Bragging Rights

WOW!

My hubby Mike and I both work nights. During the summer months when our son is not in school, we come home and take turns sleeping. This eliminates the need for a sitter. While this routine leaves us both very tired, it works for us. Our son in with one of his parents all day long. I take the first sleeping shift because I can't stay up! Hubby stays up. This is great father-son bonding time. Sometimes they go to the park, sometimes they go to the library and sometimes they just stay home. Sometimes they get me surprises!

The other day, they ran around. Mike had to get a part for the mower. While they were out, he decided to buy me a surprise! I have looking for a set of Chalk Ink markers made for chalkboards. They are quite pricey, so I thought I would have to wait. He used a 50% off coupon I got for signing up for Michael's craft store's newsletter and bought them for me!

Today when I woke up....WOW!

This is what I found on my kitchen counter....

That is eight jars of bread & butter pickles and two loaves of zucchini bread with cinnamon chips and walnuts! The kitchen was also spotless! He did all of this straight after eight hours of hard labor on the midnight shift!

My hubby is the best!

So now the question is....am I spoiled.....or am I blessed?
I am thinking both!

Tuesday's Talent

For the first time on Tuesday's Talent we have an art sculpture! Miss M. has made a wonderful alien. Her name is Alion (A leon) Here is Alion and her description straight from Miss. M! Slimey wants to know if she drives that mother ship aliens are always talking about?!

Our second display of talent comes from my son. This is Everything Man.

Everything Man is not in the Super League of Weirdos. He would like to be, but he keeps getting turned down because he is not weird enough! Everything Man can do everything! You name it, he can do it! He can even turn into a big glob of goo if he has to! Hmm that sounds pretty weird to me!

Thank you for looking at Tuesday's Talent, and Thank You Miss M for taking it to the next level! My son is out in my kitchen right now looking for things to make his own sculpture!

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Tuesday's Talent

Tuesday's Talent just keeps getting bigger and better! I am thrilled! Today, we have artwork from three budding artists!

Our first drawings come from The Boy's Guide to Drawing Aliens, Warriors, Robots and Other Cool Stuff. There is some weird and scary stuff in there! All of the stuff boys love to draw!

First we have a drawing from my friend's son Mr. B. Do you remember Miss M. from a couple of Tuesday's ago? Mr. B is her big brother. He took time from his skateboarding (which I hear he is totally awesome at) to draw this for my son!
Meet Voggles. According to the book, Voggles are some of the weirdest aliens you'll ever see. The special aye antennas let each Voggle see what all other Voggles see. Mr. B. did an awesome job on this drawing! Thanks B!


Now this picture was done by my very own kiddo. He decided to put three different drawings into one. The book tells us that the first weird guy we see is an alien. He is called Skrawks. The Skrawk people have been involved in galactic politics for hundreds of years. They think every person's opinion is important. The warrior in the air is Hiroto. Through many years of practice and lots of hard work, Hiroto became a martial arts master. He can defeat enemies in the blink of an eye. The last creature is a robot. He is Pacifier P-17s. In the year 2432, civil war rocks the planet Venus. Pacifier P-17s were created to bring peace. Too bad the machines don't know friend from foe. They crush anyone in their way with their giant mechanical claws.

*Descriptions from the first two drawings come from the book.

Ahh, now here's something a little more serene. Here we have a beautiful garden scene drawn by Miss M. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and everything is budding in the garden! I love the little brown bunnies. They are enjoying everything that is yummy in a bunny's tummy. There is lettuce, carrots and big green cabbages! Every bunny's dream! This sunny garden is so inviting that even the butterflies have come by to join the fun! I love the giant pink butterfly....I hope she stops by to visit my veggie garden!


As always, thanks for stopping by, and do come back....who knows what you'll find next time!

Back to life....back to reality

Well it's back to work tonight after being off for a week. It's tough to get back in the swing of things, especially for us because we work nights. I hate to even think of going back! Ugh. I am also guessing that when we get back, that I will be on overtime...again!

Oh well! It is what it is, and I have to work to be able to do fun things like I did while I was off....

I went to my family reunion.

We had a great time, as always! After all of the kids took a swing at the pinata and couldn't break it, they brought in the big guns! (I honestly think my cousin Nicole broke it a little before me!) That's me taking a whack at the little caterpillar pinata. I busted it wide open and the kids left with a ton of candy! And of course, my silly little guy had more fun with the broken pinata!

Then there were some great prizes at the raffle. There was a frog that quickly became the "Oooh I want that" prize at the raffle! Man, everyone wanted the ceramic frog! We bought several tickets to try to win it, but it didn't happen.

Thanks to my Great Uncle Ralph, who gave my son some tickets, that fabulous frog is nestled next to my rose bush beside my house!




We went to the factory outlet stores and did a little shopping.

I picked up a cute card game for my son and his friends to play. Mostly we looked and dreamed....didn't really spend too much. It was a beautiful day and had a great time. I can shop, not buy a thing and still have a great time!

We did buy a couple of cool drinks to quench our thirst! I even let Slimey get a "big guy" drink at the coffee shop.

Yeah, that kept him hopping all day long! He had a cookies and cream something or other! He loved it, but thankfully didn't finish the whole thing!

Another day, we took a little trip to a local park to see the barn owl who lives there.

Here is Oliver the Barn Owl. I am sorry for the poor picture quality, but Oliver was behind glass and it was hard to get a clear shot. The girl working there offered to let me go back where they feed him and try to get a better picture, but I didn't want to get her in trouble, or disappoint Oliver, who probably would have thought I was there to feed him.

Although we couldn't feed him while we were there, we did donate money to buy Oliver a yummy mouse to enjoy later for dinner.

While we were there, Slimey also got to pretend he was a butterfly!

That put us in the mood to go for a walk on the butterfly trail next to the owl barn. We saw lots of pretty flowers......but not many butterflies!




Then at the end of the trail, while I was busy taking pictures, hubby and son spotted a butterfly!

We took one day and went to Pittsburgh.

We love going to "da burgh" or "the big city" as my little one calls it.

I love the buildings...I get great pictures every time I am there. I love the sights, sounds and smell of the big city!

We went to a cupcake shop ( are you surprised?) and I had a rose flavored cupcake! Yum!
The store had trouble with it's credit/debit system and hubby had to walk down the street to an ATM. For his trouble, the man at the shop said we could have a free cupcake! Momma likes! I enjoyed another rose cupcake....free tastes so delicious!

We headed to the Strip District which is rows of shops and ethnic grocery stores. I love shopping there! While we were there, we found a little garden tucked away in an alley that belonged to St. Patrick church.....

Then in the corner of the garden, surrounded by ivy.....

Very beautiful indeed!

Then after leaving the serenity of the garden, we went back out into the busy city and drove past the site for the new arena where the Pittsburgh Penguins will play....

Things are moving right along!

Back at home, things are moving right along in my garden!

Just look what I picked this week alone!

Wow! What a bounty!

We made pickles, peach preserves (peaches bought at a local farm) and zucchini bread. For lunch I had...you guessed it...fried zucchini! How many ways can I eat zucchini and cucumbers? I guess I am going to have to find out!

We also went to several yard sales and went swimming two days in a row! What a vacation! I am so sad to see it go and have to get back to work...but we haven't checked that lottery ticket hubby bought a couple of days ago......ya never know! LOL!

Ok, I have been slacking on the posts...sorry folks, I'm on vacation and have been out and about with the family!

I have settled down long enough to bring you another Tuesday's Talent!



This, my friends, is Zombie Pirate (yes, my seven year old is nothin' but boy! LOL) Zombie Pirate has been sailing the seven seas ever since he died. That was 500 years ago. Sometimes he still gets seasick, even after all those years! He is an enemy of the Super League of Weirdos.

Thanks for stopping by, and I promise a picture heavy post in the near future so you can see all of the stuff I have been doing instead of blogging!

Have a great day!

Tuesday's Talent

This Tuesday, you are in for a double dose of talent!

First we have a drawing from my friend's cute as a cupcake daughter Miss M. She gave this drawing to my son to use for an idea for the Super League of Weirdos. I thought it was so cute, I asked if I could just post it here and she agreed! So, this is the Hulk...when he was 7 "yeres" old! I love the big curly-Q hair! Thank you Miss M for the great drawing!






And here is my son's latest drawing...This is our dog Reese! Reese is a black Lab. We got her when our son was one and a half years old. She's a crazy dog who loves to dance and give hugs! This is a pretty accurate drawing...Reese always smiles like this!

Happy Independence Day!

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it's only patriotism."

-Erma Bombeck

I hope you and your family have a safe and glorious 4th of July!