Coming to you *LIVE* from the craziness!

Hey, y'all.  I am in such a good mood.  It could be the fact that the work week bypassed Monday, or that I'm getting ready to indulge in an enormous glass of rich, chocolaty Ovaltine, but - either way - Tuesday has been a great day.  {Or it could be that I'm watching Teen Mom 2 - which is ridiculously my new most favorite show...}

Anyway, B and I spent last night going back and forth to Lowes to pick up about 85% of our new kitchen -   cabinets, sink, faucet, dishwasher, an over-the-counter microwave {my heart literally just skipped 12 kinds of beats typing that because THINK OF ALL THE COUNTERSPACE it will free up!  eeh!}, paint, handles, and knobs.  It was pretty exhilarating.  And exhausting.  I ate porkchops close to midnight last night because we didn't get home until very very late.  Too late to be eating porkchops, that's for sure, but omiword I was hungry

So, everything is crazily displaced.  The dining room table is in our living room now and Becks thinks everything is pretty dang awesome.  He walked into the house wide-eyed at 11pm last night, staring and pointing and exclaiming "WOW!" all the while.  Precious.  Even more precious?  Becks on the floor with his daddy and Papa M using a level.  Love it.

If all goes as planned {crossing fingers...toes...and eyes}, we should be painting and installing the floor this weekend!  And with an anticipated snowday {again, crossing everything on my being}, maybe we'll even hook up the stove.  I'm telling you, it's been a good Tuesday :)

Updates All Around

1.  Abby Update:  It was Flashback Friday at school and we were told to dress from the decade we were born in.  Though I mostly wore My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite in the 80s (I was only 7 in 1989), I couldn't help myself from dressing like an 80s teenager.  Strangely enough, I pulled everything except the leg warmers straight from my closet.   And, I have to admit, I really kinda liked the leg warmers...

2.  Kitchen Update: For Realz, Y'all:  I HATE REMODELING.  Just ask my husband.  I'm going 12 kinds of crazy living the remodel.  Mainly because having just one room of our house out of commission pretty much affects every other room.  {i.e. All the appliances are in the dining room, so it's a mess.  I can't easily access the door to the basement, so there is gobs of laundry to do.  The laundry is taking over my bedroom floor, so it's a mess.  All of our kitchen-esque items are in the spare room along with Becks' toys that are usually downstairs, so the entire upstairs is a mess.  The bathroom is doubling as a kitchen, so IT'S. A. MESS. } 

But, then there's the progress.  There are so many seemingly small, but totally significant things that have to be done before we can do the fun stuff {like paint and hang cabinets} that it seems as if nothing is getting done.  We had our gasline moved to the opposite side of our kitchen on Thursday, and B patched walls and hung a slab of drywall today. 



Gus the Gasline.  He's ready for the stove.  So am I. 



The best part of DIY is doing things on your own time.  In your jammies.

3.  Becks Update:  He's such a pumpkin.  I love this child.  He says and does the silliest things.  Like blow bubbles into his milk and then drink it.  Yum. 

He also makes very important phone calls on the stud finder. Love it.

4.  Cute Weekend Pic Updates

All the peanuts watching The Polar Express.  My sister and I totally paused the movie to bring out hot chocolate during the song and pulled out some pretty accurate dance moves straight from the movie.  I'm telling you, you'd be impressed.

I hope you had a great weekend!  And enjoy it if it's not over yet :)

Valentine Game Winners!

Thanks to every one who entered my game giveaway!  Y'all sound like you enjoy sweets just as much as I do ;)  I totally forgot about Reeses heart-shaped goodies - I loooooove those too! YUM.

If you're a winner, please email me at babblingabby(at)gmail(dot)com so I can forward you the printables.  And if you didn't win, but would like a copy you can order from my TpT site by clicking HERE.  {Thanks to those of you who've already purchased a copy!  You're supporting my Scrappin' Doodles obsession!}

A Valentine Day Game Giveaway!

Hey, y'all and happy Saturday! 

With Deanna's amazing success at Teachers Pay Teachers, I couldn't help but wonder if I too could make some extra cash?  So, I uploaded {hopefully} the first of many activities I'd like to put on the site!  Yay!

Here is a preview...

This is a Valentine-themed game oriented around triple-consonant blends (scr-, spl-, str-).  The basic premise of the game is that students read a word from a piece of candy and if they can read it they add it to their candy card {or what looks like a box of chocolates}.  If they can't read it, they return it to the pile.  But, watch out for the Candy Caper!  If you draw the cute little Candy Caper bear, you must return all your collected pieces back to the pile.  The winner is the first student to fill their candy box full of candy words they've read.

You can purchase this game at TpT by clicking below....

OR...

Win yourself a copy of the game by leaving a comment on this post telling me your favorite Valentine candy!  {I'm a sucker for candyhearts, personally!}  I will select 2 winners tomorrow and they will be emailed a downloadable PDF of the game.

{I promise I will select winners tomorrow and not 12 days from now!!!!! Ha!}

Happy Saturday, friends!

Target is My Frenemy.

I feel so Gossip Girl using the word Frenemy.  But it's true.  I have a love/hate relationship with that store.  I love it for the same reasons you do: the cheap popcorn and coke combos, the Dollar Spot, the cute polka-dotted diapers, and the varied assortments of cheap but quality everything. 

I hate it for all those same reasons.  I cannot escape that store with the only select few items on my list.

Anyway, tonight I needed a little stability in my life.  My house is a disaster and I just couldn't stand the chaos for another second. The dishes in the bathtub, the stove sticking out like an awkward appliance in the dining room, and the vacant yet still totally ugly kitchen were all causing me to go 12 kinds of crazy. So, with B off at night class, Becks and I left in pursuit of men's deodorant and Maybeline's Blackest Black mascara.  Because a man without his deodorant isn't pleasant, but neither I am without the blackest black eyelashes. 

And Target...sweet and organized Target...with it's predictable red carts, ridiculously florescent lighting, and rows upon rows of orderly stocked shelves were just what I needed to feel a little more secure in life.  That and a half-Diet Coke, half-Dr.Pepper medium coke. 

We were there for almost two hours browsing the aisles, eating popcorn, and taking pictures of my soon-to-be kitchen accessories. 

Take for example this gorgeous cast iron recipe holder.  Love it.  Too bad it's not equipped to hold my laptop since 99% of the recipes I use are from a dot com address and not the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 

And this plastic tumbler.  For $1.99.  I want twelve.

I really love and adore this quilted bedspread, which will obviously not go in the kitchen.  But still.

All in all, I walked out with my mascara, a three-pack of Right Guard, and a random pair of legwarmers for a spirit wear day.  And a couple random Dollar Spot items.  And a three-pack of hoop earrings.  See?  Frenemies.

Snowy Days, Chasin' the Clouds Away...

I would like to tell you that I have spent my Snow Days {2 in a row!} being extremely productive and accomplished. 

But I totally have not. 

I have been about twelve kinds of lazy, and besides playing in the snow with Beckster I really haven't done much else.  In fact, my primary focus yesterday was whether or not we'd be off again today :)  I was probably refreshing the school closings page multiple times an hour, and checking my phone just as frequently to make sure I didn't miss the all-call from our district.  Admittedly, I'm even crossing my fingers for at least an hour delay in the morning. 

In other news, grad school started again this week, and I actually had to go on campus tonight.  So. Wierd.  Mostly because I'm like 10 years older than the youngest students on campus, and I wonder how out of place I look.  The good news is that about every female on campus was wearing leggings and Uggs, so I fit in from the waist down.   The better news is that the campus is now equipped with a Starbucks, so I at least I can be an old maid with a cool cup of coffee.

The kitchen progress is slow.  We have a lot of wall repair to do before we can move onto painting, and anyone with an older home can attest to the fact that plaster walls are not the most cooperative.  {Remember, when I say "we," what I really mean is B.}  A friend's husband is coming tomorrow to transfer our gasline to the opposite side of the kitchen, so that's something.  And our new fridge is in.  I'm going to name him Stan, which is French for Stainless Steel, I think ;)  My most pressing issue right now is whether to go with Metro Mist of Clothesline Fresh.  Hmmmmmm.  I think I need another Snow Day to help me decide.

Je m'appelle, Stan.



Happy Wednesday!

Flower Headband Headwarmer Giveaway Winners!!!!!

I know.  I AM A SLACKER!  I never in a million years imagined that a gobzillion people would enter this giveaway and I'd have to figure out a way to pick a winner from unnumbered comments! {I ended up numbering them in Word and then adding on names to the list for those of you who entered more than once but didn't leave a separate comment.  It was very complicated!  Ha!} 

 Thank you for your following and support of my little ol' slice of the internet.  I'm no professional at this giveaway thing, so of course realized after I'd used the random number generator that I didn't take a screen shot first.  {So sorry.  Please believe me!} 

Sooooo, without further ado {because it's not like I'm ONE  FIVE  TWELVE days late in announcing the winners...} here are the three winners of the Headband Headwarmer Giveaway!!!

Kristina from Everyday Love

Sallie from Simply Sallie

Jenna from The Layton Family Legends

Ladies, please email me at babblingabby(at)gmail(dot)come with your name and address so I can get these to you STAT!