Mel's Box of Chocolates

A couple weeks ago I decided to tackle my flower weed beds in the front yard. I have two at the end of our driveway and one big wraparound one by my house. You wouldn't believe the kinds of weeds I can grow. So I grabbed my gloves, a big trash can, a kneeboard, a bottle water, and my camera of course to get it done. Here are the before: Here are the after: I guess really this is only part one...now I have to plant some flowers and mulch to finish it. Maybe I'll get it done in time for next week's tackle. So what did you tackle this week?

So I mentioned my $100 EZ pass offense , but thought the story deserved it's own post. Before heading to Philly on Friday I had to drop off my Tahoe at the dealership because something was wrong with the 4 wheel drive. I was thinking I wouldn't worry about it till the fall until I realized that I had to have my 4 wd to drive on the beach. Since we drive on the beach a couple times a week to go surf fishing this of course was a problem. Anyways, I went ahead and got an appointment for Friday. The dealership was kind enough to give me a rental car to keep for the few days the truck would be in the shop. So on my way by to Philly I exchanged cars and continued on my way. When making my way to Philly I took a toll road with two toll booths. These tolls are part of the EXpass system where you have transponders in your car so you can take express lanes through the booths without stopping. The transponders then charge your account. Do you see where this is going??!! We have transpo...

If you don't read Musings of a Housewife you really must. She is full of fashion advice for the mom trying to stay hip. Her latest fashion musings were about jeans and I will be relying on her advice when I go to search for my fall pairs. Anyways, I had the privilege of meeting Jo-Lynne in real life at the Philly Blog Meet-up on Friday. She looked absolutely perfect in a beautiful green shirt (I am totally into the summer green that is out this season!!) and dressy jeans. A true fashionista! Now if you read about my adventures to Philly on Friday you may take note that I was originally hoping to be early so I could pop into Target. What I didn't say was that my hope was to find a new cute purse to go with the dress I wore that night. Why did I want a new purse? Well, all I could think about was how when I first started reading Musings Jo-Lynne had commented how she couldn't stand it when people carried purses that had patterns (Vera Bradley) that completely clashed with t...

On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet the Philly Mom's Blogger Group for dinner at Buca Di Beppo in Exton. Now you know that I live in Delaware, but I have been very curious about blogger meet ups so I decided to have an adventure and do the drive to meet some new people. I plugged the address in my GPS and it told me that it should take about 2 1/2 hours to get there. Not that bad! So I got a sitter, put on makeup, got dressed up, and started the hike. I left at 2:00 thinking I'd be there in plenty of time that I may even be able to stop in to Target to spend a birthday gift card. Now I did have to make one stop to drop off my truck to get the 4wd serviced, but that took about 15 minutes and my rental car and I were back on the road. I was going right along until I came to interstate where rush hour was in full speed or should I say full crawl! What should have taken me maybe another 40 minutes took me about 2!! I finally got to the restaurant almost FOUR hours later. I kep...

Saturday night Zoe had her first dance recital. She has been taking a dance/gymnastics class on Tuesday's when she and daddy are home together. This was my first time seeing her dance with her class. She was thrilled to be performing at "her" recital and couldn't wait to get on the stage. She had practiced her dance all day for my parents and was ready for the show. Me, on the other hand, not so ready... We got there early for check in and to find where her group would be meeting before the performance. I must say that I was completely unprepared for what I saw in the backstage room. My daughter is 3 and most of the kids in her group between 3-5. Yet, in that room you would have thought they were in their late teens, early twenties and getting ready for Miss America. There were nekkid little bodies running around getting dressed, hairspray fumes that would make anybody choke, makeup in every color imaginable, and sparkles for everybody!! It was quite an eye opening ex...

Arianne posted a Twitter Challenge to list 50 things that we like about ourselves. Here are my 50. I'm a mommy! I married my best friend I'm a great multi- tasker I'm good at my job (teacher) I'm a techie My blue eyes My hands I'm always up for an adventures I'm pretty easy going I get along with most people I speak my mind (sometimes I probably shouldn't, but...) I'm picture happy I would do anything for my family and friends I love to help people! I'm ambitious I'm a somewhat fashionable mommy...no mommy jeans here!! I'm a strong woman I'm organized I love that I love to read I'm getting better at blogging I know I can do anything I put my mind to I believe that possibilities are endless I love to learn I'm a beach girl I could easily live in the city I drive a Tahoe I'm a soccer mom I'm a shoe person I have over 20 pairs of flip flops I like to make people happy I'm pretty positive I lost 40 pounds I'm book sma...

Things have been so crazy around here I just realized I never posted the pix from when the kids and I visited New York over Memorial Weekend. This was the kids first time and it was neat watching their wide-eye amazement over the tall buildings, taxi cabs, and busy streets. Our day was non-stop as we visited some must see stores... First stop...American Girl! This is pretty much a must-do if you have a little girl. Zoe had brought her Bitty Baby (they were actually wearing their matching dresses, which was too cute) and we bought a new bathing suit for each of them so they would match on the beach this summer. Then we headed to Sephora since it was right next door where I treated myself to a couple birthday things including Philosophy's Birthday Party package of bath gels. Zoe was in heaven while in the store as all the make up was right at her level. As I was paying she had a blast trying on the blue eyeshadow...yes, she had it everywhere!! I was so busy trying to get her to no...