I've been Tagged!

My mom over at Lovie's Cotton Candy has tagged me for a literary meme.
The rules are:1. The book must be over 123 pages.
2. Find page 123 in the book.
3. Read the first 5 sentences.
4. Post the next 3.
5. Tag 3 other people

"But it startled mother badly the other night. I think I'll just ask them not to, if I can catch them." Simon went to the door and opened it. I ran full tilt down the stairs and across to him.

This is from my most favorite book, I Capture the Castle written by Dodie Smith. If you've never read it, I recommend it! I'm tagging A glance at My world, Jessica at Strawberry Blond Moments and my sister Kelli at My little pink Love bug.

Fun!

Our sailor sent his love...

Just look at my little cupid! the only way she would cooperate for me was if I let her have the enormous Valentine balloon I bought for her tonight. After twenty minutes of dueling, I finally settled for pictures of her with it tied around her wrist, hey, better than nothing.

The past couple of days my doorbell has been ringing with tidings of gifts from far, far away. My wonderful hubby has spoiled his girls this year!...yesterday, Isabella received a beautiful sterling silver, engraved Jewelry box from her daddy. What a sweet and sentimental keepsake for her to cherish...it was engraved with her little monogram...I was quite impressed with his classy choice of gifts for her! he thought of it all by himself! what a guy...
And today...oh buddy but today... I was in town all day running errands and when I got home I was greeted by a box at my door, as I got closer I noticed it was labeled with the words..GODIVA, my favorite!!! my heart quite literally skipped a beat. I quickly plunked Isabella down on the living room floor still in her car seat ( she didn't appreciate that too much ) and I got right down to business opening up that box. Inside, along with a sweet little note, was the biggest box of GODIVA chocolates anybody has ever given me! Three chocolates later I was in my own little Utopia...had to snap out of it quick though, Isabella was doing a pretty good job of letting me know how ticked at me she still was for the plunking incident...
It's been one of the best Valentines days I've ever had, even though my Valentine is floating around somewhere in the Ocean he still managed to make sure he took care of his girls and more importantly, made sure we know he is thinking about us. That's so special to me, knowing he took time out of his busy day to send sweets to his sweets...I feel like the luckiest lonely girl in the world!

Isabella's first Valentine!

This afternoon Isabella and I made our daily trek to the mailbox and along with the usual bills and junk mail, was an envelope addressed to Isabella! We quickly went home to tear it open and see what was inside (mail is so much fun!) and it was a Valentine from her great grandmother, MamaJo! As you can see, Isabella had a wonderful time waving it around in the air and then giving it a good taste. There was also a five dollar bill tucked away in her little Valentine, so we put it in her Piggy bank for safe keeping. MamaJo is Tyler's grandmother on his father's side and it meant so much to me that she thought of our little Bella on valentines day, but I don't know why I am ever surprised, you can always count on a home made card with a sweet little note inside from MamaJo on any special occasion. That must be why they call them great-grandmothers...because they are so great!

Goodies for my sailor!

This box is chock full of love and goodies...and it's on the way to my boy...wherever he may be!

Bella in a Box

Today was one of those days. You know, one of those, leg climbing, hair pulling, back arching, red faced, leg kicking, ear piercing screaming kinda days. At my wits end, I jokingly told my precious little poot that I was putting her in a box and shipping her to Lovey's house...I unclenched her Hulk like grip from my flesh and set her in this box, just to make my point...and wouldn't you know it...

Kelli

This is my oldest sister Kelli, and in her arms is her beautiful 6 month old daughter, Sophia.
I could probably write you a novel about Kelli, She is what my papa Brittain would have called, a "difficult woman" obviously beautiful, smart as a whip, temper like a ticked-off hornet, a gift for talking to anybody she happens to come upon, and the good Lord love her, but she's a klutz.

Homeschooled through highschool, (as ALL of us girls were, bless my mamma's heart) A college graduate, prior military Airforce and now new mommy, Kelli certainly has a lot of stories and memories for me to choose from. A couple of memories that stand out the most for me are, our long drives around the country side that somehow always ended up at Mcdonalds for a "sodie" our knock-down-drag-out fights over the telephone, and when I flew to Texas with my daddy to see her bootcamp graduation. I still remember hundreds upon hundreds of buns under those little airforce beanie caps...but I found Kelli! and made eye contact, which accidentally made her smirk! oops!

She has some funny stories, let me tell ya, but my all-time favorite has to be the time she honked her big ol' Oldsmobile horn at a policeman who was trying to signal her to use her blinker... after about 5 impatient minutes in this busy intersection, he got right up in her windshield and did some sort of policeman hand motion that she mistakenly took for "Honk your horn real loud and real long in my face" You ever seen a cat when it gets all mad and puffed up? that's what this policeman looked like. He stopped all the other traffic and just let her go.

There are other ones too...like the time she caught her panties on fire, the time she accidentally hit a hoot owl and diminished the poor fella to a poof of dust and feathers...left a nice little beak-sized hole in the front of that same Oldsmobile, never had a chance, poor guy. And the time she wrote President Bill Clinton, and got a letter back, signed. Yep! In the words of our mother, "Kelli...Kelli..."

Just one more thing...

I was just so excited I had to share with you...my darling sailor commented on my blog tonight! I wish I could take that comment and frame it!

I made this Valentine garland for my little shelf, and I think I may make a few more for my valentines...they're super easy, just felt, yarn, and some handy dandy hot glue...it's just a pain in the bum to cut out all of those hearts and diamond shapes.




Ok, so does this little box look like a cake to you? because it's supposed to and I'm not so sure if I'm satisfied with the outcome...I envisioned a layered box that looked good enough to eat, with a box on top for a tiny little treat, and a slightly larger box on bottom for something extra special...what do you think?



I'm so exhausted, it's 9:30 and I'm going to go to bed...that's insanely early for me! I went to a cook out and met some really awesome moms my age and they were just so nice, I can't say enough good things about them, they were friendly and welcoming and so cute and hip...it was like a breath of fresh air to finally meet some nice girls...I've had a run of bad luck in the military wife department as of late and was just starting to get discouraged when I met Desiree and her friend...I'm awaiting some pictures taken tonight of all the babies playing together on the floor. Will hopefully blog them soon, just have to get other mommies permission :)

New duds!

Imagine my euphoria this evening when I walked my freshly pedicured feet into a little shop and was greeted by racks upon racks of hair bows! I promptly bought about 1/2 dozen and made sure to perch one on my little red cue-ball as soon as possible...as you can tell, she loves to have her picture taken...and new duds make it oh so fun!

My friend Stacy and I had a wonderful baby-free mommy date together at Starbucks, and then the spa...then when we returned to her house we found one frazzled daddy, a very excited two year old, a considerably miffed Isabella and one extremely nervous cat.

My work cut out for me

Do you see that look? that was given to me every time I told Isabella "No" ....she kept putting the tag to my new bathing suit in her mouth and when I would tell her no I would receive this scathing look of challenge. I'm starting to get a wee bit nervous...

Thriftaholic anonymous

Do they have a group for Thriftaholics? If they did I would surely be in it. You know your addicted to something when you wake up on your Saturday morning and the first thought that pops into your head is "ooh it's Saturday...yard sale day!" On goes the ball cap, on goes the baggy over-alls and away you go, a sleepy eyed baby and a wild eyed thrifter. At least...that's how it happened for me this past Saturday. A humorous side note...I didn't wear any makeup or do my hair, I just threw on a ball cap and got in the car, well I went to this yard sale that was thrown by two young military wives...later that afternoon I bumped into them in the elevator at the mall...one girl goes, "Didn't I see you this morning at my yard sale? oh my gosh...you look so different, you don't even look like the same girl!" Thank you Revlon! effective advertising for your magnificent coverage :)

As some of you know, I'm due to open my Etsy shop hopefully by the end of the month...but as I have a lot going on this particular month we'll keep our fingers crossed that I find the time. I intend to sell everything vintage and some home made. Some of the pictures are items that will be featured in my shop, I know my pictures tend to be a wee bit blurry, and I'm having problems with my lighting, but a trip to BestBuy in the near future for a tripod is hopefully going to cure these problems...so until then, just kinda squint...

Priceless

A few months ago when I was home visiting family my five year old niece, Hilary, had to go to a routine visit to the dentist...well horror of horrors she had a few cavities! very traumatic for a five year old! Naturally after that her mother decided to nix all hard and chewy candies...which thanks to a very devoted granddaddy Hilary had an abundance of. You would think that disposing of a five year olds hefty candy stash would be a difficult and dramatic affair...but I'm here to tell you, my Hilary, well she is one of a kind, and maybe it's all that candy, but that girl is SWEET. One afternoon after that fateful dentist appointment, I was presented with a small and very wrinkled brown paper bag. Clutched tightly in the hands of it's giver, the bag was very slowly and very deliberately handed to me...when I opened it up, this small hand painted box lay inside, I pulled the box out and opened it up and inside that little pink box were treasured pieces of one of Hilary's favorite candies, Tootsie Rolls. When I saw that candy I felt my heart get as big as a Buick, she was giving me her treasures, in a box that she worked on just for me! as you can see I keep that little box in a place of honor on my Vanity, and inside of it I keep some of my own treasures as a reminder.

Sleeping Bella

What a little handful I have! with her mamma's red hair and "I'll do it myself!" attitude, days with my Isabella girl can sometimes be quite trying...But don't you know it as soon as my little pink bundle closes her eyes I just can't get enough of her! I want to snuggle her and breath her in and kiss her and basically do everything your NOT supposed to do to a sleeping baby...today while we were out to dinner she fell asleep and I just couldn't resist a few little snap shots....just look at those lips! they get bigger when she sleeps, I call them her sleepy lips.

My Daddy

Ok, so I'm starting something new...since I'm so homesick right now and all I can think about is family, every Saturday I am going to post about one member of my family, favorite memories...etc. I'll start with my dad since I have such a wonderful picture of him.

My daddy's name is Jerry Baugh and he has worked for over 30 years as a logistics manager for Bush Brothers (you know, the bean?) and yes he knows the secret recipe but he aint tellin'! He's a quiet, soft spoken man and surprisingly, a tremendous flirt! I can't tell you how many grumpy Wal-Mart cashiers he has schmoozed into a full out toothy grin, but that's just daddy :)

This picture was taken the day Isabella was born, and what can I say? what is it about a girl and her dad? When a daddy has a little girl it's a very special thing. It all starts in the womb, I know this because I know how Tyler acted when he found out our little peanut sized blur was indeed a girl peanut blur. I can only imagine my dad must have acted the very same way with my mom when she was pregnant with my other two sisters and me.

Growing up some favorite memories of my dad and me together are when he made me a bow and arrow out of a tree limb and some wood...and when he caught me in his basement playing with his tools and wood scraps...I thought he was going to be mad, but instead he helped me build a little table for my dolls, when we would go fishing at the lake and not catch a blasted thing because I ran my mouth the whole time...and the best? well that was when we would "sneak off" to Sammy's and he would buy me whatever I wanted and do his little "hee-hee" laugh and tell me not to tell mom, she knew of course but at 5 years old I didn't know that and I felt like quite the Bonnie and Clyde sneaking away to Sammy's and coming home with a grape soda stained mouth. As I got older my definition of heroism changed...and to me he was my knight in blue button up shirt, rushing in to slip me a buck or two, change a flat tire, wedge open a window to retrieve my keys...and whoa baby! bad boyfriends beware!...on went the tight face, the furrowed brow, the clenched jaw and the head would jerk back sending that silver hair a-flyin' ...scary! no, seriously, he was really scary, no wonder a lot of them never came back. I could go on and on...when you have way too many memories to choose from, that's when you know you've got one wonderful daddy.

Next week, Kelli! and then I'll pull some teeth to get pictures of my mom and Brittainy :)

Bingo!

I was poking around at the Navy Exchange today when I came across these awesome gloves...aren't they glovely? sorry couldn't help myself. I snatched up a couple of pairs...perfect for a couple of hip housewives I know.

The other picture is of a few things that just make me happy! the little pink bowl is another thrift shop find...the bracelet was a Christmas gift from my mother that she ordered from Inspireco...have you ever checked that blog out? you should! it's cram packed full of goodies. And lastly, the Hankie...I got it in this years "stocking swap" that's a fairly new tradition that my mom, sisters, cousins, aunts and I do where we all put a little trifle for each person in a box and send it to the stocking host who then sends the full stockings to their designated person. It's a whole lot of fun...but anyway, back to the Hankie...I'm pretty sure this came from my auntie Gaye-Gaye but I'm not sure...I absolutely adore real hankercheifs and I'm dying to know where this one came from or where I can get more like it...I have this eye watering problem...I know, gross you don't want to hear about it, but anywho! I definitely utilize the Hankie and it looks so much more elegant than say...toilet paper?

look what I found!

I went on a quest for thrift stores this week and I have to say I'm not impressed with this Islands selection...but I did manage to snag some super cute vintage glasses! I bought them all up and now I just need to find somebody to give them to! what fun! I'm pretty sure I know exactly who's red kitchen these would look good in :)

Ok, so now I have to gloat. My hubby bought me my very own laptop and do you know where I am at this very moment? in my bed! It's amazing...it's the end of my day, Isabella is asleep, the baby monitor is faithfully snoring away beside me (yes she started snoring, should I be worried?) and I'm snuggled in my bed under one of mom's handmade quilts and I think there is something 8 pillows surrounding me...I LOVE technology. This has quite possibly chased some of my night-time deployment blues away.

My house is in quite a disarray and it's stressing me out...I had the not-so-brilliant idea of distracting myself from deployment depression by painting the bedroom and bathroom...oh boy...tonight while I was busy Isabella woke up and was none too happy about it, in my rush to get to her I wasn't thinking and bent down to put my roller away, when I got back into the bathroom I was startled by my reflection, the top of my head was Washbasin Blue, a very nice color for a Martha Stewart bathroom, but I don't recommend it for red heads.