My Daughter Was Sick...

Last week my daughter was sick.  Luckily she was not "sick", "sick".  She was sick with the CRAFT BUG!!  While on a trip to our local library she noticed they had an art contest.  The name of the contest was "Splishy Splashy Art Contest". 

They were asked to help celebrate the summer program entitled "Make a Splash READ" They were asked to think about anything dealing with the sea, ocean, beaches, swimming, fun at the pool, etc.  They were allowed to create with any media and could create 3 dimensional art work. 

Marissa entitled her art "Remembering the Ocean".  Living on the coast of Alabama we have to listen and deal with the oil spill on a daily basis.  We bought our first boat earlier this year {instead of taking a honeymoon} to enjoy with the kids all summer, but unfortunately we have not been able to enjoy our boat due to the oil spill.  Our white sandy beaches are brown, wildlife are dying and many families are struggling to pay their bills because they are out of work and businesses are suffering. 

Without further ado here is Marissa's interpretation of "Remembering the Ocean"

Dad and brother decided to get in on the craftiness!

{uh oh....looks like The Yankee is wearing the same shirt as in a previous post....ha ha...guess we will have to start looking for that now that I am blogging}

Starting to put it all together...

Some details...

Marissa with her finished product!

H-E-L-P

All I have to say is I am in major trouble....

It is 3:00 a.m. and this is what my computer looks like:

Let's see....I have Google Reader, Blogger, and 4 Etsy windows open.  Let me remind you it is 3:00 a.m.and I am actually posting this live...this is no scheduled broadcast.

I am blaming everyone of you for leading me to something so dangerous....

I may will need an intervention soon!

Jumping For Joy

Ever since I decided to start trying {again} my hand at DIY crafty stuff I have been stalking Craigslist.  I have read all the tips going around to be patient and that is what I have done.  I am planning on redecorating my girls room and have ran across many things that would work alright but I kept running into the same problem I have always ran into when shopping for twins.  There would only be one, not two.  So I patiently kept stalking and finally ran across something that I think will work for the bedside tables.  If not, I am sure I can find a nice little home for them!  This is the picture from Craigslist.

I noticed the price was right...$30 for TWO tables.  That's right, $15 each.  Can't beat that.  But then I noticed that the ad had been posted 2 days earlier.  That is when my happy bubble popped.  I knew for sure they would be G-O-N-E.  I emailed her last night in hopes that I would get lucky and guess what......TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY!!  She called and still has them. 

Now I just have to bribe my brother-in-law so I can borrow his truck.  Yes I have a big SUV, but as I posted HERE my truck is not really set up for that considering I also have bump in the trunk which takes up all of the space in the back.  

I am undecided on what I will do with them.  I am going to go and look through all of my inspiration pictures to help me come up with a game plan for them.

I never thought I would get so excited but I did, I feel like I have won something!

Be on the lookout for before and afters of my awesome find!!  

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I consider myself lucky because my husband, The Yankee, loves to cook.  He owned a pizzeria when he was younger and living in New York so he has a little bit of the cooking blood in him.  That is good for our family because I have a tendency to not be a good cook.  I am one of those that has to have a recipe and I have to go line by line following instructions and even then I mess things up somehow!  

The other night The Yankee decided to make a BBQ Chicken Pizza....it was delish!

INGREDIENTS:
Chicken (use as much as you think you will need)
Seasoning of your choice (for the chicken)
Cheese
BBQ Sauce
Ready to use baked pizza crust
Lid from a ketchup bottle (if needed--see below for explanation)

We {well I watched} first cut and cooked the chicken with a little seasoning -- we used a little cajun seasoning.  

The next thing we did was top the ready to use pizza crust with shredded cheese

After we topped the crust with shredded cheese we simply put the chicken on top of the pizza

Now is the time for the HANDY DANDY TIP!!!!

The BBQ sauce we used only had a cap and did not have one of those small holes to make it squirt like a ketchup bottle.  The Yankee did not want the BBQ sauce to come out in big blobs, he wanted it to have small swirls so he used his brain and came up with this idea.....I must say I think he is a GENIUS!  He just put a ketchup bottle cap onto the BBQ sauce bottle and voila it worked!

The Yankee then proceeded to swirl the BBQ sauce on top of the pizza.  

The Yankee then decided he needed more cheese on top because he feels you can never have too much cheese

Then we popped that bad boy in the oven.  He is not here for me to ask, but I am thinking he set the oven to around 350 degrees and they took about 10-15 minutes to cook.  

And here is the final product

Because of the size of our family {I think we also fed my father in law that night}, The Yankee had to repeat this process 2 more times

Good thing he likes to cook!! 

Not Your Average "Grocery Getter"

I am sure most of you do not care about what kind of car I drive.  I will talk about it though because it does tell you a little bit more about my husband and I and what we do for a living.

I was asked by an awesome chic named Jessica from The Lowe Family News.  By the way if you have not checked out her blog, you MUST do so.....I REPEAT.....YOU MUST GO NOW.  Also be sure to check out her other vlog which is what hooked me on this girl, you can find her other side job here at Hun Duddle Hussy GO NOW....you can come back here and finish reading my post after you check her out!!

Anyways she asked if my husband a.k.a. The Yankee was in the military.
No he is not in the military, he just likes short hair! Continue reading and you will find out what we do!

Now back to the regular programing:

You may think that because we are the modern day Brady Bunch I may be driving something like this: 

Now I do drive a big gas guzzling SUV (sorry with 4 kids I will never fit into an electric car) but it looks a little more like this: 

Yes those are TWENTY SIX INCH RIMS!!  We are in the business of custom wheels right here in Mobile, Alabama. 

Yes I get 100 less miles per tank of gas because of those huge rims.....YES I have to be careful of every pothole and bump in the road.....and lastly YES I get some majorly funny looks picking the kids up at school and going to kids birthday parties, etc.  But that is okay, we love the business we are in!!!  

One of the perks for the kids is that because we use our car to help advertise what our business has available besides rims they get to view movies on a 20" flat screen and a 7" flat screen all at the same time!!

So if you are ever passing through South Alabama and you get behind a white SUV that you can view the tv clear as day from 3 car lengths behind wave to me!! 

An Architect In The Making

As I mentioned in my last post, the boys are both special needs children.  Dominick a.k.a. "The Dominator", has global delays and autistic tendencies.  The neurologist has said he does not have autism, but I am not so convinced he is correct.  The autistic tendencies cause him to be just a "little different" from other children.  He plays differently from other kids and when he finds something he likes he engrosses himself in the activities.  The latest activity he has taken a liking to is drawing roads, buildings, etc.  He does this every day and loves to raid my printer of all of its paper so he can draw maps and buildings.  He loves his small cars and loves to draw roads on pieces of paper for him to push his cars on.  He has a very vivid memory and will draw every little detail onto his maps!  Here he is drawing some roads for his trucks. 

In the drawing above he has drawn the road here in town that has a store named "Johnny's RV" on it.  He is somewhat obsessed with RV's and loves that store.

Just recently Dominick has started saying he wants a tree house for his 8th birthday (in April)...at least he gives us time to prepare for one ha ha.  The other day he he was drawing as usual and brought me a piece of paper and informed me very sternly that I better not loose his "blueprint for his tree house".  It was so cute, I had to share with everyone.

He even included the dimensions so we could build it to the size he wants his tree house to be.  Based on his blueprint I think we will be building more of a playhouse type building because I dont' think we can include stepping stones leading up to the front door of a tree house!  You never know we may have an architect or road designer growing before our eyes!!

A Little Bit About Me

I am a mother and wife.  Those 2 little words (mother, wife) mean that I have some pretty amazing people in my life!  My life revolves around those amazing people so I thought it would be appropriate to give everyone a little background information.

I am glad you have stopped by.  My name is Michelle.

A few years ago I was a single mother to beautiful twin daughters, Bailey and Marissa.  These girls' personalities are as different as their looks.  Bailey (on the left) is quiet, shy and loves animals.  Marissa (on the right) is the spawn of me; she talks a lot, is outgoing and never meets a stranger.  They both are very sweet and wonderful, each in their own way! 

That is until I met the most wonderful man EVER, Alex.

What to hear something pretty cool??  He was a single father with twin boys, Dominick and Justin.

We fell in love and got married November 2009 (I know all of you are smart so I am sure you probably already figured that out based on our individual pictures).

We are your new age Brady Bunch family and are very blessed to have such an amazing family.  Many people have asked why we did not run when we found out that each other had twins.....but I say to those that ask, having twins was the one thing we had in common during our first conversation.  If it wouldn't had been for his New York accent that this southern girl just loves I may had run, but I got swept off my feet!.  

Now our life is not always easy.  The boys were born at 26 weeks.  This led to problems with both boys.  Dominick has global delays, autistic tendencies, slight sensory integration issues and slight (barely noticeable) cerebral palsy.  He is doing excellent though and is in regular classes at school with in class special education help.

Justin on the other hand was not so lucky.  The day he was born he had a severe brain hemorrhage that caused brain damage.  He is our precious angel.  He is non verbal, does not walk (he can scoot FAST) and is still in diapers.  He still has a feeding tube, but he does eat baby food and drink his milk from the can.  Due to his sensory issues he will only touch certain things with his lips so we have to keep the feeding tube to give medicine, etc.  He has CP, autism and sensory integration disorder.  I have been their mother (their biological mother is not involved at all) since they were about 3 years old.  These boys stole my heart and I am so blessed to have them in my life.  They have made me a better person and a better mother!

I am sure you will be seeing plenty of and about my AMAZING family in my blog, because like I said they are all the ones who make me who I am and they are the awesome ones that put up with the insanity of my Dibble Dabble Life!!

OH NO.....I almost forgot one more important thing in my life, well I actually did forget (I am updating this post a few days later).  We have the most wonderful, precious WIENER DOG that you will ever see in your life!  Her name is Zoe and she is MY doggy.  Now I never saw myself as one to have a wiener dog, but I have fallen in love.  I only hope that I do not become one of those crazy old dog ladies (kinda like the crazy old cat ladies), but if I do that is okay because I love my Zoe!!