Back from the BEE

Well, I just got home from the Bee early this morning. By early, I mean 5:30 -- AM. Yes, we drove all night long! I left Dresden, OH (Home of Longaberger) about 6:00 last night. We planned to stop in either Indianapolis or Terra Haute to sleep, then drive the rest of the way home today. We did not know there was a nascar race in Indianapolis today... there was not a hotel room to be found anywhere in the entire state! People were staying 4 and 5 hours away and driving in for the race. It was crazy! From Dresden OH to Springfield MO is approximately a 13 hour drive. My branch leader started out driving, till we got to Columbus. I took over the wheel there, and drove through to St. Louis while we talked about the classes we had taken, the FABULOUS new product we had seen, and formulating our plans for the 4th quarter. After we had made our lists and strategized our game plan we knew we were going to make some touchdowns with our customers when we got home! We could have stopped and stayed the night in St. Louis, but it was only another 3 hours to home, so we switched drivers and came on in. It was a great time, and I can't wait to share!!

I will be having an open house the last weekend in August to show off all the newest Longaberger baskets, pottery, and wrought iron pieces. I specialize in helping you solve your decorating, organizing, gift-giving, entertaining, and storage needs. Feel free to contact me or check out my webpage at www.longaberger.com/christianmcneal if you want to know more.

**Chris

ps - in case you missed my little "hints" I have a great new basket for football fans!!

Arrrggghhh Matey!

Aye! It be a pirate-themed party we had for AJ's birthday. Swashbuckling scallywags (and one princess) filled the yard on a hot Saturday afternoon. DH & I made a pirate ship out of cardboard boxes from an idea I found at Mr. McGroovy's. It was a hit! The kids loved playing in it and having sword fights with the balloon swords we made.


These are the Pirate cupcakes I made for the party. AJ said he wanted cupcakes with pirate faces on them. I thought they turned out really cute!!!





I cut X's out of red card stock and the kids played "Pin the X on the Treasure Map" They wore a pirate bandanna over their eyes while pinning it on the map. Every kid got an eye patch for playing the game.





I planned for the kids to make little treasure chests & they could take their treasures home in those instead of loot bags. Unfortunately, I did not do enough research into that little project. Instead of the sticker-type foam project I THOUGHT it was, you had to glue it all together. Needless to say, it did not go over so well with our 4 and 5 year old pirates. Several of the moms tried to put them together for the kids, and even the parents were having some challenges! (You can tell it made Pirate-Mommy-Debbie say AAARRRGGGHH!) SO we scrapped the treasure chest idea. A few of them got finished, but we sent the loot from the treasure hunt home in bags instead. The treasure hunt was held in the sandbox, of course. DH had buried necklaces, jewels, seashells, and gold coins for the kids to find. I think the treasure hunt was everybody's favorite activity! All in all I think the party was a hit. I know AJ had a lot of fun playing with his friends, and that was pretty much the whole point of the party. No presents, just friends (16 of them, actually!),a little food and a whole lot of fun!

8 questions....

Katie aka Ragamuffin Gal has asked me to answer the following questions 8 times:

8 things i say a lot:

1. Quit (hitting/pinching/biting/throwing things at/etc.) your brother!

2. Just a second

3. I love you!

4. shhhhh Baby Hunter is asleep.

5. Helllllllooooooooo! Bye-Bye!

(Baby Hunter likes to play telephone.)

6. Sweet tea, no lemon.

7. Hi, Baby.

8. Don't slam the ... **SLAM** ... door.

8 books i have read lately:

1. Self Talk Soul Talk ~ Jennifer Rothschild (small group study)

2. Hood ~ Stephen Lawhead

3. Thorn in My Heart ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

4. Fair is the Rose ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

5. Whence Came a Prince ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

6. Afton of Margate Castle ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

7. The Trubadour's Quest ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

8. Ingram of the Irish ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

8 movies i have seen at least 8 times:

1. Gone with the Wind

2. A Knight's Tale

3. First Knight

4. A Walk in the Clouds

5. Mr Holland's Opus

6. Ever After

7. Anything Veggie Tales

8. Anything Disney

8 things I am working On

1. My Daily Quiet time

2. My prayer life

3. Catching up on my Scrapbooks

4. new Art pieces

5. Cooking at home more

6. Being more patient

7. Being less critical

8. saying No to things that take time away from my family.

I would love to hear your answers to these questions, too!

Answer them on your blog, then leave me a comment & I will check it out.

catching up!

Here are a few of the things that have been going on around our house the last couple of weeks....

June 27 - DH & I drove to Tulsa so he could fly out on the 28th. He went to Guadalajara Mexico for a mission trip with the choir from our church. They sang 9 concerts in 5 days! It was a pretty crazy schedule. Plus they sang the concert again twice after they got home for our church. DH nearly lost his voice, but the Lord worked through him! There were over 100 salvations during their concerts!! This photo is of DH with some of the kids at one of the concerts in El Quince.

July 3 - AJ turned 5 the day Daddy came home from Mexico! We were all glad to have him home safe.

July 4 - Mom & my cousins & our favorite Drummer Girl all came over for the 4th. we grilled & shot off fireworks like good Americans. :)

July 7 - The family all came over to celebrate AJ's birthday. We decided to wait a few days to let Daddy recuperate from his trip before having a bunch of people over. It was a blast! We had a pirate theme, and my aunt & uncle & cousins came in some great costumes! Unfortunately, all the pirate photos are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to see if I can get those from her...

July 10 - today was the last day of AJ's swim lessons for the summer. He had a good time, and although he didn't really learn much, he did gain more confidence in the water, so that was well worth it. He will now jump off the side of the pool (and so will the baby after watching big brother do it...), put his face in the water, blow bubbles in the water, float on his back and stomach, and pick up something from the bottom of the pool. Way to go AJ!!


Tonight I get to have some crop time at Scrapbook Generation! woo-hoo! Better go get pictures printed...

Scrap Happy!

Wow - the last few weeks have been super busy! But I did find some time to scrap last weekend, so I thought I would post a few of my layouts... Considering it is my #1 hobby and I have yet to post any layouts here, I thought it was past time!

This is one of my favorites. AJ started playing T-Ball this year, and this is HIS page! He did the baseball, inked the edges of the pages, told me what order to put the pictures in, etc. I did the cutting and assembly, but he did the rest! He likes to help Mommy scrap. :)

These pictures were taken on February 4th- it was SO warm that day! The kids loved playing outside for a change. I thought these papers really went well with her dress. Sorry for the glare -- next time I will take the pages out of the protectors first....duh.

Grandma's birthday - there is more color to this LO in person. The large photo is of her looking at the recipe album I made for her. It is a 9x9 scrapbook filled with family recipes/traditions & photos. I am thinking it will be a continuing work in progress. Hopefully other family members will make pages to add to it!

Oh Boy! Hunter playing in the mulch at Silver Dollar City. An entire amusement park surrounds him, but no, he is intrigued by the mulch...

AJ and his buddy from church, enjoying popsicles and making mud pies in the lid of the Turtle sandbox. Oh, come on, admit it! You had the turtle sandbox as a kid too...

Blessings in my Mail

I have been wonderfully blessed with a lovely piece of artwork created by Katie, aka Ragamuffin Gal! She made this gorgeous name hanger for me to hang in my art room. Thank you so much, Katie!

Please check out her blog - she has one of the best blogs I have seen! She has wonderful posts on "Try something new Tuesdays," her artwork is great, and she posts the best pictures of her latest antiquing aquisitions. Make sure you look at the pictures she took at Leola's grand opening!

Katie and I met through CPA, only to find out that we live in the same town! We keep saying that we are going to get together one of these days, but with the schedules of a school teacher and a SAHM, it is hard to find time when we are both free! Someday soon, though!

She Sells Seashells

I am playing in another inchie swap on CPA. This one's theme is "by the sea". Here is my creation...

The sand is a piece of sandpaper that I cut to the right size, then tore the edge to give it a seashore-looking edge. I painted the blue background with a glitter glaze by Making Memories to make it sparkle like water. That is a real seashell, attached with a glue dot.