New Giveaway.

Courtney at Mommie Blogs is running a great giveaway. It is sponsored by the Get Back to the Table campaign with Libby foods. If any of you are Nascar fans, Jeff Burton's wife Kim is the spokesperson for this campaign Your entry is simple and you can win a fun and useful prize. I'm already entered. Maybe you would like to join the fun too.

You Capture/Family

This was the best week ever to have this assignment. We were away for the long weekend at a "family" wedding. This is our family by choice, not by blood. I could have posted 100's of pictures, literally. I just chose these. They are mostly my blood related family. I don't know if you can tell it or not, but the little girls had matching outfits. I have the cutest grandkids ever!

Be sure to head over to the You Capture homepage to see all the other great captures this week. If you haven't joined in the fun yet, this is a great week to start.

I'm Awe--Summm!!!

My darling daughter at Mommy Boo of Two gave me this award. The rules say that you are to post seven things that make you awe--summm and then pass the award on to seven other awe--summm blogs. Tooting my own horn isn't something I'm real good at. This could be lame. Sorry!

1. I have an awe-summm family.

2. I am awe-summm at staying married to the same man for 36 years.

3. I have awe-summm friends.

4. I am awe-summm at playing the Wii.

5. I am awe-summm at being a grandma.

6. I am an awe-summm listener.

7. I aspire to be an awe-summm blogger.

Here are seven awe-summm blogs I follow---

1. Kathy at 2 Kids 3 Martinis

2. Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing

3. Teresa at Grammy Girlfriend

4. Kat at Just a BeachKat

5. Courtney at Mommie Blogs

6. Christy at Real Life Adventures

7. Mary at Musings of the Sixties

It was hard to pick my seven blogs I follow. I've left out so many great ones. I hope you all know who you are. My days aren't complete without your posts!

Great Giveaways

I have two great giveaways to tell you about.

First, Beth at Folding Laundry has a giveaway with Land's End. You could win a $100. Land's End gift card. All you have to do is head over there and leave Beth a comment about what you are excited about this summer. Doesn't sound too hard now, does it?

Next, Teresa at Grammy Girlfriend has a Disney themed giveaway that goes with her grandson Parker's 10th birthday. You need to get there right now because she is drawing tomorrow night.

So, what are you still doing here?

Where Has Three Years Gone?

Three years ago today, this precious little girl came into my life and made me a grandma. My life hasn't been the same since. This sweet girl has melted my heart since our first meeting. There is something about your baby becoming a mother and making you a grandma that changes you in ways that you can't even explain. It is the best thing in the whole world.

Happy Third Birthday My Sweet Girl. Grandma loves you so much!!

You Capture/Sweet

I went with the obvious this week. I wanted to do my grand daughters, but I just didn't have the time to go and take 50 pictures to get the couple great shots. I also promised myself that I wouldn't use any older pictures this time. These are all new. Not nearly as sweet as my girls, but sweet anyway.

These are all sweet treats from the local bakery in our little town. I'm not even sure what the last thing is. I haven't eaten any to see. I was told it was some kind of honey bun thing. The others are self explanatory. This place does amazing and tasty work.

Head over to the You Capture homepage and see what everyone else thought was sweet.

Final Weigh In

It is the final weigh in for the Shrink into Summer challenge. It was my first challenge since I joined the Sisterhood. Being a part of this group has made such a difference in the way that I approach weight loss now. I love the support and the accountability I feel.

I lost 7.7 pounds for a loss of 3.95%. I'm pretty happy with that. I know where I made my mistakes along the way. I know that there will always be temptations and things that I will have trouble controlling. I think with time and effort, I can get a better handle on them.

I have tried to lose weight too many times to count. This is the first time that I feel like I am going to make it. I have to give a very special thank you to my new friend, Christy. She has been so wonderful to me and given me so much support. I can't thank her enough. She is a huge part of why I am succeeding.

I am truly enjoying shredding. I have been doing the Wii Fit and the Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum for the Wii. I went a little crazy yesterday and ordered the new Wii Active. I will be done with preschool after June 5th and have my whole days to get in lots of exercise. Just wait till the end of the next challenge. I plan to be on my way to smokin hot.

Just a little post note. I just remembered to measure and I lost five and three quarter inches over varying parts of my body. I thought I did, but now I know for sure. Now, I feel good!!

Random Thoughts

I feel like posting, but don't have anything in particular in mind. I have lots of things on my mind though.

I just got done watching Dancing with the Stars. Did anyone else think that Melissa looked like a hooker in her first outfit? It reminded me of the outfit Carrie Bradshaw was embarrassed to wear in the Vogue fashion show episode on Sex and the City. I'm for Gilles all the way. I could live with Shawn winning, but I would be really upset if Melissa won. I just voted. Boy, I need a life when I'm voting on reality shows.

Word verifications on blog comments. Do they drive anyone else crazy?

Today, I'm feeling a little sad. The end of the school year is coming and it's a really busy time with preschool Olympics and teddy bear reunion and graduation. It all is wonderful and fun, but it also means saying goodbye to our three day class. We have a great group of kids this year and saying goodbye is so hard. I really love these kids and will miss them a lot.

Hubby is on a fishing trip. He has been on a trip of some kind once a month for the last four months. Retirement is grand!

This weekend, we have a dear friend's wedding reception. They got married today in Hawaii. I posted before about her bridal shower. Her mom was one of my best friends. She died almost six years ago. The reception will be bittersweet without her there. The reception is in Chicago on Sunday night. A bunch of us are going up on Saturday and staying till Monday. It is going to be a great weekend.

Sunday is the Indianapolis 500. I love the 500. I've been loving it since I was a kid and we would all listen to it on the radio. I'll be spending my Sunday in our hotel room watching the race. I may head down to the bar for some of it. It is a party weekend after all.

Lastly, but certainly not least....our darling granddaughter turns three on Thursday. Poppa is coming on Thursday for that. She is just the best little girl ever and we love her to death. She is sweet, funny, adorable and full of attitude.

So, was that random enough for you?

Cropping

I never thought to crop the moon picture before I posted it on the You Capture/Colors. Dumb! Look at how much cooler it looks. I need to remember this step. It makes a world of difference.

You Capture/Colors

Another week, another capture. Color is everywhere, so I just went out and shot some.

Here we have black and white. I took this through the living room picture window at 1:37 a.m. Here we have yellow on my new shirt from Mother's Day.

Here we have purple from my new hanging basket from Mother's Day.

Here we have red and blue from my Cubs flag by the driveway.

Here we have coral from the beautiful blooms in the neighbors yard.

I'm really enjoying the You Capture assignments. I think it might be making me a better photographer and I use that term loosely. Now it's time for you to head over and check out all the great captures at the You Capture homepage.

I'm A Double Winner!!

I am usually a big loser. Not in life, but in contests. That has all changed.

First, I won the "card box" from Teresa at Grammy Girlfriend. It is a wonderful assortment of all occasion cards. They came last week and they are amazing. They are so pretty and not the kind that you can buy anywhere. They are very unique. Thanks Teresa!

Tonight, I won the "Name the Fish" contest from Still Mary at Musings of the Sixties. I won my choice of any print from Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry Etsy shop. If you haven't been over to her shop, you should check it out. She takes absolutely amazing pictures. I am so excited to go shopping there. I've already spent too much money there. It will be fun to do some free shopping. Thank you so much for liking my name. By the way, it was Cubbie.

So, that's my excitement lately. Maybe my luck is changing.

A Very Happy Mother's Day!

I had the most wonderful day ever. I have the best family in the whole wide world. We all went for brunch together. There were 11 of us. We were only missing one boyfriend. My mom and step dad, sister and brother-in-law and my other sister came too. We all had a lovely visit.

The kids went together and got me a Pandora charm bracelet. It is so pretty. I should have taken a picture of it for you. The fun part was that I had to guess who got what charm. I got them all right. They almost stumped me because I have four daughters and there were five charms. One of my son-in-laws went out on his own and picked a charm for me. That really touched my heart.

Now for the pictures. I have them totally out of order but, oh well......

This is me and our youngest granddaughter. Isn't she a cutie? She stopped over later in the day with her mommy, daddy and big sister with another surprise for grammy. My daughter made me a beautiful scrapbook with pictures of her beautiful daughters and lots of her favorite recipes. The nice part about the recipes is that she is a great cook. I was so touched. She has a very busy life with these girls and she still took the time to make me something special.

This is hubby and I with our oldest grandaughter at the brunch. Not to brag but isn't she adorable. She is going to be three on the twenty first. Where did the time go? This is my two sisters, my mom and me. We're not a bad looking bunch. Can you believe that my mom is 83???? I should be so lucky to look that good now. I wish my brother would have come with us. It would have been nice to have him in the picture too.

Lastly, this is our original six. Sorry for the bad cropping. Could I be any luckier than to be the mom of this wonderful family? I think not.

I hope that you all had as wonderful a day as I did. Happy Mother's Day to you all!!

You Capture/Expression

Beth's assignment this week was expression. I loved this. Who can't find great expressions? I hope that's what she meant. I have two of the cutest grandkids ever, so I had the perfect subjects. A couple of these are a few months old, but their expressions are priceless.

First, we have hubby and his girls. This was from his birthday. These girls are his life. He spoils every one of them rotten, but isn't that his job?

This was from Christmas. Who do you think loves who more? They are best buddies.

This is our baby girl. She is one of the happiest babies you will ever meet.
This was just taken this week. I'm not cheating on all of them.

This was Poppa's birthday. Number one granddaughter can hardly believe the smoke all those candles could make. I just love her eyes in this picture.

The cutest baby girl ever!
Finally, number one granddaughter just this week. We are finding it hard to believe that she will be three in two weeks. Time is just going too fast. I want it to slow down and let me savor these wonderful days with her. She is so funny and such a good big sister.

Can I just say that I love these little girls with all my heart? They are the lights of my life and never fail to melt my heart. I don't know what I did right for God to have blessed me so fully!

Now, it's time for you to head over to You Capture at Folding Laundry and see all the other great captures. That's where I'm heading.

Weigh In Wednesday

Another Wednesday morning and I was worried. I just never know, but it was okay. I lost 1.8 pounds. That's not as good as it sounds because I gained 1.2 pounds last week. I had to get back to square one before I could really consider a loss. Going by that, I really only lost .6 pounds. Anything was better than last weeks gain, so I'm not going to get down on myself. I did some things right this week.


1. I never touched a fried pickle and let me clarify something from last week. I think I made myself sound like a total bar rat last week. I swear I am not. It's just that I found something so yummy, I kept taking people over to try them. On a normal week, I am not in a bar four out of seven days. I swear!!


2. I got over my wrist injury. I'm still not sure what it was, but wearing a brace did the trick. The bad part of that was that I couldn't do any exercise that involved my wrist. Think about the Shred. Lots of things I couldn't do in there.


3. I kept my water intake up.


4. Although I wasn't good about fruit, I was real good about getting lots of veggies and dairy. I love that new Dannon Pineapple Upside Down Cake yogurt.


5. Now that the weather finally seems to have broken into spring, I'm trying to get out and walk. That treadmill in the nasty basement is so depressing.


That's it in a nutshell. Not great, not awful. I'm really excited about the new Shred challenge. With the wrist injury, I feel like I wasn't at my best for that one week. This time I will be.

See you all next week.

A Fantastic Printer Giveaway

Once again, our wonderful Beth has the giveaway of all giveaways. How would you like to be the proud owner of a new Kodak ESP 7 All-in-One printer ?

All you have to do is head over to Beth's blog and follow the instructions. You'll be amazed ( or sad) when you calculate how much you overspend on ink for your current printer.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out of here and head over there.