Southern girl plowing her way through life making the rules up as she goes. Warning: likes to bake, curse, quote movies/literature, is tattooed, married to The Man and mother of two girls. We bring new meaning to the "griswald way of life". Come along for the ride!



Life is My Highway

Montana and North Dakota have become home.... dang it lol.

These Girls

Lord help me but these babies wear me out.... they are just perfect!

Superheroes

Yes, it's from last winter but I adore this shot...so us....

Duchess

This kid glows from the inside out... my almost 11 year old!

We are so smexy!

Favorite sport: embarrassing our kids in public

Princess

My mini-me is finding her own way in life

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Good day

Hiking in the wilds of North Dakota with my peeps. Best day.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

First Day of School

Sweet Jesus did you hear that yesterday?

The silence. The sounds of Murphy's little snores. The utter quiet. It was a beautiful thing.

School started. My sweet babies headed back to school.

Princess is a freshman. She was so cute. She flat ironed her hair. She put her cute little outfit on and drug all her supplies in her OU backpack. It was too cute. She jumped right out of my truck and headed right in. She'll need me when that homework starts though, lol. Btw, who decided that volleyball uniform shorts would be tiny little ass shorts called spanx? She made the team and frankly the shorts are killing me!

Duchess is in fifth grade. In other words, they are the big kids on campus. :) She's loving that mess. It was all dressy for first day but that won't last. She actually has a real locker this year and she was all about it. She keeps adding locker decorations to my grocery list on the fridge. Poor baby, she's exhausted though because I had to drag her out of bed this morning. Thankfully she gets the rest of the week off, next week starts soccer and tap dance. Pray for the baby, lol.

Now I'ma go work and get some laundry done.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sunday morning madness

 A normal day in the life of a Griswald? Well follow us on a Sunday morning.......
 
 
Since church is a long commute for us, we sometimes leave early to take side trips. Or after church we will drop by and scout some of our deer trails. We are prepping for deer season already! Woot. We mud the hell out of it too. lol..... And Princess in her church dress hanging out the back window pointing out deer cracks me up!
 
After church, sometimes Dave likes to find new places in that little town for us to eat. The wait was incredibly long. So as usual, my people of the iphones (seriously I'm the ONLY droid holdout in my house) were all playing games and etc. Dave is an angry bird addict. This is the only way to get a pic of him while he's killing piggies. He's a hunter yo. (And freaking adorable cause he got super excited at the idea of playing Angry Birds on the Wii)
 
 
Duchess looks like a freaking teen today. She's dressing herself and actually matches. Good grief. And she's playing a pet shop game.
 
 
Ummmm since I keep it real honest here, this is the most horrible picture on earth of me, lol. Yuck. But I was trying out Duchess' game when Prin started the photo war. It got ugly. I can make some seriously awkward faces.
 
 
This is here, yeah................ not so cute mom, face. Love my teeney. She starts high school on Wed. So freaking cute. She's all excited about me coming with her the first day lol.
 
 
 
Duchess, Murphy and Mom on the way out to church. Dave is quite the picture taker. lol.... Ignore our messy rental house. It's kinda of a mess but it's my blessed mess!
 
And we'll leave you with this...... lovely faces. We going to put jammies on and chill in our recliners now. It was a hard morning of worship and play.
 
 

Friday, August 23, 2013

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

How many times do you make a trip to Wal-Mart for a handful of things.... yet walk out spending $350? If you're me? EVERY SINGLE EFFFFING TIME. It's become a running joke in my family. Because it's over an hour drive to the nearest Wally World and the local prices of everything is so damn high that it's worth the drive, the entire famn dam comes along.

So let me break it down for you, honestly... Tuesday night we went to Wally. Dave had to drop a work truck off for repair so we drove over to pick him up. And since there was a big ole shiney Wal-Mart across the street.....well. yeah. Duchess needed a new queen sized bedding set for her new bed. That was the whole reason for going into wally. I swear.

We hit the door. Duchess and I holding hands (cause we always have to go pee first thing, it's weird) and we come out of the bathroom and Princess and Dave are nowhere to be found. Here we go. I get a buggy and we head straight to the bedding section. After some debate and color discussions, she picks a comforter and sheet set that is a compromise. My requirement was that it match the black and pink already in her room and she wanted something super bright. We did well I think. Then we head over to grab mom some more shampoo/conditioner.

I come out of the edge of the aisle and there they are. I see the other two at the end of the store with a buggy and they are in workout section. Which means they've already hit ammo/guns. Their buggy has: three boxes of various ammo, some loading powder, two new weight plates for the lifting bar, and more. lol.... so oh boy.

Then it was "why don't we go ahead and grab school supplies cause we're already here".... dear Lord.

Not gonna lie, $335.87.

And since I'd not budgeted for that crap, it really makes it hard for me to stay on my saving goals.

So last night I had THE BEST IDEA EVER..... (deserves all caps, shut up)

Since I shop a lot on Amazon and they deliever my toilet paper to my house, why not Wal-Mart. Sure enough, I was able to sit down this morning and buy the nine things I needed on my list.

All detergent
Paper plates
Clorox wipes
Dishwashing tabs
cereal
other cereal
freshy fresh- don't ask
paper towels

Grand total of $45.98 with no tax and no shipping. It'll be here next Thursday. Since I wasn't completely out of anything, the timing was okay.

Dudes, I just saved $300 by NOT going to Wal-Mart to shop at Wal-Mart.

I deserve a effffffffing nap!

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Jelly belly revolt

I'm tired of my jelly belly and feeling blah. Tired of being tired. Tired of irritating my self. Time to get back in gear. (I only say that about once a week so hold me to this shite please) So while shopping on walmart.com, I ran across a vitamin survey. Apparently it recommends I take like forty-seven vitamins and supplements. Good night.

Tomorrow I start my cleanse. Prepare for talk of gas and etc. It's gonna be a blast.

So what is going on with you?

Has school started back yet? Did you sit in the driveway with a martini in your underware waving at the school bus? I wish I could..... unfortunately I can't. For reasons which exhaust me, even though we live in town........ I'll be driving my kids.

Then I'ma come home and act out the beginning of school dance from Grease 2 on the front lawn. Swear. I have no shame and all my neighbors work. Except for old vet guy across street and frankly he'll just applaud from his front porch. Then I'ma take a nap.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

They Exhaust Me

 
They completely wore me out today. I spent more time in my truck than I have in a month. Last night ran long, cause I literally stood in a chick's garage for two hours waiting to sign Duchess up for dance classes. She's taking tap. She has shoes. She has no clue what she's doing. She's excited. Monday afternoons for her are now a little full.
 

 
Princess had me up bright and early. She's had volleyball open gym for days now practicing and preparing for tryouts. This was what I woke up to. She's stretching and getting ready. Poor Duchess and Murphy were zombies. It's hard to sleep through the banging and slamming around of her getting warmed up. (As of this afternoon, she made the high school team!!! Woot) However I took her up to the school gym at 10 for the first session of tryouts. Just to get a call from her that because she was gone in July, she didn't get her school physical like everyone else, so she needed it before she could try out. In my pjs, I drove her to the clinic and we sat until they could squeeze her in. She got cleared and less than two hours later I had her back up there. Then there was a two hour break. Drove her and a friend home. Fed all three kids different things (picky ass kids). Drove the teen to a 30 minute piano lesson rather than her normal hour to make time for the afternoon tryout. Picked up teen and friend, drove them to practice. Drove home. Drove Duchess to piano for an hour. Drove home. Made a cobbler for Dave's work people for tomorrows safety conference. Drove to pick up piano kid then volleyball kid who pranced to the truck with good news. It was 4. We then drove over an hour to the town where Dave works to see his hairdresser. The locals just butcher hair here so he got my girls into his hair lady. She rocked. At six, both girls were finishing up when Dave pulled up. We all met to grab some food. It was great. Unusual for that town. Except we split up on the way home.... Duchess with me and Princess with Dave. As usual, Dave blasts past me and is about two miles ahead. 2/3 way home, Duchess shouts. Said she was gonna be sick. Please note, we were in middle of nowhere. I slammed on brakes and pulled off road. Threw on flashers, run around truck, drag her out and in my console I keep baby wipes so PERFECT. Get her into the brush and she's embarrassed and upset and I hear rather than see Dave roaring back and doing a perfect U-turn in behind me. With him there, she doesn't care about anyone seeing her, she was sick as a dog. We race for home. Both kids sick. Clueless.
 

But in between driving like a crazy person all day, I managed to finish up most of the room moving. Princess got the den downstairs and Duchess got her old room. Since we'd gotten a queen sized bed for my folk's visit, Duchess was able to move from bunks in the small bedroom to a queen in the bigger one. Both girls have plenty of room and now I have a dedicated office in the small bedroom. Not sure why I didn't think of this before, lol. Duchess' room complete except for new bedding that was in the wash. The stuffed animals just melt me. Still kinda my baby.
Princess's room is huge so I'll only show you one end. This is the bedroom end with the lounger at the foot of the bed for the tv viewing. The other end of the room is her little sitting room. Worked out perfect. Just needs some cohesion on the wall.
I also managed to finally sit down and look through the book I made for our anniversary last week. Seventeen years ago on August 16th, Dave and I met at a gas station in Tulsa. It was a great day. I had him a book made and got him this awesome little metal crane clock that actually moves and lifts shit for his desk. I got some girlie crap and a coupon for four massages. Hell to the yeah.
 
So after all is said and done. I have two kids in bed wore the hell out. Dave is pounding the treadmill downstairs, there is something very soothing about the sound of that. Murphy is barking at his ball which he keeps pushing under the loveseat for me to drag out. And me, well I'm just tired. Tomorrow should slow down a little. God I love my life and these people.  

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Fancy smancy

 So this summer I have spent a lot of time in nice hotel rooms. I got inspired. And since we're settling in some here in Montucky.... well I've been doing some updating on the décor and house. First up, the Master Bedroom. Did this for less than $20. The only thing new was the curtains which I bought while in the big city school shopping at a Ross like store for $8 each then the rods were $2 each. Done. The rest was repurposed shit I already owned. Like the gorgeous painting in the middle which is indeed a painting that I did in Texas at one of those painting party places. Viva la wine!
 
My version.....
 
 
 Pinterest version which inspired my version. By the way... Ummm anyone else notice I had 69% battery on my phone when I screenshot this, bahahahaha pervy. Sorry.
 
 
 
All in all, I love! Best part.... ready for it... there is only one window on that wall. Yep. One and I'm not telling which side, lol. Seriously old home which has been given new life but they left all the odd window placements. Hate that. So even though Dave was thoroughly confused hanging a curtain for a window that didn't exist.... it really makes the room! I love it. I'm sitting snuggled in my bed, enjoying it right now.
 
Tomorrow, the rest of the room!
 
Follow along.........I'm getting the lead out and getting off my arse! 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Princess is a Driver

Permit. Achieved. But this text between her and her daddy..... priceless.  A good example of why I'm in love with my life. These people are amazing!!!!!  And shes a good little driver too.


Monday, August 5, 2013

Catchup....

I'm having myself a nice ole evening. Sitting with my feet up on my recliner, watching Shark Week. Love it. So my babies are home! Princess grew at least an inch and Duchess def grew two inches! So excited to have my babies around. As usual, Princess cracks us up. The wisecracking mouth is back in the house, good night. Duchess is as cautious and loving as usual. Dave/I are just enjoying the absolute mayham that comes with all this mess.

Princess managed to miss passing her permit test by one question. Kinda feel bad for her but it is what it is..... So her truck just sits in the driveway. She gets one more shot before Daddy says she can wait another year and try again. If she wants it bad enough, she'll do the work and pass. (Sure it doesn't help that her best friend was all like, I passed with 100%, lol)

Duchess missed her momma. Good lord but that child is a mess. At least three nights a week at bedtime, we'd be snuggled up on the phone just chatting and counting down the days till she was home. While she had a blast, she really likes to be at home. Yeah, I totes get that. She's going through a critical stage and I've had to have several talks lately about "yes, you do have to have friends" and my little smartass is all "you don't and you do just fine" (stop laughing Mae) so I'd like to point out that yes, I do have friends. I'm just really freaking picky and frankly, I have all the friends I need. They rock. People suck. Damn, totally see where the kid gets it.

Soooooooo my momma and daddy spent the week. We had some fun. We cooked, we hiked, we did some sight seeing. They got to see our life here in nowhere Montana. Or as Dave calls it Montucky. It's not glamorous at all but it's home. Dave rarely if ever asked me to do anything that is connected to his work. Except a Canadian bigwig was visiting and auditing his branch.... and brought his wife and kids. Kinda dreading it until I realized she cracked me up and her boys were fun and well mannered. Sweet Jesus, did they love my momma though, omgawd they luv my mom. She's the best. Go ahead and envy me now, my momma is da shit.

Lord help me, I've been busy as shit though since they left. So I've put my resume together. And yes, I realize that I'm freshly conferred and do not even have my degree in hand yet. BUT..... I'ma go getter what can I say. And I have a very strong supporter in my pocket cheering me on. So I've applied for a few things..... but I'm really worried cause where we currently live there are VERY little local opportunities. So basically there are lots of jobs in the bigger cities around oil nation up here but I really really really really really don't want to move there. Frankly, my kids deserve more than that. So yeah, I'm looking for a balance. Somewhere I can use my degree and still be in a community where my kid can ride her bike around the block and etc. So yeah, basically I'm throwing it all up in the air saying.... all you Lord!

And the most awesome part.....I got a call and had an interview. Ima say no more for now...... just that as usual, I get my heart set on something and now I really really really want this one. Would not require me to move but still give me a good step onto a career path. Oh and I looked like an adult too... suit, heels, hair, makeup.... you'd not have recognized me, lol................  I won't know the results for awhile (hopefully by school starts) so I'll keep you posted.

So we are staying busy. Princess was busy today sheering sheep (yeah, don't ask) and Duchess spent part of her day hanging out and visiting with her friend. I joined a local community organization (yeah so was invited to the meeting and sponsored by one of the people in my interview, that is a good sign right?) then I made yummy cheezy balsamic chicken, washed all the laundry, moved four strips out of the yard before I broke the mower and put my exhausted amazing husband with a sore neck (? slept wrong?) to bed at 730 (I loved his excuse, let's just snuggle on the bed for a minute, snore, snore, snore, lol) and I stripped down the fridge and cleaned the utter shit out of it then rearranged my shelves in there, cause I'm a freak of nature.

Rambling complete.......... back to great pics to come.