Sorry...

Hey you all! I am sorry I am not visiting you all a lot lately. I am feeling a little overwhelmed lately. Who knew that a 2-3 day a week job would mess ya up.

Thanks for sticking around:)

Hey

Geez, my last post was on Monday!! I really haven't been in such a good bloggy mood lately. A few things have been upsetting me and blogging isn't cheering me up like it did in the beginning.

A couple members of my family have been upsetting me and pissing me off. One made me so nervous I thought about changing the locks and the other, well, we haven't been close in a couple of years and when she got married with out me I realized we were never gonna get back the closeness that we had. She doesn't return my phone calls and when I finally got a hold of her she kind of blew me off. That makes me very sad:(

Also, we are good customers with Chase. We pay our bill either on time or early, but because we are not using the credit card as much they raised our rates. We are now paying an extra 300 bucks a month. It is making everything tight again. I feel guilty when I buy a scrapping magazine!!

For the past couple of weeks we just have not been happy. There have been moments where I just want to cry, but then I think there are people out there having a rougher time than we are having.

It all just has me feeling a bit blue, so please don't think I have stopped checking out blogs. I am just being slow right now.

Recipe Swap Monday: Sticky Chicky and Just Blah Stuff

Hey it is Monday and it is Recipe Swap Monday with Anissa of Our Chaotic Life.

Sticky Chicky

I had made this last week for the first time and my Husband and Lindsey liked it. The other two kids are so picky. They don't eat a lot of stuff I cook:( Adela is my Sodium Nitrite baby and Michaela is my I will eat when I want to eat baby. And when she does eat, it is never stuff I make.

So here it is:
16 boneless, skinless chicken thights (about three pounds)
Sauce:
1/2 cup your favorite barbecue sauce
1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup liquid honey or maple syrup
1 TBSP chili powder
1 TBSP dijon mustard
1 TBSP grated gingerroot
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 TBSP cornstarch

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9X13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Arrange chicken thighs in pan in a single layer.

Whisk together all sauce ingredients in a medium bowl. Pour evenly over chicken, turn pieces to coat both sides with sauce. Bake, uncovered, for about 40 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the center.

To see more yummalicious recipes please go visit Our Chaotic Life!

I wasn't on the computer much this past weekend. I was planning and cleaning for Adela's third birthday party. The actual day is this Wednesday. Then on Wednesday morning we are leaving to go to Wisconsin and we will be back on Saturday. I actually got excited when my Husband said he will bring his work laptop! I can blog a little bit at night during our trip!

Now I have to get blogging now, to see what everybody was up to this weekend and what I had missed:)

Noelle's Card Swap and Blog Blah

I had participated in a Mother's Day card swap a few weeks ago with Noelle of Lil' Bits and Pieces Of Me.

Here is the card I made for her to give to someone. I didn't have a Mother's Day stamp so I had to improvise.

This is the STUFF that Noelle got me. The card she sent me has bling on it! I also got some stickers and a Post-it note pack in my favorite color purple! Thanks again Noelle!

Have you gals noticed that since it is getting warmer out, you are not blogging as much? My kids want to go outside all the time. They were out all Memorial Day weekend! It also didn't help that my Husband has been hogging the computer. He has been putting movies on his Ipod. It is like a whole day process. Of course he keeps just adding more without saying "Hey Vickie, you need the computer?" He actually had the nerve to tell me on Sunday what I could be doing!! Men...pft! There were times I was walking around the house, wringing my hands. Is that withdrawl:) Thank goodness I had my phone so I could text to my twitter acount and complain. he he.

Yeah, I Haven't Been Around

I haven't been around too much this past week. I have been sick for most of the week. I thought I was getting better than Thursday night Wham!...all the gunky stuff wanted out of my system and I felt like crap again. Saturday I was cleaning all day to get ready for Lindsey's First Holy Communion party. Today was her day! I am still kind of sick, but I hope to start feeling better tomorrow.

I plan on getting busy blogging tomorrow...my comment challenge is very low:)

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend:) Next week is Memorial Day weekend! Sleeping in, the parade and chillin' with family.
Gotta go and take my medicine. I am coughing up a storm here! It hurts my head:)

Hey, New Followers!

Hello! I have a few new followers and a couple of you have your blogs on private. I am not able to check you out:) I just wanted to let you know so you don't think I am rude:)

I Know I am A Blogaholic.

My husband sent me this article from CNN. I hope he sent it for a joke. If you want to read it, click here .

edit: 3:38 pm. He was joking.

Thanks and News

I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. It made the day a bit more festive.

I also want to thank everyone for the good wishes regarding Michaela. Yesterday the doctor saw Michaela and said her weight is fine. He said we are used to seeing obese kids, so we are surprised when one is thin. Okay, that makes sense, but my other kids are not anywhere near fat. They have some cushion, you know what I mean? Michaela is just so bony. He says there is no weight issue. Okay.

Today I had to take her for a blood test to determine if there is any inflamation in her stomach that might explain why it hurts alot. Also for the next two weeks she can not have any diary products. I looked at him and said, "Dude, you just took away stuff she will eat!" The two main things they are testing for is lactose intolerant and Celiac's Disease. She has a recheck in two weeks to give the lab time to get back and also to see if milk was the issue. We will see.

She was so good at the lab. She whined a little bit, but she stayed still. They were so impressed with my Bubba:) She is such a good little girl. I wish they stop growing up:(

Since I wasn't on the computer much yesterday, I am so behind on blogging. Today is not going to get better. I have to organize my scrapping stuff. Tonight I am going scrapbooking. This is a good thing, even though it puts me farther behind on my blogging. When I get back tonight, I will probably stay up a bit. Some of you know, I usually stay up to about 2 in the morning messing around on the computer.

You all have a good Friday night!

Blog Blah

I am so irritated with computer geeks who think it is funny to send viruses through the internet. Last week Tuesday, I was playing on Photobucket and my computer told me that I had a bad file. Well, for the next couple of days we were dealing with the computer. On Friday, I think we got rid of the problems. But the idiot left the damage. We now have popups. If I put settings to stop all popups, then I cannot blog and I cannot open any email. So I have to keep the settings for some popups.

My computer just isn't the same any more. I am also afraid to go back to photobucket, though I miss going to the site.

If you read my weight lost blog, then you know that is not going well.

I just want to slap myself. I am in a funk and things could be worse.

I have awards to posts and I will get to those wonderful things.

Lindsey's First Bath Layout, Blog Blah And A Little Problem

Lindsey's First Bath Layout. I tore all around a bubble patterned paper, which I then adhered to the page. Mounted the pictures on baby blue cardstock. I also mounted the tub and duckies diecuts on the same paper. I made the tub my title. The part I like the best is my serendipity square. This is a great way to use your scraps. First I would stick the pieces of scraps thru my xyron sticker maker machine. Then I would stick all the sticky scraps on a bigger scrap of paper. I tried to use my square punch but the work was to thick, so I measured the squares out to about 1 inch and a half. Then I mounted that on white cardstock. On the middle of each square I put a blue rhinestone. Then adhered it to the page . I tried to make even outside borders, to give it a mosiac look.

To help me with one of my resolutions, I have started to follow a scrapbooking blog. They do weekly challenges, so I am hoping this will help me do a scrapbook page a week. The blog is called Sisterhood of Scrap. Besides challenges they also just promote designers sketches. So if I don't like the challenge, I can do the sketch, which I did at my evening scrap on Friday. I will post that one tomorrow.

I am pooped. I know why...it is staying up to about 2 in the morning catching up on blogging. I need to go to bed earlier. I can't even blame my kids, they have been sleeping pretty good since before Christmas. Except for the occational bad dream.

I am told that blogging will all even out and I won't be on the computer all the time. I guess that means I will find my pace and not always check other blogs. But to me, that is part of the fun. I like to see what other people are blogging about and see how they design their blogs.

Besides, I met some bloggy friends who encourage me and inspire me.

Okay, I just got off the phone with my husband. We had a couple of car problems and we had to shell out a lot of money. So, my part of the conversation was to tell him we will be okay and we will make do like we had to this past fall. So, no more shopping at the Etsy Shop or going to Scrap Nights for a while. No more buying little things for fun because they do add up. Also, no more fast food for a while. Actually, that could work out to my benefit...I am trying to eat better.

Sitting Pretty Layout and Blog Blah

This is a double layout. I had title it "Sitting Pretty". Just Lindsey sitting around. I had downloaded the layout pictures the other way around. The first page is the bottom. I used my favorite template. I used the Sizzix Diecut machine for the title letters. I love this machine. My letters look so nice. I think it is cool that it also does the matting as well. I do not own one, so when I go to an all day scrap and they have one, I use it. I'll even do a title for another page, even if I am not working on that page. Just so I can have it! Also, I used little flower stamps all over the page. At the end of the title is a tag I got from Rite Aid.

Okay, I don't know about everybody else, but I am having problems with my computer. I had installed falling snow on my blog. Got the idea form Sandy. After that, my computer was so slow. It would take my 5 minutes for a website to open up. I have highspeed internet and it felt like I did not. Sometimes, pictures on people's blogs was not showing. I had to remove my snow. I am a bit bummed about that, it did look cool. Things seem better, but still not the same, so I had to restart my computer. I am hoping for the best. My computer has been driving me crazy, giving me a short fuse!!

I have so much to do for this month. This weekend is my oldest's(Lindsey) birthday party. I am also hosting the Christmas Eve dinner this year. I need to clean the basement. I have to do Christmas cards. That doesn't even count the stuff I am supposed to do as a SAHM. I am slackin' and I need to get off my caboose!

Since I have become engrossed(whoa, big word for me) into blogging, I have stopped reading. Sometimes, I think I need to decrease some of my blogging activities, but as I commented to Mammatalk, I get itchy, if I am not checking to see what my bloggy friends are doing. Gee, is there a blogaholics support group out there in blogland?

p.s. I like to give linky bloggy love. Call me what you will...stalker, friend, weirdo......

p.s.s.I am in a better mood, thanks gals out there given me some bloggy love. Even if my computer is a little lippy. It is just a computer.