Apple Seed

A few weeks ago, Happy and I were eating a Gala apple. When I was cutting it, a small seed fell out. Happy asked what it was. And being the eternal teacher that I am .... told him all about how it is a seed and it could grow into an apple tree. Well, Happy wanted to plant it and see. So I put the seed in between a few layers of moist paper towel, put that into a sandwich baggie and plopped it up on our kitchen window sill. After a week, I looked in there ...and lo and behold... it had rooted!

So then we planted it in a little pot ... and look what's happened in a week! We officially have an apple tree seedling! Happy looks at it each day and says "Look at my Mapple Tree!!!" (i dont know why he puts an m at the front of apple .. but its darn cute and I never correct him!).

I'll try and keep posting pictures of the seedlings and hope it keeps growing!!

Teacher gifts

Ahhhh, I love Christmas being a teacher. It was fun to get some teacher gifts today ..... :) Is that bad to say out loud? I know everyone that's a teacher probably thinks it .... but I never hear anyone say it too often!

And the interesting thing to me, is that I didnt care if I got a gift or not ... and so when I did get something it was just a nice surprise .. and the ones that didnt get me anything, I still love just as much. So for those of you that cant get a teacher gift for your childs teacher ... it's totally okay. :)

We finally got our Christmas tree tonight. It was fun for Happy ... and he loved going through the ornaments and saying "coool!" and "awesome" when he found neat ornaments that looked like toys.

Not too long till Christmas. And I think I'm ready.

I have two weeks off school, but I'm working part time at a retail store during that time. But I sure hope I get enough home time to work on quilting my batik quilt top. I'm going to try and do it on my home machine and just do diagonal lines. I want that quilt for a lap quilt in the living room .. so I'm not to picky on the quilting for it. I kind of feel like my grandmother and those before her probably felt ..... needed a quilt, made it ... and quilt it up and bind it and use it!

M

I'm usually a very late decorator for Christmas. We love having a real tree, but really hate the mess and watering .... so we wait until a week or so before Christmas to get the tree and put it up. Usually I just wait and put any decorations up until we get our tree.

But this year ... I jumped the gun and did it "early". Ha! I know people that have had their stuff out for weeks. i've only put things up on my mantle ... but I love it. The clutter of all the Christmas decorations drives me nuts, but this year if I do it simple ... it wont bother me like in previous years!

We'll have two trees in our house. One will be our real tree that we get the week before Christmas ... the other is our white artificial tree that is a Memorial Tree in memory of my daughter. In 30 more years, maybe my house will be covered in trees at Christmas! :)

Happy Day

This is our Thanksgiving Day lunch. We had 7 people here, and my brother had to work and wasn't able to be here ... but we loaded up a large tupperware container full of food for him when he gets back in!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. I cooked the whole spread and I love doing it! I love planning the meal (which, is the same each year..haha) and I love planning out the time frame of when I need to start each dish. I love setting my table with my same old dishes, that dont all match ... and my cute serving dishes that I got at our wedding 13 years ago ... and my new wal-mart red table cloth. It was fun to create a large meal and have my family come over to eat with us.

Happy was sweet, and told me "Man this is good Mom! You did good!" And my nephew, who is 10 tomorrow!, ate more than I've seen him eat in a long while! He praised my cooking too. I love feeding those two boys!

After lunch, the boys played outside and created some art for me....

My nephew created the one above.

My son created the one above ... it says Mom. My nephew said that Happy wrote it himself... but I'm thinking he must have had some help!

I think this sums up how I feel. All done. :)

I'm so thankful for my family. I'm thankful for being able to have a large meal, a home to cook it in and all my old dishes and stuff that I take for granted every day. I'm thankful Happy and my Nephew are healthy and happy and full of energy. I'm thankful that I've got the best group of friends ever. Heck, I'm just thankful to be here!

Terrible Twos and Terrible Threes

A throw size quilt top that's been finished for a while. I have some fancy bamboo batting, and a pretty red batik for the backing..... but no time to quilt it. I may just do an easy diagonal on it using my home machine. I just want to use it in my living room during the winter, so it doesnt have to be fancy!

I've always said that I think that the terrible two's are NOTHING compared to the Three's. As Happy is fast approaching Three, it's becoming more and more evident that my theory holds true for him as well. :)

My preschool class was a mess today. We had 16 two year olds (some are almost 2 and some are almost 3) ... and it's the week before a good long Thanksgiving break. I dont know if they are just tired of the everyday routine and I need to change things up a bit? Or are they just tired, period, and the everyday routine is a good stable thing in their lives? I tend to lean towards keeping things the same each day, but adding some new behavior management techniques.

I feel like I probably need a new behavior management technique for myself sometime. Wouldnt it be nice if we could just decide that we needed a change in our routine, and it is magically accomplished and everyone obliged us and did things a new way? :)

It helps to look back at Happy's baby picture in the post below, and remember that he's still just little ... and he'll only be little for such a short while. And all those little ones in my class, are just special and little for a short while too.

Heck, tomorrow .... we're going to play with Shaving Cream on the tables! :)

Tired

Here's Happy when he was a baby .... look at that chub!! He's skinny now and all grown up ... well, as much as a 2 3/4 can be!

Teacher work days are hard! We had a lot of labeling and rearranging and cleaning to do, to get ready for a consultation for our environmental rating for special accredidation. I dropped Happy off with Grandmama and PawPaw at 7:30, got to work at 8 and finally left work at 4:30 .... picked up Hubby at home, then met everyone for BBQ and a local place that's really good.

So now I'm tired. And Lazy. And all I wanted to do was watch Survivor when we got home. Well, Happy got the living room TV and played a video game (yes, he's almost 3 and loves video games) and Hubby got the bedroom TV and watched football. He offered to turn the channel, but I got busy sorting through my old file's and declined. At least I got some clutter cleared off!

A friend has been talking about cleaning and decluttering on her blog lately. And I think it's rubbing off on me. Thanks, friend! :) I can see more of my bedroom floor than I've seen in weeks! I have tomorrow off work, so hopefully with a 3 day weekend I can get some more cleaning done!

Potlucks and Work Days

I'm not a fan of potlucks. Am I the only one? (well, I know my Mom isn't a fan of them either ... is it inherited! ha! ) Usually I pick at whatever I get at a potluck, and wonder if they are clean cookers .... did they scratch their butt and then knead some dough? Pick their nose, then test the cookies? I should probably get over it, but I won't! :)

Tomorrow is teacher work day. No kids at school! Whoo hoo! But, to be honest, I'm secretly (not such a secret now!) excited about teacher work day! I can't wait to have a whole day to work on my classroom .... clean out the teacher closet, organize our art supplies, label the shelves, clean and sanitize the rooms and toys and cots, and work on next month's curriculum and lesson plans.

But, along with teacher work day .... comes a Potluck. Sigh. I'm bringing green bean cassarole. I'll just cook it in the kitchen tomorrow at school. Least it was cheap to make!

Happy is spending the day with his Grandmama and PawPaw tomorrow. He went to bed tonight asking if he could just go ahead and go now! I know they will have a great time together ... and he's always happy to be there. In fact, he usually asks me to go ahead and leave once we get there!

I'm happy to have a well adjusted, Happy little boy. He sure is sweet.

M

One minute to write

I found this site tonight: http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/ and thought it was interesting.

The daily prompt for a minute of writing is, What is your favorite place in your home?

Here goes... start the timer!

My favorite place in my home is either our living room or our kitchen ... and certainly not because of the furniture or the decorating! I love those places in our home, when they are full of Us! I love the rooms because they contain our spirit and love. These rooms are comfortable and warm in the evening. These rooms are Home.

Time's up!

Speaking of decorating ... I bought the cutest red, glittery Merry Christmas sign to go on my mantle. I LOVE that darn sign... well, it's really wooden letters? Anywhooo.. I'm tickled to start decorating for Christmas! And I never decorate for Christmas until the week before!

Hand, foot and mouth disease was in my classroom today. Sigh. We sent the poor boy out as soon as we saw what he had. But I sure hope the damage isn't done and that all my poor 2 yr old's (and Happy in the other class) have gotten it. I'm watching Happy closely, and will be looking at each little one this week to check for signs of it.

The good news is that we're out of school Thurs and Friday for teacher work days! Whoo hoo!

Tonight I made chicken and vegetable stir fry with white steamed rice. It was delish! Tomorrow will either be hot dogs and home made chili or home made taco's and cheese dip (velveeta and rotel).

Later!

Inspired

I love this picture of Happy at the beach. He was so excited to get out there, that he took off down the boardwalk and stopped just as I had my camera ready. I sure did love that vacation with my favorite boys!

I was inspired by a good friend and fellow blogger ... and today I cleaned my room too! I only got the floor at the foot of my bed cleared off ... but the things that were there are now in storage boxes in the garage ready to go in the attic! At least it's progress!

I also created a photobucket account for my preschool class, and thought that I'll take pictures through the year and post it on an account and let the parents have the password so they can see some candid shots of their kids in class!

I'm trying to pack for my girls trip. But all that's in my bag is an extra pair of jeans. I wish I could wear cute clothes ... and afford to buy them! So I'm going to finish packing and get ready for a fun trip ... hey, maybe I'll find some clothes?

Sesame Street

I'm from the Sesame Street generation. But I've never watched Sesame Street quite like I did today! It was rainy during our morning recess time, so we got together with another two year old class and watched some Sesame Street.

Seriously, 20 something 2 year old's all laughed out loud at the words "Bus Stop" All they had to say was Bus Stop and they all laughed. It cracked me up. And I loved to see them smile and laugh and be silly. It was nice to be with the other class too, because that's where Happy is. And during Sesame Street time, he got beside me and asked for "some sugar". I love Mama's Boys.

Because one day, he'll be too big to ask me for 'sugars' when I drop him off at school. So most days, I give him 2 or 3 or more 'sugars'. It's really for both of us. :)

I'm so much better from my 24 hr 10 lb weight loss virus. I'm carrying some immodium on my girls trip just in case, though.

Later!

It is official. I am full of crap.

It's official. I'm full of crap .... exactly 10 pounds. I'm on the tail end of a nasty 24 hr virus, in which stuff was coming out both ends at the same time every hour on the hour through the night last night. When I weighed this morning, I had lost 10 pounds. Wow. Not a diet plan I would want to try again.

Working preschool is tough! Not only is it a fairly high stress job, but now I am getting every little bug and germ that comes through. It's worth it to me though. And I really feel like this is where God wants me to be right now. And that's a good feeling.

We have web-cams in our classrooms. I realized that I was picking my butt the other day in front of the camera, but the class was empty at the time. I had serious panty crawling and had to get it OUT! I'll not make that mistake in front of the camera again ... I know where the camera can't see! hahaha...

Two more days left in this work week .. and then a nice overnight trip with my college girlfriends. It'll be nice to shop, eat, drink and be merry together. We've all had a lot going on in our lives lately, and it's nice to just chill out together and relax.

Whoops!

Okay, so my post a day is already a pitiful failure .... but I'm trying. :) Maybe a post every other day is more up to my speed!

We went to a parade Saturday and had the most fun! Of course, it is helpful that the parade THREW candy at us! So not only did Happy have a huge load of candy from Halloween night, but also a huge bag of candy from Saturday! (silent hollar of glee from me!) Yep, I'm eating his candy and I love it.

I have PMS this week. I'm allowed, right? Tonight I'm eating Nerds and KitKat. Ahhh.

And I have a favorite drink for the holiday season..... Pepsi's Siera Mist Cranberry Splash. It is SO friggin good. I even love the diet drink of it. And they only make it until Christmas! So I drink a lot for these few months.

School was great today. I have a wonderful new helper in my class, and she's full of love and sweetness... which is a nice change from the Drill Sargent helper I did have. And Happy is really adjusting well to his class. Our two classes go to recess together each day, so it's really, really nice to be around him each day while I work! Some days he hangs onto me, and wants hugs ... other days he is holding girls hands and running through the playground grinning.

It has taken a full month, but I've settled nicely into my new preschool job. I enjoy the kids, I have a lot of respect for my bosses and love that they support me. We have web cams in our classes .... so I try not to pick my panties out of my crack in front of the camera! ha!

I am almost settled into working full time again, and I've got my lesson plans made for the month ... so now I feel like my weekends can get some craft time in!

What a month!

Yesssss sir. I started preschool, and got sick sick sick for a MONTH. I finally feel better. For a while I couldn't even talk, my voice was gone ... I coughed all the time. And in the process of it all, I made my whole family sick. It's bad when your husband and your Mom and your son go to the Dr. and say that I make them sick. :)

Today is the 17 year anniversary of the day that I met my husband. A blind date lunch at Wendy's turned out to be the best lunch of my life. He's a sweet man and I'm glad we're together. :)

I'm going to try to post every day this month. We'll see how I do.

I need to clean my house. There is fake incredible hulk hair all over the kitchen and living room.

There are strips and pieces of black fabric all over the kitchen floor ... from making a quick zebra shirt for Happy's "harvest" party at school on Friday. I loved this outfit more than the Incredible Hulk with Bad hair.

My bedroom is a cluttered mess. We had a yard sale last weekend, and I decided I didnt need a file cabinet in our room, so I dumped out everything in it and now it is STILL on the floor. There is only a path to walk to the bed on my side. I'm ashamed of the mess.

My only good bra broke today. The underwire snapped in half. My poor saggy girls are gross and need support. So I got two new bras today. I hope it makes them happy and upright citizens of my body. :)

I'm eating too much Halloween candy. My teeth hurt. But, I'm trying to keep my 2 yr old from eating it. I'm doing him a fine service, you see!

Tomorrow is grocery day, and lesson plan making day. I sure hope I get a nap tomorrow too.

I love my Mom. She kept Happy today and I got a two hour nap, and a nice dinner alone with my Hubby.

.........be Happy!

I'm starting PreSchool!

Happy and I are starting Preschool together. I may be 34 and he may be 2, but this is perfect timing! I start teaching at a new Christian preschool on Wednesday. Happy starts at this school on Monday. Does anyone want to take bets on when we both get sick first? This weekend perhaps??

Unfortunately I'll be working my retail management night/weekend job until the end of next week. So for two weeks I'll be working 40-60 hours a week. Does anyone want to take bets on when I'll break down into tears from being tired? This weekend perhaps???

I'm excited to be teaching 2 year olds. And I'm excited that Happy will be in the other 2 year old class across the hall from me. I love that I can get a 30 min break during the day and can spend that time with him if I want/need to.

Its been a long time since I've taught. And I've never actually taught children this young, aside from my own. I'm really looking forward to having my work day end at 3:30/4:00. I'm looking forward to the fullfillment of working with children. I hope that I make the parents happy.

I've been scouring the internet looking for free preschool lessons, songs, activities, etc. My arsenal of activities are all for older kids. And I'm awful at remembering little fun songs for kids! I've got my work cut out for me for the next month or so until I get into the groove.

Until then, the kids may hear some made up songs for a while!

We visited the class today (Happy and I). I was anxious to see how he would handle all the kids and noise, since he's usually always with me or my parents. And I'm so pleased that he loved it and was so good! He even had a collision with one of the rougher boys, and he just looked at that kid like he was nuts .... and walked away from him. I sighed a little breath of relief! But by the time it was lunch time, Happy came over to me and said "Mommy .. let's get out of here and go to Sonic!!!" and you know what I said .. "Okay!! Let's get out of here!" hahahah.. I couldnt help it! We didnt need to stay any longer for our visit today anyway. :)

Wish me and Happy good luck!

County Fair Time!

I love going to the County Fair ... LOVE it. Tonight was the last night for our small county fair (well, not small exactly), and we went with my parents and my nephew. It was so much fun!

Happy was old enough to ride some rides, and he even got to ride with his older cousin on the bumper cars! It makes my soul smile to see those two handsome boys smiling, laughing and giggling on a fair ride.

During this coming year, I'm going to make a quilt to enter into the fair. After looking at the quilts and art that were entered this year, I really think I could hold my own! Anyway, it would be fun to have the experience.

Enjoy the ride of life!

Vacation and Floating Butt Fat

This past weekend we finally had a family vacation. We drove 10+ hours to get to Perdido Key, FL to stay for 2 nights and drive another 10+ hours back home. It was well worth the 20 hours of drive time with a 2 1/2 year old in the back seat of a little Hyundai. Well worth it.

First of all, Happy was a fabulous boy during the long trip. Usually he is an awful car rider and gets bored just going to Wal-Mart, and begs to get out of his car seat. I had prepared him for the "long ride" and "the beach" and "the pool". So evidently it all made a difference to him and he was ready for the ride! Plus, it helped that I had a special big Mommy bag of goodies. :) I had gone to the Dollar Tree earlier in the week and bought about 7 cheap little $1 toys (bag of lizards, coloring book, motorcycle that made noise, etch a sketch cheapie, magnetic book, army men, etc). Each of these toys went into a brown lunch bag and I folded them closed. These all went into a big bag that Happy knew nothing about. Then during the trip, if I anticipated a melt down or could see he was bored .... I'd pull out a Goodie Bag and tell him how proud we were of him. It worked! He LOVED the Goodie Bags and it really did help! And belive it or not, I didnt even have to use all of the bags! Plus, we have a cheap dvd travel player that was strapped to the back of the passenger headrest (yes, my headrest... ugh) .. and Happy watched a lot of Cars, Jungle Book and Nemo... he watched them A LOT. In fact, I think I now have them memorized. And the trip pillowcase was perfect for him during nap in the car!

That was a big long ramble.. ha.ha ha.

The vacation was perfect. The weather was beautiful. The pool was still warm enough to get in. The ocean was rough from Ike, but that was okay ... we found lots of seashells and enjoyed the sand and the view!

I am overweight. Although I've lost about 40 pounds in the past 2 years, I still need to lose about 70 more. That's big. ugh. Anywayyyy... the beaches were empty, the pool was empty. And I decided I was going to wear my bathing suit without shorts. And I felt ... Lib-er-rated!!! Wahhhoo.. Of course, it helped that no one was around but us! Okay, there were some people.. but I saw their fat too and I didnt care. :) But aside from feeling so liberated by wearing my bathing suit, I also found out something else.......

Fat floats. Yep. I got in the pool and felt something behind me everytime I jumped around in the water. I looked behind me, reached back there .. and mercy me, my butt was floating! Yup.. floating butt fat isn't a good thing. Shudder. I think I just figured out the way to get the rest of my 70 pounds of fat off .... think of floating butt fat every time I eat! ha! Shudder.

_

Pillow Cover

Happy has a small pillow that doesnt have a cover. It's too small for standard pillow cases. So today I thought that this pillow would be a great travel/car pillow. And then I pulled out some fabric and sewed together this quick pillow cover using a fat quarter and about a 6 inch wide piece of fabric.

It was quick and easy and I think it turned out cute! Happy loves his new little pillow case! And it will be easy to pull off and toss in the washing machine once it's dirty!

Carded

Sweet Hubby and I recently got away for a day/night and went to the casinos that are a few hours away. It was nice to get away and relax ... and lose money. ha! I usually do fairly well at blackjack, but luck wasn't with me on this trip. Hubby did fine, and ended up breaking even.

The best part of the trip is that I actually got carded at the table! I was shocked, and they said that if you look under 30 ... they'll usually ask for your ID. I was tickled to have to get out my drivers licence and show them that I'm over 30. :)

Happy has been battling a cold for about a week. Looks like it's going to linger for a while longer. With a 2 year old, it's not just a snotty nose ... .it's snot everywhere! He wipes a long his arm.. ewwww!

I bought some fabric at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon the other day. But I got the wrong color of white Kona cotton. Sigh. I got bleached white, and I should have gotten snow white. There's a lot of difference in the white's. But at least I have 5 yards of bleached white for a different project. Now I need to get more snow white for my stars project.

I just like buying fabric, I guess. And I love paper too.

Quilting

There's a blog that I love, and she has done a star quilt-a-long recently. I've decided to join along and make this quilt using scraps that I already have and try to keep the colors boyish enough for it to be Happy's full size quilt. http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/04/star-quilt-along-week-1.html





Here's what I have so far ...

It's fun. It was relaxing. I hope it turns out pretty ...

A few of my favorite things ...

This evening we visited my parents. They have a beautiful house on the River. My Mom, my nephew, Happy and Me decided to take the fourwheelers and drive down to the river and walk around on the sandbar. It's one of my favorite things/places. Especially at dusk in the summer!

The boys immediately started skipping flat rocks across the water. Happy didnt really have the hang of it, but the boy sure did some rock throwing! My nephew was great at skipping rocks ... he got 9 skips out of one rock one time! He was tickled and we all whooped and hollared and giggled about it.

It started to get dark while we were there playing. I loved the sunset over the water, and the humidity hanging in the air was like a comforting blanket to me. The sounds of dry bugs and frogs started filling the evening air and it was All Good.

I love Summer in the South. I love my family. And I love the freedom that we have to be able to enjoy this wonderful place we live.

Oh no you didn't!

You ever have a moment where you see something or hear someone and you think "Oh no you didn't!" .. I had two of these moments today at work.

I work retail ... and there's a lot of breakables in our store. A family was shopping today, and their children were running wild through the store. WILD, I tell you. The parents were NOT watching their children at all....and the kids were jumping on couches, running through the isles, screaming, yelling, etc. We all knew something was going to get broken. So, the little girl ran through the glass area while she was holding a big stick up in the air (past her parents) ... and she knocked over a big glass vase. It shattered on the floor, scattered everywhere and made such a loud noise! The little girl didnt get hurt, but she got scared and ran to her Mommy. (the girl is probably 4 yrs old) .... and the Mom is furious. And raises her hand, pauses in the air (I'm silently watching thinking DONT hit her!!!!!) ... and the little girl is crying, and the Mom just starts spanking this girl..... over and over, and so hard. I was crushed, and angry and sad.... and it took all I had to not go over there and smack that lady in the face. Instead I teared up, and the family nearly ran out of the store .... but really.... Why in the world did she have to spank that little girl..when the real problem was that the Mom wasn't watching her kids. If she had been watching, attentive to her children ... this wouldnt have happened. So this little girl was scared, upset and then got nearly beat in public ... for something which isnt really her fault. I was just furious. I loved my daughter. I was a good Mom. But I dont get to have her .. .and people like that have all of their children and treat them like that. Its a shame... and unfair, to say the least.

.... So my other thing that happened. I helped two sisters that were in their 50's or 60's, out to their car with a large item. I mentioned something about it must be nice to have a sister and they just chatted about it and loved it. I said that I have a son that's an only child now and I hate that he'll grow up alone. And the ladies asked me THE question. Sigh. They said "Do you have any grandchildren?"

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGHHHH!! I'm 34!!!!!

So today, I'm emotional ... and I feel OLD. Sigh.

As soon as my McDonald's fish sandwich is digested enough for me not to to have heartburn and indigestion when I lay down, I'll go to bed. My feet hurt.

Maybe I am old. :)

I love this quilt. It was my first quilt to make. It's a small, crib sized quilt ... but its still big enough for Happy at 2 1/2 years old to snuggle up with and it will work as a good car quilt for trips for a while longer too.

I was putting Happy to bed tonight, and we both got the giggles. He was talking about bears and silly stuff and it was sweet to lay beside him on his twin sized bed and just giggle and talk in the dark. After a while, though, he started to get really worked up and laughing really hard. So I said "Shhhhh" And his eyes got real big and he looked at me and said, "Why? Who's asleep??" hahahaha.. he had a point!

Today was our dentist appt for me and Happy. He did great, again ... and walked out with two bouncy balls and two plastic lizards! All I got was a bill and a free toothbrush (and his free toothbrush!). ... and my teeth are clean too!

I fell in the yard last week, and twisted both my ankles. Then the next three days ended up working 7 or 8 hours straight on my feet! One ankle is still swollen, but neither really hurts anymore. The worst part of the whole thing, is that when I fell .... I tried to grab hold of my husbands truck to break my fall ... and I realized I couldnt keep from falling ... so I threw up my hands and took the fall like a giraffe diving off a moutain .... and my neighbor saw the whole thing through their front window and actually got to me about the same time my husband did! And my husband was IN the truck! ha! I was mortified. Still am.

So, now evertime I see that neighbor I REALLY limp and act like my ankles are really screwed up. :)

I cant figure what good size 11 feet are doing me .. they certainly dont keep me upright very well!

Later!

Hot and Tired

Preening Grey - 5 x 7 - My Original Watercolor sold on Ebay for $56.00!

It's been a month since I last blogged .... and I dont really even have a good reason other than being tired and hot and lazy by the time I sit down at the computer at night.

I work at an Import store ... we have people come in and ask for things made in the USA. Uuhhh, IMPORT store ... sigh... then they get irritated about us not having things made in the USA. Then after they leave the store, I feel like a traitor working for a company that only sells imported items. I feel like I'm un-American by doing what I'm doing. It's a lame job, but it's helping pay the bills, put food on the table and buy gas for our gas hog vehicles. Then after I think of that, I dont' feel so un-American after all. I'm living the dream ... working in a wonderful country and actually having food to buy/eat and two gas guzzling vehicles is a blessing.... no matter what kind of store I work at.

Happy has been rough and tumble the past month. He dislocated his own elbow one day (nursemaids elbow) and we got that fixed at the ER and he's fine. Then he busted his nose and bled everwhere and got checked at his Dr's office and he's fine. Now he thinks that cigarettes are "good" and he pretends that he's smoking one. That has prompted me to call my Dad and give him a good talking too. He felt terrible about it ... and has said he'd quit smoking in front of Happy (or stop smoking period!). Happy is a very intent, observant little 2 1/2 year old .... and he'll watch and figure things out in his little head.

I have a small odd confession. At work tonight, I counted a Buddha's toes. Yep. I did. It looked like too many, but it wasn't. Just five on each foot. How many people can say that they counted a Buddha's toes today? It was an odd figurine....I never see people buy them either.

I have a bad case of the "I wants"....

1. I want to win the lottery (this is necessary, you see, in order get my I want's...)


2. I want to go to the beach on vacation.


3. I want to go to Alaska


4. I want an old classic 1960's corvette ... black with t-tops....


5. I want a tummy tuck and a breast lift


6. I want a real hairstyle....


7. I want laser hair removal .....just about anywhere I can get it


8. I want my varicose veins removed


9. I want a new digital camera


10. I want a new camcorder


11. I want another baby ... sort of ..... okay, maybe not .hahaha


12. I want a camper with a slide-out and a rear living area...


13. I want to go to the casino and play blackjack and drink Mojito's and Amaretto Sours all night


14. I want to get together with my girlfriends and none of us have any worries


15. I want to be recertified to teach, without having to go through hoops to get it done


16. I want a Lexus or a Volvo


17. I want pretty handwriting


18. I want Happy to always be healthy....

Told you .. I have the I wants....

Anything you want? And want to share?

Ahhh, I love summer. I love the sounds of the dry bugs creaking at dusk. I love the heat. I love the smell of summer. And I love little boys that play outside wearing their rubber boots and plaid snap front shirts!

Happy is having a blast playing outside in the evenings. He's not a big fan of getting IN water, so I haven't even bothered buying him a little plastic pool this summer. Right now, he's even boycotting sitting down in the bathtub. Go figure? He loves to ride his tricycle (but wont pedal it half the time) and ride his little Police Car cozy coupe. He loves to dig in in the yard. He loves running and yelping and hollaring outside. He loves to blow bubbles. He loves to sing a song that he made up... "I LOVVVVEEEEE Milk!! I lovveeeeee some MILK!" Yep, he really does love milk, and the song is too cute. If I had a good video camera with a hard drive, I could post a clip on you tube. :)

But here is fair warning. If you ever hear a two and a half year old tell you before a diaper change "ohhhh, Mommy .... it's stinky Bubble Poo Poo" ... run. Yes. RUN. Happy had a bit of the runs this evening, and instead of telling me he had to go potty, he just hid in the corner and filled up that dang diaper. When I was going to change him, he informed me of the Stinky Bubble Poo Poo. I didnt think anything of it. I mean, really ... I should have. It was bad. REAL bad.

And if you think of it, when you do have the runs ... it IS kind of like bubbles of poo shooting out of your hiney. I love the term now. So I will forever more never have diahhrea ..... I will only have Bubble Poo Poo.

And I shall quickly start actively trying to potty train my very verbal 2 1/2 year old son.

GrrrrrrrrRabbits!

Rabbits. They should be cute and fluffy and sweet. But the rabbits we have in our back yard are making me crazy! I mean, look at him....

Those beady little eyes.... those sharp little teeth.. Look what he did to my Purple Cone Flower ....

It should look like this:

Sighhhh.........either I need to put up a rabbit proof fence around my flower garden, or invest in a rabbit trap and send him to my Mom's. :)

Guilty Pleasures

I have to confess. It was late one night after work ... and I indulged in a guilty pleasure.

I was driving along on a dark, empty road. My feet were sore, and stinky. My legs hurt from standing for 5 hours. I had forgotten to pee for my entire 5 hour shift, so I was uncomfy to say the least.

Then it happened.

Vanilla Ice came on the radio. And all of the sudden I was transformed! For a few minutes, my windows slid on down ... the radio cranked up loud ... and I was singing along with Ice Ice Baby at the top of my lungs..... hair flying around my face, hands thumping on the steering wheel. Ahhhh..sweet guilty pleasure of mine! I felt like I was 17 and heading home from my after-school job at the Sears Service Center. Young, dumb and none-the wiser.

Then the song was over. And something I had never heard came on, and the moment was gone.

But for a few minutes, my feet didn't stink, my legs didn't hurt, my flabby leftover baby belly was gone, no varicose veins covered my legs ... I was tan, young and didnt know what 34 year old's body ache's felt like.

Ahh, life is good.

I'm looking forward to coming home one night and hearing "She's My Cherry Pie" on the radio. I'll rock out to that by myself too.

:)

I need a vacation...

These are the only states I've been to. How sad! And some of them were just states that I've been to while I drove through them .. not a luxurious vacation there! Or it was when I was really little and didnt know where I was!

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I have friends that live here .....

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

But they need to live here ....

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Nuff said. :)

Regroup

I've finally gotten through the rush of Relay for Life this past weekend. Spring has sprung and I'm ready to get regrouped for the new season!

My house needs a good spring cleaning ..... even taking down the curtains and washing them, which I hate doing! Ugh, and cleaning mini-blinds!

I'm ready to make plans for my garden and flowers. I've already dug out some bee balm that is coming up in my flower garden .. it just runs rampant and drives me nuts by the end of summer. Hopefully this year I can keep it cut down a bit and not get overwhelmed by it.

I have plans for a few quilts. And I would like to work on doing something with the vintage peices of my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother's.

I need to have a yard sale.

I guess this turned into a personal to-do list. But that fits with my regrouping title... so its'okay!

Happy told me he heard me sleeping the other day during naptime (his room isnt next to ours) .. and I asked what he heard and he made big loud snoring sounds! Ha! I didnt know I snored!

I bet if I lost more weight I would stop snoring, and my knees wouldnt hurt so bad either.

Humpf.. .that's a whole different type of regrouping ...

Down sizing

Happy picking Daffodils!

Work has been busier than normal the past week or so. I usually work 20 hours a week. But recently another manager quit, and this has shifted more hours onto me and another manager. I dont mind the extra hours for a few weeks .... little extra $$ at payday is always nice. It will be worth it when I see the paycheck .. but for now I'm missing a lot of evening time with family. :(

The flip side of missing evening family time ... is that I dont have to cook. :)

Another good thing ... is that my husband is good at laundry and dishwasher loading. :) And when I have a rough week at work, he picks up some of my slack at the house. This summer I'm going to try and reciprocate and start helping more with yard work! I have an electric weedeater that my Dad gave me ... and I know I can do that while Happy runs around in the back yard. Wont Hubby be surprised! :)

I havent had any time to do anything crafty lately. I was going to get out my scrapbooking stuff and finish up Happy's ... I stopped at 10 months and now he is 2! But I did create a book on Kodak.com and it held about 120 photo's, 26 pages and is only $30.00. That's cheaper than the empty scrapbook I bought.

Hopefully after Relay for Life settles down in April ... and we hire someone at work ... I'll have time to do something crafty. There's a few things I have mind that I'd like to make!

Old Blocks

I was going through a bag of quilt stuff that belonged to my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother. I'm nearly 34 .... and so that means that these things are OLD. :) ha! There are old feed sacks and string/thread that they pulled from the sacks to sew with!


I've been thinking of making a Lone Star quilt. I found this big block (24+ inches) in the bag today. It's a small 8 point star in the middle ... then she angled the same triangle sets around it to make a circle around the star. I love it! It's in really sad shape .... it's hand-peiced and some of the stitching is coming loose and there are some burns or holes in it too. I may end up ironing it and starching it good ... and seeing if I could put it behind glass and frame it. The colors arent great, but the history of it is deeply personal to me. To know that one of my ancestors created this with her own hand .. probably at the end of a long hard day of taking care of rowdy kids... that's special. If I can get it to lay flat, I'll frame it. :)

I originally thought this block was a bear paw block, but after looking online I'm not really sure. I have about 10 of these 12 inch blocks ... and the original paper peiced block she put together first! Anyone know the name of the above block?

This was one of my favorite blocks. There's only one of them .... but there are about 20-30 other blocks around 12 inches that are all different. I could sew them all together to make one quilt sampler.

It's fun to look through old things. Then I saw my box of new fabrics and smiled to think that one day someone would be looking through my stuff and giggling about the fabric choices I made in 2008!!! ha!

Lunch bag

I found this pattern for a lunch bag/gift sack: http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/ideas/projects/objectsgarmentsother/lunchsackgiftbags_1.html

My mom and I met at Hancocks Saturday after I got off work and we picked out our fabric/beading and button for us to each make a sack.

This morning I decided I would just go ahead and make it. Happy played with scraps of fabric and acted like he was cooking bacon!!

So the pictures above show my materials, and then the finished bag front and back. I wish it was taller, though. If I made it again I would probably add about 3-4 inches on the top. I think I would have had more material out of the fat quarters to make it taller.

It was fun to make. I'll use it for carrying a small lunch to work, or as a makeup bag on overnight trips.

Magic

That's right. Here's where the magic happens ..... my office. And here's Happy too! :)

My Dad built/made this desk/bookcase for me when I was in High School.... let's see....that would be about 18 years since he made this? Probably 1990 ..and I graduated in 1992. Eek! Long time ..

You cant tell from this picture, but there are two more shelves above that one, and each side on the bottom has two drawers. It's a nice desk and it means a lot to me. Now, I should probably get started cleaning it up. I can't stand clutter, and this is the most cluttered part of my home. But by the time I sit down at my desk at night, after work or after a long day .... I just want to veg out and play on the computer (ohhh and I miss playing at www.Pogo.com!).

So a new goal is to clean up the place where the magic of my blog happens..... sometime this month.

:)

My stash

Okay, I have more than one "stash" at the moment. This is my fabric stash. Its not too big, not too little. But looking at this picture makes me hate the store bought quilt on my bed right now... only thing is that I love the weight of the quilt. Just wish it looked like a fancy designer duvet cover instead!

In my kitchen, there is another stash ..... reeses peanut butter eggs. Ha!

Snowy day here, but it was melted by afternoon. Would have made for a nice snowy craft day inside, but instead Happy and I were outside before 8:00 am playing in the snow! We even went out before eating breakfast!

My eyes!

None of these fabrics were bought with any rhyme or reason behind them .... it was one of those days where I saw a sale and had to get something bright and pretty. Our local quilt store is suddenly closing due to the owner being ill, and everything in the store was on sale. So I got 3 yards of the yellow print, and then the rest are fat quarters. I dont know what I'll do with them, but one day I'll figure that out. Until then, these may be so bright that it'll hurt your eyes!

This store was also where I could rent time on the long arm quilt machine. I have two quilt tops that I was going to schedule time to quilt them. Now I either have to figure out how to do it at home on my machine (uhhh, yeah.. handquilting is out of the question for me!)... or find somewhere else I can rent a machine.

I guess while I'm pondering how to get these tops quilted, I can just collect fabric. After all I dont even really have a stash to work from!

Dancing and Working

The title says it all. I've been dancing and working. Whew ....

Wait a minute, that could sound bad. I haven't been dancing WHILE working ... or working while dancing or any combination of those. ha! I fear that if that was the case, I'd be one poor mamma! Unless the object of the job is to get paid to STOP dancing ... ha!

So I can mark something off my list of goals. My sweet hubby got me Dance Dance Revolution Disney Channel Edition for Vday! I was so tickled to get it!! (now, all of you can stop laughing!). It is seriously fun, though. And there's a workout section so that you can track calories burned, etc. I haven't done much from the workout section ... my goal is to get a perfect dance score! Little Happy has fun dancing on a Barney dance mat that was once Sunshine's ... and he jumps along with me as I dance.

Aside from that I've been working my usual 20 hrs a week. Not much time for crafty things lately. But I'm still looking for just the right pattern for the cherry fabric. And I know I want to make Happy a quilt someday too. I know the pattern I want to use for him, but not the fabrics.

Relay for Life stuff is fast approaching ,and taking up some of my daytime free time. After April I'll get back into regular stuff.

But then after April, it'll soon be time to plant some flowers and my little garden! We have sweet little raised bed flower/vegetable garden in our backyard. I'll need to get some more dirt and add to it this year. This past summer I didnt keep up with the veggies, and pretty much just scattered zinnia seeds everywhere ... and the bee balm sort of took over. I'm going to do something with that this year. :) Enjoy the picture from July 07 in my garden!

Love is in the air!

Yep, that's right ... love is in the air! And I'm not talking about sappy lovey dovey Valentines love ...... I'm talking secrect stash love!

I bought these 12 fat quarters at a wonderful quilt shop. I fell in love with the bottom fabric first. I love red cherry fabric... then the rest just sort of fell into place. I have no idea what pattern I'll do with these, but I'm enjoying flipping through magazines and websites for ideas. I think I have a good mix of dark/light for each set.

No matter what I make out of them, I'm sure I'll love it.

Polka Dot Parade

I finished piecing the Polka Dot Parade top .... now to decide on borders/binding and backing colors. Originally I had planned on doing a solid black border and binding .. .to tie together with the black center blocks. But now I dont know if that will work or not. It's bigger than I had thought it would be too!

All the fabrics are polka dot (except the white solids) ...and I love how that clashes with the squareness of the 9 patches. I used a cheaper white fabric and really could tell the difference between it and the nice Kona cotton I have used before.

Brain Age

Art by Happy - copyright 2008

I'm 33 years old and I love video games. I confess. In our house is a playstation 2 (and about 10 games), a nintendo gamecube and nintendo DS. And I play them all. And I'm the proud player that won 3 different Ratchet and Clank games. My latest love is Brain Age for the DS. Maybe by playing all these games, my brain age will become nice and young and supple.

Only a saggy 33 yr old would think of supple brains, cause certainly nothing else is supple. Now it's turned into one of "those" words ... you know the kind. The one that is normal, but when you say it over and over it sounds weird ... and when you write it it looks weird? Supple. Yep, weird.

So for Valentines day my husband already knows that he can get me either Flash Focus for DS OR jewelry and i'd be tickled with either of them. And secretly, I want want want want want Dance Dance Revolution Disney edition..... I mean, come on .. it would help me shed this last 50 pounds I need to lose!!

I've got some goals for the coming month.......

1. Organize the "office" part of our bedroom.
2. Get Happy's Scrapbook up to date!
3. Finish the polka dot quilt
4. Get the polka dot quilt and the batik quilt on the quilting machine at the quilt shop.
5. get Dance Dance Revolution Disney Edition.......
6. Whoooops..... delete number five for a while.... because secretly I want a Wii even more.
7. Lose 10 pounds.

I feel tired already. :)

Settling down

Misty River Morning - photo copyright 2005

One of the things I love at night, is the sound of my son settling down at night in his bed. After I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a few odd verses of Lean on Me that I love (lean on me, when your not strong, and I'll be your friend .. I'll help you carry on.... Just call on me brother, when you need a friend, cause we all need someone to lean on)... I dont know if those are the "right" words to that song .. but it fits perfectly. Like, for Sunshine we always sang You Are My Sunshine each night ...and she was certainly our Sunshine. And Happy is our little Twinklin' Star ...and I hope he always knows he can call on me/us!

I'm rambling...

So, after I sing (wouldnt THAT have been shorter to say!)..... and I leave his room.... Happy will lay on his tummy in the dark and start talking softly. Some nights it is only a few minutes of talking and sometimes it is 15 min of talking! I love to have the baby monitor on (yes, he's 2 and I will use that monitor in his room until he's old enough to move it out himself ...and then I plan on disguising it and putting it back!).... anyway. I love to listen to him talking. He talks softly and has serious tonal inflections .... up and down, highs and lows. Sometimes I can understand what he's saying and other times I just hear the sound of his little husky toddler boy voice. It soothes my soul to hear him settling down and talking about his day. He sounds content.

Maybe we should all do that to settle down? At what point in life did we stop doing that, and started laying in bed in the dark and our thoughts whiz through our heads keeping us awake for hours? What if we just spoke out loud about our day, our feelings ...... and then close our eyes and go quickly to sleep? What a difference that may make!

I wonder if I would ramble during my settling down talk?

Progress

I've gotten five sets of 9 patches completed. I have some mismatched pieces left that I'll try and put together some way .... but there should be enough of the black polka dot to use as center pieces to pull it all together.

Sewing is relaxing. It's like therapy ... my hands and mind keep busy, and I make something pretty and useful at the same time. I mean, I could keep my hands and mind busy doing .... well .... I'm sure there's other things to do to keep my hands and mind busy and be productive at the same time. I just cant think of it. My mind's been too busy.

Men and their toys

You certainly dont want to get in the way of men and their toys.

For instance:

My son and his new train track ....

Or my brother and his train....

Boys and their toys, gotta love it.