Future Author or Conservationist ........... Friday night Andrew was honored at the Johnston County Soil and Water Conservation banquet. They hold a yearly essay and poster contest for 5th graders throught out the county . Andrew was chosen as one of the 2 to represent his school and placed 3rd in the county overall !

Here he is showing off his award and ribbon.

His teacher and principal were also there . His classmate Lauren was in the poster contest and she recieved and honorable mention.

Its not alot .... but we will take it ! This is the first time the kids have seen snow in along time - I think we got about 1/3 of an inch - on top of alittle ice - They still had school today. But it was the first time in along time that they got out of the house before the bus was waiting at the end of the drive way for them !

2 days ago it was 75 - ground is not frozen. While i was getting Aryns gear on Alyssa laid down to make a snow angel ( in 3 inches of mud!) On another note - First time this year the kids have gotten "bundle up" in their winter gear!

I think he is winking at me :D Thanks for the picture Kevin!







In other news- Job is well. Almost finished with first week . Kids have a 3 day weekend this week and a 4 day weekend next week - then not another day off till Spring break ! Yikes!

Alyssa's bedroom set comes tommorrow - she is really psyched about that !

Sunday is going to be mid 70's here!Might be a good chance to catch up on some much needed yard work!

Tonight a new episode of Man vs Wild on Discovery channel! For some reason kevin and i have become addicted to this show ! Not sure what the draw is :? ( for me sexy accent hot guy in a vulnerable situation- what more could a "desperate housewife" want !) For kevin , i think he likes to see the totally gross extremes that Bear takes to survive !

discovery channel -9 eastern - check him out ! http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/manvswild.html

Wohooooo! january 4th and today i had the windows open in the house! 70+degrees! What a glorious day! :D ( although, we have not seen snow in 2 years the kids are starting to miss it - Andrew commented today about not seeing any in awhile ) Maybe i should refer him to woman in denver who was selling her snow on ebay! :D

Today i am free ! for the first time in over 2 weeks everyones is back to work and school ! Wohooo!

Andrew had is eye tooth removed yesterday! Man the root on that baby was huge! He never complained about any discomfort - He spent the rest of the afternoon watching Nacho Libre and napping and consuming mass quantites of mashed potato's ! (and he got a 5 spot from the tooth dairy!)

Kevin finished painting alyssa's room last night - her new furniture is coming next Saturday so between now and then i need to clean her carpet and go thru some of her things !

Starting my new job next monday(1/8/06) ! Very exciting ! glad to be back in the work force again(contributing to the future of the Josupaits and the kids college fund!)

Happy New Year ! Hope 2007 is full of peace, love and Good health !

Got to scrap last night for the first time in over a month! I love these!

Even Santa has gone high- tech! Imagine our suprise when we went to visit Santa at the mall and they gave us a pager , just like the ones you get when you go out to eat .... they told us about how long the wait was and when they would page jus to return in line .

On the wish list this year...Aryn - Unicorn , Alyssa - a new bike and Andew - roller coaster vengance Knetix. Anyone know where you can get a unicorn ??????


After visiting Santa we went out to the commons and enjoyed a very long lunch at maggiano's. After lunch alyssa and kevin watched a magic show and she was chosen to be his helper.... she was so cute - so theaterical!

Its begining to look alot like Christmas ..... Well since returning from Chicago alittle over a week ago i have made 40 christmas cards, a few homemade gifts, bought everything for everyone on all of our list.... wrapped everything and shipped it out, and baked ! .... Yep, basicly everything that normally takes about a month to do - done in about 5 days ! Exhausted- Yes ! I think i need to spend a day at the spa before the kiddos get out for Christmas break !

We made gingerbread houses . They were wilton kits .... i mixed the frosting and gave the bowl to kevin. He didnt like the tip so he just stuck his had right in the bag and yanked it out .... concrete frosting everywhere ! He is not the most patient person in the world! Turned out nice, kids were bored before we got to the decorating part so they arent the most highly decorated houses on the block ! :D

Sweet........ i new i was still a kid at heart!



You Are 24 Years Old
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Boo to you ! (from us ! ) Some random halloween images . WE carved our pumpkins Sunday
night ! Alyssa had a field trip to a pumpkin farm today for school. Andrews class carved and decorated pumpkins today at school .He did his like the globe - isnt that inpressive ! And of course Aryn decided not to be the little mermaid for halloween . I was able to talk her out of the spiderman outfit - instead she donned her ballet outfit ! The neighbor stopped by with his kids in a wagon on the back of his lawn mower - mine jumped in and away they went ! Out right now getting , what i am sure to be an insane amount of sugar coated goodies for me :D

Fall is in the air.... todays high upper 60's FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FOR SURROUNDING AREAS (overnight) - Snapped these picitures after i dropped the kids off at school . I love that fall last so long here. Foilage last about 6 weeks . Now we are starting to see some reds and yellows ... soon the oranges, purples and browns will be out .... No wonder this is my favorite time of the year!

i have finally had some time to be creative ... been hard with work and kids ball schedules. everything is finally falling into place . Not going to say it still isnt stressful but getting easier with every day .

This isnt my greatest work but at least i am creating again - been awhile .

Next project Christmas cards!

and one more from the market ....

Yesterday we had a great day at the Farmers Market in Raleigh. Lots of goodies still in season. Picked out 5 pumpkins and sampled some of nc's famous apple crop .

Boys will be boys! A funny moment captured a few moments after a "serious team shot" :D

Today we had a fabulous time at the Wilson Mills Pumpkin farm with Aryn's kindergarden class. Her first field trip. Weather was awesome! Perfect fall day ! (upper 60's no sun- no rain either) We got to go on a small hay ride then they got to pick thier pumpkins from the patch. They got a quick lesson on halloween safety, ran through both a corn and straw maze and got to feed a goat some green beans . Aryn was the cutest pumpkin in the patch and of course she spent alot of time picking out the "perfect pumpkin"