New Discipline approach for the new year

Oh, how I have MISSED this laptop! Our one dog thought the power cord looked tasty......so I've been laptop-less!!!! LOL!!!! Tee hee.

Ok, so seriously now, you know how it is. Every so often, ok, way too often, you sit back and realize, When did I lose control? When did this chaos set in? Yep, it's that time again! Back to school, end of summer, I want to get back in a decent routine time!

Now they're getting older on me (how dare they!) and the old standby time-out and stickers not so effective. Now they're 9,8,6 & almost 4! They want PRIVELEGES!! SO here's my new plan!

Based loosely on the Dilley Discipline Ladder....only I'm silly and have this bee theme going on...LOL Blame it on the cute clipart I found ok? SO we have the Hillman Beehave Beehive!

Ahhh.....it's a thing of beauty! We kept the separate Chore Chart system,. as that really works well and all the kids are real clear on it. I re-did the old hand drawn house and family rules as well to keep with it. I'll letcha know how it goes!
So keep your fingers crossed for me! LOL! Its nice to be able to have them all know exactly what they can/can't do, and all i have to say is "Well, go look at the chart and see where your bee is at" and no more arguing over is so and so allowed to do this or that!

My sister

I just want to say a bit about my big sister! She is the most motivated and driven person I know! She is very active with her church, teaches choir and sings, sings and directs with the EPAC Theatre, is a adjunct professor for SUNY Cortland and SUNY Binghamton, oh yeah, AND is a wife and mother!!!! She will be graduating with her PHD in a year! And now, she was just appointed the interim director of multicultural affairs at the college she teaches at!!!!!

I am so proud of her! Although we don't get to see each other as much as I'd like, with two busy schedules, kids and games and all the other activities, we still get to keep in touch online and when we can. She has been very supportive of my going back to school, and I am grateful for it! She has worked very hard to achieve her goals, and has really done amazing with her life. I just want everyone to know what an amazing person she is, an how proud I am to have her for my sister.

I love ya Sis!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!

Ah.......and here he is......the man I married.....the father of my children......the partner of my household...............

I'm in TROUBLE!!!!!!!!!!! Big goofball!!

Just kiddin.........we hope he's having a great father's day! We did good this year! Got Daddy a cool father's day shirt, with Homer Simpson on it LOL! Then he got two new "the best of star trek" DVD's. And the kids all made him super cute stuff at school!! Johnny made him coupons, which are really really awesome! LOL! SO fun! So Daddy's having a good day today!

Hugs to Daddy! Happy Father's Day!!!!!

We love to visit Gramma Mom!!

We just love my grandmother! She's such an awesome lady! She's 86 now, and just the sweetest gramma ever! My kids call her "Gramma Mom" cause being that I lived with her, my mom, AND my great-grandmother growing up, we had "Mommy, Mom and Nanny" LOL! So to me she's still "Mom"! My gramma is the one person who I think has had some of the most influence on my life and taught me the most.
She always had these amazing gardens full of food and
she would make all our meals and canned, froze, made homemade grape juice and jelly every year and more! I learned to cook from her (Much to my family's happiness! ha ha) I also learned to sew, crochet, knit (badly ew) and lots more from her.
One year for my birthday, she made my fav dinner, my fav kind of cake, and then she had knitted an ENTIRE outfit for my fav baby dollie! All in PINK! LOL! I was very into pink!
Well, even though she can't do a lot of those things anymore due to her glaucoma and age, she still is just a sweet and loving person, and I love her to pieces! I'm so glad my kids get to have her in their lives! They love visiting her, talking to her, reading to her and coloring with her. They also LOVE her little shih tzu dog, Muffin. Yes, it's a boy and she named the poor thing Muffin! Could by why he's such a little stinker! LOL! Julianna has a BLAST racing and chasing with him! She especially loved running up and down the ramp, rolling the ball down it for Muffin and riding her little 4 wheel
wheeler down it! Jenna played baseball with her Uncle JP, my youngest brother who is 19 now! AND She learned to ride her bike in the grass at Grammy's house!!! They have these awesome hills, and she learned to ride down them just like I used to as a kid! LOL! We had a great time! We also had a great time visiting with my mother (Grammy, to the kids!) when she got home from work! I am pretty sure that both Gramma Mom and Muffin had to take nice LOOOOOOONG Naps all day the next day from all the excitement of our visit! LOL!!!

I love to Sew!

Well, if you havent' figured it out yet, I LOVE sewing! Especially for my adorable kiddies! I still am amazed at how much I save when they're little making them clothes! And with Julianna being one size in height and another in weight, it's so much easier to make clothes that fit, than buying and trying to alter them! Plus it helps that she LOVES picking out her own fabric and wearing what I make her! LOL! She's so stinking cute!


I also had another great "excuse" to do some sewing today! My friend's Daughter's Roommate had a brand new little baby girl today!! She's adorable! So I got to make some little baby gifts up for Brittany!!! I hope she likes them !

Julianna and her stylish outfit for Grammas!

Ok, so you know how I am, and I just can't seem to help myself! I LOVE making the kids' clothes!! And it's so handy for me that I really pretty much NEED to for Julianna! With her being so tiny, it's cheaper and easier to just make her clothes so they FIT her scrawny butt! Well, she has SO much fun picking out what she wants me to use and embellish with! LOL! Quite the little fashion queen she is! So I got all this nice light denim to make little jeans for her with, and then she found
this really cute jungle print ruffle at Wal*mart!!

Now I'd gotten this same jungle print in a really nice, soft fleece last year and used it for various projects and she just loved how soft and cuddly it was and loved all the cute animals on it! So you can just imagine the happy little shriek that went thru Wal*mart when she saw it there in the fabric department! LOL!!!!

So we're off to visit Grammy and Gradma Mom tomorrow, so of course she wanted her new jeans to wear! So then, being the obsessed seamstress that I am......I HAD to make her a matching top to go with her new jeans! So I found the SAME print in a nice cotton, and picked a really cute little dress top pattern and whipped it up! Course, I HATE, and I do mean HATE doing buttonholes and buttons, so I used good 'ol Velcro (or do we have to say Hook and Loop tape?) For the back opening! LOL! She likes it anyway, cause it's easier for her to do "All by herself!" or as she says, loudly and with feeling "NOOOO MEEEE DO!!!!!!"

Well, I will try to get some great pictures of her WEARING her new outfit tomorrow! They always look so much cuter when there's an adorable little kid in them! LOL!!!!