**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.