Busy busy busy!

So very busy today! (Sorry for the bad pictures) Yesterday I whipped up this dress for Ashley out of a valence I got at Goodwill. I saw this fabric out of the corner of my eye and went over to it and asked Ashley if I made a skirt for her out of this if she would like it. And she said, yes. Unfortunately I made it too small! She walks like a Geisha in it. I wanted to fix it today, but I didn't have the chance. Hopefully I can fix it tomorrow, but I have SO many things to do tomorrow that I'm just not sure how everything is going to get done! I do have to say that I am proud of myself for doing a pretty good job without having any type of pattern. I do wish I could take a sewing class at some point.

This is a picture I forgot to share. Mason put his tooth in this envelope for the tooth fairy. Greg and I thought it would be MUCH easier to find than the little tiny tooth, that Mason said he was going to sleep on and wake up and see the tooth fairy. I'm so thankful for that envelope. However, it WAS very difficult p-u-l-l-i-n-g that envelope from under his head! We always tell our kids that we are the tooth fairy/ Santa Claus/ Easter Bunny for our family. But they still wish to believe in the fantasy, which I personally like. I made a little letter from the tooth fairy and left it for him with some quarters. I pulled a picture off the Internet of a fairy. And all of them were so excited that they knew what the tooth fairy looked like. Ashley said, I hope when I lose a tooth I will have the same fairy. LOL!

So today- Steena came over to see what type of work she has in store for her. We went to Wal Mart and bought some bookshelves. And we started on the craft/office room. Maybe I should take some before and after pictures. Not that I want ANYONE to see this mound of a messhole! But to show just what an amazing job she can do! (I filled up the refrigerator with Dr. Pepper for her.)

I am ECSTATIC about her being here while we are on vacation! I know it will be so amazing to come home to a more organized/ clean home. I know she won't be able to get everything done, while we are gone, but I know she will get a lot done and it will be a joy!

Michelle O.-- to answer your question...Steena is a friend I met in college and she has a real gift for organizing. I don't know if you saw what she did with my garage a year ago but it is great! You can check it out here. She works her tail off! She is a hard worker- not just someone who gives advice, but does it! She really thinks about what you would use most often and what you wouldn't and finds just the right spot for it. She is all about functionality!\

Okay, I'm off to bed- tomorrow will be extremely busy!

giving

Today was a good day!

This morning I talked to the kids about a family that lives around here whose house burned down. They have 10 kids and all of their toys were lost in the fire. I told them to think seriously about this and I asked if I could give away some of their toys and I named some specifically.

They were so tender hearted! We gave a lot of Legos, blocks, train table, etc. And both Ashley and Austin picked up some of their things and wanted to give them to them as well. (nice things- I was surprised)

So today we took the toys to where the family is staying. The kids got to meet each other and they were so excited to get the toys.

Austin said something like, we got to give toys to people who needed it and we made some friends too. I think God likes it when we do that.

Also- the family had one set of twins and THEY said, OH wow I don't know what it would be like with TRIPLETS. I said, well you have 10 kids! They said, yes but there is definitely more difficulty with two of them at the same time, I can't imagine three. OH do I feel vindicated with that statement if I ever needed to be vindicated! I've had SO many people say they had twins and one real close so it felt like triplets. I just nod my head and smile.

Tidbits

I am so disappointed!!!!! My Chick-Fil-A is not going to be doing the $.99 meals any more on kids' night. What will our family do on Tuesday nights?

---------

Yesterday Aussie put together and interessting combination of clothing. I told him that it didn't match. And he said, "I think it matches. I think it looks good. I think I look EXTEMELY handsome." Well OK then wear it.

-------
Today Ashley said, "Mom I don't know what happened. I used to be really good at matching clothes and now I'm not. I just don't know what happened."

(Whoohoo I'm glad she realized it.) I took a lot of time today putting outfits together that match. I need to find some kind of organizational way of helping her. Then tonight my friend, Steena suggested that I take pictures of the clothes that go together and hang the pictures up on the inside of her closet door. I just might do that.
________

Yesterday, I got to go over to my friend Doris' house and I scrapbooked one layout. I haven't gotten it out of my car yet to take a picture of it. But it is so nice to be able to do this. The kids play with her son, while we scrapbook. They got a bit roudy though, so I don't know how many times we could actually do that.
__________

Today I got to go pick up some fabulous hand me down clothes for the kids. I get so excited when we can do this. Most of it is winter clothes that I have to put away until winter. But Ashley and I just love to look at each and every piece of clothing as we pull it out of the bag. Ashley gets a little upset when we have to put something a way for later. She got a pink fur coat and she just wanted to use it for a blanket, she was so excited.

The boys get a little jealous when there is more clothes for her than there are for them. But I was really excited to see some pajamas in there for the boys. Their pajamas are getting really small on them- so wooooohoooo! Aussie practically changed his shirt in the car. He put on a long sleeve shirt and said, this is my favorite shirt.

I'm glad they get excited over clothes!

________________

So whats next? I've been doing a little work. I'm trying to get in at the very least an hour a day, but I'm averaging 2 hours a day. Anyway, I have a sweeeeet barter going on. I am transcribing tapes for cleaning/organizational cleaning. I am so very excited about this. I just can't function in this house. It is such a mess. I really need things not just clean but in a place.
So things are looking up!

It happened!

I loved the conversation Mason and I had this morning.

Mason: I'm going to tell everyone I have a loose tooth.

Me: Well, it's not loose anymore. You've already lost it.

Mason: No I loosed it.

Me: No actually we say you lost your tooth.

Mason: No, I'm gonna keep up with it!

________________

Can I just say, this little tooth is so cute? It is! Just a perfect little baby tooth.

___________________

Guess what? He has another loose tooth. This one is wiggly, but I think it might be in there for a little while longer than this one did when we found out. He is so excited! I've got a jealous little girl though, who thinks she will never lose a tooth. I bet things really get crazy after the tooth fairy comes tonight.

Saturday cookout

Mason still has his tooth. It is so loose and yet it is really stuck in there. He is so proud though to be the first with a loose tooth. The other two are handling it really well. I'm sure they will get jealous when the tooth fairy comes though. So what is reasonable these days for the tooth fairy to leave?

Tonight we went to a cookout with some of Greg's workmates. The house we went to had a gorgeous back yard and it was landscaped beautifully. They had a little waterfall set up with a few fish in it. The kids got to feed the fish, which was a real treat for them. The owners pulled some toys out and the kids played with this gun playing "freeze" tag. It humored me because they would pretend to shoot and say I got you and that person wouldn't argue they would just freeze.

Oh and another big hit there was the foosball table.

My batteries bailed on me, so I didn't get many pictures there. I did get a few though.

Loooooose tooooth

I'm so tired. Why is it so hard to get up from this chair and go to bed? I'm falling asleep as I type you would think it would be easy.

I just wanted to say that we are really excited around here. Mason has a loose tooth.

He was so cute. On our way to the Y, he said, "Hey I think I might have a loose tooth." I turned around to him wiggling it. I was really tickled that he said, "I think I might", when it was really moving. He is so excited and wants to tell EVERYBODY!

Today I took Ashley to the dentist and asked if he felt any loose teeth. This was BEFORE Mason's announcement. And the dentist said, "No they won't be loose for another 2 years." I was a little confused and I guess he could see that on my face and said, "They don't usually lose their teeth until they are around 6 years old." I looked at him and said, "She'll be 6 next month." She is tiny. I guess he thought she was 4. Anyway, he told me the first teeth to come out are usually at the bottom. So when Mason made his announcement I knew it was loose by him just pointing to it and before he even he even wiggled it. (Right place, right time)

Alrighty, Must sleep! I'm sure I'll get some pictures soon!

SISiversary happenings

Well hello everyone!


I'm so glad I don't have to be anywhere today. I need this day to relax and try to get back to normal (whatever normal is).



SISiversary was so wonderful!!!!


So you won't get scared by the ugly layouts below...I'll put these layouts first. These are layouts I completed or started at the convention. I'm looking at them now and thinking I need to journal on them.





I got there Friday night and there were 12 make-n-takes. We had a schedule of which table to go to. Then on Saturday you could sit with anyone you wanted.





The make-n-takes were cute and fun. It was mainly fun to meet all the people that I have been chatting with online and putting a face with the name.





They had karaoke on Friday night and I would have sung, but they didn't have any songs that I knew. A lot of it was country. They had a big book of songs, but somehow that got lost before the event- too bad.





Saturday was so fun. They had classes that you could sign up to go to, but I hadn't signed up for any of them. But in the main ballroom where everyone was scrapping, they had challenges every hour. I did all of the challenges. I don't know if I can remember them all but here are some of the challenges I created:


This one we had to scrapbook a layout with the title of an 80's music song.


This one we were given a bag of stuff and this bright yellow paper. We needed to use everything they gave us and we could only use 3 items of our own. Yes- I realize it is REALLY UGLY! But I still had fun.



This is a round robin we did. I just love round robins!




We also did a challenge where the person scrapbooking is blindfolded and you tell the other person what to do and you don't have much time to complete it. I don't have a picture of that.

___________


This challenge was called Bossy Scrapbooker. You had to scrapbook everything she said. So the first rule was to use cardstock, then something round, something from the person beside you, a two word title, something turquoise and a hand cut star.

******************


Then they had a challenge where the first 4 people to sing a song and entertain them for at least 30 seconds would get a prize. Guess what? I won this one. The first person got up there and sang row row row your boat. Then I got up there and sang Patsy Clines, "Crazy". I got a standing ovation (well from one table at least). I was such on a high after that! I went back to scrapbook and about 10 minutes later, one of the girls got up and said, "we have a request, we want Chelle to come back up and sing another song." Hello? This only happens in dreams right? Oh my goodness, so I grabbed a couple of girls and we sang "I've got chills" from Grease. If I had known words to songs I could have sung and sung. But I have a really bad time remembering song lyrics.

**************


Then the last challenge was to create something with clouds on it. I made this ugly little pillow. (That is supposed to be a cloud LOL)

I'm sure there is much more- Oh yes there is, but I'll scrapbook about Sunday in another post.

Have a wonderful day and sweet dreams!

Still sleepy

I'm still pretty tired from my WONDERFUL weekend.

I'll have to blog about it on Wednesday.

But just a little bit...They made me feel like a STAR!

SISiversary this WEEKEND

The hair looks a little bit better today. Thank goodness I haven't had any more meltdowns from Ashley.

Here's the latest layout that I have completed.

I am excited, I get to go to SISiversary this weekend. It is a scrapbooking event that starts tonight.

I told Greg that I would get home late. That it ended at 1:00AM and then starts again 8:00AM tomorrow. Greg told me to call up a friend and see if I can spend the night in that area.

(Kind of late notice huh?- Um...hello friend...I was just wondering if I could sleep on your couch tonight...and um I would be getting in around 1:30AM...that wouldn't keep you up or anything would it?) LOL! ~ Greg even volunteered to call one of my friends. ~ He is such a NICE husband.

I know all my girlfriends are laughing and I know my husband is reading this and saying, "What? I want you to be safe."

Anyway, I'll see what I can do!

Talk to you probably Monday!

It's a HAIRY situation

You can be the judge. So do you think that my haircut looks like the pictures I brought in?
Back view:





I'm thinking it's time to change hairdressers. Yes, it is similar, but she cut it way shorter on the sides. It looks like she even layered it on one of the sides.






Side view:

front view:

I think it is only OK, it will grow out. But my daughter had a complete meltdown tonight and told me she wanted her Mommy back. She said she was really sorry, but she wanted my hair back the way it was. She cried herself to sleep tonight. Earlier in the day she told me I look like Gramma. Yes my hair does look a lot like my Mom's now. I think I look much older with this cut. My Mom asked me to ask her how she should have her hair. Her response: Like my hair the way it used to be.

So anyone know a good hairdresser in the Nashville area?

The haircut I want

Tomorrow I'm getting my haircut.
This is what I want:

But everytime I go to get it cut, my hairdresser does it the same way, no matter how I tell her I want it. This time she has no excuse. I have a front, side and back picture to show what I want. If she doesn't get it right this time then I need to find someone else to cut my hair.

This picture is of Brandi, who works at the YMCA. I've asked her where she gets hers cut and she says a friend cuts her hair and only comes into town every now and then. So no luck going to her hairdresser.

Oh- I plan on only getting the cut. Even though I love the blond, that is too much $$$ to keep it up.

Wish me luck. I'll post pictures tomorrow night.

June 10th

I'm VERY tired and the kids are still up watching a movie with their Daddy. I would go to bed, but the best TV is in our room, so that's where they are watching it.

Yesterday, I taught the kids how to play UNO. They love it. We played one game that took at least 1 1/2 hours and Aussie won the game. He was so pleased with himself, especially since the box says it is for 7 years old and up. You should have heard them all giggling! Mason really has that competiveness. He was beside me so he was so excited when he could make me pick up cards.

We went to see Surf's Up at the movie theatre today. You got to love the free movies in the summer deal! It was a really cute movie and the kids enjoyed it.

My tummy is still not up to par. I didn't call the doctor yesterday because I was feeling good most of the day and thought it might just be a bug. I'm still not sure whether to call or not.

Oh good the movie is over- time for bed!

side effects

Hmmmmm....I wonder if my new medicine is causing me to not feel well. I've had at least 4 of the side effects listed below. For now I'm just going to watch it and hope that my body gets used to the medicine. If it continues I'll definitely call my doctor.

Levothyroxine
All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Levothyroxine:
Anxiety; diarrhea; flushing; mood swings; muscle weakness; partial, temporary hair loss; sleeplessness; stomach cramps; tiredness; vomiting.

anxiety attack

Hello again!

Yesterday- I had some sort of aniety attack. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I didn't feel right all day. It hit a peek when VBS let out. If one of my kids just touched my arm, I felt tension travel up my back into my shoulders and neck. I've only had something like this 3-4 other times. I just wanted to cry for no reason. I called the doctor to see if I could take some medicine. I didn't know if it would interfere with the new thyroid medicine I'm on. Thankfully, I could and I actually had it with me. So I took one. It helped quite a bit but not enough. I got home around 5:30 last night. Greg got home shortly after that and he took care of everything and I went to bed.

I did get one layout done yesterday.

Here are a couple of pictures I took as we were leaving VBS yesterday.

Fun at the Y

Wow! These long days are starting to take a toll on me! Day 4 of VBS and I got 2 layouts done. Whoooopeeee! I had a LOT of fun making this one. It's so different from others that I make. I just enjoyed freely putting papers and flowers down just anywhere.
__________


Then off to the YMCA! What fun!! They love this froggy slide. Aussie likes to go down by himself. And Ashley and Mason like us to catch them.
____________

So we left at 8:30 this morning and didn't get home until 8:00 this evening. I'm ready for bed! Here are a few more pool pictures.

WE LOVE the YMCA!

I LOVE this picture!

Tomorrow won't be AS busy, but still another busy day!

Day 3 of VBS

...and another layout done. WoooHooo!

The kids are really enjoying VBS even though in the morning they say, "I don't wanna go." Today, Aussie admitted once we got there that they actually DO like VBS but they miss me.

They have these riding toys there to play on and the kids just love them. After VBS we played with Gabriel, Dalton and Braxton on the playground for a few minutes, since they are not in the same class and don't get to see each other. Oh by the way Renee- Yes, Page is in my kids class. Aussie talks about her everyday. I was going to get a picture of her when I went to pick them up today, but she was already going out the door when I got there.

After VBS, my kids went to Gabriel's house to play for a little bit. (which turned out to be maybe a little longer than Doris wanted---SORRY!) Anyway, the kids had so much fun! They ended up making a "Science" concoction which they called Dead Bug Soup. The giggling was so cute to hear! Doris scored some really cute pictures. I don't know if she will post them.

--------------------

And then we went to the Y for swim lessons. Tonight was much more organized than yesterday. Mason still refuses to put his face in the water.

----------------

Then we played in the pool after swim lessons till 7:00 and Aussie actually cried when we had to leave. That has been one area in the past that we have been lucky with. When we say we have to go and give them so many more minutes to play, they usually go pretty easily. So this was a bit of a surprise when he acted like that. I don't think he would have ever thought about dinner and would have played until they shut the pool down. He is a little water bug!