I’m so excited!!! I thought somehow that I got skipped over, or that my name leaked out of the list for the Soul-Flower catalog - I kept seeing the pretty new spring issue on the site …and longing… …and longing….

And then! Whammo! It’s here! It’s here!

See this pretty chic:Well - she graces the front of it! Isn’t that just beautiful? The artwork looks like this on the catalog:The artist’s name is Jeff Troldahl - you can visit him here: www.jeffsart.com

Some of the new spring duds are wonderful! I think the one that caught my eye the most this time is this halter dress:Isn’t that so pretty? I just love it! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m quite ready for it this summer, but, maybe next year. For now, I’ve got my eye on a very cool tie dye skirt!

And, of course, the kids swiped the catalog out of my hands as fast as they could so they could check out all the cool stickers they knew would be in there! I wonder if they picked any out for me for Mother’s Day?

Bid4Prizes.com looks like so much fun! I’ve talked about it here before, but, man! I really need to get myself over there and start bidding!

It is a low bid auction site! That’s right - low bid auction! Weird, huh? Well, it’s not just the lowest bidder that wins - you have to be the lowest unique bidder. So if MarySue and I both bid $0.18, and were the lowest bidders, but Larry was the only one to bid $0.19 - then Larry would win the auction!

You can make an unlimited number of bids per month, and each bid you make wins you points. And then you can use the points, to redeem other prizes. Those prizes are in the store. The auction prizes are in auction. It took me a bit to figure that one out!

I think if I won an auction, unless it was something that our family was really in need of right now, I would use that prize for a birthday gift for a family member. With money being tight right now, birthday gifts are kind of last on the list after all those silly bills, like electricity and stuff. So a way to still be able to get gifts for the extended family would be great!

And bid4prizes, could provide just that! That would be very cool!

I’m so happy to go nowhere! Nowhere? Yes! Nowhere!

You see, this sweet little blog was a PR3 - and then about a month ago, it got dropped like a rock, ney, a boulder! All the way to a ZERO! That is zilch, nada, goose egg, nothing! It was horrible, I tell you, just horrible!

I have been working pretty hard on this blog for quite some time now, although, there has been the recent craziness with my life that has prevented me from blogging as much as I would like to. But - seriously, could that have already blipped onto Google’s radar, when the darn update takes three months or more to begin with?

So anyway, I was languishing in the bottom of the Google pond - a bottom feeder yet again….when suddenly - the updates started happening! There was definitely some activity going on in the ‘channels’ or whatever the heck you call all those number thingy’s.

And today, it would seem, I am back to PR3. I am not entirely certain they are completely done. I am still holding my Google-breath, but, I am tickled pink to be back to where I was!

Pink, I tell you - pink!

I have been meaning to get into paintballing for just about forever now! My brother bought me paintball gear several Christmases ago, and I have yet to use it. What a dweeb I am. In fact, my paint balls just sat in the closet, longing to be expelled forcefully from my paintball gun, for so long that they finally just exploded in the container and seeped paint out on each other! Poor, neglected paintballs!

The really super-cool thing about the gifts from my brother was that he got gear for himself, my dad, our other brother, my husband, and me! I got included with the boys! All my life I wanted to be included with those damn boys! So his including me meant the world to me! And yet, hubby and I have yet to use the darn things! I sure would love to, though!

We would need some more paintball gear first, though. For one thing, sheesh - we’ll need some more paintballs! Ha! And I think we’re out of CO2, as well.

I found this really neat vest that I like - for instance:
Now ya’ll that know me, are probably thinking - ‘Lisa, what on earth would you want with that? You know you’ll get too hot in that thing!’ And you’d be right, I know. I am a 365 day a year, short sleeve, always getting hot kinda gal! But look at all the cool pockets and stuff! I like it! And look at this cool pouch that you can use with it:
See? It would be neat, wouldn’t it? And - omigosh! Look at this, you guys:
Yes! It’s a paintball grenade! Oh my gosh! How fun! Ok, that’s it - when Mark gets home, we’re gonna have to talk! Hey! Our 14th anniversary is coming up - maybe we can buy each other new paintball gear, and then go on a romantic jaunt in the woods - shooting the crud out of each other!! Ha!!

And just because I know ya’ll want to see the cutest paintballer ever, ok - here I am:
Heehee! And my bright orange shirt I’m wearing today is even a ‘hunting shirt’, of sorts. It’s the Jeff Foxworthy list of “Top Ten Things You’ll Never Hear a Redneck Hunter Say”. Oh my, ya’ll! Just what kind of ‘treehugger’ have I become?? Next thing you know - I’ll be squishing bugs in the kitchen!

Edited to add: Miss Fabulous Photographer wants her credit! Photo taken by Miss Sammie!!

Life has been so hectic lately - some of it good, some of it bad, some of it fun, some of it exhausting. And I am just hoping that things are going to start slowing down a bit - for a little while, at least. This really is a bad time of year to be wishing for that, as the last month of school seems to be one chaotic minute after another - always something going on. And then the sweet little buggers actually get LET OUT of school - and are underfoot 24/7! But, maybe I can have a week or two of quiet to gather some strength back for it all. *crosses fingers*

So this is about what all has been going on….if I can remember it all:

My sweet friend, Alli, and her son, Fuller, came to visit for the day. I got to meet a blogging friend IRL - that was super cool! Then a couple days later, my brother and his family came to visit - Micky, Tracy, and DJ! We had so much fun and it was so awesome for them to come and see my house and ’see’ where we are living now! Halfway through their visit, my middle son left for Washington - WITHOUT ME!!!!! That was so hard. Very hard to let him go - it was kind of neat the way God worked it so that my sister-in-law was here to nursemaid me through Shawn’s leaving. That God guy, he’s kind of a nice dude like that! Then the next day - Mic, Tracy and DJ left to go back home. There was nary a soul around to nurse me through that, though. And the VT shootings happened on that same day. Needless to say, I was in a daze - a total fog. The rest of that day, and the next two days - I spent in my daughter’s room, lying in her bed, watching TV - recovering. The impact of their leaving coupled with the VT thing, coupled with my son being 13 hours away from me, and only 4 hours away from VT - just about did me in. I was worried that somehow the security would increase around DC as a result of the shootings and his trip would somehow be affected - or actually, I had grimmer thoughts - I don’t even know what they were - I just know they were grim, and I was so nervous. It was the first time for any of our children to go that far without us - and I had ZERO confidence in his chaperone. She did not present herself very well to us. And I was just altogether freaked out.

Ok, I’m rambling a LOT - better start a new paragraph ‘fore ya’ll get dizzy! Anyway, it’s kind of like this - when out of town family is out of town - like in the towns where they live - and I am in the town I live, there is a degree of (very strong) denial that protects my soul. I am sad, but, I can usually remain somewhat detached from that sadness. When they come in town, or I go there, the sadness is put in NEON EFFIN LIGHTS!!!! There is no denying it! NONE! So the recovery period takes a while. I’m sure you can relate to that. But let’s move on, shall we? Ok, so then my sweet, precious, lovey boy came home!!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!! (He got home on the 19th of April - and I still look at him, and think, ‘Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re home!’) I guess part of me was really convinced that something terrible was going to happen. Well, the chaperone situation surely did not help that any! But that’s another blog post entirely! Then the next day, I went with my daughter to Montgomery - we had a blast! It was only a day trip, but, it is several hours away from here. We had the big, travelling buses - fun, fun, fun! And because I stupidly cross-carried my too-heavy purse all day, I had the most horrible migraine I’ve had in a long time the next day! Whew! It was a freakin’ doozy!!! Then a few days later I wound up with tonsillitis, knocking me out for several days. I’m on antibiotics and feeling much better, thank you!

So that is the story of my recent chaos - and my super-lame-o blogging tendencies! Hopefully things will be better from here on out - for at least a little while!

South West Florida New Homes is a site featuring different home builders in the area. The site presents each different home builder, telling a little about their company, their experience, their building style and displaying a photo gallery for each company, as well.

The site also has a huge page full of information all about everything a potential homebuyer might want to know about South West Florida. There is information on attractions, schools, accomodations, shopping, hospitals, and county fact files, too.

You can also search for particular homes on the site, modifying your search by model type, number of bedrooms, and square footage. So you can actually do some window shopping right there on the site.

They also have a page about home buyer resources with some helpful information.

I just got an email this morning by an awesome businesswoman, Tiffany Dow. Tiffany got her start in the online world as a ghostwriter - she has written for the top names in internet marketing - she has a very impressive track record! I first met her at the Warrior Forum and I snatched up her first book, Social Networking on Squidoo, as fast as I could! It was, and still is, an awesome addition to my marketing arsenal. Squidoo is a fabulous traffic and revenue and opportunity generator and in that book, Tiffany guides you through step-by-step how to best set up your lenses.

Well - now she has released yet another ebook (maybe her third or fourth) and it looks totally awesome! It’s called Building an Ebook Empire. Having had ‘backstage passes’ all these years to the stage of the gurus, Tiffany has a lot of very valuable information to share with us all! I cannot wait to dive into it!!

I’ve always thought of North Carolina as a pretty state - it’s so weird, but, don’t you get ideas about places in your mind long before you ever see them? I certainly do - and for some reason I always thought of North Carolina as very pretty.

And now I’m actually learning about the state, thanks to my blogging life, and meeting two of my new friends, Cass and Marcus - who actually call the state home. And I do believe that I was right - from what I am learning about it and in the beautiful pictures that I get to see, often on Cass’ and Marcus’ blogs!

One city there that seems rather nice there is Raleigh. I’ve been reading about it online and there just is one thing after another that is piquing my interest about it. There is actually a college there that, I think, was made just for me! It is called Peace College!! How cool is that? It was actually named after a man named Peace!

And I bet the Raleigh North Carolina Real Estate just went through the roof in the 1950’s with the development of the Research Triangle Park and with IBM opening up shop there in the 1960’s. Besides the introduction of the streetcar lines in the 1920’s, those were the two biggest growth points for Raleigh.

And unlike some cities I know *cough* Dallas *cough* their botanical gardens, the JC Ralston Arboretum, is open free to the public!

Now that I could live with!

Now isn’t that the coolest thing ever? Or do you just have to be a lego-nerd to fully appreciate it? Haha! Not that I am any good at building with Lego’s, although I do love playing with them. But that does not stop my sheer fascination with them! The guy who built that spent three years perfecting it. It is made completely of Legos except for the weights and the filament on which the weights are hung. Totally amazing!

I used to be really, really love grandfather clocks. I am still seriously impressed with them, and when I see one, I will generally spend quite a bit of time looking at it, but, I am just not quite as obssessed as I used to be. It’s weird how that happens - just one of those phases people go through, I guess.

And I have for some time now, actually! And really, most of the furniture that we’ve gotten for the patio/backyard has been either hand-me-downs, stuff Mark got off a job when the customer bought new stuff, or stuff Mark went and picked out by himself and bought for us.

And every year I see all of this really cool stuff come out and I salivate for it. I think my patio furniture desires actually become stronger every year - and I used to never have patio furniture desires. Patio furniture just was or it wasn’t. I mean, as long as we had something out there, I was happy. I really didn’t care too much about it. I think I have always wanted some kind of hammock, but, beyond that I really just didn’t care. And then one year - BOOM! There it was! Patio furniture desire! From whence it came - I haven’t a clue!

And now, all of a sudden, I’m some kind of patio furniture junkie! You know just the kind of weirdo I mean - we’ve all become one at one point or another - you think you’re some kind of expert on the topic just because you’re always ‘window-shopping’ for said thing. HA!

Well, this weirdo was doing some more window shopping this morning over breakfast! I found yesterday’s mail on the counter while I was getting my breakfast ready and brought it with me to the table to read over coffee. We got one of those summer shopping catalogs and I was having so much fun ‘picking out’ just what I wanted for the balcony! There was some really nice teak outdoor furniture and also this very cool set that I couldn’t decide if it was really cool or just really dumb. It was a table and four chairs set and the table had a firepit in the middle of it. We are a fire-loving family - we love to sit around the fire and just veg - or roast ’shmallows - or whatever. But it seemed like maybe having the fire in the table wasn’t maybe the best idea.

For one thing, you’re not getting a lot of table room that way - would make outdoor meals difficult. Another thing - it’s nice to have the fire sort of below you - to look down on. And the most important one - uh…duh! - what about flying embers - flying onto the wooden parts of the table - the onlookers - the wooden chairs ….it just seems to put the fire at the perfect vantage point to cause trouble.

But - I don’t know, I could be wrong.