Changes can be a good thing!!

Well HELLO everyone!!  I've been gone for a while again, but doing good things for me and my family.  School got out in May and I ended the year with a promotion and a new business venture under my belt, and because of the second a belt that is a little smaller and getting smaller as the days go by!!   I'll tell you all about it!!

But a little about what else has been up.  The kids are growing by leaps and bounds, Ashie Jo will be in the forth grade next fall and Brandon will be in 8th grade!! Makes me sad that they grow so fast. Time slips away and they change everyday.  They are awesome kids and get along like best friends and I am so blessed for that.

I'll be in my forth year at the Middle School come Fall and will now be the Head Cook, moving up from Cooks assistant.  It's kind of scary but the gal that was the Head Cook is now the Kitchen Mgr, moving up with the retirement of the Kitchen Mgr that was there for the last 23 years!!  So I'll have lots of help still and we will learn new things together but also it's the same thing just in a new position!!   

And the reason for my waste line getting smaller is also my new business venture.  One of my very best friends since college, Sandy Moss, introduced me to AdvoCare in April.  She had been talking about "SPARK" on Facebook almost daily, saying how great it made her feel and that it was the next best thing next to sliced bread.  She talked about the 24 Day Challenge and how it helped her lose weight and inches and that she felt better than she had in years!!!  I was curious but somewhat skeptical of the product.  But I have been wanting to lose some weight for some time but just couldn't get it together enough to do it.  She messaged me on night and ask if I wanted to try AdvoCare?  Yes, I did but didn't know if I could afford it as I don't make a lot of money at my job, basically just buying food and that's it.  Well she made sure I could try it and got me stated.  I wanted to wait until school got out, May but this was April and she said .. "no you start as soon as you get the 24 Day Challenge Bundle".  Since I usually do as I'm told I did.  I got the box in the mail and started the very next day!!  I was leery of starting while working, we don't get but one break and are going from the time we get there until we leave!!  And since there is a cleanse involved was afraid that I'd be in the bathroom and not working!!  But Sandy assured me it would be okay!!  So I began on April 25 and in 24 days it really did change my life!!  I lost 20 lbs and 16 1/2" of unwanted fat!!!  And I feel better now than I have in years also.  The Spark drink  really is amazing and I recommend it to EVERYONE I tell about it.  It is an energy drink that if only 45 calories and not a lot of caffeine but loaded with tons of vitamins that are good for you.  You really can tell the difference once you drink one you will be hooked,,, in a good way.  Even my Trucker Man loves then and has lost over 15 lbs himself and is notching his belt a little tighter these days too.  I became a Distributor within 2 weeks of trying AdvoCare and have made it to Advisor level.  There is opportunity to make money with AdvoCare along with feeling so great you can also make some money selling it to your friends and family.  The best part is that the company doesn't require you to sell a thing, so if you become a Distributor you automatically start saving 20% on all the products for yourself.  This product sells itself really.  Once you tell people how great you feel and they actually see it with their own eyes how great you look and feel they want to know what you are doing.  I Spark them... give them a packet of Spark and it usually turns into them wanting to try the other products.  These are supplements you should be taking for your overall health anyway.  If you need it AdvoCare has it if you don't need it they don't carry it.  They have a trim line, a wellness line and a line for Performance Elite for the body builders out there.. If you are interested than click on the link above and check out the company.  They are a fly by night company, they have been around for over 20 years and have lots of information for you on the site.  Or message me and I'll help you with anything you might want to know.  It's been amazing for me and my kids sure do like the new better me!!  Ladies if you have hormonal headaches, I DID... but honestly I haven't had ONE headache since I began and I was a 6 pill a day girl before.  I can't tell you it will get rid of yours but I has been well worth it for me and it sure couldn't hurt to try.  As you can tell I'm sold on the product and will use it from now on.  I'm still losing weight even after the Challenge and I am currently down 30 lbs since April 25th!!  I'll do another cleanse in Aug and keep my inside feeling as great as my outside!!

One of my besties Tanya, of Bead & Needle is also on the product and she is doing amazing!!  I just go to see her this week, she was in Denver visiting her parents and we got to take my kids to the zoo for the day.  It was a great day and I love her so much and am so happy she is feeling as good as I am and looking even better!!  If you want to check out my AdvoCare micro site, I encourage you to do so. Lots of good information there.  Please use my name to get to my page under the "find a distributor" link  JOLEEN LOCKE or my Distributor #130455450.  Get some Spark!! You won't be sorry!!!

The pic on the top is my kiddos and Tanya and this one is Tanya and me!!  

 Well I've gone on long enough but I'll be checking in more.  When you have good things in your life to blog about it makes it easier to blog!!!  Until next time!!    I'll post more pictures of my our zoo trip soon!! 

Vintage Country Style & Bead & Needle Giveaways!!

Slow but sure I'm getting back on here...So I'll post another giveaway from a fellow blogger and my Sis Tanya of bead and needle!!  Vintage Country Style is giving away patterns, she has amazing patterns so go check out her blog and get a free pattern to create something awesome!!

And also go check out my "Sis", Tanya, we aren't really sisters, but actually get along better than most sisters!!  She has one of the most amazing, creative and beautiful blogs around, just like her. 

It's Bead & Needle.  She is giving away some really pretty potholders but also gives you step by step directions to make your own...aww just enter the giveaway.. I want her to do the work!!  lol.. They are very pretty and she does amazing thing with beads too!! Such a talent!!  Love you sis..

So until next time....

Yes I'm still ALIVE!!! I had to post this!!!

Yes I'm here, I have been AWOL for way to long!!! I miss posting but just don't get it done!! I'm still working at the Middle School as a cook's assistant and am glad I have a job but don't love it but I don't hate it either!!  I am thankful for the income and I get to work with some great people!  Some day my Trucker man will win the Lotto or I'll go on Wheel of Fortune and win big so I can quit and stay home and sew again!!  
The giveaway!!!  Sweet Meadows Farm has always been one of my favorite doll makers and she is having a great giveaway!!  She is giving a pattern a month away for 2013!! Wow, now that would be a good reason to get back to sewing!!.. Go check it out here for several changes to win!! Click on the link for your chance!!! http://sweetmeadowsfarm.blogspot.com/

Good luck and I'll try and check back...my kids have grown a lot since I last posted and I'm sure I could find a picture or two to share!!  

Thanks for stopping!!

Old Grey Mare Giveaway...worth a look!!!

Well I'll start by posting again, so much for my trying to get this done every week...been a short, busy summer!!! But what better way to begin again than with this wonderful mega giveaway hosted by old grey mare , she asked some of her bff's to help her out and they have all stepped up and donated some wonderful items for the giveaway.

http://oldgreymareprimitives.blogspot.com/

My BFF Tanya, bead and needle is one of the contributors to this giveaway and I will be bragging very loudly if I win even one of the items offered by ANY of these artists!!  So go check it out, you won't be sorry you did because even if you don't win, you get to discover these talented ladies blogs which was a treat in itself!!! Who knew there were so many!!!  So go now, scoot on over and tell her I sent you!!! 

Where in the world have I been????

My oh my it has been a day or two since my last blog post!!!  I wish it was as easy to post on here from my phone as it is to Facebook!!  tee hee..  I have been busy with end of school stuff and then the kids both have summer courses that we are doing.  Ashley in Puppetry and also playing T-Ball and Brandon took a golf class that he loved and he wants to take his dad on now for a game or two..

School is out so I am back home too!!!  I love my job but love being here with my kids too!!  Brandon is moving to MIDDLE SCHOOL!!! Oh my goodness where has the time gone!!!  He is a little nervous and had a hard time his last day of school!! The unknown of it all is getting the best of him.  But I think it will help that I will be down the hall in the kitchen most of the day!! I hope so anyway!! 

I know, I know I still don't have pictures of my aprons that I need to post, but I have fabric for more, so when I get them done then MAYBE I'll post them all at once!!  

I'm so excited, today is my 13th wedding anniversary!!! 13 years on the 13th..must be lucky or a blessing!! As my friend Judy said, " there is no such thing as luck, just blessings"... well I hope she is right!!!  We celebrated on Sat with the kids.. yup no romantic dinner for us.  My trucker man left it up to me.. I opted to take the kids!!  They are our heart and soul and are the reason we are a family so they got to go with us.. just pizza and ice cream for our fancy dinner!!   But what I'm really excited about, don't tell my trucker... is that tomorrow I get to meet up with my dear, dear friend, Tanya, a Colorado girl that now lives in the desert and Chris and her sister from Missouri!!!   I 'meant' both these crazy girls in an eBay group now we are fast friends and feel like sisters that don't fight!!  tee hee..  Tanya and I meant up last year and had the best time, well we talked Chris into coming clear out west to meet us and we are going to go junking and then staying in Central City, CO for a night at the casino and maybe even a midnight stroll through the haunted cemetery, that one may require an adult beverage or two before we are brave enough to do that!!!   

Well, I still have a million and one things to do before Ash's game tonight and then off to my mom's for the night where the kids get to stay for a couple of days and the Trucker Man still have to stay home and work..hey someone has to stay home and feed the fish!! lol..

Here are a couple of pictures of our Brandon on his last day as a 5th grader!!! We are so proud of him and Ash too!!  She's moving on to 2nd grade...not that she liked the idea of not getting the same teacher again.. but she will do great!!!

Hugs to you all and vacation pictures hopefully next week!!! 

Trucker man and Brandon!!!   He surprised Brandon and got to come to the Celebration!!! It was a good day!!

Me and my boy!!!  I love him SOOO MUCH!!!  I'm very proud of him!!!

Brandon's last day at Campbell!!! On to Middle School!!!

Check out this....Primitive Echoes - Treasures of the Past Giveaway

Primitive Echoes - Treasures of the Past: My first Giveaway: "I think it is about time I got in gear and did my first giveaway. I keep saying to myself, 'do it tonight' but then life sucks me in and I f..."

Hair nets and aprons..

Well, it has been a day or two since my last post..As is touched on in my last post, I got a job as a 'cooks assistant' at the Middle School here and absolutely love it! Yes, I'm a LUNCH LADY!!! But a nice one I So I don a hair net and apron everyday.  I have been busy sewing aprons for myself since I didn't have but one and they don't supply aprons that are cute!!  Only dull white one!!! So I have made myself four new aprons and have two more that I ordered but aren't here yet ... gotta try and look good, even with a hair net!!  lol . My BFF Tanya sent me a cute pattern and a book full of aprons patterns so I need to try a couple of them out too!! Thanks Sis.. love you most!!.. I work with three other very nice gals and I am really enjoying it.  I only work 4 1/2 or 5 hours a day, I don't have to go until the kids are on the bus and am off before they get home, so it is perfect for them and me!!  I won't have to work in the summers or any vacation or other days the school kids have off!!  I sure won't get rich but it's a little spending money and some well needed ADULT time for me.  I do miss being home and my routine here, but it has been good for me.  It helps I like the ladies I work with and the kitchen mgr told me today she sure was glad she picked me!! Any vote of confidence it a good thing. I am having to get used to being on my feet so much, but it is getting better, I sure do sleep good at night!!  I do need to get busy sewing a special order for a friend of mine, but she is being so great and not rushing me.  It snowed here today so it will be a good weekend to do some stitching!!  I'll get them done Bonnie!!! tee hee.

I hope to be know as a nice lunch lady not like this gal!!! LOL... I did have a student tell me he liked me because I'm nice to them and don't yell all the time!!!  So I guess I'm doing okay!! :O)

Well, it's Friday night so I get the night off from cooking..so I guess I'll head to town to get some dinner!!

Have a good night... 

7 Things About Me!!

One of my best friends EVER, Tanya of Bead & Needle tagged me on  her blog, so I’m playing along, it just took me a few days to figure out 7 things about me that you might actually want to know.  I live a simple, kind of quiet life with my kids and my Trucker hubby, he isn’t very out going and I on the other hand an VERY outgoing, so how we got hooked up in beyond me.  So over the past 12 years instead of him coming more of his shell, I just don’t go like I used to, some because I don’t like to go alone and maybe more because of financial boundaries!!  It’s not fun being poor!!  But I am rich in many more ways so it’s all good.  Okay now the 7 things I thought maybe you wouldn’t necessary think of when you think about me.

1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE antiques, my house is NOT full of them but I wish it was.  One of my best days last summer was when I finally got to meet Tanya and we just spent the day at an antique mall in Denver, we had the best time and it felt like we had known each other forever and it was just a nice,nice day and I can’t wait to spend more time with her this summer!! LOVE YOU!!

2. & 3. My trucker husband tells me all the time that I should be the truck driver in our family, I am a night owl, but also an early bird.  Don’t know why, but I don’t require a lot of sleep.  Maybe it was all those years of shift work but I can go with very little sleep.!!

4. I’ll admit it, I’m a big ole cry baby!!!  I cry at the weirdest things,  commercials, soap operas, greeting cards, or just kind words, I’ll cry at the drop of a hat.  Not a good trait I admit and it isn’t one I have outgrown as I have gotten older!!

5. Yes I was cheerleader, nothing like the ones in the picture above but none the less I wore the skirt and sweater and cheered for the Prairie Mustangs.  I can from a very small school and it was one of those things that if you didn’t partake in most of the groups then there wouldn’t be a group.  I graduated from a class of 14, so that should give you some idea the size of the school!!  I think my senior year there were 180 students and the was K-12!!  But I loved it, we were one big family!!

6. I love, love, love volleyball.  I played in high school and college and on several city league and intramural teams.  If it weren’t for my knees hurting so much I would still be playing as much as I could.  I played when I was preggers with Brandon and Ash, but since then I  haven’t played much.

7. I really like hearts,  I made the banners in the pictures for my Ash, she said I didn’t have enough  Valentine’s decorations.  But hearts have always been a favorite of mine.  Our wedding cake was even heart shaped, and I have them worked into my décor  in most of the rooms of my house.

Well there you have it, 7 things about me that you may not have know. I think I am suppose to pass this on to ten other bloggers, but I’ll leave that up to you…. If you see this post and want to play along , do it and let me know and I’d love to come read 7 things about you!!  Thanks Tanya, this was fun, I did think of a couple other things but didn’t want to get to carried away.. lol

Love you girl, I hope to get to going on some sewing so please keep checking  back to check out my things, I’m going to really try to get some things on ETSY soon..

Oh and I just got a job too!!!! I’m going to be an assistant cook at the Middle School here, not a lot of pay, but great hours.  I only work 4.5 or 5 hours a day, so I can still get the kids on the bus and be home when they get home and I will be home for holidays and in the summer!!  Perfect for them and me for now!!

Birthday, Bowling & Basketball!!!

Seems like forever since my last post, I guess I've just been busy!!

Ash had her 7th Birthday on the 19, it would have been my Grandpa Kings 107th!!! She had a great day, besides having a bout with the flu bug and missed some school that week, but she got her cowboy boots she wanted and I made her a Tiger that she requested and then on Saturday we surprised her and took her bowling for two hours.  Just the four of us!! It was fun and the kids loved all the bowling they got to do in two hours.  Brandon is playing basketball so we have been busy!!

Ash and the tiger I made her. She named him 'HUGGY' because she said he looks like he is going to HUG you!!

My beautiful kids. Ash now 7 and Brandon 11 !!  LOVE  YOU!!

She wanted to wear this so she wouldn't see where we were taking her for her 'surprise'.. I hope no one in town saw us, they might have thought we were bad parents!! lol 

My Trucker bowling for the first time since he was 11 or 12, we won't say how many years that is!!  He did great!!

Brandon waiting for that strike!!! He had a basketball game first, so he got a good workout that day!!

Such pretty shoes!!! 

Ash trying out this day glow orange ball!! 

Now he's getting the hang of it!!  What a fun day we had!!

Heart & Flowers

In my last post I had some fabric all set to make a special order lamp for my friend and good customer, Judy, in Florida and after a few unexpected delays..moms perm, me being sick, and on and on...lol... I finally got it done today and I must say I do like it a lot.  I wasn't sure about the greenery at first but now that is is all together I just love it and Judy approved to it will be headed to her kitchen in the morning. 

   

My trucker man is finally back to work, but still up in the air about his truck so I think all the stress of him not working and just no money in general has me sewing, I think mainly to keep my mind off things and I also go two sets of this Valentine's Day heart garland done today also!! My daughter, Ash didn't think we had enough decorations for Valentine's Day, I think after all the Christmas pretties, my sparse heart decorations weren't quite enough, so I made these up today just for her!!!  She was excited and said she loved them all and couldn't pick her favorite one!!  I also got a call for a quick mending job today so I made a little spending money today which is always a good thing!!!

   

Well, now that I'm back in the sewing mood, I need get busy and try to get some things on Esty and give that a try!!!