10 favorites for ME....

Here are 10 of "MY" basic favorites in life, and it can be anything. I tag all the people who have BLOGS or my space (Lizz, Rachelle, Steph, Kris, Katie, Angie) that read mine to do the same thing. List 10 of your favorites in life right now..... if you don't post it on your BLOG or my space, email it to me. I will be waiting to hear from you......

1. A nice cold Fountain Mt. Dew from 84th St. Shell.
2. A good foot rub with my Beauti Control herbal serenity foot creme.
3. Egg rolls & crab ragoons (i just can't get enough of them these days).
4. Tanning.... my 12 minutes of quiet time.
5. Jacuzzi baths (with my hubby of course)
6. Cosmos at the kindys (haha) it was on Mon. nights during the bachelor, but it is done now.
7. Watching my girls dance & sing, they love it.
8. Being at home more with my family and being my own boss (as of 2 weeks ago.)
9. My house decorated for Christmas
10. not working Sat. if I don't want to. I have worked them for 10 years!

Christmas time

We spent all day Sunday decorating the house both upstaris and downstairs for Christmas. The girls have their own tree with their special ornaments downstairs. We buy them an ornament every year with a special meaning of something they are really into at that point in life. Then we keep a journal in a special box and write a letter to them every year about the ornament. Emma wants a tinkerbell ornament and Gracie wants a ballet slipper. We are shopping for the ornaments in a week or so for this year. Upstairs is our traditional tree, that we keep simple. It took all day for us and we stopped for a homemade beef roast in the middle too. I love it when it is all done and the house is full of lights and color. It is my favorite time of year, besides all the snow. The girls are so excited this year, they know that after SANTA comes we go to Florida and they talk about it all the time. They even talk about sitting on Santas lap ( we'll see how that goes) I have all the gifts wrapped and under the tree with only a few to buy still, it is a record for me. I will be all done by Dec. 1st so I can enjoy the season w/o stress ( I do have other things to stress about though) just not Christmas....

start them young (with music)....

I love to sing, and so do the girls. So we were at Corys parents and I let them sing in the music room with me, Papa didn't care he was playing playstation. We didn't have their favorite song on Karaoke, but Papa had it on his IPOD. So we plugged it in and they sang the whole song, the only bad part was we didn't have the video camera. Next time. I am so excited to sing with them. It is amazing how much they remember. We are singing everything from church songs, to Faith Hill, to Nickleback together. Fireflies by Faith Hill is an all time favorite, or should I say classic. I have been singing that to them since they were in my belly.

cousin time

My sister was home with the family this past weekend so the kids got to play together. PJ is only an inch shorter and weighs the same as the girls now. People think they are triplets. Katie and Grace are still buds, and Emma & PJ are pretty much in seperable still. It is so fun to watch them destroy nana & papas house ( not really for me, but everyone else loves it.) It will be a crazy christmas this year. 4 kids under 3 and 6 adults in one house, atleast my mom has three floors at her house.

Why BAGS?

Ok, why BAGS? The girls new thing is packing bags for their so called "PARTY" on the stairs ( like the previous BLOG entry.) They get all my bags out of the closet and pack them with stuff from their toy room, and take them to their party. WOW, what an imagination....... I wish I was that creative. They use bags from dance bags to my Coach diaper bags, it doesn't matter. Look close they have about 10 bags full at this point. The best part is emptying them at night to put them away, but the smile is priceless.

My new ride ( in 24 months)

Well I had my picture taken with my new "future" car. The Beauti Control Mustang. My goal is 24 months ( now down to 23 months.) Yes it is a Ford, sorry Honey. He says it is ok, as long as it is a V8 ( we will have to upgrade to that.) He wants to make it the fastest Beauti Control Mustang there is out there. He is so excited, I better not let him down. 2 ladies down 10 to go and I will be in qualification for 6 months and the car is mine, title, keys and all. I know the first place I am going to drive it to, do you?

Party (on the stairs)

What will they think of next. They decided they were going to have a party.... but on the stairs. They love it. They get their blankets, pillows, dolls, books, drinks, snacks, and sometimes the portable DVD player and sit and have a party on the stairs. At first I was like, NO WAY girls you have a toy room for this exact reason, but no mom, this is much more interesting. So an hour later.... a day later.... the party is still set up on the stairs. The dogs don't like the clutter coming down the stairs, they don't know where to walk. It is definitely an "imagination" thing for them.

Sweet Whispers....

A good friend of mine has a husband serving in Iraq (bless his soul) and he was home on an 18 day leave. So I took some pictures of them at an abandoned train station. It was a very cool set up. For those of you who read all my past BLOGS, you will know I love to do collages now, so I made one for them. It is very cool. It was printed in 11x14 so a very nice size. This way they get all of my favorites in one shot.

taking a leap of faith

Well after a lot of tears, prayers and deep evaluation, I have decided to move on in life and take a huge leap of faith. I have been with Panopoulos 10 years (this week) and tomorrow (Mon) is my last day as a Panopoulos girl. I have had a rough year there and have been stabbed in the back to many times and have been called into the office for caddy things that have NOTHING to do with my job. I love my boss, my staff and my clients, and I love what they have made me, an excellent hairstylist. I have learned many things from them, but it is just not the same. I just think I need to move on and "GROW" and I feel like I can't do it there for two important reasons to me. I love hair and I love Beauti control. I would love to do them both, but I can't at Panopoulos, but I can if I am my own boss. This will give me a chance to spread my wings and fly. Cory is 110% supportive, and is so excited for me. I am so excited to say I don't have to get up every Sat. at 6:00, and that I can be home more at night with my family. Thank you LORD for finally revealing to me that I have made the right decision. On the other hand, I will miss my gals at Panopoulos, my days out, and my 10 years at a place that was like home to me.

a foot rub for mommy.....

Gracie saw me rubbing lotion on my feet, and she said...."Mommy I do that for you!" Priceless, so I jumped on the offer, and look at her smile. She uses a little more lotion then me, but I don't care it felt good.

KIDDIE slides to BIG slides....

We took a weekend away and went to Great Wolf Lodge again with Corys family. Aiden is now doing the kiddie slides, running through the water, and absolutely "LOVES" the big bucket. It was a family rotation every 5 minutes to get him to that bucket. His face was priceless, the water would dump, he would stiffen up, tell the bucket BYE BYE and runa round and smile. The girls have discovered that there is a lot to do in the big slide area, so why not explore that area. At first I was like "no way" theya re to little to climb all those ropes and water challenges, but I lost. So they have grown into the big slide area, with the treehouse and dumping buckets, and ropes to pull to get everyone wet. They were rarely in the kiddie area this time. We would just sit and watch them make there rounds up to the slides. They hardly ever checked in, and would occasionally ask us to ride with them. Emma loved jumping into the basketball pool and Grace loves the big slides. It was a very relaxing weekend, good sleep, great food, and just plain out FUN! Thanks Papa & NaNa for the fun weekend, and Thank you Lynne for watching the boyz for us!

Wedding gift....

A friend of mine from the salon got married, so as a gift I tried something different. I captured a few photos of them throughout the night and turned them into a 11x14 collage, and bought a frame that matched the brown circles on the collage. They loved it, it looks better in the frame, complete. It was the talk of the salon for the day, everyone loved it.

What a SUNSET!!!!

This is what you get when you Trick or Treat in Michigan. It couldn't decide if it was going to rain, be windy or cold, but we did have a great view until it decided. Yes, it did end up raining a little, it was windy and it was cold too. Oh well! I love my camera!

Tinkerbell & Cinderella....

We had a great day. We started out with dance class and then came home and got ready for the day. Emma was TINKERBELL & Grace was CINDERELLA. We made our rounds to visit the family and then stopped at the salon to get their nails done to match their outfits of course. We went through the old neighborhood at night and then went to Aunt KC and Uncle Steves to trick or treat with Aiden, who was MICKEY MOUSE . The girls were adorable and loved every minute of it, and I had a great time getting them ready. Cory and I looked at them all dressed up and thought in about 12 years we are in trouble. My mom had a lot of deliveries to her clients of donuts and cider that day (rough job) so she stopped in and was dressed as a sassy KITTY.

The girls are going to a princess tea in Florida (in Feb.) and these will be the perfect costumes for them to wear that day. Great!!!!! We killed two birds with one stone, they get to wear them twice, YES!