Highly Entertaining....

the grand finale

Last night was Griffin's fourth grade band concert. Finally, a year's worth of hard work has culminated in a fantastic solo... which was supposed to be "hot cross buns", but was announced as "mary had a little lamb"... so he went with it and rocked the house (as much as one can with a ginormous 3/4 baritone in their arms).

Excuse the junky photo, I didn't think to put the super-fantastic zoom lens on. I think you get the picture, though. The "concert" was exactly what you would expect from a group of 20 10-year-olds... a bit squeaky and wonky at times, but full of confidence and pride.

Griff rocks.

Bobio and I were fortunate enough to be joined by my mom (Nan), Griff's dad (Ben) and his fiancee, Laura, with their almost-three-year-old (Griff's 1/2 brother) "Mal" (short for Malachi), and Ben's parents (Grandma Jo and Umpah). It was nice to have all of us together in celebration of all the hard work my little buddy has done this year.

And now, we can get rid of the flippin' baritone. Yep, next week it gets returned to the rental company, and I will be *free* of the sometimes torturous evening and early morning practices. I really would love to just run over the thing with my car, but I don't think the 6 dollars a month I've paid for insurance will cover that type of damage.

Here's a cutie pic that we took on the way out of the school, headed for a few minutes of fun on the playground before heading off to Smitty's for Ice Cream. It is nice to say that we are all able to get along, hang out, and feel comfortable doing it. Time heals all wounds, I guess.

By the way, if you're ever in the East Side, Smitty's is a must. They have about 70-bajillion flavors of homemade ice cream that is fab.u.lous. Last night it was Orange Sherbet for Bob, Black Raspberry for Griff, and a Pistachio-on-top-of-Rocky Road for moi. Yum, yum, and yum.

A few hectic days at work, then another hectic weekend... will be sure to post updates and pictures.

mr. mumbles

Oh, Eddie Vedder and your mumbling... how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... For real, though, this video is flipping hillarious for any Pearl Jam fan - we *heart* Eddie and his crazy-lust-i-wanna-do-ungodly-things-to-you voice, but the video hits the nail on the head about not being able to inderstand a word he says sometimes. Hey, Shurkus! Working on finding a video for "Indifference" so we can add it to our "private" collection ;)

so proud

<--- This is my cousin, Sarah. She just graduated from St.Joseph's college in Maine with super-fantastical-my-GPA-kicks-your-GPA's-butt honors. For real. That's what her diploma says.

Just a little picture to show her I'm *so* proud of her accomplishments so far, and that I'm already proud of the things she hasn't even gone on to do yet.

Oh, and to thank her for graduating so we could have a cookout on Sunday. *Sweet* Any excuse to par-tay with my fam and consume ridiclous amounts of linguica and jag are alright in my book.

<--- This is KP's hand. It is *proudly* displaying the medal he came home with from a HALF MARATHON he ran on Sunday. Un-freaking-believable. There is no way I could even walk a half-marathon without a serious amount of whining and complaining.

Surprise, surprise... we had no idea KP and Sam were coming home for a visit after the marathon... they just showed up and crashed Sarah's graduation BBQ without even telling anyone... a very disturbing issue for Mom 'cause she didn't have time to make the bed or clean upstairs for company. Even if the company has been a part of the family for the last 26 1/2 years. And they are your offspring. And they already know full well what the house looks like on a day-to-day basis. But we'll let Mom pretend it matters :P

Sarah wasn't even mad about KP stealing her thunder. I would have been *p!ssed* (jklol, jayne).

<--- This is my super fantastical hubby, Bobio. Really his name is Bob, or Roberto if you're his mom. To me, he's my Bobio. Or "my-car-is-filthy-and-i-really-should-wash-it-this-weekend" (which is code for : please wash my car, you lovely darling husband of mine <insert batting eyelashes here>)

He did not think I was actually taking his picture when I snapped this one, but I think it turned out *super cute*, don't you?? SO cute, infact, that I think I might just have to blow it up poster size and hang it in the living room, right next to the giant cock Rooster MelisseR gave me for my birthday, and the Seinfeld ketchup/mustard/napkin dispenser diner set that came with the season 3&4 box set I got him for Christmas a few years back. Sounds like a plan ;)

Seriously. I will probably do it, and he'll just shake his head when he comes home from work and sees the *shrine* I've set up in his honor. I'm just the kind of girl who would actually do something like that.

Really.

crash and burn

After a miserably hot and ridiculously draining afternoon yesterday ( I don't even want to get into it right now...), Crystal came over for a cook out with her pups, Homer and Lulu. Belle is *much* better with them now that they have come for "puppy playdates" than the first few times. Now they run laps around the pool and jump on each other and bark and run under the deck. It's fantastical because we get to sit and eat and chat without having to constantly check on the dogs... they are too busy entertaining themselves to care about people. Plus, the pups  completely exhaust themselves, which is really the reason we invite Crystal and her hubby over in the first place (but, shhhhhh... don't tell them that) :P

After about 2 hours of puppy pladate, it is time for Homer and Lulu to go home. Belle watches them leave, then this happens:

1) Belle retires to the couch                      2)eyes begin to droop                        3) out like a light

How can you NOT completely fall in love with this little girl!!!??? Oh, except for the part about when, right after I took these un-flippin-believably adorable pics, I sat on the couch and my butt got soaked because the same cute and adorable girlie that had just run around OUTSIDE for 2 hours had come into the house and peed on it?? Yeah. That pretty much *sucks*. But, she hardly EVER has accidents, and she was so sweetly snoozing on the couch, so I couldn't get mad.

Wish life was that way for people, huh??

getting punchy

... for challenge #4!

Terrible lighting, but cute card, I think. Gotta love the ease of use of these little stamps.. they really make stamping a no-brainer :P

This little card will probably wind up going to my mom, she does so much for me and I owe her a little something in return.

a*muse love

Peep a few creations, a*muse style..

Hey, Stacy! Do these buttons look familliar??

Made a few cards with buttons that Stacy helped me sift through at CKC last weekend.. I knew they'd come in handy!

I *love* the look of the Glaze and Gelly Roll pens to color inthe little packages... it just gives them the right amount of pizzazz. Oh, don't forget the foam tape, a la Jenn's plethora of card classes. I don't think I've seen a card class that didn't use some amount of oam tape from her, have you??

Note: I also utilized my quickie glue pen and ultra fine glitter for the little blue fairy card... see, I really do pay attention when she's trying to teach me something!!

Alright, finally I made Bobio a lovey-dovey card in celebration of his putting up with my crap. And cleaning the house for me so I can enjou a relaxing day off. *sigh* I think the use of the grey glaze pen on the bucket of hearts was perfect, even if I do say so myself ( which I do, by the way).

Sheesh!! I think this is enough for one day, don't you??

go.

Finished my page for the one little word challenge.

I was a bit wishy-washy about exactly what I wanted to create a page about, but then I found a qoute that perfectly complimented this photo of my bff and I knew I had it all figured out.

A little bit of Bazzill, a little bit of Hambly, Making Memories foam stamps and paint, my PSX antique upper and lower alphas and some colorbox chalk ink make this little page pretty complete.

Oh, and some a*muse gems on her crown... wouldn't have been right without them ;P

Can't wait to see what the challenge is next week... think I might actually be able to keep up with this one.

Wish me luck!!

behind the times

So I'm a little behind the times with the whole A-muse-a-palooza ambassador contest that I signed up for... but I'm ready to jump in head first!! Challenge #4 is up on the a-muse-a-palooza blog and I'm in!! Using punches on my cards... SO not a problem. Off to create a lil' bit... will post some of my creations later!!

Jelly fishin'

Something about this video is both a little bit amazing and a little bit creepy... and part of me is looking for Dory and Marlin from Finding Nemo to go bouncing across the screen :P

Getting inspired

Holy-I-wanna-create, Batman!!

Peep a few of the *random* sources of yumminess that I am totally stoked about this morning...

Love, Elsie has shown up over at 2Peas... and I think Tessa is probably having an attack right about now... I don't blame her, it's so flippin' cute!!

Donna Downey has a fantastical blog banner that I am loving... all the paint and ART on her pages makes me want to get my hands a lil' dirty and create something....

I 100% stole the link to the Curly Girl Design site from Steph's blog this morning... she says she thinks she needs one of everything, and I'm right there with her... I could totally rock my antique upper and lower PSX stamps for those...

The Daily Card... something my bff turned em on to a while ago but I never really got thr momentum to tag along with myself... gotta jump on that bandwagon, too.

Sheesh!! I have a full plate with all this creative mess swimming around inside my brain. Good thing I have the day off tomorrow to *possibly* get some of it out of my mind and onto the page, huh?