A Fabulously Flawed Life

This was party week for me and considering schools out on Tuesday I need all the quality girl time I can get! Tuesday night we celebrated Tatiana's birthday. Happy B-day Girl! Thursday night we got our groove on again for Chanda's birthday. We had such a great time, I don't think I've laughed so hard in a while. Near the end of dinner someone came up with the idea of doing the " shaky face game ". I must live under a rock because I hadn't heard of this before. Basically you shake your face and while a picture is taken. Click over to Chanda's blog to see more pictures. Here's what Julie and I would look like if we had collagen. See I still wouldn't have an upper lip. Drat! It should be said that I LOVE movies! I admit it's a vice. So when I heard the SexandtheCity movie was coming out, I've been so excited I've been wearing flowers all month. To me the movie is the about friendships and how important they are in our lives. Years ag...

"Mommy, poop."

I found something totally cool on Celia's blog today. It's a 'Top Commenter Widget' which displays the top 10 commenter on your blog. What a great way to reward your regular commenter ! It's really easy if you use Blogger. Just type in your blog name as per the instructions, press Customize , then press the Add to Blog button . It puts it directly into your layout! Drag it to the position you prefer and press Save . Presto! I knew Are You Serious! would be #1 on the list. She's such a great commenter and I can always count on her to brighten my day. Thanks girl! I've also got to give an honorable mention to Julie because she's been one of my favorite bloggers since this crazy ride began one year ago. Thanks CrazyMamaof 6 - you totally rock!

I can't believe it, as of Tuesday, I have been blogging for one year! On the outside not much has changed: I have 3 boys, live in the same house, my man has the same job, and I still go to Mavens, book club, and dinner club with the same fab friends. But in reality a lot has changed: * Davis has braces * Davis is now medicated * Dylan has been diagnosed with ADHD and is now medicated {{a hit to my ego}} * Finished Mommy & Me gymnastics with Drake * Drake is talking a little * Drake is in a big boy bed - although still not sleeping through the night * Jason's going to school to get his MBA * Executive Homemaker which took over a year to design and 5 years as a concept is 15 months old and has 2,333 members and growing at a rate of 300+ new members every month. * Executive Homemaker's online store has grown from three to 26 Mom- prenuers ! * Tip Junkie is 11 months old * My house is a little prettier and more organized * My Dad is divorced * My brother Scott came home...

Question: Why is it that when you want to make a larger purchase, you and your spouse have to really think about it and make sure that's the right place to put your cash. But when you see something fun for the kids, almost the same price, you purchase it with out hesitation. Does anyone else see something wrong with this? {{pout}} Anyway, yes can you believe it - we bought this big yellow banana to give the kids a summer they'll never forget. I can just imagine when the boys are grown and married reminiscing about that crazy banana ride we had the summer of 2008. School is out next week and we got a sneak peek of summer over the weekend. The weather was great and we spent the weekend at the lake with friends. Here's Drake and Emily taking a snack break. Emily has told her mom that she's going to kiss Drake and marry him. In my book that's a done deal, sweetie. You better not let me down! {{kidding - sort of}} I don't know who first came up with the concept of ...

It's that time of year already - end of the school year. {{help!}} The boys have some really amazing room mom who's went all out this year. Dylan's class started out with a picnic outside and then they had each took a turn getting their hand painted for the 1st grade banner. Their class is the first 1st grade class in this school - so their banner will be hung in the library next year and then put in the time capsule. Cute idea. All the kids loved getting their hands painted. Then it was outside for snow cones, Flag thingies (technical name of course) - fabric strips stapled on rulers. It was so windy the kids had a blast playing with them. And lots of bubbles! Drake was treated like a rockstar during the festivities. He did what ever they told him to do and quite enjoyed the attention. Davis' class had a luau! The room moms cut up the table cloths and rotated the colors around the semicircle of desks. Each student had a tiki cup, sand bucket with fun summer sayings o...

Last week I received some good mail! Tabetha sent me this beautiful necklace in appreciation for all my referrals. I don't feel like I've done a thing - her products speak for themselves! So head on over and order gifts for all your favorite ladies in your life! They'll love them. I also got some good mail from the IRS. Lucky me. I guess this means Karma's mad at me again. If only I could figure out what's ticking her off. These battles between us are kicking my @ ss .

I've been on the look out for a new summer hair style. I like to change things up often. I'll admit when I first saw LC (from The Hills) sporting the braid - I thought it was ghetto . Alas it has really grown on me and I decided to try it. Here I am, "LT". Not bad for my first attempt, considering I haven't braided my hair since the 80's. ;) I'll have to "keep this in the running for Laurie's Next Top Summer Hairdo". {{giggle}} Drake decided he wanted to get in the action and do his hair. He laid down on the counter and stuck his head in the sink! I dried him off and helped him a bit. Here's an after shot. Let's talk hair! What are you considering for your summer look?

I've got to officially congratulate my man (right) for winning the 'game changer' award at work. He works for Eaton Corporation, a 13 Billion dollar company with approx. 80,000 employees in 29 countries. Jason was 1 of 14 selected for this most prestigious award. Here he is shaking hands with the company's CEO, Sandy Cutler. Jason came up with an idea, designed the web-based software, and now they're implementing it throughout the corporation. I am so proud of him! I admire all the hard work and dedication he has for the many passions in his life. And I'm honored to be one of them. he he Would you believe Jason was a welder with only a semester of college when we met. "Honey, you've exceeded my expectations and anything else you achieve in your career is a bonus. Love you more than the universe!"

A head honcho Mary Kay lady came to speak to us at church quite some time ago, and gave such a motivating talk on "Good, Better, Best". It was absolutely fabulous and really spoke to me. She put things into perceptive and I've been trying to get myself motivated to get back to the basics ever since. I kept telling myself that, "slow and steady wins the race." But somehow I got on the autobahn and I can't slow down for fear of crashing. Denae's recap of one of the classes she attended at Women's Conference finally did it! So, last week I took the time to sit down, think of the 5 fundamentals of family life, and schedule them into the insanity which is my life. I also loved Angie's comment about teaching our children 'the art of conversation' during dinner. Honestly, that has never occurred to me. Our house is so loud that Jason and I like to eat in peace and don't allow talking at the dinner table. {{my bad}} Obviously, last week the...

Someone hacked into Executive Homemaker and made a mess! Please be patient while we figure out the extent of the damage. In the meantime, if you need a file for an upcoming event e-mail me and I'll send it to you. **Update - The hacker tried to put advertising banners on the home page which ended up corrupting the site. We've fixed the problem and it's up and running again. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Laurie M, Wendy, and I took a girls trip to Fredericksburg over the weekend. We've been trying to plan this for a couple months and it finally came together kinda last minute. I was so bummed to miss Katri's amazing book club. I was really looking forward to it. It was so nice to have 2 full consecutive nights of sleep. In Fredericksburg, we were like kids in a candy store! We shopped... Had some crazy moments... Ate yummy food and treats... Saw a chick flick... Saw some crazy products... Enjoyed our girl time, told stories, and laughed. It's such a blessing to have wonderful friends and some time away from family. Now I'm motivated to finish planning summer and geer up for the full-time mothering it requires.

When I'm stressed out I paint. It doesn't take a psychologist to figure out that when I'm faced with challenges I can't control, I change something I can control. Like the color of my kitchen. I hired a lady who does murals to come over and consult me on the color and I painted it on Tuesday. I'm not exactly thrilled with the finished look. However, I'm just going to live in it for a while and make curtains for the breakfast nook before I take drastic measures. Breakfast Nook: Before Breakfast Nook: After Pantry Area: Before Pantry Area: After (I still need to hang my rolling pin - it's too heavy for me to do it alone.) Family Room View: Before Family Room View: After What do you think? Honestly.