Everyday Struggles

I know I haven't been blogging as often or as much as I'd like to. Sometimes life gets in the way. For the past month I've been quite ill. It's either been my asthma getting really bad (darned allergies), the flu (yep was one of the lucky first ones in my town) and then a really bad hemiplegic migraine attack. If you don't know what a hemiplegic migraine is (HM) here's a link to learn more about it : What is hemiplegic migraine? "Hemiplegic migraine is referred to as a “migraine variant”. The word hemiplegic simply means paralysis on one side of the body. A person with hemiplegic migraine will experience a temporary weakness on one side of their body as part of their migraine attack. This can involve the face, arm or leg and be accompanied by numbness, or pins and needles. The person may experience speech difficulties, vision problems or confusion. This can be a frightening experience for the individual as these symptoms are similar to tho...

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Having Fun at Dallas World Aquarium

Since we are a home schooling home, we are always in search of fun field trips where we all can learn something new. Last weekend we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I thought it would help my little guy learn something about the animals there. The cool thing about the DWA is that they now only have sharks and other swimming creatures, but fun rain forest types too.  Here's our visit in pictures: I thought this stork was a statue at first until he turned to look at us!  This cute little guy is very tiny! The size of a large mouse. Isn't he gorgeous! He loved posing for us. We love visiting all the wonderful zoos and museums in the Dallas area.  They even had some sloths roaming around free. Well, they weren't exactly roaming, since they're sloths.  They just kind of hung from the trees. If you ever get a chance to go down to this DWA, you are going to love it. This coming week I'm going to try to score some tickets to the Lion King show coming...

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Percy Jackson Inspired Birthday

How is the month going for you guys so far? We are getting into the swing of things with homeschooling for my 5th grader and public school for my high school guy. It's been a few weeks since my little guy turned 11. I tell ya, it was hard to plan around a them once they get a little older. So upon consulting with the birthday boy, it was decided that his theme would be Percy Jackson. He made up a small list of invites. His closest buddies were sent the attached invite: I made the invite in publisher and then converted it to pdf and emailed it out :) We decided our evening would go like this: First meet up at our favorite pizza joint to eat followed by going to the movie Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters then back home for cake and presents The boys had such a great time! The movie was pretty good and clean :) For party favors, I made the boys some t-shirts with the Camp Half Blood logo and made them some personalized water bottles. I found the bottles and t-sh...

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Homeschooling Update

Our second year with  home school. This year we decided to try a different curriculum, one that is not state sponsored. So far so good. I'll update you guys from time to time. As of right now I have many projects going on at the same time. I know, big shocker right?! I'm finishing up the chairs for my daughter's kitchen set and my little guy's room  and I've been inspired by this from schoolgirlstyle.com I LOVE her ideas! I plan on turning my daughter's old room into  our classroom/crafting room. I promised myself that I would use things that I already have from the house. Unfortunately the wood workbench my hubby made me would not fit in the room :( Sooooo, I improvised :)  I sold some things I no longer needed and used the cash to purchase a few things to go in this room. I bought this rug!     It's from Ballard Designs! I got it on sale  at a steal since it was my first time ordering. Then I wanted to config...

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Kitchen Table Revival! Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Tutorial

Hello to all my sweet friends! Can you believe the summer is almost over> Well, here in Texas it's still in the 100's so it's going to be summer for a long time still. Have I mentioned how much I hate the heat? Well, I hate the heat. But I love the lazy days. Having the kids stay up late playing scrabble with me, sleeping in late and enjoying a nice  breakfast and having funny conversations, will now be replaced by hurried evenings and hurried mornings. :( But life goes on, right? And speaking of life, my daughter is doing great with her fiancee and my beautiful little granddaughter in their new apartment.  As part of a gift to them, I bought them a nice kitchen table and some vintage wooden chairs. My plan was to revive them with Annie Sloan Chalk paint then do some light distressing.  The kitchen table had a pretty bad paint job. There were several coats of horrible yellow paint on it. My hubby stripped the top of it and decided to stain it. ...

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DIY Home Hair Highlighting Kits-Do They Work?

I've been wanting to have a hair style change for  a loooong time now.  Finally a week ago Friday, I just did it. I went into my stylist's and asked her to give  me......bangs :) I love it! She also layered my hair in long layers to keep my length. And since I was on a roll, I thought why not color my hair too, right? So I waltzed into my local Walgreen's and  bought a home hair highlighting kit. I've colored my hair before plenty of times, but I've never highlighted it.  I wanted to be your guinea pig so here it goes: {These are all cell phone pics. I apologize for the lack of quality} These two pictures are the "before" color and highlights. I wanted to show you here the color of my hair.  I used L'oreal Paris Couleur Expert  Brioche You begin the process by coloring your hair with the correct numbered bottle. The instructions are easy to follow. The color after I rinsed and blow dried looked like this: ...

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Yummy Pinwheel Recipe and Giveaway Winner

Hello everyone! How's your summer going? Here in North Texas it's hotter than he** I don't know about you, but the older I get, the less I can stand the heat. So on a hot summer day the last thing I want to do is cook over a hot stove. My hubby is a fantastic cook and he makes some amazing dishes. And he can also make some yummy cold sandwiches. And since I love everything he whips up, I thought I'd share one of his favorite recipes for making ham pinwheels.  He prepared them for my daughter's baby shower, along with all the other food, and they were a BIG Hit! I'd love for you to try it out and share with me how your friends and family liked them. My hubby says you can add any cold cuts you'd like but we used ham. Here's what you need for this simple crowd pleaser: Fresh cilantro Limes Roma tomatoes Cream cheese Salt Onion Ham Burrito sized flour tortillas First chop the tomatoes, onions and cilantro....

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