My friend Jennifer in Canada sent this adorable pink & brown collar for Tudi

Isn't it the cutest???? I just love it.

Today was the 2nd day of school and Nicholas came home saying one of his teachers made the comment "I have my eyes on you" ... what do you think THAT means? Too much talking already and its only the 2nd day of school!!! Geeeeeez!!!!

First day of school went great!

Both kids had good days the first day. Nicholas said he likes middle school much better than elementary school. Let's see how long that attitude lasts!! lol

Here are a couple of photos I took. Don't these dogs look sad to see them go? LOL

Ladybug's eye has greatly improved ...

she doesn't look quite as pitiful now so the meds must be working ... I am supposed to take her back to the vet on Tues for a re-check so we'll see what they say then.

Emily's open house was today. Got her schedule. She has these 4 classes:
1st period Art 2
2nd period Comp & Literature
3rd period Biology
4th period Geometry

Her least favorite being Biology when the teacher said they would be dissecting BIG frogs at the end of the semester. Emily got this look on her face "not me" and the teacher reassured her that they will break into groups and one can do the reading the instructions while the other does the "cutting". Oh I remember I had to dissect a frog and a baby shark "back in the day" and I did not like it one bit!!!

School tomorrow - WOO HOO!!!!

Ladybug went to the groomer today ...

She has been numerous times to this groomer. She was long overdue for a haircut. I picked her up 2 hours later to find her right eye was droopy looking. I called the groomer back and said her eye looked strange, did they know why? They did not. I called the vet, they said bring her in. The vet took 1 look and said "Oh my. She has a classic case of Horner's Syndrome". I had never heard of it. It is similar to Bells Palsy that humans get. One of her eyes is droopy and her 3rd eyelid doesn't close properly. So her eye is open but it isn't open all the way. This sometimes just happens and sometimes an ear infection can cause it or stress. Could Tudi be causing her stress ya think? I don't know. She just looks pitiful. This is a drawing of a dog with Horner's Syndrome. I can't take a photo - its too painful to look at :(. She is on antibiotics for her ear and a heavy duty steroid to help her feel better. She certainly is in no mood to play with Tudi so Tudi looks sad too because no one will play with her. Poor thing!! This could last from 6-8 weeks ... geez!!

School starts on Monday.... I am ready!!

Are the kids ready!??! Nicholas had his open house yesterday afternoon. It was packed!!! He picked up his schedule and we walked around to all of his classes to meet his teachers. This is his first year in middle school. His schedule looks like this:

1st period - Health this semester, PE next semester
2nd period - Career Decisions and Biotech
3rd period - Social Studies
4th period - Math
5th period - Language Arts
6th period - Science

School hours will be 8:30-3:30 so he can sleep in a little bit.

Emily's open house is Sunday afternoon.

I think my friend Erin should make me this exact cake ...

She is taking cake decorating classes and I really think she should make me this cake and I would just save it forever. Notice the flip flops on the top?!?!? Oh my gosh. Isn't it beautiful????

I haven't stamped a card in awhile but I am making a wonderful birthday present

for someone who turns the big 4-0 in September. Now I wonder who it is!! It could be Debbie my sister or my best friend Amy. I am not telling what i am making or who its for. (especially since they BOTH read my blog) So ... I haven't stamped any cards in a few days but I did get a few new stamps today so I had to play with them. I have been wanting to learn how to sew on cards but the thought of dragging my sewing machine out of the closet just doesn't thrill me so when I saw these faux stitching stamps by Lizzie Anne Designs, I had to try them out. It has taken me a little bit of practice to get it just right but I think it looks like real stitching, do you? (be honest!) So these are the 2 cards I made today. The cupcake tier is by Stampendous and I used glitter on the cherries and Paper Glaze on the plates (does it show up shiny?). The dog stamp is by Penny Black. Circle stamp is by Hero Arts.

Erin elected me as one of the Nice Matter Award Recipients ...

Isn't Erin the best?!! She thinks I'm nice... How sweet!! Now I get to pick 5 people who I think deserve this award too.

First, I have to pick Lesa. Her blog is here: http://lesasbreastcancer.blogspot.com/ I have never met Lesa in person but we have been stamping buddies for a few years now and were first introduced on the Papercrafts message board before we both went to the Stamp Shack. Lesa is going through a very difficult time right now with breast cancer but I do believe she can beat it and win!!!
2nd I pick Barb. You can find her blog here: http://www.barbscardcreations.blogspot.com/ Barb claims to have only been stamping for a couple of years but I think she is just trying to fool us all. She comes up with the cutest cards!! Barb and I are sharing a room at the Scrapfest in September so I am looking forward to that!!!
3rd I pick Ellie and her blog is here: http://faeriestamper1.blogspot.com/ Ellie lives in Charlotte and I met Ellie through another stamping website Gingerwood. I don't even know if Gingerwood is still a site anymore but we emailed each other when we found out she lives in Charlotte and I live in Concord. We met for lunch one day at Chili's and I introduced her to the Stamp Shack... now you can see her there almost as much as I am on there. She makes cute stuff!!
4th is Christie. Her blog is http://imuststamp.blogspot.com/ One can find Christie in the chat room in the mornings once she is up and awake for the day. Again, we have never met in person but we have talked on the phone once. She is so sweet!!
Last but certainly not least is Suzi at http://suzi-scraps.blogspot.com/ Suzi and I have chatted on the phone a few times and she just cracks me up with some of her posts. She is so funny!!! She taught me how to download a font (even though it took her over an hour to tell me how to do it, we finally mastered it! Right Suzi?) I haven't downloaded any in awhile so I am sure I forgot again.
So those are my 5 picks. Check out their blogs if you have time :).

High School Musical Party at the Thacker's last night ....

At 5 pm, Emily tells me "I'm having a few friends over for a High School Musical Party". So off to the store I go to get chips and sodas. She had 5 friends over to watch the show on tv last night and then they swam in the pool after. Everyone seemed to have fun!! Here are a few photos they took.

I went and spent some time with Robin today ...

She called me yesterday to tell me her doctor told her NOT to go to Gatlinburg this weekend. They have her on new pain medicine as the old pain meds weren't giving her much relief. She is very weak right now and can only walk with a walker. We sat out on her back porch and surprisingly, it wasn't too hot (its been in the 100's the past few days in a row) and it was nice just sitting there rocking in her big swing. All of a sudden, she started talking about going to heaven and she knows the pain will be all over when she gets there. Well, I have been able to hold back the tears all this time until today. I could not help it. I just started crying, then she started crying, we hugged each other and we just cried for awhile. I felt horrible to start her crying but she says she cries alot but goes in her room and cries so the kids don't see her. Her mom is there helping her now and that is great. She waits on her hand and foot and that's what Robin needs at a time like this. Its so hard for her mom too to see her failing this fast. Life just stinks sometimes!! Why is that?

Soccer practice has started with Nicholas ....

Last night was his first soccer practice and it must've been at least 98 degrees. It was sooooo hot but he was enjoying back into the swing of things!! He hasn't played soccer for 2 years (since we've moved to NC) so when he wanted to sign up when registraton came around, I was pretty happy about that!! He will have soccer practice Tues & Thurs nights. 10 boys and 2 girls are on his team. He has a very young coach who loves to joke around all the time. First game is Sat Sept 8th and all games will be on Saturdays. It will run about 9 weeks I think someone said.

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my stamping friends "Michelle". She lives in Lexington which is about 35 minutes from me so it wasn't far at all. We met at Zaxby's Chicken and we each got a grilled chicken salad. Mmmmmm. It was good. For those of you who don't know Michelle, her husband passed away about 2 weeks ago and those of us at the Stamp Shack took up a collection for her. Jan in Alaska had ordered a beautiful peace lilly and asked people to donate some money. Well, we were both so excited to see we had collected $405!!!! Boy was Michelle thrilled to see that!!!! We had a great time at lunch, then it was off to soccer when I returned home. I made Michelle a card with everyone's names on it on the inside who gave money. I decided at the last minute to make something "cute" to put the money in so this is what i "whipped" up yesterday. I think it came out pretty cute!!! She loved it.

My friend Lesa nominated me as a Rockin Girl Blogger. How about that???? Isn't that exciting? :) Thanks so much Lesa!! I now get to nominate someone so I nominate Pam!!! Pam, your cards are truly an inspiration to all of us!! Check out her blog if you haven't done so yet. She sure has some adorable cards on her blog. http://smileycollector.blogspot.com/

Tudi and Ladybug's dog crates

Is this the first sign of fall & its ONLY August 13th?

Look what we saw in our yard. The photo with the yellow leaves is from yesterday. Today its bright orange leaves. WOW!! I can't wait for FALL!!!!

Did you see my DNA Visual "thing" in the upper right hand corner?

I copied it from my friend Lesa's blog. She did it and after I looked at hers, i thought that is so neat, I need to make my own so I did. It tells a little more about me that maybe you don't already know :).

Another hot day here in the Carolinas. It got up to 96 today, going to be 97 tomorrow ... whew, why is it so hot? And we still need rain. We need LOTS AND LOTS of rain.... but none is in sight.

Tudi is still doing great. We are calling her by her name, it has grown on all of us. I call her Tudi Fruity. LOL When she wakes up in the morning, I go to her crate and let her out .... watch out, she comes barrelling out like a tornado as fast as she can hopping in the air ... she is so excited to see me... she shakes the whole house, its a good thing she's small !! ha ha She still follows me around all thru the house.

Had my annual mammogram this morning at 8 am. It is nice to get it done early - I was in and out in 7 minutes. I get my results in about a week so let's hope all is good there.

Charlie's mom is here from VA for a few days but we're just hanging out here.

That's all my news which isn't much ... ;)

I must show off my one and only sunflower that bloomed ...

SOMEONE who will remain nameless for now, killed all of my sunflowers. I am not sure "he" did it with weed killer or what but I only have 1 sunflower "bush" (is it a bush?) that made it. And its not even yellow. Oh well. Its still pretty to me and I even captured a bug on it too :).

I went and picked up the new dog today. She is still known as Tudi for the time being ....

She is doing so good with Ladybug and Ladybug is doing great with her. I had to run to the pet store to get her a crate as Ms. Ladybug did not want to share her crate (she hasn't used her crate in almost 2 years but the thought of another dog using it, made her go running to it and not coming out of it!) so I thought it would be a good idea to go get her own crate which I found at PetSmart. I got her a few rawhide bones and she chewed on one bone for like 3 hours today so that kept her content. Of course, Ladybug had to chew on one too so she was content for about 30 minutes with hers. lol I fed both dogs at the same time. If you have ever seen Ladybug eat, she woofs it down so fast, its gone in like 5 seconds. Tudi casually ate hers and took her sweet time!! So Ladybug just sat there hoping she would leave some for her to eat but she ate every bite. That's about it for now. Here's a photo of the 2 of them together. Ladybug is on the right.

Back from whirlwind trip to Orlando ....

We left Sunday, drove 8 hours to Orlando. It was close to 100 degrees everyday with way too many people at both Universal and Islands of Adventure so we drove back Wednesday. We did have a good time despite the heat but if it had been about 20 degrees cooler, it would've been so much better!! Oh well ... note to self - no theme parks in the month of August in Florida.

We pick up our new addition to our family today. She is a 15 month old English Springer Spaniel named Tudi - its short for "attitude". She was in the paper for sale, I called about her. She is crate trained, potty trained, obedience trained and so we all went and looked at her the day before we went to Orlando. She is so sweet and loving and very very tiny for her age. They have other Springers they "show" regularly and this one is always left behind because she is too tiny to qualify so they decided to sell her. We all want to rename her and are having a hard time coming up with a single name we all like. At the moment, it may be "Libby" but I want to see what she looks like when we pick her up. I wonder how Ladybug will do when she sees her in "her" house. I just hope they get along great!!!

Marie, my MIL is coming on Saturday for a few days so I will have a busy few days ahead of me. That's all for now ... Here is a photo of Tudi aka Libby when we met her. (In this photo, she looks alot like Ladybug but she is actually liver and white where Ladybug is black/white/tan (tri-color). They also come from the same Hillcrest family from many years ago which I find is pretty amazing that they come from the same blood line!!!

Who is this cupcake card for? Whoopi Goldberg???

Yes you read that right. When I heard Whoopi was the new choice for co-host on The View (which I watch everyday at noon) I was so glad. I think she is so funny and smart. So ... I posted a note on the Stamp Shack asking who wanted to send Whoopi Congratulations cards and I got a ton of responses. Here is my card ... I had to use my new cupcake stamps. We are all hoping she mentions us on the air and wouldn't it be fun if she invited us to be on their show?!?!? HA HA I know, wishful thinking ... but hey, you never know!!! I will be thrilled if she just shows our cards on the air or says a little blurb about the Stamp Shack gals.... Keep your eyes tuned to the show and let me know if you see it. I hope I don't miss the show that day. LOL

I'm seeing cupcakes ... LOTS and LOTS of cupcakes ...

My new stamps came today from: http://inkspirations.ca/shop.html. Its a brand new stamp company from Canada and these stamps come unmounted by the sheet or individual. I just love them!! Shipping is very reasonable and they came within about a week. I had to make some cards to show them off :).

Some of you have asked how Robin is doing ...

I talked to her yesterday and she was having a not so great day. Felt blaah all day, was having a hard time breathing ... in alot of pain. She asked the Hospice nurse what more she can give her for pain and she said morphine and she does not want morphine unless its the last resort. She just keeps fighting and fighting!! She gave Jeff the ring and he acts like he doesn't want it - doesn't want that to be the last gift from her so she may take the ring back. I am trying to convince her to keep it so he can pull it out later if he wants but she won't listen to anyone so I will just do what i can do :). They are planning one more family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She let their 10 yo sold pick where he wanted to go and told him he could bring a friend and he said "Mom, I don't want to bring a friend. I want to spend this time with you". Isnt' that sweet? Sorry if it made you cry. It almost makes me cry just to type it out.

We leave for Orlando on Sunday for 4 fun filled days! I just hope and pray a cold front will come through FL while we are there. HA HA