Give Away Time! ends 8-10 (updated)

It’s Give Away Time!
This is in honor of my, much needed, road trip.
The prize?
The usual...a custom 8x10 matte for a 5x7 picture.
You pick the picture, you pick the colors, I make it happen.
Here is a picture from my latest giveaway.

It was for her little boys room, I think it came out well... if I do say so myself.
Apologies for the bad picture quality, its from my phone.
To enter...
Just leave me a comment giving me your tips for a long road trip, I'd appreciate it!
Winner will be picked by random.org when I return August 8th. I am sure I will blog while I'm gone...if I don't, then...
MISS ME!
I won't have to miss you cause I have an amazing phone with the internet...

I think they call it a 'Smartphone' whatever it is I may be addicted and...I’m O.K. with it.

!Good Luck!

updated info:

Road Trip!

I have finally decided to take the hike to Wisconsin to meet my new nephew. I’ve decided to make it a seven day multiple stop trip to maximize my return on the CRAZY amount of gas it takes to drive 12-14hrs.

I will leave sometime

Monday morning after work (assuming I am awake enough) and drive the 5 hours to Bourbonnais IL, where I used to live until seven months ago. There I will  spend the night with my old officemate Lovice (she is in the back wearing a gold shirt in the picture below), I was told the conditions of my staying there are…we have to eat at our favorite restaurant The BrickStone (they have fresh bread and fries to DIE for), and I must organize her entire house. The latter NOT gonna happen, we may be able to organize like a closet…but nothing else.

Tuesday, I hope to sleep in (not a lot of hope there cause Lovice and her husband Craig have 2 little kids with A LOT of energy!) then I want to have lunch with my old co-workers. Tuesday night I am having dinner with my old roommate Jana (pictured below in the orange shirt) and spending the night with her. We lived together for five years and it will be nice to catch up, will probably feel like putting on a pair of pajamas.

Wednesday I plan to sleep-in get up when I want to pack up and leave for WISCONSIN. I think it is a 6-7 hour drive from Bourbonnais.

In Wisconsin is one of my…FAVORITE families. I can’t wait to…

Laugh and play scrabble with Jeri Ann (mama)

Love-on Kenzie (big sister)

Meet and cuddle with Cole (baby brother)

and… Joke with Jerry (daddy)

my heart hurts I miss these people SO much. I hope to come back from my road trip with my soul and heart healed.

There is going to be a lot of time in the car alone. I am looking forward to being able to have some uninterrupted, long periods of time to talk with God about some things. To listen, to cry, and to be loved. I have a really awesome new testament on CD (Inspired By...The Bible Experience...) and will probably listen to that a lot.

Saturday late afternoon I will leave Wisconsin back from IL. Where I will stay again with Lovice and go to church with her family leaving for Indiana after Sunday lunch…or is it dinner?

Lastly I hope to be able to stop in Terre Haute to see Molly for dinner, before the last two hour drive home.

Writing it all out makes me a bit overwhelmed, but I

know this is what I need.

it’s like Google’s in my head walking around

Is anyone else amazed at the accuracy with which google can read your mind?
I typed:
Can you combine acet
Google's first guess was:
Can you combine acetaminophen and ibuprofen?
That was my question!

I am sure that goggle has some kind of complicated algorithms that use prior search histories ect. to accurately guess what you are wanting to search for…but at times…I find it creepy
I know you are wondering and...yes, yes you can combine ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
I am finding it an effective combination for the inflammation that is making my back ache, and muscle soreness from my period and working outside.

Feeling Fragile

This week I am feeling fragile.

Fragile emotionally

Fragile mentally

Fragile spiritually

True or not I feel...

Under appreciated

Forgotten  

Needy

Invisible

Defeated

Just trying to be honest

Sunday Inserts

For the 2nd Sunday in a row…

I have found a fully bound set of Sunday Paper inserts

complete with COUPONS at the local recycling center….

SCORE!

they are not there every week but it is defiantly worth looking, saves ALL KINDS of moolah!

Sweating to the Shingles

today half the roof was deshingled and new paper put down. tomorrow they are going to finish the 1st half. because of forecasted rain the rest of the week the 2nd half will be done next weekend.

after sunday school and church, this is what was done when I came home.

that is my uncle danny.

they already had all the shingles off. i was amazed. all that work in like 2 hours!

muscles caleb helping move a tarp full of shingles to the dumpster because I put WAY too many on without thinking about how much it would weigh.

mama working a wheel barrel

sandra one of my mom’s friends and my supplier of my People magazines (she has a beauty shop) to keep me up to date on the happenings of jon and kate gosslien…I know I shouldn’t read that stuff but I have watched them since the beginning and

I just can’t stop

(justification is that I don’t buy any of the magazines)

suzette (my mom’s cousins wife) helping us clean up

i thought this thing was really cool a big magnet to pick-up

…wait for it…

  

all the nails!

roof with the new paper down

 

my mom, uncle terry, and a helper, that my moms cousin doug (i didn’t get a picture of him) got to come and help us

*

i met and almost got to keep a beautiful kitty

sandra and i begged mom to keep her/him and almost had her in agreement. sandra even said that she would buy me a litter box. just as I was feeling a yes coming a couple of kids rode by on their bike and mom asked them if it was their cat. they said no but it was their friends. i walked my new little friend over to their house, asked to speak to their mom, and reluctantly gave the kitty back. they are keeping ‘lucky’ (we named her that) as an outside pet…

i gotta say that i don’t agree with that, i don’t agree with the idea of outside cats in a city setting and i let the family know that we were concerned for the safety of the cat living outside, and that i would love to keep her ‘lucky’ if they didn’t want her/him. i can’t say that i won’t be able to NOT save ‘lucky’ if i continue to see he/she walking around. she is just SO little and helpless.

meet ‘lucky’

beautiful blue eyes

‘lucky’ sitting on my mom’s car wheel

watching all of us work

‘lucky’ trying to get into the bread. i brought her inside while i was making a sandwich, she ate some turkey and bread.

don’t you think we belong together?

Rain, Thrift Stores, and a Dog

today it rained

well really it stormed

then…it hailed

good thing we didn’t try taking the roof off! huh?

here are some of my fun thrift store finds from yesterday.

a nice green vase for $3

over 30 blank cd/photo disks $2

moveable human figure $1.50

two new $40 bags with tags $1 each

3 nice backpacks to giveaway and pack full of the supplies I have been able to get for free or almost free they were $1 each, I also got a new one at CVS this week for $3

I forgot to take a before pictures of this stool

it was $4 and I covered it with the same fabric I’ve used in the rest of my room. It was my first time using a staple gun.

then I painted the bottom the same color that I painted my dresser.

here is out little food monster in her favorite place to sit. it is under the drawers of the desk, last week I got down on the floor with her to figure out what was so great about laying there. surprisingly it is very cool under there and you can feel the fan blowing so I think she goes there to cool off.

this week she has managed to find and eat a whole snickers bar, get into an old box of chocolate and today I stupidly put my hand down with a cookie in it while I was walking and she jumped up and grabbed it. Really we don’t just leave stuff out…she finds it…she is smarter than she lets on!

WHO CAN RESIST THIS FACE…

rain, rain GO AWAY!

It is 5:30am and I have just awoken to the sound of thunder and rain.

I have a feeling that there will be no taking off of the roof today. We have a TON of water, ham, turkey, bread ect…

Irony?

Tomorrow looks like a PERFECT day. I hope it will somehow get done this weekend. Too much planning goes into this expensive project for it all to hinge on weather. I SO could not be a carpenter.

I need PREDICTABILITY people!

Dumpster

Today…

 

the dumpster was delivered

and dropped in the driveway

  

tomorrow, the chaos begins

the the shingles

F A L L

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