Oh Sandy!

Hi everyone,
I interrupt your busy weekend to tell you about a cool website I stumbled onto.
Everyone, this is Sandy

http://iwantsandy.com/home
Sandy is my 'free' personal email assistant. She kind of works like that girl at your dentist's office- the one that calls and reminds you of your appointment, except Sandy is far less bitchy than that girl and she reminds me via email not the phone.
Sometimes I need more than a calendar and this is where Sandy comes in. Say if I need to remember to call to make an orthodontist appointment on Monday...I know I will forget by Monday morning at work but if I send Sandy a simple email, she will remind me at the exact time I want. My old way was to leave myself a voicemail message but that kind of creeps me out to hear myself talking to myself.
Silly or useful? You tell me.

So, I made this cool gift...

and I forgot to take a picture again, DOH!
I have a coworker who just turned 30. She's super-organized, very efficient and sends out greeting cards to all her friends and family (like it's her part-time job) for every holiday. She comes to work with a stack of cards, stamps and corresponding stickers and gets them all mailed out in time. It's very sweet. I was shocked when she told me that she throws out her extra cards and stickers because she doesn't have a system or place to keep them.
Sooooooooo, I found really pretty expandable file boxes at Target and set up the tabs by holiday using some pretty scrapbooking papers and a P-Touch Labeler. I filled it with some stickers, cards, stamps, etc. (pretend you can see a picture)
and also some of these handmade cards (that I did take a picture of)



I spent my long weekend cleaning my sewing room, it was long overdue and it was all spilling into our bedroom. I have a little more finishing up to do and maybe I'll snap a few pictures.
Have a good day :)

Science is so for girls!

A little blog brag for my middle daughter:
She won third place in the science fair!



Gabby was horrified to learn this because you see, she had a strategy... do a good enough report and board to get an A but not good enough to get an award. This means she will go on to compete with other schools and Gabby pretty much likes to go through her life blending in being un-noticed. I am very proud, of course!
Hey, while you are here, check out this chicken cutlet from tonight's dinner:

It was purely accidental that it turned out heart shaped!
I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day.

aww, you guys!

Thank you for leaving me such great comments. I felt like such a whiney brat the instant that I clicked "publish" but it was a necessary post. I was coming off a particularly grueling week and gearing up for a marathon weekend of basketball, birthday parties, highschool dances, church, cheerleading, science fair projects, softball clinic, etc. Aside from sleeping, I wasn't at home for any longer than an hour at a time all weekend. I was ready to snap by Sunday night. I wouldn't say that my kids are indulged; but there are 3 of them and they are very social. Even if we share the driving, we are still in the car a lot. They are indulged in expensive education, I will admit to that, but we aren't willing to turn them over to the public schools in our city (it's really bad!) or let them be taught by some raving lunatic at home (that'd be me). So, we work like idiots and I have meltdowns. Thanks for listening.
In between running, I made gifts for parties. Here's one:

I forgot to take a picture of the other one. It was a cute one too, darn it!
Anyway, thanks again for your comments. You are all so nice (and funny!) I am awful at responding to people but I always smile when I read comments and am happy that you stop by.
Have a nice day:)

Ugly rant- Beware

I'm cranky.
I'm tired, run down and cranky.
This isn't a fun post, sorry.
I scored some good remnants from the bin:

But it didn't do a thing for my disposition.
I got this surprise assortment for next to nothing from fabric.com a few weeks ago:

and it barely excited me.
I got this fabric super cheap:

And all I can think about is how little time I can find to use it.
It's been a rough couple of weeks. Home life has been extremely busy, all of our schedules have been full and we are all on edge lately. I usually love my job but that has been a source of anxiety as well. I only work 5 hours a day but lately I have 8 hours worth of work to do.
Each day I get up at 5:00AM and spend 1 hour by myself; I have coffee, watch tivo'd Martha, check email, etc. Come 6:00AM, it's all about everyone else all day. My function at work is to make everyone's life easier and keep them going in the right direction...so I'm even the mom there! When I'm all done feeding, driving, doing laundry, etc. I sit at my sewing machine at night and try to get a business going because money is a constant issue that stresses me. At 9:00PM I am exhausted and cranky, all I have to look forward to is 5:00AM tomorrow morning. I don't have a day off unless you count Christmas and Easter and I'm not sure what I would do with a day off if I even had one.
I don't know what I think is fun anymore. I am a robot! I'm not trying to say my role is harder than anyone else's, I'm just having a tough time of right now.
I'm sorry to be so negative but I need an outlet and I really shouldn't drink wine at 7:30AM...I wouldn't have time to go to AA meetings if I became an alcoholic.

Happy Birthday Deb!

Happy birthday to my fabulous big sister Debbie! http://debnstuff.blogspot.com/
We couldn't be more different...she loves Florida- me not so much, she loves dessert more- I love dinner more, she's a republican- I'm a democrat... But I love her so much and couldn't have picked a better sister.

PS- I suck and I'll owe you a gift when I see you!