinda boring here, which is nice too :)
So in the words of Josh " Rock On "

Is this awesome or what ....

Steve Jobs : Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Goodbye ......

As we say goodbye ......

to 2.75 hours of school

to playing for the first 15 mins

snack time

sitting at tables

we say hello to ....

1st Grade !!

All day in school

Getting on the bus ....

Eating in the cafeteria

Recess

Homework

OH he has no clue.... His biggest thing is that he will get recess!

Little does he know he has hours of recess now , and he will now get 20 mins ! Ha Ha !!

He tells me that what he will miss most about kindergarten is "Mrs Soderberg" I loved that . He truly loved his teacher and I think he will always remember her in a special way.

She is a great lady , and one that truly loves what she does. She cared so much about each child and dealt with each of them as individuals. Patients like I have never seen dealing with someone's kid that isn't your own. Teachers really are special people.

I am looking forward to this summer with Josh , Come school time it is going to be a little hard for both of us I feel.

This has been a year of adjustments for our family , Josh going off into the public school and myself opening up a new business. You wonder all the time if you are making the right choices.

When it was just me ...all the choices I made pretty much only effected ME! Now I have Josh to think about , and also Kate . Family is #1 in my life and heart and I want to make sure what I do , is right for them as well as me.

So this summer I am going to cut back a little on store hours, enjoy sometime with Josh and make sure he is not at the store all day long. I love our little slice of heaven called memory lane, pa . But ....I love my son more then anything and want to make sure I cherish the times I have with him. I already see how fast it is going and since I can't stop life from going the pace it does...I have to jump on the ride and enjoy it !

So here is to summer ...don't wish it away !

A little inspiration from my friend :)

Thanks Trish !! You inspired me to do this album . Using Hang 10 on a paper bag book , I took Trish's inspiration and made a little chipboard album for Grandpa !

I hope he enjoys it . Josh says " Little but Nice Mom"

Felt so GREAT to be creating this week . I got some awesome cards done and this . Oh also the Teacher's book. Which made her cry ....my job is done !!

Looking forward to a weekend with Kate and Josh. Lots to do around here and have some fun also . We opened the pool today ...be swimming soon!

Happy Father's day to all the Dads out there !

Paradise Found !

16
Days
till
Rehoboth!!!

Nothing like a little visit ....

Aunt Denise came up to visit this Sunday , it is always fun to have sis come for a visit . We had some work to do , but I saw my sis out playing baseball with Josh and had to get out the camera. For one thing I think it is the first time I ever saw my sister with a baseball glove on her hand and another ....well the first is actually still making me giggle!!
I love this shot!! They are both really enjoying the day !
Cricket was enjoying watching the action ! He is so dang cute !!
Not sure what all the running was about , there are no touchdowns in baseball !!
Maybe they were just airing it out ! All I can say is there was lots of laughter and fun going on . That makes me happy !

Today was a great day for my little guy . He had his move up day at school and I got to witness it . It was really very cool as all the kids and teachers from school line up on two sides and then starting with the Josh's class they start marching down the middle of it with everyone cheering and clapping. At the end of this is their first grade teachers ready to welcome them .
Then they go back in the school and spend about 10 minutes in their next year classroom.
I of course was shedding tears and just couldn't believe that he would be getting on a bus in 2 months. Spending a whole day away from me , I just can't believe it .
*Sigh* , I will post some pics soon of the day . He is so excited and tomorrow is his last day of kindergarten. The teacher loved her gift and all the Moms want to learn how to make one of those albums.
Well it is just about summer , time to get those Dorney Park season passes !!

Creating is good!

Got to love it when they are taking out the tinkertoys and they carefully walk down the hall with their creation to show you .
The great Ship!
I love Josh's imagination, he is constantly building things.
We are off to do fun things today .
First stop IKEA!!
That corner closet is coming home today .
That desk for my scrap studio also is !
My sis is here for the day too!!
So have a great sunday and create something !!

Childhood.....Cars....Friends....

Ice Cream and good Friends!
A Group Hug!
Now these are the pictures that I would love to have from my childhood. Showing fun !
Showing I had a great time!
Showing just plain silly times!
We took these 3 monkeys to the new movie "Cars" .
It was a great time ! We started with Dinner at Applebee's and then icecream at Friendly's .
Then off to the movies , they were GREAT!!
Altho I have to admit......ONE is GOOD!
Having that much energy at one time all the time is just pure craziness!!

Ok so we were waiting and I turn around and see this on the wall!
I have to say , it is a night I hope he remembers for a long time ! It was a fun time to watch ....and the best part is when I asked them what they thought the movie was about ....and they all got the right answer !!
" Helping your friends " ....another proud mom moment!

Some things are just too good not to share.....

We can see the finish line !

This is a project I am doing for Josh's Teacher . It is a Tin I decorated . There is an album inside that I am working on with all the pictures.







This is an Album I did for a teacher retiring from Teaching this year. I have never met this teacher but Abby showed me about 100 pages of white notebook paper , alot of children this woman had taught had wrote her a note how much they loved having her as a teacher and how they would miss her. Without a hesitation I uttered the words.....I could make that into an album for you, you can't just give her those sheets like that. Now I knew I had no time to do this , but all the words were out there before I even realized what I had said. I shook my head a few days later , thinking what the heck did I say I would do this for??? Well I have to tell you the other day it all came back to Karma again . I won't bore you with the details , but I now know why I was to take this all on. Loved how it came out too.

It is so close!! We now have both colors on the walls, and everything is cut in too. We have just cutting in the ceiling , more trim and then the beams to do !!! We are so ex
cited. You can see in this pic where my studio will be soon. As soon as we get the rest of the stuff out of there. Which if I keep plugging we will start moving things around this weekend :)

So what do you think of the dark color. I have to tell you the pic does not do it justice.!!Kate and I so love it all. Josh actually wants this to be his room now . Of course he wants to be with us all the time . Where you see the 2x4's is where our little window seat will be in the future, we just had to take on one more project !! It will be very nice tho. We are also going to go get our corner closet perhaps this weekend also.
So the next pic of the room will hopefully be one that is just about done.
Thanks for going on this adventure with us ....it actually is nice to have it almost done , and I am sure you are all bored with it by now !

Only 23 Days till Rehoboth!!

We have Color !!

This past week we added color to our room. It was so exciting to see color on the walls, time for happy dance . It is nice to see it getting closer to the finish line.
Now the back wall just got painted tonight , I am just too tired to get a pic of it right now . I promise one this week! Tomorrow on my day off I am going to paint some of the woodwork , then the bed and dressers can go on the one wall. We are down to one little piece that needs sanding then that will be the end of the drywall dust. Oh yes that makes me SOOOOOOOO Happy!!
So keep your fingers crossed it should only take about another week and we will be all moved in .
This is our next addition to the room . It is the corner unit of our closet . IKEA was a fun side trip today to look at what we wanted to do about a closet. We are then going to add two other units to this as we can. It is going to be in white I think ..can't decide just yet. This will let us get rid of 2 dressers and have all our clothing in one place. Yeah TMI probably !
But we are so dang excited!!

So other then driving ourselves to pure exhaustion each and every night we haven't been doing much else...except as we pass each other in the hall one of us is always muttering ...we are sooooo close!! And that is the driving factor , how we keep going.

Josh is just 8 days from being a first grader. I can't believe this year of 1/2 day Kindergarten is almost over. It is just amazing how fast it went.
I look forward to spending this summer with him. I plan on doing 1/2 days as much as I can at the store for July and August to spend with Josh.

Next year he will be gone all day long and that is going to be so strange for me. It will be the longest amount of time we will be away from each other. From 8 am -4 pm that is a big deal to me. I am not used to him being gone for more then 3 hours. Ok not going to think about the whole bus thing either ! You can't make me ......la la lala la ...

So pretty boring here at the Stillings , as far as a blog read . We will be on to more things soon. Like REHOBOTH !!! 26 more days !! YES!