School Days!

It has been an amazing journey the last few weeks watching my children grow and adapt to the school environment. It has also kept me very busy with more schedules to keep up with than I can manage! I didn't realize what an emotional venture this would be either. From my daughter coming home singing "Acrobat & Alligator A says Ahhh" to my son telling me how he learned about Jesus dying on the cross for us and his feelings in relation to that to my son getting in trouble at school in his attempts to test his new teacher. What a journey this last few weeks has been, one that I am loving! 

The cutest hospital gowns I have ever seen!

We had to get two school physicals this year! They were all smiles before the shots... (Oh did I just say that awful word that strikes fear into the heart of all children?) Yes I did, and let me tell you that day shot fear into my heart as well. I don't know how I managed to hold Haily screaming to the top of her longs while trying to pull Quinten out from under a chair while he has a death grip on the legs of the chair. The whole time Quinten is screaming "I DON'T WANT SHOTS I DON'T WANT SHOTS I DON'T WANT SHOTS!!!!"

Whew that was a fun one, wish I had taken an after picture!

Hailey's Dress

This month is all about Hailey, her birthday is Monday and her party is next weekend. I have been scrambling all month to get everything ready for her big day. She is going to be 3 this year, I can't believe it. I could not stop looking at her today, she looks bigger more grown up. Life goes by too fast, it's sad because we don't even appreciate it all the time. In my heart I desire, or more so I long for a way to appreciate everything about life. A way to enjoy every single moment, every breath, every heartbeat. Life can be so stressful. I have definitely learned that over the last few years. The last month has been crazy, as you can see I haven't wrote in a while :(

Isn't there a way to get beyond the heart ache life brings and just look past it. I want to look past it instantly. Tonight I had a movie night with the kids, it was great we watched a Veggie Tales movie, Dave & The Giant Pickle. It's the story of David and Goliath from the Bible. We also watched Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, the Johnny Depp version. (I still prefer the original) Anyway we had movie snacks and snuggles it was a great time. Afterwards I took the kids upstairs for bed, suddenly Quinten turned into a very unappreciative and rude kid. It rubbed me the wrong way and I snapped at him. After put Hailey to bed I went in and had a talk with him, a good mom and son talk. A talk that was patient and I explained why he shouldn't have done what he did. In that moment I thought to myself, wow this is such a great way to discuss this with Quinten why couldn't I have done that in the first place, why couldn't I instantly look past the frustration??? I still don't have the answer to that question but it is what I want to achieve...

Speaking of Veggie Tales, follow the links to PART 1 and then PART 2 of A Snoodle's Tale. I absolutely LOVE this episode. Each part is only 7 minutes long and you have to watch both of them. Every time I see this it makes me cry, it touches my heart in a way I can't explain. I guess it makes me think about how many kids feel the way this little snoodle feels and about how God really sees us. Anyway its a fantastic little show with some valuable life lessons.

So I know my title was Hailey's dress so I guess I better explain that... Part of the reason I have been so busy is because I am making a lot stuff for Hailey's birthday party. I made this. The pattern is by Pink Fig and I have had it and all of the material laying around for 2 birthdays now, but I finally did it!!! I am so proud of myself for making this dress, it was A LOT of sewing and using new techniques I had never done before. It looks so great! Here is Hailey trying on the dress and the bows I made her.

Princess

What a little princess! This was Hailey at my moms over the weekend!

Finally!

Oh blog, how I have missed you!!! I have been so busy with the holiday and being on vacation I haven't had a moment to blog :(

As promised here are the burp cloths I made for my friends baby shower. I just love the Twilight shirt! Speaking of Twilight I got to do the triple play Twilight viewing with some friends on the opening night of Eclipse. We saw all three movies back to back in the theater! Almost 8 hours of Edward Cullen... Ohhhhh what more can I say!

Busy Busy...

Hi blog! I have been super busy reorganizing lately which explains why I have had not time to blog! My  friends baby shower was this weekend too so I will post pictures very soon of the cute creations I made her!!! Hope you are all staying cool this hot hot weekend!

WTF???

What is this mess??? My sewing machine totally crapped out on me tonight, OK for real it was probably user error!!! I am still trying to finish up my sewing project for my friends baby shower. Tonight the hubby is out and the kids are asleep so its a perfect time to wrap this up, or so I thought. I get my machine all ready, type in the letters and let it do its magic. While I am waiting for the embroidery to be done I start trimming up the backing of another little gift I made, the next thing I know my machine starts to sound like a jack hammer. I snap out of my daze and realize that my embroidery hoop has slipped off of the material and now it is sewing like it's on crack, not just any crack the serious stuff as you can tell by my picture!!! No big deal right, one little hand made gift down the drain. Not so much see these are going to be a set of 6 but I already messed another one up the other night so I thought hey a set of 5 isn't bad. NOW A SET OF 4, I can't live with that. I am going to have to go buy more supplies and make it right before next weekend. Moral of the story, don't let your sewing machine do drugs, or make sure you put the embroidery hoop on correctly before you start sewing!

Crafty

Sorry for my absence this week, I have been super busy! There has also been some serious magic going on in the craft room! (Not that kind of Magic!!!) My friend is having her first baby and her baby shower is comming up in about a week. Here is a sneak peak at what I have been working on. I can't show the finished products until after the shower so a peak is all you get for now :)

This was a small fraction of the scene down town today as we stood waiting for our team picture to be taken at the Race for the Cure.

Quinten and I woke up at 5:30am this morning threw on our clothes and headed out the door. After a quick stop to get water and a few snacks we were at the Metro link station waiting for my coworkers. I soon found out that I was at the wrong station but it didn't really matter, we got on and met them there. As I rode on the Metro link it was so awesome to see all of the supporters and survivors pile into the train. A few stops in some young girls hopped on with home made shirts that read "Save the Tatas", "I love Boobies" and my favorite "Save Second Base".

Quinten and I walked the 1 mile fun walk. I know you can't really understand from this picture but the sea of people walking was AMAZING!

There was even a turtle in the walk!

I was on Team Bread head, a local radio DJ. He was talking about how awesome breast cancer survivors are and stated "If breast cancer survivors were in charge of fixing the oil spill in the Gulf they would have had that hole plugged up in 36 hours!" oh yeah!!!

Here are a few pictures of us:

I think the sun really got to me today though, I was soooooo hot I felt like I was going to pass out. I felt really sick when I got home and all I could think about was a cold shower. I was so out of it in fact that after the cold shower I walked out on my porch and realized I had locked my car and it was still running. Thank GOD for a spare key!!!

It was a great morning, its always such a moving and emotional event for me to be a part of and I love that Quinten loves to go with me. I have done absolutely nothing for the rest of the day but relax. And now I am off to have some quiet time with the hubby!

Ready to Race!

The Race for the Cure is tomorrow and I am mentally prepping myself to get up at the crack of dawn with my son and head to the metro link where my co-workers will be there half awake as well waiting for the ride to down town.

I try to do the Race for the Cure every year if I can and last year was the first year I took my son. It was really great to be there with him and even though he is only five I think it had a memorable impact on him.

I almost wasn't going to go this year because June is absolutely insane for us but last minute I decided I couldn't miss it and Quinten was completely stoked when I asked him if he wanted to get up super early with me and by super early I mean earlier than we get up for school. But he was all shaking his fist in the air with excitement and so tomorrow we will spend the morning walking for a great cause!

This year is going to be especially touching for me, you see my uncle died in April from cancer. He had been fighting it for a few years and we all saw him deteriorate, only on the outside though. My uncle was one of the strongest men I have ever met. A few days before he died he was told the only way he could live was to go on life support, Glen did not want that and he was in too much pain. He called all of his family to the hospital and we said our last words to him while he was still alive.

I have never said goodbye to someone who was still alive and I don't know that I did a very good job either. I mostly stood there and soaked in his bravery and honored the moments he had left. What a way to go, to be able to literally tell your loved ones your last words when you know time is so short. That experience amazed me.

Glen tomorrow I walk for you and our family... We miss you and love you...

MC Mom

I've decided to share this with the world: Today I realized my mother is really a 15 year old stuck in an adults body! How do I know this you ask. Well today when I was talking to her on the phone she was describing her lunch to me and I was appalled by the words that came out of her mouth: "That tuna was the BOMB!" Really mom did you just refer to something as THE BOMB, I am half your age and don't use that phrase.

On the serious side my mom is very young at heart and I completely admire that about her.

I hope that when I am in my fifty's I can still roll my windows down and attempt to sing raps songs.

Fundraising!

So Rob, my husband recently got a new vehicle and had to get the plates and do all that fun registration stuff. The story of his experience is just too funny not to tell so here it is!

Rob calls me on my way to work all excited because he can get everything he needs to get done at our local DMV which is about 5 seconds from our house. In fact as he was calling me he was getting a breakfast sandwich at McDonald's and heading across the street to park and wait for the DMV to open. His exact statement was "I am going to get all of this done so fast, I am already here and I will be the first person in when they open the doors!" I probably should have reminded him not to count his chickens before they hatch...

I remind my husband that he forgot to pay his personal property tax at the beginning of the year and he doesn't have the bill with him so I am pretty sure he will have to go to City Hall to do that. "No, I can get everything done right here." OK babe call me when your done.

Not to long after that I get another phone call and in a frustrated tone Rob ask "Is our zip code in the City or the County?" Now most people would probably know this but our house is right on the property line of the city and the county so its pretty weird, our back yard is county and our front yard is city. We actually have a county zip code but are considered city. Confused yet? See why he asked! So I reply "Oh you have to go to City Hall huh???" I didn't but should have asked "So I was right HUH???" but I could tell he was aggravated so I didn't push the envelope.

Call # 3 is ringing in and who do you think it is? My husband, he is at City Hall he has paid his personal property tax and is at the DMV counter. Picture this: A woman holding license plates for a new vehicle, a man ready to be done with registering his car, the total is given it comes to $85.13, the man pulls out his cash and there is only $83.00.

No big deal right he can use his credit card, oh wait he doesn't have it on him. Well there is the check book, oh yeah that's at home. OK so he tells the woman he is going to go to the ATM to hold onto the plates for a minute. This is the point where I get the call, the call where he tells me he can not remember his code to his ATM card!!!! HAAAAA

Now in my husbands defense we did just get new cards mailed to us about a month ago and neither of us have had time to go by the bank and change our pin number to something we will remember. So I tell Rob to go look for change in his car and call me back. Call # 4 is to tell me he only had $1.13 in change in his car so he is still short a measly dollar!

My suggestion to end this agony, leave city hall with all your paperwork, go to the bank and get money out then finish up at the DMV by our house. Do you think he listens to me, do you think he wants the agony to end???? NOPE!

Call # 5, the lady at the DMV counter gave him a dollar, that is very nice and surprising. So he is all done and I am happy for him but I have to ask one question "Ummm babe, how are you going to pay to GET OUT OF THE PARKING LOT????"

No it HITS THE FAN! I suggested to beg the person at the booth to let him through, send him a bill for the $2.00 it cost to get out of the lot and call me back.

Apparently the lady at the booth did not look like the forgiving type so rather than attempt to beg his way out he stood in the lot and begged for $2.00! Fifty cents at a time and four people later he was finally able to end a nightmarish morning.

The moral of the story: Think like a woman and be prepared for any and all obstacles!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Sunday I finally decided to stop being lazy and go harvest the lettuce in my garden. I had a TON as you can see. It so exciting to eat food from your own back yard. I don't know why but I get such great satisfaction from growing veggies in and eating them out of my little corner of the world. The kids  really like it too, in fact Quinten told me the other day he was going to have a huge garden when he grows up. I asked him what was going to be in it and he named every fruit imaginable and one lone vegetable, corn. Its the only kind the kid eats...

I was able to split up the lettuce in a few bags and share some with the neighbors which felt nice since they are always lending out a spare egg or something if i need it. (Mom when your read this don't get mad because I didn't send any lettuce your way, I'm saving some tomatoes for you!) The kids even helped me clean it which was a pretty fun process. Since sibling rivalry is at a peak in our house I had to enforce strict turn taking rules when it came to washing the lettuce, in the end it was pretty neat to watch them get so involved.

Later that night my husband barbecued and I made a side of deviled eggs and corn bread muffins to accompany our meat. I added a few black olives and some fresh chives from my friends back yard garden, oh man don't these look YUM!

A Late Bloom

I have been waiting to see the beauty of two perennials we planted about a month ago. They are finally here!

So the Weekend... Part Two

Before continuing on with my weekend have you ever noticed that bumper stickers speak the truth sometimes? I notice this often actually. So today I had to go to my moms and while I was there my sister and I had a little tiff, it was pretty dumb actually however I was still a little worked up when the kids and I left the house. I drive about a block and right there in my face on the back of an SUV are the words "THINK GOOD THOUGHTS" I was like OK universe what are you trying to tell me, let go of the family drama and move on with my night...

OK had to get that out now for Sunday and Monday. On Sunday we mostly relaxed, after the wedding Quinten was running a fever and although it was gone on Sunday I didn't want to over exert him. My husband went out and bought a new American flag for our house, why you ask was our other one ripped, broke tore? Nope the other one is in perfect condition but it was missing the clamps so rather than buy clamps my husband bought a WHOLE NEW FLAG! "It was on sale only $10, remember how much I paid for the other one because its an all weather flag" he said. So he bought a new flag just to get the clamps off of it and put the same one we had back on our house. Then there was a whole debacle over whether or not we should post up two flags. Here are some pictures of the flag fun :) I love the one of Chewy, he looks drunk!

After the flag drama we went out and purchased a fire pit. Rob has been wanting one for a while and now we have one. That night we had our neighbors and their two kids over to roast marsh mellows and make somre's. This next picture was just too hilarious not to share. (I think this could be called Sugar Overload!)

That pretty much closed out our Sunday. Memorial day we barbecued with our neighbors. They went out and got a slip n slide for the kids to play on while we cooked. So there was lots of shopping for food, cooking the food, setting up tables and tents to eat under then what happens the storm moves in. Here come the black clouds the tent is starting to sway in a manner that says I will not protect your food so you better move your butts inside. We hustled to move all the food, tables, kids and parents across the street to my house. We did it and then it poured. The food was great, my neighbor really knows how to season a steak YUM!

So finally we closed out Memorial day with another game I have not played in a long time, beer pong :) We did it very redneck style, moved a table into the front yard and started pouring the beer! We had several rounds and might I add the girls won most of them or so it seemed until the last two games. The final score was 4 to 4. It was pretty hysterical what happens when you play beer pong in your front yard, the advantages are no beer gets spilled in your house. However their were some pretty odd characters passing by. Let's see we had a couple cars roll down our street shouting "Hell Yeah" another group of about 10 people I have never seen in our neighborhood walked by and looked at us like they were watching the Twilight Zone or something. The best was our newest neighbor though, we don't know much about her yet but she drove by and slurred out the words "Is that there what they call that beer pong?" CLASSIC! LMAO!!! 

A few more pictures of the kids for you!

So the weekend... Part One

So this weekend was not like our average couple of days off between the work week. Friday night started out with a bang, and by a bang I mean I was puking by 2am, now let me clarify that I DO NOT DRINK MUCH! So we got a babysitter for the evening and hung out at our friend Cory's house. Typically this would be a night of Texas Holdem however we all decided to play a drinking game that we have not played in years. Apparently I do not pace myself well, hence the I don't drink often part. At any rate after several rounds  I stretched out on the couch, tried the bread, crackers and water method. That didn't work. Next thing I know someone goes in the bathroom and I have to throw up! Oh man what do I do now puke on the floor, under the couch? Quick I need to find a bucket or something!!! I made it to the front yard and that was as good as I could do. Several minutes later and I felt a lot better. So we left picked up a pizza from Elicia's I ate a little and passed out. How my  husband got me off the couch I still haven't figured out!

The next day we had a wedding, my husbands cousin was getting married. Oh man the look on the grooms face when his bride was coming down the isle was priceless. He was almost in tears, its so fun to watch young love :) Here is a picture the adorable couple.

It was so awesome too because they really thought about how many kids are in the family. Robs aunt had a baby sitter for the wedding. Yes let me repeat that because it is amazing, a baby sitter for during the wedding! That was great because I was a little terrified that my daughter would have an outburst during the I Do's. At the reception the bride had made these cute little wedding day coloring books for each kid and had a box of crayons for all the little gals and guys, that's cool shes gonna be a good mom when that day come! Anyway it was a great day and really nice to see a sweet couple come together forever!

It's getting late so tomorrow the weekend part two!

Happy Memorial Day

WOW! What a great weekend! I will tell you all about it tomorrow... When I can type :) Happy Memorial Day!

How Sweet It Is

Last night I did my usual rounds which includes re-tucking the kids in once they are asleep and kissing them good night again. When I went into Quinten's room he looked so adorable. His little stuffed animal was neatly tucked into his shirt. It was the sweetest thing! I couldn't resist taking pictures...

After A Storm...

Driving home tonight was insane. I drive about 8 miles to my sitters house and then another 25 to work. I know boo hoo some people drive an hour or more, but still traffic in St. Louis is crazy because no one knows how to drive when the sun is out and if its sprinkling HOLD THE PHONES people the world is over, rain is falling. So anyway I only had about 6 miles to go and what (hold that thought the cat is throwing up... OK I am back now, I just gave my cat some can food and well he likes to gorge himself so he pukes up everything he just ate and then proceeds to eat more! Can cats be bulimic?)

Where was I oh 6 miles to go and what happens a freakin TORRENTIAL DOWN POUR. Traffic stopped and my joyful drive was over. Now it was raining pretty bad, I couldn't see the lines very well so I could appreciate the stopping traffic. However it took forever to get to my sitters house because I was driving at turtle speed.

So I get home with the kids and the rain hasn't reached our house yet so the kids get about 10 minutes of trampoline time and here comes the down pour again. So much for outdoor play today. Then we had dinner, painted a bit and my husband came home. I went on our front porch for a break and this is what I saw:

The most beautiful and vibrant rainbow I have ever seen in my life. It was actually a double rainbow but the top one was too light to fully catch with my camera. The brightest of the two rainbows had like 7 distinct layers of color, I have never seen this usually they look like 3 colors running into each other. Not this one, this one was defined with individual popping colors. I yelled for the kids and my husband and we all sat in amazement at the sight of nature at its finest in front of us. This photo doesn't really capture the beauty of this, and instantly my kids were all "Dad, can you go get us a pot of gold?" Don't we all wish he could.

What a perfect ending to a crappy drive home. But life is like that isn't it, peace then down pours and finally something so stunning you cant believe its real!

Hope you found your rainbow today...

Free Paper! (A Cost Savings Idea)

Want to know a great way to get free paper for your craft of purpose? This is a great tip.... Call your local paint and wallpaper store and find out what they do when they are done with their wallpaper sample books. Most paint stores throw them away and will give them to you for FREE if you agree to pick them up at a certain time every month. Stores get new wall paper sample books with updated lines so they throw these books out on a regular basis. I get mine from the local Sherwin Williams. The books are HUGE and thick, the ones I have are about a 1 1/2 feet long by 1 foot wide. A lot of the books have some pretty cool textured wallpaper in there which can be lots of fun! Here is a card I made using some wall paper samples, some pictures of one of my books and a few of the pages inside of them. I want to try and hit up an upholstery store to see what they do with their sample books, oh the sewing that could be done from one of those :) I haven't got around to trying that one yet.