Patio pictures

Mom wanted to see some pictures of the new patio. So here you go... the patio is in there somewhere behind the kids... if you squint.

It was nice tonight so we ate outside again. I made what was originally intended as chili, but I didn't have any ground hamburger, so I used chicken breast, and I didn't have any tomato sauce, so I just used 2 cans of tomatoes, but it was really soupy, so I used smashed up tortilla chips to soak up the juice... So I guess what I made is Chicken Tortilla Soup.

I wore one of my new linen skirts to church today. Did I mention that I went back to Old Navy, and got two long, bias-cut linen skirts for 97 cents each??!! Yeah, it's a sickness. One is white, so I can't wear it for a while, but the other is a sort of plummy-raspberry color, so I wore it with my white Wal-Mart blouse and looked very hip. Man, I love the 97-cent stuff.

Scrapping again

Two things I pretty much never do: I don't scrap photos that are more than 1 year old, and I never buy Basic Grey! I've actually broken both of those barriers this time around. This is a photo that Julie Blasini took when Porter was a baby, that I somehow missed the first time around. And the papers are from BG's new LilyKate collection, which I actually really like. I think they worked well for the mood I was trying to convey.

I got 7 new papers today and it was mostly brands I don't usually use: K & Company, Fontwerks, 3 Bugs in a Rug, and the aforementioned Basic Grey. Plus Chatterbox. I think I need to stop buying patterned papers for a while! They're just so pretty... I'm starting to understand why my mom has such a stash of fabrics! (Speaking of which, Mom, I also got the fabric for Betsy's baby doll dress today, and it is gorgeous.)

It was a really nice day today, so we had dinner (taco salad) out on the patio. It's funny, our sad little patio table looks really small on the new patio, which is quite a bit larger than the deck on our old house! Which is good - we will have plenty of room when we get around to buying a nice set of outdoor furniture.

Feeling fall

On Wednesday, the weather was really gorgeous. We spent most of the day out on our new patio - Betsy amused herself with the pile of sand that was left over from its construction. I gave her one of our brooms to play with, because hey, it's never too early to learn right? The temperature dropped thirty degrees overnight, so I guess summer is really over and it's fall now. Time to get out the long sleeved shirts and the sweaters and the extra blankets for all the beds.

I'm having some women from church over tonight, which means I have a long fun day of cleaning ahead of me. (Especially with all the sand that's been tracked into my kitchen.) Last night, I made - or tried to make, anyway - a Pumpkin Cake Roll but the cake sorta collapsed, so I ended up having to glue it back together with cream cheese frosting and hope no one will judge me. ;-)

Porter's arm seems to be doing fine, thank goodness.

Super Mom strikes again!

When we were eating dinner last night, Matt and I noticed that Porter wasn't really using his right arm, which is unusual for him. Also, he's been crabby since Thursday, when he was pushed off the couch by a certain 3-year-old sister of his. Plus, his right elbow was all bruised and funny looking... So, Porter and I got to make a field trip to the Urgent Care place last night.

Poor guy, he dislocated his elbow. He still managed to charm the entire staff, though.

At least I wasn't wearing my 'Super Mom' shirt this time, like I was when Betsy was nine months old and had to get stitches in her FACE. Although, Porter was wearing 'I Do All My Own Stunts' when he fell down on Thursday. I'm not convinced that that's when he hurt his elbow, because he was using his arm fine until Friday afternoon, but since he's a 1-year-old boy and his father's son, we may never know.

So, they took X-rays (his bones are cute) to rule out a fracture, and hooked Porter up with the World's Tiniest Sling, which is still a little big for him.He didn't want to use his arm last night, I guess because it still hurt, but he's actually doing a lot better today. We'll take him to his regular pediatrician on Monday or Tuesday to be sure, but I think he's going to be fine.

And you thought the $4 suede boots were a good deal.

Matt's parents went back to Utah today (sad face) so in the afternoon, I did a little shopping (happy face). I had seen Hobby Lobby's sale ad which said that ALL of their stickers, papers, and rub-ons for scrapbooking are 50% off this week. Hobby Lobby's prices are quite reasonable to begin with, so I definitely wanted to stock up.

They had some new patterned papers in from We R Memories Urban Window collection - I got some of the Diner papers - Hello gorgeous, where have you been all my life?! I've never used We R before - they seem to be big into the boho look, which I'm not huge on but like in small doses - but I really, really loved the bright colors on a white background. I also liked some of the Restoration prints, in soft muted greens and grays... will work nicely for a potential Hall of Fame layout... hmmm...

Anyway, all that patterned paper, plus a bunch of cardstock (I know, I know, I have a lot of cardstock already, but at twelve and a half cents a sheet, you woulda bought some too) and some of those 7Gypsies stickers... came to like 5 bucks. Have I mentioned that I love Hobby Lobby?

Then we headed around the corner to Old Navy, because I had some returns. I decided to kill some time by checking out the clearance sections... and HOLY COW did I hit the motherlode! They had just marked down a bunch of stuff to 97 cents each. Most of it was mini-skirts and tank tops, which I can't wear, but I found some good stuff. I found some capri pants - they are literally the cutest capri pants in the entire universe - so I bought 5 pairs, in 3 different colors and 2 different sizes. Because they were NINETY-SEVEN CENTS EACH.

I also got a couple of cute T-shirts; then I headed over to the register with my loot. Lo and behold, the girl at the register was in the process of marking down MORE stuff that she was about to put out, so I got a maternity (NO I AM NOT PREGNANT I AM JUST PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE) blouse and jacket for, you guessed it, 97 cents each. And saved the cashier from having to walk over to the rack to hang them up again. All in all, I bought 9 things, and spent a whopping total of $9.25 (yes, that includes the tax). When I got home, I added up all the tags and found out it was, like, $200 or something.

Am I a dork, to be so excited over a good sale? Probably. But I'm a well-dressed dork.

I'm also excited because there's a new episode of NCIS on tonight. Woo hoo!