Joanne, from Little Patch of Heaven, gave me this award...which I LOVE because it looks just like me!!! (If I was 70 lbs thinner, had long blonde hair, and was wearing a giant cupcake!)

THANKS!! Joanne, you are very sweet!

This came with a tag too. I don't usually play tag....I don't play well with others.....sore loser ya know! But, seeing as I have recently lost my FUNNY...and have no idea what to blog anymore..Here it goes!!

7 things to do before I die: (or 4)

Go on a big family vacation with my kids.

Go on a big vacation without my kids.

Tell everyone that I love, that I love them. (oh yeah! I love you guys!)

Finish my sewing projects.

7 things I do now:

Sew

Be a Mom

Shop online.

Eat everything.

Drive kids everywhere

Drink Diet Coke

Start Diets.

7 things I can't do:

Play the Piano

Crochet,

or knit,

or not freak out when I'm stressed,

Have any more kids (My Mom said so!)

lose weight.

Ski.

7 things I find attractive about the opposite sex:

Really hairsprayed hair so it looks like it's not real.

Obsessive cleanliness

loves children

Laughs

Biceps

Romantic

Silly

7 things I say most often:

Knock it off!

Don't!

Tell your brother that I said not to!

I'm looking!

I'm on a Diet

Where is the chocolate.

Yes, you can have a drink of my drink.

7 Favorite foods:

Couldn't narrow it down to 7! Mostly desserts, fries, chips, everything bad for you, and everything good for you too.

If you read this, and want to play tsg.....you're it!!

*pant*

Can't
blog
now.......


Must
keep
Shopping...

Christmas
almost
here....

Can't
resist
SALES!!!

The Kids are home......RUN!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The kids are all home from school today!!!

So, like any good Mom

I'm going somewhere else!

O.k, I'm only kidding.....I don't have anywhere to go so I'm staying home.

I have so much to be thankful for!!

This holiday season is going to be difficult for our family. Last year, at this time, there were two people here that are not here now: my Nephew and Brother-in-law.

We are thankful for their lives, that we had them as long as we did, and for the love that we still have for them. We're just sad because we miss them.

We are thankful this year because two people that weren't here last year, at this time, are back.

My parents were in Nigeria and Liberia for the last 2 Thanksgivings on a church mission. We are so thankful to have them back with us this year. We missed them so much!!

Hope that you ALL have a great holiday!

Don't get hurt on Black Friday if you are one of those who dare go out.

I won't decide until I see the ads.....

Lola and the evening of CARNAGE

Once upon a time, way back in the late 80's, there was a young girl named Lola. She was much like other girls of the day- aerosol sprayed big hair, putty knife'd on makeup, and heavily accessorized!

One happy day this college student found $5.00 in one of her purses. Sick of constantly eating Ramen Noodles, hot dogs, and peanut butter she headed to the nearest Burger King for a Whopper.

A strange thing happened while she was stuffing her face with burger....she stopped and looked at the meat. An animal had DIED so that she could gorge on it's flesh. She had remorse!! She had eaten and not appreciated!

Immediately she swore off meat! Strict Vegetarian!! Gave up hair products, makeup, and all fashion sense!!!

Lola became- EARTH MUFFIN!!!

...with clothes on!

Veggie Lola was around for 4 or 5 years

until pregnancy cravings caused her to eat chicken.

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Last night we went out with Mom and Dad, and my Sibs and spouses to celebrate a few Birthdays. The Birthday Boys got to choose where we went...

Brazilian Churrasco, of course!

If you've never been to one....I suggest that you go

IF YOU LIKE MEAT!!!!

The salad bar was OK. The constant flow stream of bleeding meat on skewers........being served to my loved ones

that were ENJOYING it!!!

Luckily, the conversation was great, and the antics of my brothers were above average! I laughed until my cheeks hurt. One brother stuck cheese puff thingies down the front of his sweater(like boobies), and kept commenting on how cold it was in there. Then he took them out, and ate them......FUNNY!!

Brought to you by:

Phew....I think?

Well!

The website I've been building for FOREVER is now officially

MOSTLY OPEN!!!

You heard right,

MOSTLY OPEN!

Now, try not to get too excited.

I know that this is amazing news. The worlds most fabulous fabric store of fabulousity is now open(mostly) in your very own computer!

If you visit The Amazing Gracie Lou's Quilt Shoppe during it's

Pre-Grand Opening-Opening

you get 10% off your entire purchase!

You heard me right! A Whopping 10% off!

But wait! It gets better!!

When we ship your package to you

you will recieve extra little surprises.....including an invoice autographed by one of the

Star Studded Cast of employees

including the talented I live at the circus,

The other side of the mountain,

Lola...again, or Amy Butler

(just kidding about Amy!)

I am still adding hundreds of products

(slowly)

(very slowly)

to the shoppe.

Don't miss your chance save

10%

on the fabrics you love....from the people you kind of like,

but would LOVE if you knew us better!

What a wonderful world...

If Diet Coke grew on trees...

(Heaven?)

and you picked it before it was ripe

would it be Diet Sprite?

And would you have to put it in your windowsill

to ripen,

and turn brown?

And what if you let it get too ripe??

Would it turn into regular coke,

and have to be thrown out with the yucky bananas!

What to do?

"Hmmm, now that the big giveaway is over what am I going to do with my time?"

"I guess I could make another purse?? or, maybe an earth friendly craft."

"Maybe I should clean the house,
do the laundry,
cook a meal for my family,
or work on the website....."

"Nah. I'll make a strait-jacket"


"It'll come in handy when the 5th grader acts up. Maybe I ought to make one for each of the kids to wear to church.....or on road trips! Then we wouldn't hear "He's touching me Mom..tell him to stop touching me!"

"I can't believe I never thought of this before!!"

Have you ever made a strait-jacket? There aren't any patterns on the net, you just have to wing it!

Smith is going to be "Harry Houdini" for the schools wax museum this week. I didn't really make this to punish my kids......but it does give me ideas!!

Not Wrestle-Mania

It's time for the

SUNDAY SMACK DOWN!!!

(Nope! Wrestle-Mania isn't on right now.)

It's Church...

again...

already.

Has it really been a week?

I have high hopes that someday Sunday will be a peaceful, restful, spiritual day. I have yet to see any of that happen. Mostly Sunday is rushing 8 people into dress clothes, trying to keep them clean and wrinkle free for 5 minutes, then hoping that they wont yell out anything embarrassing during sacrament meeting. One of my babies would yell "Coke" whenever he saw the sacrament water coming. My 2 year old likes to make train sounds, "TOOT! TOOT" whenever there is a pause in the action.

I think that Church is a lot like Aerobics. I take one to the bathroom, then the baby screams, one needs a drink, two start fistfighting, the older ones get into an elbow fight. And this is just as we are getting into the SUV to go to Church.

I guess it's time to teach them the Golden Rule!



Funny Videos

I say Nay Nay...

To find out more about the Give away-a-rama go here.

I've been doing a lot of talk about dieting lately. I would like to lose 30 lbs by April. I know that I can do this!! My only problem is that I love food, and hate exercise.

I have a couple of things to tell you before you watch this video that is SO funny that I about wet my pants...which would have been very embarrassing!!

1-My first date was with a "Hey! Kool-Aid!" guy...you know, he was in the kool-aid commercial and got to summon the beast that would come crashing through the walls of the house.

2-I don't do ups either. I can do tons of Push downs though!

Watch John Pinnett and laugh now....

Do you think the Kool-Aid guy asked me out because my head was as big as the Kool-Aid pitcher??

Don't answer that!

leave a comment..

Teaser......

Um Kay! If you dont' know what is going on here this week read THIS !!

Now, on with the good stuff!! Here is a glimpse of the quilt that I am giving away. It is made from the fabric line "Pumpkins Gone Wild"!

This apron, made out of 30's prints, might help brighten your fall days...

You know how I love Amy Butler. I especially love this combination of her fabrics. This is the Lynsey bag with a little matching cell pouch.

There are so many things that you can make out of a charm pack. I did a Google search and found bags, quilts, notebook covers!

This is a Tranquility charm pack (44 squares) by Moda.

I decided to add another of my bags to the Giveaway-a-rama. This one is a cutie! A Keisha bag made from Tula Pinks line Nest. I love this fabric!!

I have several other patterns, and fabrics that I'll be sending out, but I want those to be a surprise.

So...there is a taste of what 300 blogs is all about. I love blogland.

Enter every day. Blog about it and you get 3 more entries.

Meat hand

If you didn't visit yesterday, then go here and then come back!

I'm going to upload a few pics (later) of the dreamy prizes!!!

If you blog about my Giveaway-a-rama make sure that you comment again so that I can give you 3 more entries!

Now! On to todays blog topic:

Kids are funny!

I've told this story before, back when I only had one reader..me.

Conversation between Mother and adoring son!

"Mom, is Mower-lawn a bad word?" said one of the twins
"No Son, Mower-lawn isn't a bad word."
"Then turn off the light you Mower-lawn (moron)"
---------------------------------------------------

Last night

I was having one of those important conversations

with my (almost) 8 year old daughter.

"Mom, one of my friends told me that a man's hand was on a conveyour belt with meat, and someone ate it. That's why I don't eat meat."

That is all I have to share with you today! Go forth and Prosper!

I got to sew on Saturday!!

Finally! I got to sit down for a few hours and just sew!

This little cutie is part of the pattern that is being published!

Don't you love the fabric? It's a Home dec. fabric. I think it was Alexander Henry (?)

I wish I had a few more yards..

Glad that tomorrow is Monday. I have some GORGEOUS Art Gallery fabric that I am dying to make several things out of! Hopefully I'll be sewing for the next 2 days....

fingers crossed....

Yes!! They are ALL mine!!

Lego Man (with his Dad and Bro.) poured our Basketball Half-Court on Friday!!!

All of the kids, except the baby, wanted to leave their mark. We had to force his poor little hand into the cement. Now he is afraid of it!! He won't even walk on it. Traumatized for life!

It is in age order. The second to the youngest just has huge hands!!

When I was your age....

One of my favorite ways to torture my kids is to play "When I was your age..."

Sometimes they like it, and are amazed that I grew up with only 7 TV stations.

But, most of the time they are seriously annoyed.

I love it when I can annoy my kids. It's the ultimate Back At Ya.

Well, are you ready to play??

When I was a kid Mr. Potato Head had a real Potato for a head...no really!

So, if you happened to have eaten all of the potatoes for dinner...well...GAME OVER!!!

When I was a kid we didn't need friends, we had Skip-it. We could jump rope all by ourselves...and we liked it!

When I was a kid, we didn't have expensive theme parks. We had Sit-n-spin to make us throw-up all over our sister. (The inventor was a genius!)

When I was you age we didn't have a pony. We had Hippity hopper (mine had the horse head, complete with handles coming out of the ears)

When I was a kid we didn't have internet....we didn't even have computers. We didn't have HDTV either. We had Grandma's Viewmaster, with all of the different cartridges she got on vacations, like yellowstone, and we'd sit there for hours....trying to get the little grooves to line up right so that the pictures didn't make you go cross-eyed.

and then we'd accidentally pop out one of the little film squares in the cartridge...and have to spend hours trying to get it back in right.

Good times.....good times.

I feel bad for my kids. They are missing out! It was pretty good when I was a kid!

Spent too many days....

........as a computer geek (term of endearment, really)!

My brain is starting to ache because it is not used to the constant "crashing" around me!

This post comes from a site called ThinkGeek. If you've never visited this place--you need to go there now!! (but, make sure that you come back here after)

I spent about an hour ROFL-ing at this site. I've seen it before, but this time I get it!

Here are a few of my faves;

My geeky brother owns this!

**********************
To all of you HTML-ers! I am now the Queen of //
****************

I crashed the back end of my site by // out the wrong line.

**************************

This is a great saying for life in general. Unfortunately, I am usually the Better Idiot.

********************

What a fabulous day!!

November 4th has been a special day to me for a long time. It is the Birthday of the most beautiful man, the love of my life, Lego Hair Man.

I am daily amazed, and feel so blessed to have him!

The next thing that made this day special happened 11 years ago, the birth of my 1st son. He is the calm in the storm of my children. He is my kindred spirit (as Anne of Green Gables would say).




The third moment of greatness was the opportunity to vote. It was such a rush of freedom to touch the buttons on the computer screen. I don't care who anyone voted for as long as you voted. We are blessed to live in America!

NOW!! For the new great reason to love November 4th-

It is the day I met my Fan! Trixie Belle!

(due to recent concerns about the safety of blogging, all names have been changed to protect the innocent!)

The girls at the quilt shop called to let me know that she was there to meet me.

I was so excited that I ran (me run...nah!) right over.

She is the cutest thing, and VERY talented too. She makes Applique Quilt patterns. They are the cutest things I've ever seen. Check out her website!

It is called Chitter Chatter designs, but if you look it up as chitterchatter.com you end up on a nasty site.......uhhhhh....so, don't forget the design parts!

She had made this (above) to put on a purse she is making, but she let me have it! Isn't it great!! She also had me sign a couple of pieces of fabric for her and her daughter, Marybelle Eunice, to inclued in the purses the is making.

I feel like a super star. Look at that dorkey look on my face in that picture!! It is the same look I had on my face in the pics I got with Amy B, and Anna m. Horner. When I'm giddy I don't photograph well. It's like all 3 of my chins decide that they want to be in the picture too!

Well, anyway, it has been an eventful day!

Gift Ideas...

Yes!! It is that time of year again.
Usually I have completed all of my holiday shopping by now. I just started this years shopping today.

I thought I'd share some of my great finds with you!

These are for those that are Really Hard to Shop For!

Are you tired of watching those poor squirrels running around trying to find a place to hide their nuts??

**************************************************

When I was in College I had a Jewish friend that celebrated all gift getting holidays. I finally found the perfect present for her....

**********************************

Year after year, Aunt Flossy sends you the obligatory fruitcake. With the failing economy, she won't be able to afford the postage on such a heavy gift. Here is a great option.....the inflatable Fruitcake. (you never eat the real one anyway)

*************************************

You all should know how I feel about the Stick-kind of the world. This would be the perfect gift for any S.T.U.P.I.D person.

Jazz hands NOT included

All Items found at Mcphees.com

Leader of The Band..

.......is tired!!

My oldest son, Smith, is turning 11 on tuesday. DH and I picked up his present yesterday...

but, we couldn't wait to give it to him.

We are now one of those Big Family Bands, like the Osmonds!!

Rock Band is one fun, and slightly addicting, video game! And, I would have to admit that I Sho'nuff (that one's for you Maryann) play a mean Guitar!!

Today, church seemed alot like an "All Star Wrestling" match. I always hope that I will be able to go and learn something, or feel something, but I always feel more like.....

Armed crowd control.

I've decided to come up with a line of t-shirts for Moms like me;

......I know.....Don't quit my day job....