Locks of Love Again

Ashley did it again!  She donated 10" of hair to Locks of Love.

She loves her new hairstyle and so do I.

I meant to get a better front picture today but forgot.

Today seemed to be a pretty busy day.  After church we had to pick up my clothes from the consignment sale.  We tried out a new restaurant, Pie in the Sky.  It was OK, but way too expensive.

We had to hurry out of there because we had to pick up the clothes before 2:00 or they get donated.  Our waitress was in no hurry, despite us telling her we needed to go.  We did make it in time and it looks as though I did really well.  I'm actually a little nervous.  We dropped off 4 basketfuls and picked up only one, which is super!  But it also makes me wonder if we missed a section when we were gathering the clothes.  Let's hope that I did really well.  We could use the money.  Greg has some car repairs that need to be made, and the kids want to participate in a drama camp over spring break.

Then when we came home I've been running the laundry non-stop.  I also took this time to go through the boys closet and get things organized for the next consignment sale.  I love how I'm doing this now.  It used to be so stressful.  But now I hang up the clothes as I get them.  That way all I need to do is put the description and print the cards.  So much less stress!  I found several more items that didn't make it into this sale that I plan to do another one soon.

I got my annual doctor report back.  My iron is slightly low.  I already take an iron pill.  So I really need to eat more red meat and green leafy lettuce.  I also am extremely low on my vitamin D.  He requests for me to get that vitamin and start taking it.  It couldn't hurt if I actually drank some milk.  Tonight I made me a big cup of hot chocolate.  Adding chocolate is the ONLY way I can drink milk.

I feel like my toe is FINALLY healing.  It still hurts a bit, but I'm walking normal and can get around much easier.  I was able to wear my normal black shoes instead of my Crocs, which is nice. When I broke my toe my house went to pot.  Everything was put on hold.  It's really frustrating as I was doing so well and it is so hard to get it that way.

I'm so behind on my Bible reading.  Maybe I should pick up where I'm supposed to be instead of trying to get caught up.  But I hate the fact that I don't like what I'm reading/listening to.  It doesn't make me want to read it. I'm just being honest.

Friday, I start teaching at co-op.  A lady is moving and they needed someone to take over.  I will be teaching K/1st grade Science and Art.  I wasn't prepared for how much stuff she gave me.  It filled up my trunk and side passenger seat.  Certainly, I won't need all that stuff and then when the class is over I will pass it onto whoever teaches next year.  But I will finish up the year, I think it is 10 weeks.  I so enjoy my time off, but I also know that I am really good with this age group.  I need to plan my art project.  I'm not sure what we will do.  I know that in Science we will continue with her lesson plan of learning the 5 senses.  They have completed the eye and ear.  This week we will learn about the nose.

Alrighty, now it's time for me to figure out tomorrow's lesson plan for my own kids.  Talk to you soon.

Need some major Mojo!

Today has been a bust.  I could not get motivated for anything.  It's really hard to get back into a routine after, Pacific Overtures, Grandparents here, weekend, holiday, etc.  Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed all of those.  (OK well maybe I didn't enjoy my husband being gone for 3 months but the musical itself was quite enjoyable. )But wowzers! I was struck with the I don't want to do anything today!

Yesterday, we took off for President's day only because my friend Doris and her son had off school and they invited us over.  I got to scrapbook.  I completed 4 layouts too. I suppose I should share them.  Off to take pictures...be right back.  I'm back, hardly missed me didn't you?

I had a hard time getting in the groove.  I don't think any of these are spectacular.  But I had fun and that's all that matters.

Luckily in my laziness today, I did manage to run a load of dishes and 2 loads of laundry.  And I didn't have to cook dinner with it being Tuesday night- Chick Fil A Family night!

Now I'm going to get prepared for school tomorrow and write out our schedule.

Wish me luck!

Pacific Overtures Success!!!!

Last night was the final night of Pacific Overtures. It was a HUGE success! Yesterday was also Greg's birthday. How many people can say they produced and directed a Stephen Sondheim musical successfully by the age of 40?

So very proud of him!

Darn a whole paragraph just got erased.  Now I have to figure out what I said.  Friday night I got to see the play sans kids.  It was absolutely amazing!  The music, the set, the acting, the lighting, everything was beautiful!!!  There are several people who saw it more than once.  Greg's parents took the kids to Chick Fil A and to see a movie.  I stole these pictures off of her phone.

On Saturday the whole family got to see Pacific Overtures again.  Greg's parents for the first time. Greg wanted me to take some specific pictures.  So I brought my camera and camped out up front.  However, during intermission I took too long getting food and drinks for my kids that I didn't get in there in time to take my seat.  I was really stressed out. I managed to sit in someone else's seat who was in the back with her child.  I was afraid at any moment that she would come back up and want her seat. I didn't get as good of pictures as I would have liked for the second act, but they didn't turn out too bad.  And we will be posting many of them on Facebook soon.

Anyway, remember those pillows I made last week?  Well I got the actual pillow part from Goodwill.  I picked up the 2 lovely pillows and they had pink Asian pillow cases on them. I knew I wanted to do something with the fabric.  And my chance came!  Out of the two 15" pillow cases I made Ashley a Japanese shirt.  It is by no means something that will last, it was definitely made as a costume to wear to Greg's play.  There wasn't much fabric so I had to use every little piece wisely. The things that look like sleeves  that are hanging down are actually fabric that is supposed to come down between her arms and body.  Her arms actually come out up higher on the side.  Then it is tied with a red ribbon, which I couldn't find for this picture.

 She loves it and it does look cute on her.

I then put her hair up in a bun and stuck chopsticks in it.

But the boys didn't want to be left out they wanted to dress up too.

Mason wore Aussie's older Chinese shirt since he is smaller.

And Aussie wore his newer Chinese shirt.

And they all got "Kabukified".

Yes I made up that word.  They all got into Kabuki makeup.

Ashley as a geisha.

Mason as a Samurai Warrior 

He had the top knot and all.

Aussie as a Samurai warrior

He wasn't too crazy about the top knot so he took it out.

And the three of them passed out programs.

The boys think the one in the middle gets the most attention, so they no longer let Ashley be in the middle.  Bugs me, because it just makes for a better picture.

Today, Greg's parents took us to Logan's for Greg's birthday. Mmmmmm!

And then they started back home.  We thought they were staying until Tuesday, so the kids were really bummed that they were leaving.  They brought their dog, Meggie with them.  Mason prides in the fact that he has the same hair as she does.

After we had lunch Greg went to Lipscomb to tear down the set.

Wow, it's over!

I *think* that means I get my husband back.

For his birthday we gave him the new Legend of Zelda game.

  I originally got it for Christmas, but Greg said he wouldn't be able to play it until after the play.  So we decided to wait and give it to him for his birthday.  Tonight, he actually, got a chance to sit down with the kids and play.

Tomorrow is President's day and I plan to go to a friend's house.  And hopefully, things will get back to normal around here.  Whatever, normal is!

Good night!

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

The two girls who received their pillows LOVED them.  I even saw one of them carry it to church with her. Only one is pictured as the other doesn't want pictures of her daughter on the Internet, so I will respect that.  Even though I did get a cute picture of her with it.

Last night I made a YUMMY dinner that I found on Pinterest.

Crescent Chicken Casserole

Wow- Oh so good.  You can find the recipe here.

I used Mexican shredded cheese since that is what I had on hand.

And Greg brought home a Valentine's gift for all of us last night.

Gigi's cupcakes.  Don't they look divine?

Thank you Greg they are delicious!

So when everyone went to bed, I made fortune cookies. I was excited to see that the prep time was only 5 minutes and cook time was only 8-12 minutes.  So I got to work around midnight.  Well guess what? The cook time is for TWO at a time.  Really?  I started out doing that but then got lazy.  I do think they would have turned out better if I would have taken the time to do them 2 at a time, but I really didn't have 96 minutes to spare.

The recipe I used I found here.

I think if I make them again I'll leave out the nutmeg.  I guess I just don't like that flavor.

The hardest part for me was trying to come up with the fortunes.  I did come up with some pretty funny ones.  Here is my list:

Do not pick on your brother today!

It’s the person on your left’s lucky day!

Your Mom ate your cupcake! (This one was followed up with a note in the cupcake box that said Made you look!)

You will get an A on your next test if you study hard.

You will find something you lost today once you clean your room.

You have the prettiest, best, most loving, creative, happy, special, sweetest Mom in the world!

Today is the day for love! Love thy brother as thy love yourself.

You are pretty splendid!

You need a haircut!

Kiki ate your real fortune. You can try to get it back but I’m afraid she’ll bite you.

Izzy hid your fortune.

You will find happiness in the next fortune cookie.

Here are the ones I created for myself.  They make me laugh!

You will get much needed rest when kids are out of the house!

You don’t need a cookie to tell you, you are super!

You get the Mom of the year award!

You deserve a hug for making these fortune cookies.

I did make some special ones for my sweetheart, but those I'm keeping private.

Ashley was the first to open hers. She is the only one I got pictures of with one, since the boys sleep in their underwear and were not dressed when they opened their cookies. The fortunes in pink are the ones Ashley got.  I do think it is funny she picked the 2 that were about being nice to your brothers.

Mason had the BEST reaction to his fortunes by far!  I wish I would have filmed him.  He laughed and was stunned at the audacity of some that he got!  It just makes me laugh thinking about it.  His fortunes are in blue. He did wonder how I knew he would pick the cupcake one, but that's when I told him to look in the box to see that it was still there.

Aussie was up last.  The first cookie he opened said, You need a haircut!  He rolled his eyes and didn't want to open any of the other ones.  I coaxed him into it.  And I laughed at every one he read out loud.  His are in green.

Here is the card I created for Greg. Simple but hopefully cute.

 We went to Chick Fil A tonight. Ashley wore the shirt I made her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Creating and all that stuff!

I feel like today was a crazy, whirlwind day.

I found this theater curtain that I made for the kids several years ago.  I was disappointed that they hadn't used it a lot after all the work I put into it.

So I got it out today and put it up.  The kids LOVE it!  They didn't remember ever having it.

Aussie asked if they could make puppets for school.

Sure! As long as you get everything else done I have planned for today.

So they started out with paper bag puppets.

Here are Ashley's:

Mason's actually turned out the best:

He colored front and back and sides!

I have NO idea where Aussie's puppets are.  They are probably in between the couch cushions.  That's where I find his homework sometimes.

Remember the pillow I made yesterday.  Well Ashley was jealous and wanted me to make her one.  She wanted these weird human-like Pokemon characters.  I searched the web for decent enough pictures and still ended up editing them in Photoshop.  They are not so bad in this picture:

So I spent quite a bit of time gathering the materials to attempt to make this pillow for her.  After I had nearly everything, she started saying,  "I wish I had a Valentine's present for my best friend, Abby.  Can you make her a pillow?"  Seriously??? I told her I could make one or the other today.  So she told me Abby really likes Angry Birds.  And of course it needed to be done before tomorrow, when they see their friends at tutorial.  So I created this:

But not only was I creating this and meeting the demands of all my children I was also baking brownies  and blueberry muffins for Greg's play AND Ashley wanted to learn how to make felt puppets.

SO...I taught Ashley how to use my sewing machine.

We created a simple hand puppet and then decorated it using fabric glue.  I thought that would be a lot easier than trying to sew on all those little pieces.

And what puppets did she create?  Can you guess?

I ended up helping her a lot, I felt so overwhelmed with everything that I was doing.  I enjoyed making the pillow for the most part.  It was a little hard when I had to sew up the side after it was stuffed.  Of course I finished it after she went to bed.  I'm sure that is when I really started to enjoy creating it.

Mason wanted to create some felt puppets too, but I told him not tonight.  Thankfully he was understanding.

My toe has been numb on and off today.  I see the chiropractor again tomorrow and I'm going to ask him his advice whether I should see and orthopedic or not.  I really need to see him tomorrow.  From limping my hips and back have been really hurting me.

I also had my friend Steena come over today for a piece of caramel pie.  I'm glad she came today.  She was able to take some of the treats that I made today to the play tonight.  That's one good thing, that I didn't have to get out and travel all the way to Lipscomb and back just to drop them off. So it was really super nice that she was going anyway and could take them.

I hate that it is so late!  I'm tired tonight and need to go to bed, especially since I need to get up early in the morning.  But I don't feel like I have had any time to myself. And I so desperately need that.

I'm behind in my Bible reading. I'm in Leviticus and I'm struggling with it.  On one hand I think I really need to pay attention that it must be important for me to know.  And on the other hand I fight myself not to do ANYTHING else while I'm listening to it.  So far I haven't picked up my phone and played Angry Birds while listening to the Bible but I'm so very tempted to do so.  I have however put things around me away.  Grab some water in between chapters, etc.

I'm also a little behind in my housework.  My broken toe slowed me down quite a bit and then the last two days I have been sewing (which I tend to make a big mess when I'm crafting.)  That and I neglect the housework that I'm supposed to be doing.

As for my menu planning...  Wow I've done a great job planning it.  Now if I would look at BEFORE dinner time it would be oh so helpful.  It would also be very helpful if I actually bought the food that I was planning to make for this week.  I WILL do better next week.  I did look at the menu for tomorrow. Yay me!  Except that it is a crockpot recipe and of course I don't have the food.  Urg!  Now what shall I make?  It needs to be simple.

Alright that's good for tonight! Have a good one!

February Project Completed

February project finished!

  I saw this on someone else's blog.  She had bought hers from Pottery Barn Kids.  I looked them up and they retail I believe for $18 each maybe it was $24 each.  Funny they were on their website yesterday and they are no longer there today.  Anyway it cost me WAY less than that to make 4 of them.  I made one for Aussie to give his girlfriend as well.

Here is a close up of Ashley's.  The boys are in red.

 They hang on the back of chairs and you can open them up and put valentines in them.

I love how they turned out!

Aussie never got his girlfriend a Christmas present and he has been fretting over it.  So I finally made something for him to give her. She loves Snoopy.  I absolutely love how this turned out.  Ashley is jealous and wants me to make her a pillow.

Ashley's won't be as cute because she wants some weird character on it.  Oh well, if I feel up to it and have the materials I'll make it for her.

I re-injured my toe today.  It was numb for most of the day but it is no longer numb.  When I took the boys to the doctor this afternoon, their doctor suggest I see an orthopedic.  But since the numbness has gone away I'll continue to just have it taped to another toe.

2 Dreams and a Broken Toe

Yesterday, before all the festivities I absolutely HAD to take a nap! In that short amount of time I had 2 bad dreams.

 The first one:

 I sent Ashley out to sell candy.  When she came back all happy about how much she sold she mentioned that she charged $3.  In which this sick feeling came all over me.  It was supposed to be $4 and she forgot. I came to a huge realization that I had to pay the extra $1 for each candy that she sold.

The second one:

I had to pee REALLY bad. I proceeded to go to the bathroom, which happened to be a toilet in the middle of the Living Room.  When I started to pee I heard voices in the other room.  That's when I realized my Dad brought home company and it was any minute that they were going to come around the corner and see me peeing.  And I just kept peeing and peeing and peeing and it seemed like it would never end. Thankfully I didn't get caught. :)

What does all this mean?  Probably the 2 dreams were just putting pictures to my stress.  I've been keeping the house clean.  {{{Trying}}} really hard to keep it clean.  And I broke my toe Thursday night.  For two days I didn't do much and it seems as though the house went to pot.  I knew my friend, Doris was coming over and she has been reading my blog and knew that I was keeping my house clean.  I felt a lot of pressure to get it under control again and the time was ticking down.  That and the fact that I broke my toe has caused a lot of stress.  I can't do anything easily.  You never know how much you use something until you hurt it.

I don't think I mentioned here how I did it.  It was Thursday night and I walked into the Family Room and accidentally kicked a doll bed in the middle of the floor. OUCH!  Even though it wasn't Ashley's fault she felt terribly guilty.  I could barely walk and wondered if I had broke it.  I suspected that I might have. This is very interesting information. Most times a sprain will bruise up and look like it is the worst thing that has ever happened to you.  A few months ago Greg sprained his toe and it was horrendous looking, but it healed in a few days.  And many times a break doesn't look very bad at all.  That would be the case with my toe.  You can barely tell I did anything to it.  Anyway, I had a chiropractor appointment the next day and he took a look at it.  He didn't take x-rays but he could tell by feeling it that it was broken and he wrapped it up (taped it to the toe next to it.)

I can get around better today.  It still hurts.  It is still hard to go up the stairs.  And today I accidentally kicked my friend's foot under the table.  She didn't even feel it, but it sure hurt me.  I feel like a baby and I over explain, hence this blog post. I mean it SHOULD look terrible or something and it doesn't.  Makes me feel like I look like a liar.

I feel like I could ramble and ramble on!  I so wish I could sleep well on the couch!  It is so comfortable. Some days it gets so late that all I want to do is lay down on it and fall asleep.  But I usually am awakened abruptly by not breathing. OK 4 blog posts in a day is probably more than you ever wanted to read.  So I'll say goodnight for now.

It's Super Cup Day!

So my Mom sent me a really cute picture of some Valentine's Day nails:

So I attempted to recreate them.  I shouldn't even put them in the same post, because theirs is so much cuter than mine. I just used the colors I had.  I tried to put the heart and the second color of lines, but it didn't turn out so well so I just left it at this:

 Today is Super Bowl Sunday!  Many people get together and watch the game.  But my friend Doris just wanted to get together for the food.  So she and her son came over.  She and I made enough food to feed a whole party of people but it was just us.

We had 4 kinds of dip:

Chicken Rotel

 (Don't know why it's called this since it doesn't have Rotel in it)

Sausage Dip (Since sausage hurts my stomach she made some with regular hamburger)  

Creamy Mexican Queso

Then we had the MOST wonderful Potato Skins that she made.  OH WOW!  My favorite by far!

And then we had FOUR desserts! (Well three since the angel food cake didn't make it here)

Key Lime pie

Unfortunately, I put this on top of the oven and it melted.  And it never refroze properly, but it still tasted pretty good.

 And Caramel Pie

 Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

And the kids had Super Bowl Cupcakes.

And our favorite line of the day:

Aussie: Dad, can you make me hot chocolate tonight? Because it is, after all, the Super Cup. Uh... Super BOWL? (we laugh at him) I don't know sports, leave me alone.