My goofy children

I just did my first applique monogram and I LOVE IT!! I'm sure there is so much that my "Sew What Pro" will do; I just have to play around w/ it and figure it all out. Oh, and I guess I could find some instructions or info and READ IT!! I tried digitizing regular fonts on my computer and I haven't mastered that quite yet! Or at least digitizing an applique from a regular font did not work out so well! Love the pic of Browder - future Home Depot employee? (only hopefully he won't wear boxers to work). Also, some brotherly love... the pic of B & G is of them eating breakfast SITTING ON THE SAME BARSTOOL!! (ignore the bad-for-them eggo waffle breakfast and yes, that is syrup) Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! Jeff is taking B to the AU game tomorrow, then we're headed to the lake Sun-Mon.

My playlist is back. Still searching for good blog-appropriate songs. Can you tell I love American Idol? I LOVED that Blake Lewis performance!! Jeff & I have recently become Big Brother followers, which is a huge 3-night committment. Not sure who I want to win? I kinda like Renny. What do they do at the jury house? We're new to BB, so Jeff & I are curious about that. Yes, even Jeff has gotten sucked in to this show.

Tees

Between Facebook, this blog and e-mail I'm beginning to think my computer is a full time job (not including monogramming)!! Jeff will testify to that - I'm picturing an "amen!" when he reads this post. I went to Target and Walmart this morning and here is what I found:

Target - toddler girl l/s tees - 2T-5T - black, white, pink & cream
toddler boy l/s tees - pocket (monogrammable) basic colors - I didn't write them down
Target also had some toddler boy turtlenecks (red & white maybe?)
I saw no youth size l/s yet in girl or boy!

Walmart - 12M, 18M, 24M (no snap bottom for girls) to 5T girl l/s tees (smooth front, puff sleeve - CUTE) white, hot pink, light pink, plum (purple), dark teal, a purple-y pink, red and several polka dots which might be cute monogrammed.
toddler boy l/s tees (12M-5T but the M sizes have snap bottoms like a onesie - boys only)
navy, white, grey, red, royal blue, olive green & black. Also, turtlenecks in all colors but
royal blue & olive.
Again, I saw no youth size l/s yet in girl or boy

All Walmart tees are $3.50. Target - more? I honestly wrote all this down on a tiny white box I found in my purse while talking on my cell phone and w/ Browder following me!!

Of course, sizes in stock varied at Walmart - not sure about Target. The girl tees were cute at both places - with that little poof on the shoulder and no gathering at the neck like summer tees.

p.s. Jeff bought a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls last night at the store! Somehow I have not had one yet, but am looking forward to it. B & I looked at the Little Debbie aisle at Walmart today - better prices than Publix. Boxes of Capri Suns are $1.75 at Walmart - fyi...

T-shirts

I received a tip that Target has long sleeve T's with a pocket! Not good for appliques but I've done lots of these and monogrammed the pocket! The youngest 2 Gulledges are in school tomorrow so Browder & I will go to Target AND Walmart and investigate long sleeve T's (colors, sizes, etc.)

Granmommy is here and just "put up" some peas for us! Amie, get the okra ready!!

Facebook

I've sent an e-mail so HOPEFULLY they will let me back on. So far I have heard nothing!! I'm going into withdrawals....

....I'M BACK!! They let me back on w/ some blah blah apology e-mail. We just got back from ATL and I did a happy dance when I realized I was back on. I'm still curious as to what it said while I was gone - was there a big X on my face? I have all of my friends & flair & everything looks the same. I will certainly be very cautious from now on. Of course now I have this McAfee virus software on my computer and it is now as slow as Hurricane Fay.

On the way home Jeff & I passed a truck. This truck had pictures of all sorts of yummy snacks of the olden days. Snacks that my kids haven't been blessed with... yet! Remember twinkies, ho hos, ding dongs, zingers (was that the name?). I know they still sell them, but for some reason I don't buy them?? My friend Amie brought over a box of those oatmeal cakes the other day - the big soft oatmeal-like cookies with the cream in the middle (I can't think of their proper name?). We made a big fuss over them, telling the kids to eat all of their lunch b/c we had a surprise dessert. Our kids SNUBBED the oatmeal cakes. They were not impressed. Even Browder, who thinks that dessert is a requirement after every single meal. He eats an eggo frozen waffle dipped in sticky syrup with a side of fruit loops for b'fast and usually want "dessert" afterwards. Now I am craving these snacks! Not so much twinkies, but the chocolate ding dongs or zingers (basically twinkie w/ icing on top). They are probably grosser (msp?) than I remember them, but they looked sooooo goooood on that truck! We think a double stuff Oreo is a treat - my kids will go nuts over these cakes (as long as no oatmeal is involved).

Blame it on FAY!!

Well, it was a bad night last night!! I got a Facebook message from a friend from church whom I sat behind in Sunday School. It said something to the effect of "Hi, it's me, is that really you in this video, looking so awful?". I was a little taken aback, but was dying to see what the video was all about, so I tried, and tried, and tried... to open it. Soon thereafter I got an instant message from another friend asking if I had just sent THEM a video. Ut Ohhhhh..... FACEBOOK VIRUS (google it, it's real). I was able to change my "status" to Rosemary Wise Gulledge... thinks there is a virus on Facebook in the form of a video. I was hoping people would see that before they got it and tried to open anything. Next thing I know I'm kicked off Facebook - talk about a kick in the gut. I sent an e-mail out to everyone I could think of warning them not to open anything!! It's been a complete nightmare ever since!! I can't really tell any difference on my computer - I deleted my Google toolbar b/c something funny was going on there. I've done a McAfee scan and it shows nothing. Of course I just installed it this morning (90 day trial). Might should have had it last night!? I've also sent an e-mail to Facebook explaining what happened. I guess we'll see if they reinstate me or not. I'm a bit scared that Facebook is not as secure as I thought, seeing as though I was able to get a virus. I've NEVER EVER gotten a computer virus or opened anything suspicious before. I just saw Facebook and thought it was just a video. Anyway, BEWARE!! Woke up this morning to the tornado warning sirens - didn't take G to school. Little M has her 6 mo checkup (yes, 6 MONTHS) at 3:30 and then Jeff & I are headed to the ATL for a funeral in the morning. Our good friend Karen lost her father on Friday. If you talk to God, say a little prayer for her and her family!! We will be back tomorrow afternoon. The kids are staying here w/ the grandparents.

Anyway, it's been a crazy day! I did a special request "Frankenstein" last night. I was unsure about frankenstein as an applique, but he really turned out cute! I also have a spider in mind and will do my pumpkins again for Halloween. I also have a pumpkin trio applique. I have another special request where I will utilize my new merge program to merge applique letters. I will report on how that goes probably Wednesday! I know a monogram or short name will work. This one is 4 letters + 7 letters, so I'm anxious to see if it will work too!

I'd better get packin for Atlanta...

"Hurricane" Fay

Boredom is setting in... we just got in Jeff's car, opened the garage, backed out.... JUST to look at the ditch behind our house, then pulled back in, shut the garage and came inside! It has been raining ALL DAY LONG! The beach... not so much! Double red flags and the pools are closed, but no rain like here in Montgomery. Oh well!! I have been monogramming all day which is good. No shower and still in what I slept in last night. Here is a pic of the ditch. Someone called to see if we had life jackets. Also, the huge weeping willow in our back yard that has been swaying all day long. Since we missed out on the beach Jeff is doing a shrimp boil for dinner. I guess we'll canoe to church in the morning and wait for the rain to stop.

Good ole Fay

No beach for us! We decided yesterday not to go due to the rain probability. I have never watched so much weather channel as I have this week!! We were supposed to go stay w/ some friends for a couple of days. Good call since they closed the pools til Monday!! Amie I hope y'all get a few good days Monday on!! Jeff got home yest. from ATL and we spent the morning w/ Browder while the other kids went to school. He LOVES being the center of attention!! Somehow Jeff convinced me to graciously allow him to play golf this afternoon!? How did that happen? Still trying to figure that one out. I'd better get to sewing... Here are a couple of pics of Browder. Is my child the only one who builds "cities" in his room?? One of these reminds me of "Where's Wally?" Can you spot Browder?

Browder's "deep thought" on rain

Today, out of the blue, Browder turns to me and says that God has showers on the edge of all the clouds and when he turns them on, it rains. I had never heard that before!! HA. Little M & G started school today. They both did fine and I got some errands out of the way. Browder was a trooper! At one point he SWORE his legs could not walk anymore!! Of course I reminded him that if he couldn't walk anymore, he certainly couldn't ride his bike today. He then said "NO mom, I MEAN they can't do "THIS!!!" anymore and demonstrated the walking motion!! We went to Target and zipped thru the "cars" aisle just so he could look. I was looking at the Matchbox cars and they had a limousine hearse?!? Why on earth would any child need, or want, a toy that carries caskets???? I stayed up til midnight last night ironing and entering in clothes for the consignment sale. Hopefully I will make a little cash! STILL paying for pictures and haven't even thought about framing any! The sewing is piling up and I need to get to work! We're SUPPOSED to go to the beach tomorrow for a couple of days, but am "weather-watching" ole Fay to see what she's going to do. As much as I'd love to drive to the beach to enjoy the rain, I have way to much monogramming to do here. We'll see! You never know what she might do!! We cooked the cheeseburger helper last night and both boys made happy plates. They love the stuff!! For dessert we had some yummy cinnamon rolls warmed just enough in the toaster oven (thanks mallie!) Looks like I have a bedfellow tonight - B is waiting for me! Still haven't tossed the old towels. I just put the white ones in the dryer. It takes me a while to do a load of laundry...

Duck poo

Regarding my earlier post, I have the white towels from the boys b/room in the wash YEAH! We had a full day today which started w/baths for all. So everyone is clean! What to do (in some air conditioning)? I decided to take them to McD's - a new one near Wynlakes that is very clean & 2 yr old friendly. The one at Burger King is harder to climb in. We ate lunch and I let them run & climb & slide while I fed Mallory. We ran a few errands, got momma a SB and headed home so I could "work" while they napped. After nap & snack I got a very wild hair and decided to take them to feed some ducks. We loaded up the bread & tortillas and headed to the Museum. I prefer feeding the little ducks, but the big geese kind of took over. I was feeling pretty good about myself and our outing... until we got back to the car and realized there was green duck poop all over the bottom of B's shoes and all over the wheels of the stroller. I tried to wipe it off and ended up w/ duck poo all in the back of my car. What a mess! We left and rode over to the Shakespeare building and the boys played in the fountain (and B got all the poo off his shoes) and we ran around the little ampitheater and I took pictures.

It was too late to come home and cook cheeseburger helper (which I am only allowed to cook when Jeff is not here), so we went to Salsarita's for some din din. I thought I had 7 stamps to get a free combo, but Poncho would not accept 1 card w/ 2 stamps and 1 card w/ 5 stamps. They have to be on one card nananananaaaaa! I should have told him to keep his cheese quesadilla and left. It's not like they can afford to make too many customers mad since there was 1 other table in the whole restaurant. I accepted another stamp on my 5 card and we ate our dinner w/out a fuss.

Now I'm going to work on my pile of consignment stuff. I love the new computer entry for the Children's Clothing Exchange (http://www.childrensclothingexchange.com/). It's kinda fun!!

Warning: this is a random blog!!

Why is it so hard to part with old towels? I've been pondering over this all week. Jeff & I are using the same towels we got as wedding presents over 7 years ago!!!!!!!! It's not like they were that wonderful to begin with. Just your standard brown (I think) towels from Dillards! I honestly can't remember what color they were as they are so faded now - brown or a dark khaki is my best guess. A year or two ago I decided I was going to buy new towels, a couple at a time. I bought 2 white nice towels, thinking white is good b/c I can bleach them. Those 2 lonely new white towels are in the bottom of our towel stack and we're still using our raggedy ole wedding towels. Why can't I just throw them away? We have a pile of decent white towels in the kids bathroom. Why can't I use those and trash the khaki ones? It's not like we ever have any guests!! Granmommy maybe once a quarter and she uses 1 towel. As of now they are stacked in the cabinet collecting dust. The boys don't use them - they use their cute kids towels. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and throw the tired old towels away and start using the white ones we have. That goes for the faded hand towels too! Wish me luck...

Happy 1/2 year Mallory!

Little M is 6 mos old today! I can't believe it (boo hoo). She is the sweetest little thing! I went to open house tonight for Mother's Day Out which starts this week for M & G! She will go 2 days and G will go 3 like last year. I left thinking I wasn't ready to part w/ her, but I know I need a little break! Browder starts K5 after Labor Day at a different church. I'll be burning up Vaughn Rd. Not much going on here. I've got a couple of pics. One is of Mallory at the lake Fri. One is of G this afternoon. He sort of missed his nap, so the poor thing just fell out asleep on the den floor!! Now THAT is tired!!

'Puters'

What did we do before "puters" as Browder calls them? I don't know how I keep up with everything - blogging, other people's blogs, facebook, e-mail (oh yeah and my kids).... and yesterday I found www.playlist.com! Since we Gulledges aren't Ipod savvy this is my version of an Ipod. Is that even how you spell Ipod, ipod....?? Jeff has a blackberry w/ music on it and recently bought a cooler that hooks up to his phone and plays music. This is the extent of our (HIS) high tech music. I spent most of yesterday trying to search for songs on playlist. Some weren't really appropriate for my blog (J Lo - Jenny on the Block was one) so I made 2 playlists and had the boys dancing yesterday. It was a boring rainy day! Still need to find a few more songs for the blog. THEN, last night someone tipped me off to a program for my monogramming that will allow me to MERGE!! I can now use any font and merge applique designs with names & initials instead of doing them in 2+ steps. I am SO EXCITED!! I was getting ready to buy some really expensive software and this program A) had a free 30 day trial and B) is about 1/8th of the price when I do buy it!! THANK YOU to my fellow blogger who led me to this program (Sew What Pro).

Today we went to the Children's Museum and then to Burger King for lunch. Great outing since yesterday no one bathed and Browder stayed in his boxers all day. Tomorrow we may venture to Pump It Up if I can get everyone up and ready in time. Next week the youngest 2 start school and B starts after Labor Day. YEAH!! Love my kids but it'll be nice to get a little break!

I mentioned previously that I am not an Olympics person. Evidently Browder is! He LOVES it, which is cute. But, it has been a bit difficult explaining to him why it isn't on all day long and why diving isn't on all the time (his favorite). I made a note to self: globe for Christmas!! I tried to explain China and where it was and daytime/nighttime and who was from China and it just got too confusing.

Garanimals

On our way to the lake today Jeff dropped me off at Walmart while he got gas in the car. On my way to the wipes aisle I ran across some plain Garanimals t-shirts (toddler - to size 5T). Definitely navy, red, white & I think gray. I didn't have much time to dig as my cell phone was ringing (Jeff), so I'll have to go back and check it out further, including girls and youth . I was a big fan of Garanimals this summer! Of course the cute fat gingham shorts that were all the rage, and their t-shirts (short sleeve at least) were very soft & thick!! Garrison has several! I try to avoid Target b/c I spend way too much money in there (see 'spend to save' post), but usually check to see if they have their new Fall duds out yet. Although they do have a tendency to put a pocket on their boy toddler T-s!? Turtlenecks are also great to monogram & applique if it ever gets cool enough. Anyway I was anxious to report my findings at Walmart, as I'm sure they will fly off the shelves like crazy!! Haven't seen anything at Target yet, but I heard some shelves were cleared out so maybe they're getting ready.

We spent the day at Lake Martin. Got there, ate lunch and everyone but Browder took a big fat lake nap!! We rode the boat a little and had a pretty smooth tube ride to chim-men-y rock (B puts an extra syllable in there). Ate supper and got home not too long ago. The weather was lovely today!!

I'm in TV trouble... I am not much of an Olympics person. I don't have an athletic bone in my body unless riding the tube behind the boat counts. I did hear on the news where American Idol was getting ready for their next season (YEAH). Better get to bed!

Spend to save?

I went to Target today w/ a $5 off $50 purchase coupon. Of course I fill my buggy and my total is $48, so I grabbed what I could from the "last chance rack" trying to tally $50. 2 packs of purse antibacterial wipes and I was still 5 cents off, so I grabbed a box of tic tacs. Basically I spent $3 to save $5. Doesn't make much sense?! We went to the Wynlakes back to school "bash" last night. The boys rode the ponies one loop and then played in the pool. Today we went to the AC Moore "going out of business" sale. Most everything is just 10% off so no deals there. They have a baby blue toile fabric there I use so I got that. Here are a few pics! The last one is Tripp asleep in Browder's closet. We had to hunt him down b/c he had G's last pair of clean pajamas on. When Jeff took them off Tripp had one of G's diapers on!!

Is it Friday yet???

The past couple of days have been loco! Lots of monogramming goin on in the Gump! Backpacks, lunchboxes... I've been busy! The boys are at Gigi's for the afternoon so hopefully I can get caught up. Mallory & I just ran out to the PO, bank & Starbucks - I haven't had one in about a week. I tried one at the IP coffee shop but they are NOT the same as Starbucks. They all have their cute little name for "frappaccino", but they are NOT THE SAME (trust me)!! SB has a new promo going on where you buy a drink before 2:00 and get a coupon for another (cold grande) drink after 2 for $2. My receipt said 14:00 on the dot so I wonder if that counts as before 2? I wonder if you can go in w/ a friend at 1:59 and order one, get the coupon and your friend orders another at 2:01?

Better get to monogramming! Still working to pay for the Grace photos! I can't wait to get them. Then I'll be working to frame them! Jeff has informed me that I need to be saving for Christmas. It is 135 degrees outside so it's hard to think about it, but I'm already seeing stuff in the stores. We baptized Browder right before Halloween in 2003 and Sturbridge had a big fat Christmas Wreath up at the clubhouse where we had lunch!! What happened to the weekend after Thanksgiving? How did I get to blogging about Christmas??.....

Back from Biloxi

My lungs are still recovering from all the cigarette smoke in Biloxi, but we're back and had a fabulous time!! We stayed in adjoining rooms at the IP, which is very nice post Katrina!! Jeff said it used to be a dump. Interesting people there - don't think many of them have picked up an InStyle mag lately (we saw our share of mullets). Also lots of kids?! I just can't see me hauling Mallory, G & Browder to a casino hotel, but anyway. We bellied up to the budget friendly buffet Fri. night at the Isle of Capri (11 bucks; highly recommend it), lounged by the pool all day Saturday on our "banana leaves", ate a yummy italian meal Sat night at Jezzeppi's and hung out at the Beau Rivage Sat night. There is a really fun bar there called Coast (crazy rules, but fun). The band (Ocean Club) was incredible!! These guys were young & cute & played Dave Matthews and a few other tunes that took us back to college. I have to say we did a little noodle-ing, as Jeff calls it. When the band broke we got to experience a real live (LA wannabe) DJ. Usually the DJ is in a booth somewhere and you don't see him/her. This guy rolled out his DJ cart and did all the cool DJ stuff. He wasn't as cool as he thought he was but it was entertaining!! One of the girls in our group is from Biloxi, so her parents cooked us up a seafood FEAST yesterday on our way out of town. Needless to say I was asleep by 8:20 last night. Great weekend!