**sometimes it's too surreal**

i'm now the mom of a son with a permit who is relentless about taking him driving.
i'm now the mom who is having to order the cap, gown, and graduation announcments.
i'm now the mom who regulary talks to her daughter about college.
i'm now the mom relinquishing more & more control of my kids' lives to them.
i'm the mom who loves her kids more than ever.


last saturday the kids and i went to a friends' halloween party. anne came over and did my hair and make-up. she took some pictures for us before we left. she tried to get me to make some 'in character' faces for the camera but i think i just look like a dork.

i like the picture she took of me and my girl.


i thought the girls' costumes were great. now, i will admit that i didn't know who becky was supposed to be. she was 'miss scarlet in the library with a candlestick' from the game Clue. it's obvious that i have never played that game.


a picture of me and my sweet friend anne.



bailey and her friends are headed to a corn maze in salem and cj is going to the west game so guess who gets to play with the lil' trick-or-treaters?? me!! yay!



peace.

**in this home**

saw this on a blog that i go to often.

in this home...
we do second chances.
we disagree.
we do mistakes.
we do "i'm sorry's".
we do loud...really well.
we do hugs.
we do family.
we do
LOVE.

she used it on a large 18x24 canvas and is hanging it in her living room. i think it is gorgeous and am going to try using it on a scrapbook page. it works well for the kids and i.

















lindsayteague

**love, love, love....**

having teenagers and not having this!!

MADNESS

i was starting to feel anxious and stressed just reading this. i am so glad i am past this stage. granted, i never went through this kind of torture but i had my own personal "moments". kids are hard no matter what.

i ran across this layout this morning while i was blog-hopping and it toally made me want to scrap. anyone interested in having a day crop at my house? i can kick the kids out and i practically have a store in my scraproom so you can get inspired here. for those of you who don't scrap you could maybe make xmas cards??


















anyone up for it?? we should get going on it before the holiday crunch. hey kambria, you could make tags for gifts since you do cool things like that. brat.

peace.

**i love you kam**

GO BULLDOGS!!!


peace.

**welcome, Sawyer**

my friend sara and her husband brad were blessed with a beautiful baby boy yesterday. you can check out pics and a youTube of him at her blog. she is listed in my blog list to the right as Miss M!
















congrats!!

peace.

**(per Kam) i die**

Fudge Puddles a.k.a "Puddles of Yum"













For the "crust" of the cookie:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1-1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

In a large mixer bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, and both sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla:













Next, in a seperate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mix. to the creamy mixture:













Chill in the fridge for at least one hour (or if you're impatient like me, in the freezer for about 15 minutes).













Remove from fridge and form into 1" balls. I use a small melon baller scoop to make mine a uniform size. Grease a mini-muffin pan and add 1 ball to each muffin cup:













Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until very lightly browned. Remove from oven and make an indentation in the center of each ball:













Filling:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. butterscotch chips (if you don't like butterscotch, just use milk chocolate chips)
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 t. vanilla
chopped nuts or sprinkles(optional)

In a microwave safe bowl or saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the nuts/sprinkles. Microwave for 1 minutes. Stir well.













If there are still unmelted chips, continue to melt in microwave for 15 second increments until all smooth:













Immediately start filling the cookie cups with the filling. It will start to harden just a bit as you do it, so make sure to give it a good stir once in awhile. Sprinkle with the nuts or just leave plain. Let set for an hour or so.














peace.

**and just a pinch of chaos**

life is really good, with just a pinch of chaos thrown in for good measure. keeps me on my toes i guess. that's a good thing, right? with all that is going on in my life right now i have had to take a big girl pill and start doing everything on my own. seems strange but good at the same time. how odd.

cj got his permit to drive yesterday. gasp!! the thought of him driving scares me more than bailey but teaching him is way easier. i had to turn over the teaching to roberto for bailey because i just couldn't handle it. cj is a different story. at least he doesn't have to learn on the big ford expedition that i had.

i learned that you can't just 'remove' a person from a loan. the loan needs to be paid off or one person needs to refinance it. well, we happened to be upside down in the expedition due to the SUV market/value taking a nose dive because of the gas prices. so, the only way i could have a car in my own name was to trade the expedition in on a new car that had enough dealer discounts to hide the amount of the 'upside-down-ness' so the bank would still approve a loan for the car. so, i now have a rockin' new car for the exact same price per month as the last one. i do owe for more years but, um, i will always have a car payment because, well, that's how i roll. so, here is my car:













cj is thrilled to be able to drive it and personally i am more at ease having to teach him on this rather than the other.

so, while i am still working out the way i like to style it and it is definitely a work-in-progress between me and my hairdresser i did say i would post a picture of my short haircut. here it is:

















i had danea fix the picture up a little bit because i currently don't have my photoshop program loaded on my computer. she teased me and said "As for your picture, I did my best. So you weren't skilled enough to just place your finger on the shutter button AND look forward? LOL" ha ha very funny. brat.

with all of the changes in my life right now i have put my last course of school off until the first of the year. i have GOT to get my scraproom/office cleaned up and organized before then. i have decided to purge my cardstock. i have waaaaaayyyy too much (i know, big frickin' shocker there) and i tend to only use a few basic colors anyway. once i do that i won't need the paper tower that i have and i think i might have enough room there to put a small work table. i do mean small but it could work. we'll see.

i took some really cool pictures of bailey and her 2 best friends. the 3 of them are always together. it's so cool. apparently you can purchase a spot in the back of the yearbook to add a picture or a message or something. the girls want to add a picture of the 3 of them so they had me take some 'fun' pictures of them. now mind you, i am NO, and i mean NO, seriously, NO angela or danea but i took the girls over to my mom's and we took pictures in her yard. we got some really cute ones out of about 50 or so shots. i don't know which one they picked but i really liked these two and asked danea if she would work her magic and spruce them up for me. she's the best.





























becky is the blonde and kelsie is the brunette. they are the sweetest girls. bailey is very lucky to have such awesome friends. and i am lucky, too, that my daughter is blessed with great friends. i couldn't have asked for better ones.

i have been invited to a halloween costume party next weekend. i am going to go. i am going to dress up. way out of my element. i wasn't able to find the costume that i had in my head and since i don't sew i had to pick a different one. so, i am going with this:

















i didn't go with the wig so i am going to have to figure out what to do with my hair and i am sure i have a pair of appropriate black shoes. i did buy the ripped up tights because they are just too cool. putting on that much black eye make-up will be a challenge. anne, are you up for a challenge??

i think i will leave you with a couple funnies.














peace.

**fun stuff that i love**

these rock! i see a lot of companies have them now but the ones from Pier One are the best. this scent, Amber, is one of my favorites. my front bathroom is decorated in taupe and burnt orange so it matches so well.














one of the sales ladies at Bath & Body Works told me that these, which i have quite a few of, are being replaced....


















....by these. i purchased one starter set to test them and they rock! i think they are better than the other ones. they had the starter sets and the refill sets on sale a few weeks ago so i got a few more in the yummy fall scents and now my house smells awesome. i don't like to burn candles so these are just perfect.

















peace.