Well we have returned from our fabulous trip to the Fontana Clogging Workshop . The girls had a great time and they are totally exhausted! They danced all day and night Friday and Saturday. I think they learned about 12 routines. (even 1 to Hannah Montana and 1 to a song from Hairspray) We had a great cabin. We toasted smore's . The boys played tennis and went canoeing in Fontana Lake. The last night they had an exhibition. Aryn's dance team performed to Trouble by Travis Tritt and they had a Hollywood themed party. The girls dressed up as the fabulous fabulous sisters :D aren't they just soooo cute !

On the way out of dodge we stopped at the Fontana Dam. Beautiful scenery and great pictures. The leaves are not changing yet but should be soon. The weather was awesome not to hot or too cold! ( about 70's)

Well, i am always sad to see a friend leave. we had such a wonderful time having Tania in our house. And for those of you who know me , know how i love to cram about 3 weeks worth of site seeing into 3 days ! We ran from here to the coast and back again. We had a fabulous time! We went to historic Wilmington NC, did a horse and carriage ride, went to the IVY COTTAGE, the Scrapbook Nook, Kilwins, and we enjoyed a soft shell crab sandwich down by the ocean! (and all of that was in 1 day ! )

We also visited the Raleigh little theater rose garden, Historic Apex NC, the Cupcake Bakery, we saw the Mamma Mia sing along (with Alyssa and Aryn), and we cropped at Archivers. Yes, in typical Monica fashion i ran the poor girl from sun up to sun down and we ate more in 1 week than should be humanly allowed - but dang, it was fun!

Happy Birthday to you , Dear Andrew! Gosh, can't believe this little guy is 12! We went out to eat at the brand new TGI Fridays ( i think that is his new favorite place to go) . They came out and sang him a totally funny song, which was quiet a treat as most places now days don't do that .


We then spent 25 minutes driving around looking for gas, either the line was super long or the gas was $4.79. Well Kevin is not a very patient person, and he refused to wait in line so we gassed up for 4.70 - gosh, that hurts!


After the gas shock, we came home and opened gifts. He got a corn hole game, new inline blades, a tennis ps2 game,a gift card to game stop from Uncle Brian and his family, and this awesome vintage hockey shirt from Uncle Aland his family. He got a majority of his gifts in the summer when we went back to Chicago.

And lastly , at Andrew's request we had a cookie cake to celebrate. I think this is a tad bit too big , anyone want some cookie :D

Tomorrow 9/13 my friend Tania arrives from Ct. can't wait to see her!

Some more about natures beauty. In North Carolina things like that mushroom just don't last long. They either succumb to the awful heat , the almost carnivorous Japanese beetles, or my kids .... on that note. My rose bush is blooming for the 4th time this year. I had to run up and snap up a few photos of it before the beetles attacked it , darn things!




I did get a chance today to scrapbook. This is my adorable and so sweet neice Rachel. Can you tell i am missing her a bunch. You know , she already has the angle... i walked over to her when she was eatting (or should i say wearing ) Uncle Tony's graduation cake. She saw the camera and turned away. I made a plea and she responded "What are you gonna give me?" I asked her what she wanted and she said "CANDY" ok, i will give you some candy. The day after we got back home i stuffed a large envelope full of sugar coated sweetness and mailed it to her. I mean look at her, who could resist!

The last layout was of a photo I took in Cancun. If you have seen the movie Nemo, the fish in the tank nick name him "shark bait" which is where the title comes from. In Cancun there are a ton of photo opprotunities with the locals right at the cruise ship pier. The kids were drawn to this large plaster shark , and giggled the whole time they were inside it!

Natures Beauty

Looks at the gorgeous mushroom. I have never seen anything like it. I think it may have been washed in with Hannah. ( maybe some exotic Haitian mushroom) I know, Monica get a life - but look at how pretty it is :D

Kids say the funniest things ....

OK so today we were in the van on the way home and Aryn said " Mrs. Melon said we get to go to the ABC store to see the Dinosaurs" .... We totally busted up. For those of you not from NC the ABC store is the Alcoholic Beverage Control . The liquor stores here are run by the state.... so what she said was she is going to the liquor store to see the Dinosaurs .... what she meant was " We are going to the RBC center to see the Dinosaurs" ..... i bet the ABC store would not be a school approved field trip...at least for another 16 years or so. and i just have to say , it looks a bit scary, i may need to stop at ABC before heading to RBC



Hanna blew through w/ about 5 inches of rain, some local flooding but not a huge amount, not a lot of wind here, no loss of power or cable ( :) - that's the important one) , no thunder or lightning - kids slept through it ! (can i hear a big amen )



7 more days and counting till my adorable, fabulous, beautiful,talented shall i keep going? friend tania will be in from Connecticut. We have a few wonderful events planned including cropping at Archivers, heading to the coast for a day ( for a soft shell crab sandwich) eating some Carolina BBQ , and a visit to the Raleigh Little Theater Rose Garden.Should be a great visit can't wait to see her again :D

Lots going on... First off , they have changed the current track for Hurricane Hannah. Thankfully it doesn't look like we are going to get much. Some wind and rain but not as bad as they had thought a few days ago. I am prepared though - bought the last 2 packs of C batteries, the last pack of D's and a flashlight at Food Lion. Also bought some bottled water... so just in case we have the essentials.

I am having another scrap sale .I cleaned out the scraproom (see yesterdays post) last week in anticipation of my company next week :D - Here is a link to my Craigs List posting.

The girls are back into the dance season. Dance started Tuesday night. I hav attached some photos of the girls with their clogging teachers Miss Jenny and Miss Brenda. Both are super talented and super sweet- and boy can they clog!

I went to Bath and Body works yesterday. Got a ton of stuff for not a ton of money . That makes me happy. Actually i am happier that the ever so delicious fall scents are out ......mmmmmmm... makes me want to decorate for Halloween/fall .

Lets see what else ---- oh, had the carpet cleaned today - what a sad life i lead that that is a highlight of my weekly posting ! I guess when you are a "domestic engineer: those kind of things are suppose to make you happy!

And lastly - just want to share that we have a new addition in the extended Josupait family. Kevin's brother Brian and his wife Vicki welcomed their 2Nd child. A little dude named Reed . He was born 9-3-08 . I have not seen any photos yet ( hint hint ) but i am sure he is a doll !

Cleaned up ye ole scraproom

Look how pretty ! The girls love it, they can clog on the hardwood floors now :D I almost hate to use it and dirty it up !

Sometimes you just feel like certain things were made for a reason. This little wooden box I bought at an antique store in Illinois , oh about 2 years ago. I was putting my vintage dairy bottles in it. Well the bottle went up on shelf and i couldn't decide what to put in the box. Look at how nice the paint fits in there . I know another one of those dorky it makes me happy moments.

Spoiling them with love

I love being able to be home with the kids. It is really a blessing. I can't even describe how very lucky that i feel to be able to be here for them every night , and to totally smother them with love!

New Items in the Etsy store

A few new items up my Etsy store. The bottom necklace was made for a friend on Scrapper's Daily dose. I hope she likes it.

Kids are adjusting to back to school... we are trying to figure out the bus schedule. CRAZY!

I am making the kids some Santa's suprise cookies.(peanut butter cookies with snickers rolled inside ) yummy! My friend Tania - who will be visiting in a few weeks (insert Peaches and Creams Reunited song here ) was already asking if we were ready for Christmas and that reminded me of those fabulous cookies.

On a sad note. Kevins uncle John passed away yesterday. This is the second of Mike's (Kevins dad) brothers to pass in the past 6 weeks. John has been sick for awhile so we were alittle more prepared for his passing. Not that you can ever be prepared for this . John was the pastor of Kevins childhood church, Kevins mom worked at the church for almost 20 years, and Johns son- also named John delivered Alyssa .(planned c - section not what you all think! ) His obituary has not been posted online but once it is i will link it up. Please keep Kevins dad and mom in your thoughts, as well as the rest of Kevins family, John's wife, kids and grandkids, and friends and family. Thanks

Back to school ....

Well the good news is they backed our school start times back by 20 minutes. So now Andrew gets to sleep in till 6:45 which is later than his bus came last year.... now the bad news... my poor baby girls didn't get off the bus today till 5:25 - yes, and to boot they had homework ! I surely hope the school district looks at these times and gets it straightened out. And yes, today was the first day so maybe it will work out but really, we are talking about 5-10 year olds getting off the bus with 2 1/2 hours till bed time ... and they are spending and hour of that doing homework.

Enough of my griping .... here are my lovelies. Sporting the new back packs, lunchboxes, shoes and school clothes. Don't ya just love the first day of school ! I spent the afternoon baking them a welcome home treat. Today was the first time i have been alone in a very,very , very long time.... wasn't sure what ever to do with myself!

little bubble blower

Aryn got a vintage bubble gum dispenser when we were in Chicago. She has had gum in her mouth pretty much non stop since we have returned. Well she has mastered the art of bubble blowing :D ..... next time i will have to get sugar free gum .

Lemon Drop Boutique is up and running ..... this has been keeping use really busy .... creating can be such hard work :D

Here are a few of my pieces that I just listed at my store at ETSY. Check it out when you have a chance.

In other news tonight was open house at both schools. Kids are looking forward to getting back to school, as much as they can be anyway.

Extreme makeover.....

Bathroom addition... this weekend we did an update on the kids bathroom

gone are the frogs (before)


HELLO BLUE! Carolina blue at that...Love it --- the shower curtain has beach stuff on it live a sand pail, surfboard, tiki hut etc...

Kevin also put up a much needed cabinet . All thats left is to frame out the growth chart and paint the exsisting cabinet.

Lawnmower man ! ( or pre teen)

Last week Andrew took over the lawn cutting responsibilities. We weren't sure if he weighed enough to keep the engine from stalling but he made it ! He did a great job ! And believe it or not the kids a had a grin a mile wide while doing it ! Hey if it makes him happy then who am i to put a stop to it ! :D

Taking in a little culture

Today we went to the North Carolina Museum of Art . We had a great time looking at classic works of art. The museum has Classic Roman and Greek portraits, pottery, and statues ( yes, they were anatomically correct - insert Alyssa's giggle, Andrew's embarrassment and Aryn's shock here ) as well as many Renaissance and current American works as well . Some of the Greek work was from 400-600 BC hard to imagine being so close to something that is over 2000 years old. Today it was raining so it was a good day to be inside. The museum has a large outdoor art gallery as well . We will have to do that at another time. We thought we would share some of our culture and insights from today's journey w/ you .... Enjoy

After our culture for the day we surprised Dad at work with a few cookies from Fresh Market.

Wasting away in Margarittaville

We spent this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Myrtle Beach has a ton of hotel options ... we lucked out and stayed a great one! Our hotel included admission to 2 water parks, 1 mini golf course and 1 amusement park. Throw in a great view of the ocean and awesome weather and you are bound to have a great weekend !

On the way home we stopped at Broadway at the Beach . We had attempted to eat at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville on Sunday night but the wait was 3 hours ..... not an option with three hungry kids ! SO we lucked out on Monday and walked right in. The food was ok , atmosphere and service is what would bring you back. While in there they started playing Margaritaville somewhere - And the hurricane warning light starts flashing , sirens are going off, the lights are blinking ---- music is screaming coolest thing ever - hard to explain but here is a link on youtube that you can watch to kind of understand. No, no Cheeseburgers in paradise.... but i did buy a salt shaker that says " searching for my lost shaker of salt"

These pictures are for Uncle Duane.... Andrew said he will share with you ! :D such a good kid ! Parrotheads in training!

more broadway at the beach photos

Hmmmmm..... there's a factory for this kind of thing. Ok that explains alot !

Broadway at the Beach is a great outdoor area in Myrtle Beach. Everything is over prices,tons of tourist, but you can find everything here !

and of course the Kiss Coffee shop. Aryn used the restroom and said " I can't go in there by myself... its kind of freaking me out !" And this cabbage patch kid was so freakin funny..I just could not pass up a photo of it ! And as much as i use to complain about all the Kiss albums that i use to get from my darling, thoughtful brother Jimbo , i am the one that drags my kids and hubby to this place everytime we go ! Rockhouse S'more frozen cappacino gets 5 stars from all of the rockers in our house!

A day at the beach and getting back in the swing

Well we are slowly getting back into the routine. We had a ton of unpacking to do when we returned from Chicago. I also started going through the kids drawers and closets.... they are growing so fast i can hardly keep up. Maybe i should just have 1 giant closet for them and they can wear whatever fits! I feel like i almost have triplets..... Andrew and Alyssa are both size 12( some of Alyssa's stuff is a 10 but some back to school stuff is a 12) Andrew is too thin for 14's and not quite tall enough yet for 14's but almost . Miss Aryn went from a 6 to and 8 this summer. Hard to keep up !


The girls are both in summer dance . Aryn is doing a duet and has started practice for that. They are dancing to "Shake your tail feather" Super cute song, and of course Jenny and Brenda did a super job with the choreography.

back to school in less than 3 weeks - August 25Th! Going to be strange again to be home by myself. Haven't had that in along time!

Went to the beach this weekend. Weather was great! This time we went to Topsail Island. However on 2 seperate occassions the surfers in the water started yelling "Shark Shark" They all stood up on their boards and were all staring into the water . Never seen that before. The tide was really low, and there was a sand bar about 10 feet out in the water. Kevin and I both noticed no fish at all in the water ... not sure what that was about - weather it was the sand bar or the sharks or something else. We did collect some sea glass and some shells, and of course worked on our tans a little bit :D