first day of Spring Break

After two totally relaxing days with my hubby, Monday came. No homeschool, and no public school.  Little Jordan has half day at pre-school, but that is fun time!
Honey and I woke up for our morning walk, and it was nice out, but it was a tough walk, my heel was killing me and I felt like I was walking thru thick tar.  But we pushed it thru! yeah!
Jordan is up at the butt crack of dawn, so he snuggled for 20 minutes or so with me in the living room.  He jumped on trampoline for a bit in his jammies and then had some yogurt.  He got dressed and brushed his teeth and the Whitley and DaVondre were stirring.
The twins are at friends house, so no sign of them. Gabe and Eric still out after a late night playing basketball!
I bundled Jordan up for preschool, told D and W I would be back.
Got home to laughter...that is a good thing.
Feed the boys, they cleaned their room, and separated their laundry! We are moving! Out the door, boys on bikes, and me out there scrubbing windows with vinegar! I got the nasty hard water off them! I am pretty excited about that.
Eric had college so he was gone for the morning, and I tasked Gabe to make the basketball hoop shorter! He did awesome, and we NEEDed basketballs! So to Kmart, for some right sized balls! Happy boys!
Did a quick jump to Big5 for shoes! Yes! The ones I love, Asics on sale and on my feet out the door!
I can already feel the difference in my heel!
Home to feed the munchkins, Gabe begins to replace bike tubes.  We are putting in these bad hummers that are tubeless, and no more flats.  We live in the desert and spikeys are horrible.
Whitley and I go pick up Jordan, come home for some more basketball, and spend time with my honey for lunch!.
Gabe and DaVondre to bike park, Eric to do homework, and Jordan, Whitley and I go to PNutButter and a Baseball park! Whitley saw a snake!! for reals! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh, in a hole, I saw it after...eeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Sprinklers on at park, mom is in great mood, go for it, play.  They do, Jordan falls, butt in the mud! Hilarious!
Home we walk with muddy shoes and all! thank goodness for the porty potty, cause I was in need!  Home to get the boys semi-naked of the mud, have a frozen gogurt, and quick showers. Jordan down for a nap, Eric takes Whitley for outing here and there, and I do laps in the house!
DaVondre's chain is having problems, so they went to Dorris'.  Eric came home called, and now 4 of them are at the Dorris' helping with the cooler!
I am smiling at the day.....pure wonderful!

making layouts and lovin it!

Life has been so fun and full lately! I am having a blast playing over at the Lily Pad this month!
I made 5 layouts in 4 days! That makes me happy!
This one is just for the joy of scrapping, I saw this quote

Products Used:
Messy Marvin deconstructed
Banged-up Biggie Alpha by Michelle Godin
brave girl alphabet by Rachel Young
Sew Artsy by Michelle Godin
Sprinkles v12 by Valorie Wibbens
I have scrapped this next photo before, but got to playing and loved the end results:

Products used:
Messy Marvin deconstructed
Stringbats 4 by Kim Jensen
Woodprints borders and papers by Lynn-Marie
Moments and Memories by Sabrina Dupre
Cleaning Bug by Pink Reptile
Sew Artsy by Michelle Godin
make a quilt templates by valorie wibbens
Cleaning bug alpha
Bring your brella by Splendid Fiins
I love this photo so much, it captures the freakish weather here in New Mexico.  Big, heavy dark clouds and not a drop of rain:

Products used:
Messy Marvin deconstructed
Little Lace Gloves by CD!
Bring your brella by Splendid Fiins
Cleaning Bug by Pink Reptile
Sew Artsy by Michelle Godin
I blame my mom for this, but I remember her cleaning and singing at the top of her lungs to Tammy Wynette and I have that joy for cleaning in my DNA!

Not the best photo of dear J, but he is holding the huge Guinea pigs that sisters brought to his preschool!

Products used:
Misty Alpha by Lynn-Marie
Woodprints borders and papers by Lynn-Marie
Messy Marvin deconstructed
I am so enjoying my time guesting with the Lily Pad, and hope you enjoy all the pages I get done while I am there!

Learning that Good Behavior Gets Rewarded!

When the boys started preschool, kinder and 1st grade this year, their behavior was not to good. Their self-control was a bit, shall I say, non-existent? We tried different things, naps, no snacks and then came upon what worked. A reward of lunch from McDonald's with mom.
Little Man made his full week and I just picked him up at lunch and we had fun eating at Micky D's. He was very mature eating his food, and explaining to me how good he really was all week. Hilarious!

Then DaVondre had his, and it was pure fun watching him

S0, today was Whitley's day. I got there straight up 11am, and hear, MOM! MOM! I am right here!! There is my boy, with the biggest smile ever. I could have eaten him up.  I came in and smiled, and we enjoyed lunch. Bondre was waiting in line and a bit sad.  I showed him my french fries and said they were for him! A big smile, and then we gave him the soda too.

One happy boy! I love the love he showed me, and am pretty proud of how far these precious boys have come! 

Can We Still Be Friends?

Just wanted to let ya'll know, that I cut the umbilical cord to facebook last week. It was no longer fun and happy, it was dark and oppressive to me...I don't do angst very well! lol
so I deactivated my account, I didn't realize it made it look like I unfriended people, so please know, it was not ONE person, or subject, just an overall decision. I am still blogging life HERE, so please follow my blog if you want to read my ramblings. bhahahha

Can I squeal with happy!? As a guest Polly, this is my first layout in the newsletter!!!!
 aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh...okay, I'm smiling and that is what this page is about.
I turned Facebook off, completely and lived and love how happy I am about it! woo hoo
Thank you to the fantastic designers at the Lily Pad that helped me bring life to this page starting with 
Amy Martin's Spacey Mega Bundle Template
and 
Valerie Wibben's adorable Happy Thoughts
So can we still be friends, like for reals?

I Am a Polly for the Month of April

What is a Polly? It is a much coveted spot as a creative member for The Lily Pad.

This is a store of fantastic designers for digital scrapbooking. The ladies that sell at this store need pages for advertising and I was chosen from a grueling January of challenges that was 31 pages in one month! Crazy, but fun! I have already done 4 pages in 2 days for the upcoming releases.
Then today, I just played, and did a speedscrap.

Dana was so darn cute giving the instructions in the chat room.  I was having brain farts in understanding how to do it, but had a blast getting a page done in under a couple of hours.  I love my page and here it is:

A big hello to those who are visiting my blog....I will be here a bit more often!

Anne OfAlamo Scraps - LIKE me!

A few months ago, I took my Anne Ofalamo facebook page to a very small and private group.  This is to keep my private life, well, more private.  As most of you reading this know I am not a private person, I am quite extroverted, love a crowd and meeting new people is like one of my favorite past-times.  My personal page remains private for my kids. 

But.................I miss my scrappin' buddies something fierce too, even the ones that I just LIKED here and there, and I want to network for the designers that I create pages.  These are fabulous designers, and I think people will want to see their sales, their products and hopefully my pages done for them. 
If you would be so kind as to LIKE Anne OfAlamo Scraps Page , I would be so grateful.  I hope to find some time to make a template or something like that to give away, once I get say 50 people? Thank you, and again, happy scrappin on this DSD weekend!

Fellowshipping People

I grew up in a home that was filled with people other than our family.  My parents love to feed people.  This is a love they have passed down to me abundantly!  When I gave my life to Jesus Christ in 1988, I was a single lady in the US Air Force, not a whole lot of money, but to feed people was something I loved to do.  I would have a house load of people and serve popcorn and koolaide!
Fast forward to 2013, fellowship and "breaking of bread" is still a major part of our lives.  Especially in a church smack dab in the middle of revival.  Weddings, baptisms, guest evangelists, babies being born and any other excuse for eating means making a whole lotta casseroles and things for potlucks!  This week, there is one bachelor party that the married men are asked to bring a dish (lol, their wives make) and then the same man is marrying a delight of lady this Sunday and their reception will have so many people, that help was called on to feed them all!  That, and the fact I have 7 children, doing a day of preparing was in order.

 Spaghetti is one of the easiest to get done for the reception.  I do recommend cutting the noodles in 3rds or fourths for easier eating pleasure (less splatter for consumer) hahah I really try and pick up the marked down meat whenever I can at the local Walmart.  That along with Great Value generic brands helps the budget too!

 Two pans in the middle of getting it done.  I fry meat and then pour the sauce equally and then can add the noodles to get a full pan!

 Here are the ingredients for the enchiladas, but I am not doing those til after lunch!

 Next up, Creamy Basil chicken casserole.  I got these at our super duper Community Connection Thrift Store.  It has "expired" food or damaged cans/boxes for great prices.  I picked up 4 of these boxes in thoughts of upcoming potlucks!  That along with a marked down boneless chicken thigh package I was in bidness!  Make friends with the yellow sticker man at your store!  He gives me heads up for sales to come along the week, and I pop in the store at 8:30am with hopes of sales!

 I chopped the thighs into bite size chunks.

 Boil the enclosed noodles, they were different texture, but I liked them, and they were already short too. 

 Chicken all cut up.

 While I am doing the Basil Chicken, I have the other package of chicken par boiling for the enchiladas. 

 Here is the chicken with the seasoning, the cream and roasted tomatoes (all included too)

 Two pans! One for tonight, and one for the wedding reception Sunday!

 Another good buy from the thrift store.  I tried these last week with company on Friday! Big hit.  So the bachelors on Friday night will have some homestyle mac and cheese to devour!

 Remember the chicken boiling?  Pulled out before lunch and now is cool to shred for enchiladas.

 Save that stock!!

 The construction of the enchiladas, hey I am getting ahead of myself.  As some of you know I am into a bit more healthy now, and frying things is a big NO-NO!  I use the chicken stock to soak my corn tortillas in for flavor!

 See the tortilla under the water??? It is so yummy!

 Shredded chicken, onion and green chile' all ready for the enchiladas

 There we have it, two speghettis (one for the wedding on Sunday, one for tonight), Chicken Basil (one for tonight and one for the wedding) Both enchiladas to the wedding and the mac and cheese for Friday's boys bachelor party!

Dishes are done, dinner is done, and I am satisfied! All but tonights are in the freezer and will be heated up for their expected munching!