Is there anything else?

I am feeling rather triumphant in the chores to do before we go category. I have: filled the van, changed the wiper blades because when it rained you couldn't see at all, gotten my TB test, bought my baby shower gift for the shower I am missing on Saturday, washed a ton, purchased extra camera batteries, cleared all the photos off my camera so it is primed and ready, gone to the library and checked out a bunch of books on tape, sewed little pouches for my kids to wear under their clothes for their money/phone numbers (I know. I am a Frrrreak!), purchased snackage for the ride, set up a babysitter for Chloe and informed our neighbors about the mail. Is there anything else? What am I forgetting? I'm going to need a vacation to go on vacation.

Babies

Did I tell you that while we were at the wedding (see below) we saw the cutest baby. She was about 6 months and cooed and smiled at us. D turns to me and says "why don't we have another baby?" The rest of the night we talk about how much fun a baby would be and why we don't have six.

No, I don't think we are serious, but it is always fun to dream.

Wedding

We all went to a wedding this afternoon/evening. D had given this couple marriage counseling for months, weird I know, and today was the big day. The couple is super sweet and really fun.
I have never been to, please don't think less of me for what I am about to say, a wedding held at a steak house. There was a pretty little pond behind the steak house with a gazebo on a walkway out in the water. It was a very nice setting. We drove up and D looked around at the fellow wedding guests and looked at me dead pan and said "Man I should have brought something to chew on." He was BUSTING up trying not to say judgmental things. And now, in my own little blog world I can let loose.

May I just tell you that I have contemplated getting a tattoo before tonight, but could never decide on something I would want on my body for-evah. The guests at this little soirée displayed enough tat's to fill a wall at the tattoo parlor. This was a museum of tattoo-age. Bad tattoos. Scary tattoos. Weird tattoos. Every freakin person under 50 had at least 5 tattoos. And can I tell you that I don't think I will ever get a tattoo now?

Second? Can you say dentist anyone? At one point my darling husband and I were watching the bride and groom walk up the aisle for their departure and caught sight of a woman, maybe 5 years older than me, that had one tooth. ONE. No exaggeration. Right in the middle on the top gum. And since we were at a steak house weddin' the first thing out of my mouth was "How in the Hell is she going to eat her steak?" And she wasn't the only one with less than 5 teef in her mouth.

Next? Can you tell the waiters and busboys at the steak house to hold off on the garbage dump-age and metal pan throwing out the back door while there are wedding ceremonies taking place 50 feet away? D looks at me at one point during the wedding and mutters, "I hope they don't start the trash compactor too."

And? Cigarettes. I don't like them, but I am not super freaky about smokers smoking outside, just don't make me smell it and breathe it. This group had chain smoked until the wedding began, then stubbed out the butt and put it behind their ear for later (out of respect), and two seconds after the wedding they lit the butt. The one tooth lady who was about a size 00, drove her HUGE truck with a ton of weird people hanging out of it from the wedding site to the other side of the parking lot where the restaurant was, I walked faster than her truck and it was less than 100 feet total, chain smoking like she was trying to get oxygen and she'd been deprived for 10 minutes. I know, I know, we are highly snobby and tend to be people judg'ers. But it is so much fun since we are perfect and odor free.

The wedding was BEAUTIFUL. Her colors were orange, pink and fuschia which was stunning. The flowers were gorgeous. And the company? Excellent.

A Little of This and a Little of That

Today was run of the mill. I went to a quick breakfast with D, went to a meeting for potential substitute teachers at school, scheduled a TB test, shopped at Target and found a SUPER cute wooden beaded table runner for $3.74 (sorry Target.com didn't have a photo), then came home and worked on my Philosophy paper until I went to pick up the kids.

Now we are getting set up to eat dinner and watch some "Chuck" on DVD. Our kids LOVE Chuck and we never watched it during the first season. We love watching shows after they've aired so we don't have to deal with commercials and other stuff. We're weird.

Singing

Also yesterday...H's singing group performed in front (literally as well as figuratively) of the whole school. She sings in "Praise Band" with this small group of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Each week they lead the Chapel singing, but yesterday they performed at "See you at the Pole." I am quite amazed that she does these things and feels perfectly comfortable. Next week we (all four) are going to Washington DC with H's class for a field trip. We leave Thursday at 5:00 am (yikes!) and travel to DC, spend the day on tour, spend the night in a hotel, then tour again on Friday all day, then the rest of the class will go home and the four of us will stay the weekend and visit friends in Havre de Grace, MD (which I keep calling Huevos Racheros because I can't remember what the silly city is called).

Hopefully, too, which is really lame of me, we will also be able to visit IKEA since ours doesn't come until Spring '09, and I am Jonesen.

But I digress...we get to go to the Washington Monument with the class as well as a private tour of the Capitol Building! While H is on the rest of the tours, Bubba, D and I will go do a Smithsonian or two and the National Gallery. I can't wait!!!

Was He Abducted By Aliens?

Here is a picture of my bea-you-tea-ful girl at her party. We had the par-tay yesterday...I went to the kid's school and picked up a van load of 13 third and sixth grade kids. And I drove them to our church gym, where I was met by my darling husband who left work (gasp) arriving long before I came with the kids and D finished setting up the party without my asking (double gasp). The kids (17 by the time everyone arrived) played volleyball, skated, played dodge-ball, played X-Box DDR and Sponge Bob, and ate lots and lots of special junkie food that the kids picked out (pizza rolls, chips, cheese, apples, brownies, ice cream, sugar cookies, frosting, and candy toppings for the desserts. We all played hard (even D and I) and the party went by quickly. I had to take two of the kids back to school to meet their parent so D stayed behind and had the entire party cleaned up by the time I came back 15 minutes later (triple gasp).
This morning I was re-hashing the festivities with one of my friends and making the comment that D was really helpful and we had a great time (D took the kids to school this morning, too!) and lo and behold my husband calls me at work to tell me how much he appreciated all the effort I had made for the party and what a good job I had done. Was my husband abducted by aliens?

Robo Mom

I was going to go all techno girl on you and photoshop my face on Robo Cop's body, but my neck hurts too bad for the effort. My neck pain is back again, I usually go thru this two to three times a year, and I am Tylenol/Advil-ing myself through the day. Now I am, as D loving refers to my condition, Robo Cop. You know, the kind of person that can't turn to see something beside them without turning their whole body? My neck doesn't work. And believe me it is not fun. Maybe it's 'cuz I had stress puppies at work yesterday? After my crazy long Dental appointment with Bubba was done and I was FLYING across town to get to work (and stopping for the mandatory post-dentist patient milkshake) I walk in the door at work and "lice girl" is sitting on the floor outside my office. The accompanying teacher looked up at me like "here we go again." So I got to play phone tag with the physician that deemed her "lice free" that morning and wrote me a note stating so, and talking to caretaker again and breaking the bad news. This in the midst of all the other usual day at preschool crap. Neck pain? Yeah, it could be stress. Tomorrow's the kids burfday (another southernism) party after school and I am picking up 14 kids from school in the church van to supervise, make sure they don't kill each other, for 2 hours. Quite possibly stress related neck pain.

Not For the Faint at Heart

Do NOT scroll down to the pictures on this post if you faint at the sight of blood, or don't want to see something gross. Today the boys had two "procedures." First, Bubba had two teeth extracted. Scary long rooted teeth might I add. No wonder the poor boy doesn't loose teeth. The first was a molar that was abscessed by another tooth coming in on top of it (see the gross close up). Bubba was a trooper, and won the patient of the day award. I was a wimp, and didn't make the poor lad go to school because he was swollen, and wasn't supposed to elevate his heart rate. When he told me that I looked at the dentist like, "He's 8. What do you want me to do with him all day idiot?" So it was a DS and movie day. Bubba's favorite.

The second procedure, I will spare you the pictures-and yes there were pictures taken, was D's scary mole removals. One we lovingly call his third nipple, one on his temple that has grown crazy big suddenly and was the catalyst of the bunch, and one on his neck. D thought they'd be cut off, but she ended up freezing them off. D has never had anything frozen off before! I swear I have had warts and such frozen off for years, it almost seems like old technology.

Freebies

I was just blog bouncing and found this great site that has over 500 free designs. They are kind of deco-ish but very cool for bookplates (something I haven't done yet), Christmas cards or other I need a cool design thing. Check out Briar Press!

Lazy Saturday

This morning our neighborhood had a garage sale day...in the past it has been pretty good, but today it kids of stunk. My great/fun/cute find of the day was this new ceramic acorn knick-knack from Target. I have a TON of pumpkin stuff, I've always collected them for Fall, but now I think I am going to start adding some acorn pieces, here is my first. For 50 cents :)
Other than garage sale-ing we've done NOTHING today. It is kind of nice, but you know I can't sit still for long. Or should I say that my dining room table can't stay clean for long. So I got out the new Bernina and started a shirt for myself, and another tote bag, because I can never have enough. The tote bag is in the browns, and the shirt in the polka dot. I have made this shirt pattern twice for myself already, and once for H, so I decided to try it with some longer 3/4 sleeves for Fall. The pattern is SUPER easy and looks kind of retro with the right fabric. I've made it in a tropical print in blues, a brown almost native floral geo on cream and now in a longer sleeve in the polka dots. We'll see. I don't want people to notice that I have three of the same style shirt...so we'll see how it turns out.

And finally, on my day off yesterday, I shaved the dog again. She was starting to look a little mangy, and was starting to mat in her armpits, AND she's doing that scratching thing again. I read somewhere that Shih-tzu's are scratchy because they are allergic to red dye in their food, but I don't know if I trust the internet enough to change food. I'm too cheap. Chloe basically gets whatever food is on sale or I have a triple coupon for-even cat food. She's one of those dogs, maybe because she is a rescue dog, that will eat anything except nails.

AWANA

A friend of mine wrote on her blog today that she was having some concerns about her three boys attending an AWANA program. So I thought I would answer some questions about AWANA and do some 'splaining. My two have participated in AWANA since they were 3 or 4, and I have taught Preschoolers, Junior High and High School aged AWANA for about 5 or so years. I'm not bragging that I am in the inner-sanctum or anything, or that I think the boys should go, my intent is to provide info for you to make a decision.

Background: AWANA stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed. The Bible verse that represents the name/ties the Bible to it is 2 Timothy 2:15: Study to show thyself, approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. You can interpret this verse a few different ways. You can interpret it that you can gain information in different places, including the Bible, approving your belief in God, but you shouldn't be ashamed in whatever you believe.

As an AWANA leader in Rochester and Durham, the intent of the leaders is to present the Christian facts to the child, help them study the Bible and learn verses and let them make their own decision, hopefully accepting/believing in Jesus. The leaders/teachers are doing their part in their evangelism beliefs reaching out to the child, in turn reaching out to the family/parent in hopes that AWANA provides information to those that are searching for something or still trying to find their faith.

If the boys are going to First B...now I guess it is called Autumn Ridge, the program is very light...VERY social and low key. Autumn Ridge has so many kids, don't get me wrong-they do a great job of organizing, it's just that when I was there they were so busy going through the motions and trying to get all the "boxes checked" and not spending a bunch of one on one "Come to Jesus" time. Autumn Ridge's AWANA program is NOT reminiscent of a Hitler-Youth organization where they stand in formation, wear uniforms and pledge to the Christian Flag, the Bible and the AWANA flag. (That is the first 10 minutes at our church's AWANA).

Each AWANA is broken up into 3 segments. A council time-watching a video about people in a different country, making a scrapbooking project, having a Bible lesson, they do lots of different things. A handbook time-where they do their memorization and get AWANA dollars for work they learn (dollars are used to buy things at an AWANA store). The goal in handbook time is to finish segments of a book, then an entire book to eventually get thru the entire Bible from Cubbies to Varsity (preschoolers - High schoolers in layman's terms). Game time-they play dodge ball, soccer, prison break...all those crazy kids love. Basic PE time. The kids are broken up into age groups...if you are really interested in all that I could give you the low down.

The conclusion? I think Susan is right. I think you should talk to the Mom-invitee' and lay it on the line. Tell her what you believe and that you are not opposed to your boys going or making decisions on their own, but you feel a little guilty about the fact that your boys are participating in something that you aren't necessarily reinforcing at home and you feel a little like you are using her.

If I were the Mom I would be totally fine with that. I, Cara, have made the decision to support my kids in their choice of attending AWANA, I want to be there and be involved because I want to support the program, and I'm driving there anyway, so why wouldn't I provide a night out for someone else?

Heck, maybe I should add that this year in AWANA I only teach every other AWANA because I am selfishly going out to dinner with MY husband and pawning my kids off for a night alone with D. I know my relationship with D can always use some alone time, and I am sure that yours, and every other marriage, can always use some marital time. As I always remind my work-a-holic husband...we are going to be married long after our kids are in college and adults, we'd better work on our relationship now so we still like each other then.

20 Done!

Update on the school front:

Paper Magic class complete. Mailed the last package of assignments to the instructor today. Yipee! Hoping my dining room is back to operational soon.

Philosophy of Religion class under way. I have watched two out of three of the video's. Still need to read 5 books and write a 6 page paper. I'm expecting to be done by tonight :)

Slipping into Southern

Today, as I was speaking with a native of North Carolina I actually uttered the phrase "we might could get..." ??? It flew off my tongue without a moments hesitation. What the heck? The other day I asked if one of my co-workers might could go and get me a something-something. I swear I beginning to slip in to Southern. I would like to clarify that I would never get to the point that I would ever use the term " make my picture" for taking a photograph, or "cut off the lights" for turning off a light switch, or my personal all time Southern-ism favorite...."un-thaw the meat." I may be slipping into Southern, but I draw the line at un-thawing my meat.
Next thing you know I am going to be celebrating my birthday like this:

Wanted:

D and Bubba were watching the cooking channel this weekend and saw a chef they loved. The reason they were hooked on the chef, other than watching him in HD, was because he was wearing a shirt with the above statement. Now my husband and son are coveting the shirts. The problem? There is a site out there that has profane language in the web address under the Y (pigf***er). AND my husband is too cheap to spend the $20 a shirt.

Cruelty to Animals

Chloe is so humiliated in this picture that she won't even look at the camera. Or me. After asking my children their opinion on great birthday theme after theme (such as a "backward" party where everything is backward-streamers on the floor, cake upside down, singing song backwards...) they decided on NOTHING. So I decided to torture the dog and make their invites from scratch. So I took a pic of Chloe for the front, a picture of H & Bubba on the inside being goofy, and added some funny text to the inside: "my two smaller humans are having a birthday party..." and called it good.

On a crazier note, today was school picture day. Yesterday I realized that my darling H hadn't washed her hair for...lets just say we can't remember the last time...so I encouraged her to bathe. This morning. Before school. As she was sudsing her hair I realized that I did not have a hair dryer in the house. I lent it to VBS in July and had completely forgotten about it. Yikes! Wet hair. T minus 30 minutes. We went for the pig tailed (her idea) idea with hot roller'd tails to dry and curl the 'do.

A friend of mine was "helping" the photographer at school today (the same friend that co-directed VBS with me this year and made me give up my hairdryer!). She called me this afternoon to tell me that she was overseeing H's picture session when my friend went to fix her pig tail and H shouted "No! My Mom will kill me if anyone touches my hair." Good girl H!!!
I had given her strict instructions not to let anyone comb thru her hair sprayed hot rollery curls because I knew they would collapse in their crunchy state when combed. We made it!!!

Lazy Day

I spent the day suffering through my cold and trying to get this paper class done and sent out of my dining room. This has been the worst day of my first cold of the season and hopefully all the PO juice and Airborne I've consumed will kick in soon and I will be back among the land of the living soon. Everyone here is having a lazy napping Saturday, even Chloe, so hopefully when the other three get the crud they won't get it as bad. H and I have watched 6 episodes on Monk while I do the paper thing and she creates her own masterpieces of hole punching, while D and Bubba have lounged in the air conditioning of the bonus room watching movies on the new TV.

This morning at breakfast Bubba spotted something moving in the grass outside the kitchen and look what we had visit us:



We fed him lettuce and peppers, which he didn't eat, then watched as he high tailed it down to the woods. This turtle hauled! I love turtles, my favorite reptile, but was soon freaking out as to what other reptiles were lurching in the un-mowed tundra of the backyard. So when D got home from his breakfast at 10:00 he mowed the grass in the 90 degree heat. No wonder he spent the day in the air conditioning.

Stuff. The Day and All.

Chloe and her "pin-up" pose.
Chloe had another play-date with her 'Man' Bucky. Here she is trying to entice her man into spending the day with her.
I spent the morning working on my class work, then went to meet with the Principle of the kids' school to talk about my certification. Mr. M was very helpful and gave me some good news. He gave me the materials for one of the required classes, said he would sign off on my classwork (which is a hugely nice thing for him to do), asked me to create a log so I could track my volunteering to count toward volunteer work that he would sign off on, and asked me to teach two classes (very scary but very cool). Mr. M asked me to teach an after-school Art club in the winter 9 weeks and an Honor Society workshop for the 7th and 8th grade honor students.
Yikes!
After we left school in a daze of information, excitement and nerves we stopped at church to reserve the gym for a joint birthday party for Sam and Hannah.
Upon arriving home I received a work e-mail from an absolutely psycho parent making a (pardon my candor) STUPID/unrealistic request. She is going to pull out yet another 2 from my class, making my class schedule a nightmare. I gritted my teeth and wrote her a very nice e-mail denying her request.
And the highlight of my day?! An hour long phone call from a friend telling me some upsetting news, but then falling into our easy/I've known you forever/you know all my secrets/but I haven't talked with you in months conversation. Loved it! Miss her! Love the new haircut by the way.
AND!?! Found a new blog for everyone: http://www.skiptomylou.org/
(Scroll down a bit to the crayon carrier or click the sewing link and find cute stuff.)
Can anyone tell me the term, or do I need to make one up, what is the term when you are reading a blog and click their link, then another link and another and find a bunch of cool new blogs? Also for a laugh try: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Chloe is having a Playdate

Nothing to report here. Chloe is the only one with a social calendar in our family. Her husband Bucky (they were married last Summer in a small ceremony in the backyard by the neighborhood kids) is over because his humans are going from work to a baseball game. Bucky is Chloe's BFF.

Work was fine today. I am in charge of the labels at the kids' school and I am running a contest so I have a MILLION labels in the house to count and sort. Now I am label crazy and want them all counted and out of the house. I'm a little ADD or something, if you haven't noticed, and this labely thing has pushed the Art thingy to second place.

Give Me A Couch!

To furnish our new bonus room I have been looking on Craigslist off and on. I swear people are C*R*A*Z*Y. Here is an example of the crap that people are putting on Craigslist in my city. Am I actually going to pay for this couch?!!

The Beauty of the Internet

My girl H is the best girl in the world in my book. She is beautiful, smart and pretty darn funny. H has always excelled in school, and I have never had a problem with her schoolwork.

This year is her first year in Middle School. At her school there is a big push to "let your student become more independent." The kids transition from Elementary school where your parent signs your planner each night, to Middle School...no signing of planners...no walking them to class...no loitering around their class to talk with the teacher and become their new BFF. Nothing. They have 7 different teachers and they are independent.

Until now. I decided that I was going to utilize the "Online Grading" system our school offers. Granted I have never even clicked the link before today, I have always just relied on the old fashioned paper report cards that come out each 9 weeks. But I digress. I clicked the link to the Online Grading site and entered in H's information. In all but two of her subjects she has A's. The other 2 subjects had B's, but I didn't think that was a big deal. A's and B's are great, but if she got C's and D's that would be fine too, I would just be alerted to try and find some way to help her with her studying and homework. Then, I spy a button next to her letter grade that says "assignments." So curiously I click the button. I then scroll down the list and find that in the two classes that H has B's, she has 0's next to 3 specific homework dates. Basically, she would be a straight A student if it weren't for the fact that she has failed to turn in 6 homework assignments. ZERO. No score for the homework. The other kicker is that if you turn in the homework it is a "100," if you do not it is a ZERO.
So I ask my darling daughter what the problem is. She claims that since the grading system has been down recently, the teacher probably hasn't had time to enter in all the grades. My response? Inquire with the teacher. Make sure.
This afternoon when H gets in the car I ask her about the ZERO's and inquire what the teacher said. The truth comes out that H has not in fact turned in those assignments. 6 x ZERO.
My response? If you give me a reason to hold your hand, walk you to class in my pajamas, stand over you while you do homework, AND sign off on all your work, I will.

Three More Down

Tonight I finished three more "experiences" in Art. One was so easy I think I am doing it wrong.

I sent off the first 4 evaluations and photos today. The professor is supposed to contact me and let me know if I am on the "right track." I have followed the directions exactly, I sure hope I am on the right track!

As for now, my dining room looks like a construction paper factory threw up on it with little tiny bits of paper EVERYWHERE. Darn you all those "I have a craft room" people! I shake my fist at you!

A Better Day

Today was a MUCH better day. No lice. No psycho parents. I actually sat at my desk and worked! SO since there is not much to report for the day I will send along pictures of my weird children doing their homework this afternoon (yes, Bubba has more than one shirt, but we always seem to take his picture in this particular green soccer shirt) and regale you with an interesting lunch conversation we had on Sunday.

First, I got my camera battery charger in the mail yesterday (the high point of the day) so I have the use of my camera again! So I picked it up this afternoon and started taking pictures of my kids to make sure it worked. Here is what happened:



Sorry they are all "vertically" I need to figure out the upload thing.

After church on Sunday all four of us sat down to lunch. For the last 3 or 4 months D and I have made our kids stay in for the sermon rather than leaving for children's church. We had started a new sermon series on "Marriage" and suddenly Bubba makes the statement: "It is a sin to lay with someone you are not married to." Well, D practically spit out his food and H started cracking up. D then made the comment about how Liberal we were. Very calmly ( D and I work pretty well together most of the time, if he is loosing it I am pretty calm and vice versa) I ask "Does that mean if I fell asleep on the couch next to..." and H and D both chime in "Uncle Mark" (I guess Uncle Mark falls asleep on the couch a lot)...so I asked again, "If I fell asleep on the couch next to Uncle Mark, does that mean that I am sinning?" Bubba kind of looked and me and smiled and said no. D finds his voice again at that point and asks Bubba if Mom fell asleep next to Uncle Mark on a bed if that was a sin. Bubba didn't know what to say. So we launch into the sex talk and I ask Bubba if he knows about sex and has any questions. Bubba then tells me he knows all about sex and gets all embarrassed and says an emphatic NO!

I let it go and remind him that both D and I are available if he does and if he's more comfortable with talking to D alone it wouldn't hurt my feelings...yadda...yadda...yadda, trying to be all "Walton's" with him. Bubba then changes the subject (yes, there is more) by blurting "Dad broke up with someone once because she didn't have boobs."

Well that was a show stopper. D starts laughing (I guess he'd never stopped) and claims that Bubba has a wonderful memory. So H and I start giggling while D explains. D tells us all that when he was in the 6th grade he broke up with Larisa Something-or-other because she did not have boobs and D had seen all the 7th and 8th graders and wanted a girlfriend with boobs.

My reaction? Laughing. Of coarse it does sound a little better that he was in the 6th grade, but come on!

Head Lice, Drop Outs, and Custody, Oh My!

Today was the first day of school at work. Here is my day in a nut shell:

Child in the 4's class has head lice. Call grandma and she gets very upset with me and can't understand why the child still has lice since she washes her hair all the time. Then grandma tells me that she should'a never told me that the girl had lice a few weeks ago. I responded with the very calm statement that I would have found out anyway because we've had other children catch it now and I would have eventually found the source. Swearing. Crying. Child is picked up.

After searching for a month or more I finally have a new two's teacher. As of this morning I have had 4 children drop out of the already low attended class. In fact on Wednesdays I have ONE CHILD in the class. Help!

And, unfortunately, I had a call from a parent that has pretty much always been a thorn in my side. He asked if I could produce an attendance record, tuition statements and letter of affidavit regarding his character for him.

The day stunk!

I'm a freak

I got my first Teacher Certification class in the mail yesterday. I am starting out slow and taking a no-brainer elementary methods class entitled "The Magic of Paper."
Kind of a cheesy title, but it seems basic enough. I have to read through a few pages on Art and working with children (already done and surprisingly good ideas) then complete a series of 20 "experiences" in paper and write an evaluation on each "experience."

I received the material at 4:00 pm yesterday and as of right now I have 4 "experiences" completed, 4 evaluations written and 2 other projects under way. I need to send the evaluations with a picture of my project attached in groups of 4 or 5 to the teacher. I hope the professor is used to psycho OCD people like myself that obsess about doing these projects and want them to be done and out of their house as I do. Do you think she will think it strange if I complete a 3 unit coarse in a week?

Knock Knock

Susan. Let me in! I can't gain access!

This is going to be a LONG one...

First, I gave up on my search and broke down and ordered a replacement charger online yesterday. So for now I am stuck using H's camera. After seeing the quality of her pictures and with her impending birthday, it makes me want to replace hers, but alas her heart is set on a DS and I already have all her other shopping done.

As if it were Christmas in September my Sister sent us one of her "hug the UPS man because it is so cool" packages late this week. Of coarse when my kids see the return address they stop everything, as do I, and proceed to rip it open. Inside among the wrappings were: some fabric that I guess was once my grandmothers (very cool heavy duck cloth which I can't wait to make into something), a towel rack that was my great grandmothers (also very cool and I'm trying to decide were to hang it), hand me down clothes for H (which she has worn exclusively since opening the box, even tho' a belt is needed for the bottoms), and some hand made gifts from her with pictures from our last visit including:

this is Bubba's feet and there are delicate, perfectly written words to describe things we did on our visit in gold around the outside with things from the beach we were on. Everyone I have shown this too thinks it is a super cute fun way to document a trip. Here is H's frame:

Isn't Laura crafty? I am trying to get her to blog and I think her first thing on her blog should be the how to for these. I would even set up her blog for her so all she had to do was post???? :) She also made me a paper exploding box with pictures from our trip. It is AWESOME. The camera wouldn't take a good picture though. She's going to HAVE to post those directions.

On another note here is a picture of Chloe being tortured by H. H was getting happy with the label maker yesterday and punched in the word PABLO and stuck it on Chloe's head. Chloe walked around all night with that thing on her head! It was pretty funny. Before my camera broke I was going to blog about and have pictures of Chloe and her scratching. Not things. Herself. She is driving me crazy with the scratching. And I think it may be my fault she's scratching. She started do it then I treated her with Advantix, she didn't stop so I bathed her in flea shampoo, then I shaved her, then I re-bathed her and re-applied the Advantix, all in the course of a week or two. Now I think the poor thing may be scratching because her skin is so dry. I just can't stand the thought of fleas in the house. I know. I am weird.


My crafting Friday. I decided to mix it up a little. Stop the sewing for a week or so. So I looked thru my files and found a magazine page that I had cut out recently, and started in on my kid portraits. These are NOT ORIGINAL. I totally scammed the idea and pretty much the paintings off this artist, I just liked the style. So here are my versions made with $12.00 worth of canvas from Michaels and $4.00 worth of acrylics...
They turned out okay. I like them but I doubt I will hang them in the foyer to my house. Maybe in the kids bathroom? Linen closet? I don't know.
So now my kids are playing outside (note the hand me down money pj's) tail end of "Hurricane Hanna." They are wet and loving it. We got 3 -4" of rain and it has been windy, but no other worries. They have closed the airport and a few street, and power is out for about 400, but otherwise pretty mild.

Blogging world 2...Me 0

I have tons to share, and pictures too...but the blogging world is out to get me. First the router, now this! I have now lost the battery charger to my camera so I cannot attach any pictures to my blog. Ooof! I have torn the house, my desk at work, my computer bag, our luggage in the attic, bookcases, apart and still cannot find the dumb thing!!!

Anywho...here is Jennifer's do-hickey so I thought I's do my own answers for you...

A= Attached or Single: Attached
B= Best Friend: Laura and Robin
C= Cake or Pie: Cake-specifically chocolate with cream cheese or brown sugar frosting
D= Day of Choice: Friday, Saturday or Sunday
E= Essential Item: purse, more specifically Burt's Bees Lip Balm
F= Flavor of Ice cream: Not huge into Ice Cream, but wouldn't turn down Starbucks Java Chip
G= Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears covered in chocolate
H= Hometown: Seattle/Tacoma
I= Indulgence: Crafting
J= January or July: July, even in NC
K= Kids: H and Bubba
L= Last movie I saw at a theater: Mummy 3
M= Musician: All. Currently listening to Josh Wilson
N= Number of Siblings: 2
O= Oranges or Apples: Definitely Apples, I'm from Washington. Braeburn or Fuji
P= Phobias or Fears: snakes!!!
Q= Quote: "Perfect AND odor free."
R= Reason to Smile: I get to craft tomorrow
S= Season: Fall
T= Tag: ?
U= Unknown fact: I don't know!!!
V= Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Been both, currently oppressor.
W= Worst habit: Yelling at my kids
X= Xray or Ultrasound: Either
Y= Your favorite food: Chocolate
Z= Zodiac sign: I THINK it's Libra...or maybe Scorpio

Three How To's...for the strange

My sister reminded me today about the web-site craftzine.com. I get the "Craft" magazine and this is the site attached to the magazine. The magazine is very weird, but very cool/funky and covers every type of crafting, for instance the first magazine I received had a pattern on how to knit a "crime scene" scarf. When I checked out the site this afternoon I came across these two little gems: LED booties

almost, yes almost, makes me baby crazy enough to want another kid...but practically speaking give me a break! Lite up booties? MAYBE for a Halloween costume. I may have to make the pattern to see how crazy hard they are.


and of coarse the mandatory beer sweater:

which I have to admit I was thinking the actual sweater was for a human NOT a beer. Very funny. Not necessarily for beer. I wonder if you could make it for your water bottle? In your alma mater (sp?) colors?


Then there is the fruit cozies:
that I just have to say what the heck???
Maybe for those Minnesotan kids
that take fresh (ha ha) fruit to school
in January?? Who on earth would spend time kitting things for your fruit?
No thanks!





All the tutorials are on the site if you are so inclined.

AND BTW I went to the dreaded Mart of Wal today and broke down and bought a wireless router of my very own -only to read Jennifer's offer after I had installed the stupid thing. Oh well. It was only $35 and right now I am thinking that spending $35 was frivolous and wonderful.
Thanks for the offer Jennifer! Ironically I have been checking Craigslist and Goodwill for a router for two weeks and as soon as I post my request, it is answered.

Don Adams

We spent the ENTIRE weekend watching all 30 episodes of the 1965 "Get Smart." It was a wonderful, almost time to be responsible and go to work, lazy weekend before the storms of school and work.
You have go to love that Don Adams, I never tire of him, and where else can you find some good, no swearing, quality television?

Complain about my neighbors

I know I am a pill, but I am going to complain about my neighbors. In fact, I blame my absence from the blogging world completely on them.
Would you like their address?
So the issue...wireless routers. I have been scamming wireless from my neighbors for months...years. And now, in the last week, my neighbor who is a pediatric nurse and going to school, so it's not like she's using her internet, her boyfriend has moved in. And guess what? He password protected my, I mean her, internet connection. Ooof. The gall!
The really crappy thing? I actually have internet service. But it is Cat 5 (plug your computer into the wall). So now I have to spend $50 and buy my OWN wireless router and so I am back up and running in the blogging/surfing world.
Aren't I lame???