Day Life In

Cub Scouts Pinewood

2012-01-24T07:54:00.000-06:00

It's that time of the year again. Elijah's car is the #4 car (it is a bobsled: red, white and blue), super fast and super ~~cute~~ fast.

See what I mean (ok so they all are super fast:).

This is our sweet boy he won 1st place in his den and 3 place in the pack! We are super proud!

OK that is enough of the Super stuff, I promise not to use the word super for the next couple of days as I used it a bit to much in this post:)

Happy Tuesday.

I might be a little bit of a geek.

2012-01-23T16:10:00.001-06:00

I made this while the kids and I where playing with Lego's. I first saw this idea on Esty here, but and this persons comes with a ton more cool stuff, but I was to ~~cheap~~ ~~lazy~~ (well you know I just wanted to do it now:). Anywho I have been having trouble with Dr Who lately. I found a ton of cool fabric that I HAVE to have (all at 18$/yard....) Here are a couple of my favs..... I might even make a quilt out of them.

OK I could go on and on, but I will spare you the agony of that. I found all of theses and a couple of others on SpoonFlower man these guys rock!!!!!!

I might need to see a Doctor about this problem of mine.

Do you have something that you are a real geek about?

Happy Geeking.

Really?

2012-01-20T09:24:00.001-06:00

Z: (to the child wearing a short sleeve shirt today) You need to put a sweater on today.

E: (wiggle, cry, wiggle, cry) But it is only 1 out there!

REALLY?????

Here he is with his Dad are working on his pinewood derby car. (Note that he is also wearing a short sleeve shirt in this photo...... crazy boy.... but I love him).

Have weekend, and if you are around here have fun shoveling (it just started snowing.)

What's for Dinner?

2012-01-19T13:12:00.000-06:00

Last night we had this Chicken for dinner:

It was so yummy. Go check out the rest of the recipes at Minimally Invasive Lots of yummy looking stuff there. Tons to day on this cold day. Hope you stay warm

That's whats for lunch

2012-01-18T13:41:00.002-06:00

This little girl wanted

This for lunch

The lollipop is from the "haircutter place". Yes Dad I did get her hair cut, but as you can see it is mostly the same (hopefully a little less in her face).

Happy Healthy Eating:)

Did you know that it was Tuesday?

2012-01-17T16:08:00.001-06:00

I forgot today and did not get up to help in Elijah's class. It bums me out to be so forgetful these day, but we are going to forget about it for right now and talk about random stuff:)

Anywho I made this yummy bread today (not sure that it is yummy yet as it just come out of the oven, but it sure smells good).

Do you make homemade bread? I want to try making some butter to go with it. I have been wanting to do it since I first saw it over at 2 little hooligans. If you have never been there check it out, she does the coolest stuff.

This is one of the things that makes me happy these days. We love to have lots of fresh veggies at the dinner table these days. When my folks where here they thrifted me a ton (about 8 or 9) glass dishes that I could use to make our veggies look nicer:) And my Mom also got me the nicest crystal bowl, I love it.

What are you loving these days?

How I love this boy:

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

He had a b-day over the holidays and he is now 8!!!!

Just 8 short years ago this is what he looked like:

Oh and BTW this might have been the last time that he sucked his thumb.

Here are a bunch of questions that I want to start asking my kids at each of their birthdays (just to see how they change over the years)

What do you want to be when you grow up? A football player.

What is your favorite color? Red

Who do you like to play with best? My Dad

What is your favorite toy? My nerf guns

What is your favorite subject at school? Music

What is your favorite song? This little light of mine

What is your favorite thing to play outside? Football

What is your favorite food? Pizza with peperoni

What is your favorite thing to play with your sister? I like to play life with my sister

What is your favorite book? Ricky Rocotta's Mighty Robot

What is your favorite place to eat out? Bunky's

Just in case you wanted to know.

2012-01-16T15:19:00.000-06:00

This just come out of the oven and I am not sure that I can wait for it to cool it smells sooooooooo yummy. You can find the recipe over at Lick the Bowl Good (cute name yes?)

Piggy's new Clothes

2012-01-16T13:14:00.000-06:00

While my parents where here they help me get some of my "big" projects done (and let me tell you it feels great I am so thankful to them for their help), one of which was getting my craft room in better order. This was no small feet as my craft stuff was on 2 different floors (the basement and the attic). We got all my fabric down stairs and organized all the stuff down stairs. With that done now I can do projects when I want to AND find the stuff I need for said projects. So today I went ahead and made Piggy some new pants and a halter top. (I made them out of an old pair of tights that do not fit Ada anymore). Here is our little fashion model:

Here new pants. (I put elastic (that I found in my clean up) in the top, but I would not do that next time, to much trouble and not much benefit)

Cute halter top. (they are coming back right?:)

And of course the whole outfit put together. I think that Pig is over the moon with happiness to have some new clothes.

Happy crafting all:)

Yet one more plus a story to go with it.

2012-01-13T13:46:00.000-06:00

I got the quilt that Dad and I where working on done today (when I say done I mean top done not done done). As you can see it is made from old flannel shirts (and a lest one dress). Dad came with a bag full of them and we cut them up, laid them out (much fun for the cats), and got all the rows done before he left. I spent the last couple of days working on getting the rows together in one quilt (it would have taken less time if I had not been feeling so bad the last couple of day, but that is life and I am just happy that I felt well enough to do as well as I have).

We used a couple of pockets and some buttons (adds a wonderful touch to it don't you think?)

While I was working the last couple of days I was reading Erin Mckean's book The Secret Lives of Dresses. Her book is about a woman that writes stories about the dresses that she sells in her shop (this is a VERY short and not a very good description of the book.... ie it is much better then I make sound, but I only need to tell you about this part because I decided to write a little story about this quilt). Let us be clear about this I DID NOT come up with idea, but I loved. It was fun to write it and thinking about the times I had as a kid watching my Dad wearing these shirts. So all that said and now you can read the story:

He wore me all the time when I was newer. He would put me on to go out to get wood in the winter for their fire. He also wore me when he chopped and stacked that same wood. I was the shirt that helped him work and kept him warm. I was not the “hang me on a hanger” kind of shirt that others at the thrift store where he picked me up, I was a work horse kind of shirt and I loved to work. But as I got older he picked me less and less out of the pile of shirts. Then one day I got put in a big bag with lots of other shirts (and even a dress was added to our community at one point!) and we waited. I do not know how long we waited, because shirts and dresses do not have any sense of time.

We waited and waited, most thought we would be put in the trash or had been put in the trash, but I knew that he had other plans for us. He brought us to her. He called her his daughter although the daughter I remember was much smaller (more like his daughter’s daughter, but what do I know I am just a shirt). And together they cut us up and put us together in a quilt. We are all part of one big quilt now and it feels wonderful to be useful again. I know that we will keep him warm and help him get his work done just a well as I did all those years ago.

PS the last 2 photos are of the shirts that this story was written about/from. If you like this you can read more of her post on the secret lives of dresses on her blog A Dress A Day. (I only just found her blog today, but I love it already.... just what I need another blog to love..... oh well go on click on it and see what you think, then stop back here and let me know what you think).

Free day!!!! :)

2012-01-13T07:31:00.000-06:00

Well OK so Elijah is sick and that is why we have a free day, so that is a bummer. But I have to say that it is kinda nice knowing that we have nothing to do today. I am hoping to do a little cleaning (read into that a lot of cleaning), work on a quilt that my Dad and I started when he was here, lots of cuddling my sick baby, some movies (no popcorn as he is throwing up, was that to much info?) and maybe even get done with this book that I am having trouble putting down. I will show photos soon of the quilt soon.

Now off to ~~read my book~~ take care of my sick kid. I hope your day is sick free.

Quilt

2012-01-11T08:07:00.001-06:00

I got my parents quilt done. It is a little wild in color and patterns, but it SOOOO them and they love it.

Front (above) and Back (below).

I hand did the binding and it took FOREVER (poor arthritic hands).

I love the way it came out.

On a sadish not my folks left today to head back home. They have been here for about 4 weeks and we had a great time (I miss them already).

Joy

2012-01-09T07:29:00.002-06:00

Joy is the first day of school.
Joy is Grandparents that take kids to school.
Joy is Grandparents that take little child even thought she does not have school today.
Joy is meeting parents at a coffee shop after a relaxing time getting ready for the day with no kids.
Joy is feeling better today then I did yesterday.
Joy is GOOD.

Have a joy filled day.

Pool Fun

2012-01-08T18:14:00.001-06:00

We went to the windy city while the kids where out of school. Here are some photos of the fun they had in the pool:)

Now for some words from my sweet lovable son.

Ada and I were dring off from the pool. I am making a funny in the photo.

This is my Grandma, sister and I drying off from the pool. We where all hugging each other.

Note the blue text is from Elijah.

2011-12-12T11:09:00.000-06:00

I kinda fell in love with the cute little candle holders, but did not want to pay for them (plus they are from oversees and I did not want to deal with that:)

So I decided to try and make some myself. I went to the craft store and got stickers and some little tealights holders (buck and 1/2 for all) and got these cute little things. I do not love them as much as the ones on the top and going to make some more, but it has lots of potential.

Right now we are waiting for a jump from the AAA guy (gotta love those guys). For some reason the van is not working today. Ada cried when the van did not start (she does not do well with change of plans.)

Some crafts we have been up to.

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

Pinterest ~~sucks~~ ~~rocks~~ gives me to may ideas:) I got this one on there. I think that they are cute! The kids had tons of fun making them. We made this batch for someone that we know who is recovering from a stroke. Sweet sweet man and I wanted to do something to help cheer him up so I came up with the idea of bringing him a little tree with some ornaments on it, and these cute little snowmen seemed to be the right thing.

This is one that Ada made it is a snowman with a zipper (not buttons, because zippers are better then buttons right?) and teeth. Love that girl!

Here is the little tree. It has lights and we put candy canes on it. We brought it to him today. He was sleeping and I did not want to wake him, so I left it on his night stand so he would see it when he woke up. I hope it cheered him up.

Here is another crazy Pinterest thing. It is the kids hand prints that I made into snowmen. Love the way they come out.

And lastly here is a cute ring that I got over the weekend. It is made from a old typewriter key. Cute yes? Only problem is that it does not seem to be waterproof and that kinda makes it a hard ring to wear.... bummer.

For the birds.

2011-12-05T10:21:00.001-06:00

Here are some birds I made for my friends Christmas tree.

I hope to make some more for other tress this year..... we will see.

We have been making cool kid crafts. I will take photos today and show you tomorrow.

Zach Wahls Speaks About Family

2011-12-01T08:19:00.000-06:00

How proud we all would be to have this man as a child, and how proud his moms must be. Well said Zach, well said.

Hello

2011-12-01T07:51:00.001-06:00

I am filling the silence of my house with this (thank you Stephanie). Man I love me some Barenaked Ladies. Before I started the music all that I could hear is this:

This clock was always on my Grandma's wall (as long as I can remember) and when they moved out of their apartment I got it. It never worked for Grandma. When I got it I took to a friend from church's husband who worked on clocks. He worked on it for a long time trying to get it to work. He got it to work, but it was VERY touchy and only worked if it was in the mood. Well it was never in the mood for us. When we moved into this house it sat for a long time waiting for the right place on the wall. Mark put it up last weekend and it started working!!!!! And it has been working ever since. It is so nice to hear the wonderful ticking of this clock. My Grandma has been gone for years now and so has my friends husband that worked on the clock so I think that they had a little hand in making it work:).

Anyho we had this from 365 Days of Slow Cooking for dinner last night and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good and easy to make. I lighted it a bit and will be lighting it more when I make it next time (maybe tomorrow.... just kidding it makes a ton of soup so we will be eating the batch I made this time for a couple of days, but it was that good!). Go over there and get the recipe and try it tonight you will not be sorry. I will be going back to this blog to check out the rest of her blog for more dinner ideas.

Have a great day everyone!

Christmas Tree

2011-11-30T08:01:00.001-06:00

Ada went over to my neighbors house yesterday and made this SUPER CUTE tree for our Christmas tree (too big for the Advent Calendar). My neighbor might have the BEST Nanny in the world (just saying).

Cute right. The Nanny (lets call her S because I can not say the Nanny without seeing this) found this idea on Pinterest, but I am not sure where or I would link to it. Happy Hump day. (does anyone use that term anymore?, am I dating my self?)

Yesterday

2011-11-29T16:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday Ada and I had a great day yesterday. We started the day at a brand new Starbucks! (I may or may not have peed my pants a little bit with excitement when I saw that this Starbucks was coming to my area;) Boy does my baby love her some Starbucks (and I might think it is OK also:).

Next we went to JoAnns to get a rod to hang my the Advent Calendar and ribbon. It looks so good hanging on the wall (even if the rod needs to be trimmed a little bit (and maybe even painted) but these things have a year to get done. The best part of this trip was that I only spent only 5 bucks!!! (that might be a new world record for ~~all crafters~~ me.

Then off to the library where we saw 3 sets of friends that we did not know where going to be there. Gotta love the library.

OK so it does not sound like a great fun time, but we loved it.

Right now E is learning Jingle Bells in the background right now. Man I love Christmas time. Ada just got done having tea party in her room all by herself. That is why I have had time to blog. Now off to the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow (cross fingers).

IT IS DONE!!!!!

2011-11-27T16:38:00.001-06:00

Well unless you are talking about the ornaments:)

Well here it is:

I LOVE the way it came out, numbers and all (but I am glad that I do not have to do more numbers).

Like I said before I made it from Make It Do (from this pattern). I did change the pattern a bit (no laughing friends). First I made the pockets bigger (they where 2.5 in in the pattern and I wanted them 3.5 to give me more room for ornaments) and of course I did not read how she did it all the way through so I ended up ~~fudging~~ making it look wonderful at the end. But all and all I think it came out GREAT. Oh and it was done on Saturday so just in time for Advent to start (next time I might wait a little longer so that I can cut it even closer (grin).

So this is how it works, everyday you (being the kids) reach into the pocket and take out an ornament to put on the tree*. On Christmas Eve the tree will be decorated. I love this idea for many reasons, mostly because I do not have think about what I would put in EVERY single on of those pockets. So now on to filling the pockets with ornaments**. I am asking my crafty friends to make me one*** ornament, that way I will have a tree that is filled with wonderful handmade ornaments that will always remind me of all my friends (how about that for adding to the holiday spirit!)

*For this year since there are more then 24 days of Advent I just put more ornaments in the first pocket.

**For this year I am just using gift tags that I got at Target. (I would never expect anyone to make me an ornament in December! Man I know that we all have a million things to make for our own families:)

***If I have not asked you yet this is because A. I have not had the time or seen you or B. I do not know that you would/could make one. But of course if you want to make one feel free:)

Shhhh do not tell anyone

2011-11-26T10:16:00.001-06:00

We have Christmas music on. :) and I am LOVING IT!

Got the Advent Calendar mostly done. (just snowflakes and backing left to do).

Happy Saturday.

E is up stairs working on this (man I love free stuff on the internet) and A is doing (well I do not know what she is doing, but she is happy and not hanging on me:)

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:09:00.001-06:00

The rest of my family (and some neighbors) are out in the yard playing football. (it is 41 out there and that is why I am in here tending the turkey and making cranberry sauce. ) I am also working on an Advent Calender for this year. I am using this pattern with slight changes (as anyone who knows my crafting ways they know that I can NOT do a pattern the way it is written that would be way to easy:). I am sewing the numbers on by hand (Nuts right?), do you have any idea how many numbers there are between 1 and 24? While we where at the pool the other day (Ada had swim lessons) Elijah and I had this conversation:

Z: I think there should only be 8 days in Advent:)
E: No mom that would not be OK.
Z: But then Christmas would come faster you would only have to wait 8 days from the beginning of Advent:)
E: No mom you have to sew all the number on.
Z: (Oh Man!)

Here is how far I am so far:

Yep 6 is done but 7 is not...... I have tons of time right I mean Advent does not start until Sunday that's like ....... 3 whole days away. Man I hope I get it done. More photos when it is done (on Sunday right?:)

Hope you all are having a great day with family and friends.

2011-11-22T22:01:00.001-06:00

I am still here. Just getting used to new drugs, Ada being at school, more kids activities and ..... well life I guess. Here is a photo from A's last dance class. Man she does love her some dance!!!

Couple of cute things that she said lately:

(upon us leaving in the car one day)
A: Looks like P is watching Elmo (P is our neighbor and there window is right across from our driveway)
Z: (being silly)How do you know it is not S or B (P's parents) watching?
A: Because S and B watch adult movies.
Z: (don't laugh too hard, don't laugh too hard) OK must be P.

A: At first I did not know if my swim teacher was a boy or a girl
Z: You know that you can just look at the suit they are wearing and if it covers up here (pointing to the top 1/2 of my body) then you know it is a girl.
A: I know but I was looking them in the eye not down there!
(smart girl, hope my boy gets that gene also)

(at dinner table after teacher conferences)
Z: (to A) Your teacher says she would like to see you play more with your class mates.
Z: (to E) Your teacher says she would like to see you play less with your class mates.
(kinda sums up our kids:)

That is all for now for A. Elijah is still loving his french horn and things are starting to really sound like songs when he plays them! It is SOOOO cool. Today he started learning to read music (man I wish I could do that). I know that he has lots of wonderful gifts from me and it is so nice to see some of the gifts from his Dad (like math, music, reading (there are lots more, but right now my brian is a little fried)....... all these things seem to come easy for him and I know that they where not easy for me so I am so happy to see him not having the troubles I had.)

Tata for now. (did I just say that..... man I am rusty at this blogging thing.... hope you will forgive me;)

Tooth Fairy

2011-10-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

This sweet boy woke up today to find that the Tooth Fairy had not come and taken his tooth. I am sure that she was very busy and had a lot of teeth to get last night, but I sure hope she makes it to our house soon. If you are reading this Tooth Fairy please stop on by, we miss you.

Part time job

2011-10-18T16:44:00.001-05:00

Today I spent most of the day at my part time job. I started the day about 9am at the hospital. I was meeting with a new doctor. I had a positive TB test a couple of months ago so I needed to see an Infectious Decease Doctor. One more doc for my "team" ;) I spent until about noon seeing the new nurse, new intern, new doctor and getting a blood draw. I got to leave with 2 new drugs (fun fun fun) and new schedule for blood draws (once a month).

I went to go get Ada from Mark. She still had a little cough that was making me nervous so I called her Doctor and got her in to see them. We went from the Marks work straight to Ada's appointment (with a stop at the drive thru... we must eat right?). They did a strep test on her (which was negative.... so nothing is wrong with her) and we left there at 1:50. We went straight to get Elijah.

After picking up E I came right home laid right down on the sofa and fell asleep. Now I feel spent. I do not like my part time job as a patient. (Maybe I will quit;)

Well the kids are in the kitchen making an apple crisp thingy so I have to go and start the oven for them..... hope this does not make a big mess....

And because my dad keeps asking for more tile photos here are the first tiles that went into the ground.... it felt great seeing them start to make the river that runs all the way around the hippo.

Can you see the turtles and the fish?

Fall is here (and so is quilting season:)

2011-10-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

I just got this quilt top done. I have to go and get something to back it with (not sure when I was on my buying streak I did not get something for it.)

I made it from this pattern and it was easy peasy and it comes out cute. Next I am going to work on a Christmas quilt (I have it all cut and part of it done..... so there maybe more photos soon (cross fingers).

Mark brought these mums home the other day (they are SOOOOO nice). (sweet man, yes?)

Finally here are two hats that I made from the same patten that I made Ada's from for my hubby and son. I think they turned out cute and they where so easy that I will not feel bad if they loss them (OK only one of them is likely to loss it;)

Hope you had a great weekend.

I can hardly blame her.

2011-10-14T07:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took Ada to the quilt store to get some yarn for a hat (our quilt store has a great yarn selection). I was going to let her pick out ONE ball of yarn. When I got there and we started looking I thought it would be cool to let her pick out 2 balls (it would make the hat look cuter). Well of course she fell in love with THREE balls and started screaming, yelling, crying, throwing herself on the floor, screaming some more (it was so not a pretty sight) because she wanted all three (at 15$/ ball (OK for that price I could get her several hats). I held my ground and she kept crying. It took me about 10 mins to convince her that she was only going to get two and she should just get over it! But if I was telling the truth I would have to say that every time I leave that store I feel like crying and saying "but I want more fabric, more yarn, more patterns, more more more!" so I get where she is coming from:)

Here is the hat with some brown that I had in my stash (or as someone at the quilt weekend called it "material resources"). I think it came out cute. I ruffly used this pattern from Polka Dot Cottage (it was so worth the 4 bucks I have made 3 already and the are super fast! oh and no decreasing LOVE THAT!).

Boy she so does not look like a girl that could cry and scream and yell so much does she? I may have to wait awhile before I head back to the quilt store:)

I helped THIS happen!

2011-10-07T08:40:00.002-05:00

See all those tiles? I worked on EVERY part of this project to get those in the ground so the kids could walk around them:) I am SOOOOO proud of my self today. I will tell the whole storie when I get a little sewing done (I have not sewed in my craft room for WEEKS.) Have a nice weekend.

I am not sure how anyone could work a full time job.

2011-10-04T16:59:00.000-05:00

I have been working with the art teacher at my school (along with a ton of other parents) to get a gynormas mosaic project done. The kids (with the help of parents and teachers and returning kids and tons of others) are making 125 12x12 tiles into a wonderful river for around our hippo (at the local park, and no it is not a real hippo, that would be scary). They have been working on it for a whopping 3 1/2 weeks (this is CRAZY CRAZY speed). We (Ada, Elijah and I) have been working every night after school for a couple of hours and yesterday I was there for over 6 hours. Today I worked on getting the site ready (me and 40 others :) for another 6 hours. But at least it will all be done on Thursday (that is when the big build day will be). I wish I had photos, but I no longer have a little camera and it is to much for me to lug my big camera down there and watch over it and get work done and (I just thought that sentence needed anther and to make it a little longer sentence that way I might make the worlds record for run on sentences). OK after that sentence I think I will be ending this blog (brain is mush). Will be back sometime soon... maybe after Thursday.

PS I do not know why, but I REALLY want a hot fudge sunday and have wanted one for over a week! This has nothing to do with the rest of the blog.... sorry.

Just checking in

2011-09-28T09:46:00.002-05:00

I am still here. I have lots to tell you about that I hope to get to in the next couple of days like:

quilting weekend (lots done!!!)
playground work (tons of work and lots of fun)
A's artwork and spelling
E's french horn lessons (he is starting to make music!)

But right now I am feeling like I am missing a couple of spoons and do not feel up to much so I will end it there, but I will be back soon..... I hope.

But you do not look sick

2011-09-26T14:54:00.001-05:00

I often get asked "how I am feeling" or "are you better now?" This question throws me off. I am not sure how I am to answer this. I know that most of the time they (the people asking) want to hear that I am doing great and that I have never been better. I never feel completely right saying to them " I am doing good" because I know that my "new" good is not the same as their good. I also know that it is hard for someone that does not have a chronic illness to understand what it is like to have one.

I have a good friend that has MS and she sent me the this link that I think makes people kinda understand what it is like. I am not as bad off as this woman that has Lupus (they are pretty sure that I have RA), but I know what she feels like. Today I find that I have very few "spoons" to live with, and I have to spend them wisely.

How do I get by with this chronic illness you may ask, well there are a bunch of things that help me and that bunch of things are all wonderful people. I have a Husband that some days cooks, cleans, takes the kids to school, does laundry all the while making me still feel like I am useful and loved. I have two great kids that help in a million little ways everyday. I have a great family that understand when I do not travel to see them for years and who works hard to get to see me. People in my life will pick up my kids, come to my house for play dates, and understand if I cancel at the last min. because I do not feel up to it. In general I surround my self with people who understand how I feel and help me in little and big ways all the time. I do not think that I could ever repay any of them, but I know that I love them all and could not get by without help.

Thank you all for listening to me and forgiving me for I can not make it out to dinner with you (night times are the hardest), have to cancel at the last min, can get a blog up (....cough/Mom cough/Dad), have to miss an important time in your life, and all the other things that I have to miss.

Giveaway Won!!!!

2011-09-17T20:09:00.000-05:00

I won a bag off of Polka Dot Cottage. I tried to get a photo from her blog, but could not. So you will have to just click here and see. I almost never win things. This is the so cool. Thank you Lisa!

For the Grandparents

2011-09-16T10:12:00.000-05:00

Got some quilting done and may even have got a big donation from Home Depot for our playground!!!:::)))) Cross fingers for me please.

Have a nice weekend.

Today

2011-09-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

I am finally starting to figure out this whole new schedule thing down. In my 3 hours off I got to:

workout for 30 mins
have a meeting with someone about the new playground (and give him some work:)
get a storage space for the play ground (for FREE!!:)
get my book done
take a nice long bath.

Since then I have had 2 more "meeting" about the new playground, and am starting to feel that everything is starting to come together.

Oh and do not tell my Hubby (Mark stop reading now), but I have the heat on in the house.... man it feels great!

2011-09-14T11:48:00.001-05:00

This blog might be bad for my diet. We have this one in the oven right now..... super easy (hardest part was going into store to get the cream cheese.

Also if you are looking for some cool artwork check out this blog or her Etsy store. I could spent tons of money there...... I am sure that one day if I can figure out where to put one I will figure out witch one to buy:)

Dancing Princess

2011-09-14T09:10:00.001-05:00

First day of class.... she could HARDLY wait (all summer long.... just saying.)

Best line of the day

2011-09-13T17:15:00.001-05:00

Ada and I are walking out of the library where she HAS been crying and yelling at the TOP of her little lungs since we left the children's section and ALL the way through the check out line (where the guy at the counter thought she was 2... really 2 .... OK this guy must not see a lot of kids, right..... I mean 2!??). I lean down to my daughter and say in a stage whisper

" Now Ada you are making all the other patents jealous they are all wishing they where me right now."

BTW she cried all the way home, and has been having at least one of these outbreaks every day for 3 days now (can anyone say having trouble adjusting to the new routine?)

BBTW I am so proud of myself for not getting mad at her and just standing proud and getting out of there with my dignity.

Here is a photo of her not crying.

2011-09-06T14:35:00.001-05:00

This ~~baby~~ ~~little~~ big girl had her first day of 4K today. I did not cry (but I may have tried to turn back 1/2 there.... good thing Mark went with us or I might have just kept her home)

Man they are growing up too fast for me. BTW Ada may or may not have had to push me away to get me to leave today (insert little tears here). But my MIL is here and she took me out to have a treat (she sure knows how to distract me;) while my ~~baby~~ ~~tiny tiny~~ Ada was in school.

Last week

2011-09-05T10:12:00.000-05:00

Last week Elijah started 2nd grade.

Opps that was the week before last, I am sure I must have a photo from last week.

That is better this one was from last week. Boy he is cute!!! I was not so fond of his hair being cut, but he wanted it and his dad wanted it so what was I to say? I may or may not have cried when I saw him like this (of course this may have had something to do with his father saying (after seeing him for the first time with his new hair cut) "Boy I need to to take that bridge over there!" (in his best military voice) ). All that said I love his hair now.

Next week (OK tomorrow) Ada goes to 4K for the first time at the big school.... there may or may not be more crying (if you see me on the playground tomorrow forgive me if I am crying my eyes out and do not say hi).

table runner

2011-09-01T14:09:00.002-05:00

Made this over the weekend and I love the way it came out. More photos of the first day of school later.

Have a great one.

Wordless Tuesday (I am diverting from norm)

2011-08-23T12:14:00.005-05:00

Quilt done!!!!

2011-08-21T16:48:00.001-05:00

One happy girl (might be thinking its about time... not sure:) Yesterday when I got the machine sewing done she was jumping up and down and I still had to hand stitch the binding on (she tried to be patient, but that is a hard thing for a little girl to be.) I promised I would have it done for her to sleep under tonight, boy am I glad I got it done.

Both Ada and I love the binding the best (funny yes? All that work and the last piece is the best part).

The back.

Super glad to have it done (now just Mom and Dad's, Two for Mark and I, one for Elijah (I have not even got the fabric for this one), one lap quilt and TONS of more ideas to go......LOL.

Hope you all had a great weekend, what did you guys do?

May or May not

2011-08-16T08:54:00.001-05:00

I may or may not be:

Sick of summer and wish it was over
Scared of what it will be like when summer is over
Ready to have the kids do something ANYTHING other then bug me all the time
Sad about the time when they will have others to bug
Love the smell of fall in the air
Sad about the smell of summer in the air
Excited about Elijah starting to learn the French Horn
Scared of what my ears will be thinking of the French Horn
Sorry that I have to try one more medication to get my Arthritis under control
Praying that the insurance company will pay for the new med
Excited that the pharmacist now knows my name
Ready to go get some B-fast

OK so no photo (sorry Dad) but at least it is a blog.

And I quote

2011-08-16T08:41:00.001-05:00

Elijah to his sister : I like your jokes they are just not funny to me.... they are pretty jokes..... I am sure they are funny to someone else just not to me..... they are pretty... pretty long sometimes.

I think that maybe he is trying to get her not to cry. I see crying in the very near future.

Wordless Monday (Counts as a blog even if it has no words;)

2011-08-15T09:26:00.005-05:00

They love it so much that they may fight EVERY time they go outside about who gets to go on it first (I may have to cut it down if they do not stop:)

New Header

2011-08-14T15:32:00.001-05:00

Be back soon.... promise.

No photos, no cord

2011-08-01T16:44:00.001-05:00

I have photos to show you, but the cord for my camera went MIA (mind you my loving husband says that I am no google (read into this I am not a good search engine)) so you will just have to deal with a recap that has not photos (I am a photo kinda girl and do not like to write blogs that have no photos, but here goes).

This weekend my husband made our lovely little girl a swing for our tree (I am now resisting the urge to look for a photo from the past of my tree that we hung it in.) This is her last birthday gift from us. Ada in her loving sweet way kept asking him to make it while he was making the table for the back porch and he could not say no to that sweet face any more. The kids both love it... (read into this they fight about it and scream about who gets to be on... I just sent them outside and they are fighting about it before they even get outside)

I also got all the fabric cut out for my mom and dad's quilt and I got all the blocks together. Now I have to do the hard part and lay them out in the order I want to sew them (really not looking forward to that). I do not like one of the color combos, but luckily I have 10 extra blocks (not sure how that happened, but they will end up on the back of the quilt) and 6 of them will be the ones I do not like.

Well I sent the kids out in the heat and I can hear them screaming (in a good way so far), but I should go out there before they start the bad kind of screaming.

Have a nice day and I will try and be a better google tomorrow so that I can show you some photos.

Tomatoes and Quilts

2011-07-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

First big tomato of the year from the garden!!!! It has been raining on and off for the last couple of days.... can you hear my garden cheering? :)

This is the next quilt that I am working on... bright right? They are big and bigger rectangles surrounded by different black and white fabrics. I have all the colored stuff cut and now working on the black and white ones (OK will be working on). This quilt is for my mom and dad.... one day they may even get it;)

Well that is all I got in me today. I am feeling slow today so that is all I can come up with. Have a great day.

Proud Wife

2011-07-25T08:26:00.001-05:00

Look what my husband did this weekend:

At the beginning of the weekend this was just a drawing that he made up and now it is a real thing!!!! We eat dinner on it last night and it was WONDERFUL!

Me on the other hand did very little this weekend (I guess only one of us can be productive at a time;)

Little girl

2011-07-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

My little girl turned 4 this week. How could it be 4 years already? Does every ones birthday blogs of their kids start that way? I am kinda sure they must!

I could have put a million photos up of the past 4 years, but I managed to stop myself (I should do some parenting today right?:) So here are 3 that I found (the photos almost dragged me into the past I almost spent hours looking at them I had to stop or none of us would have had lunch.)

Tiny tiny Ada (as we called her back then.... man I was sad the day Elijah told me that we could not call her that anymore because she was not tiny anymore (that might have been yesterday.... just saying)

One of her little wonderful smiles.

Just cause.

Now some photos from the party it was a cowgirl/princess party, we had a joint party with a friend of Ada's (Ada was the Princess).

Our 4 year old.

The birthday girls (with the shirts I made for them).

Large group of kids.

Hunt for money in the hay.

Baseball is not going to be her strong point, but she does seem happy:)

OK I might have been a little beat by this point in the party, but I was still loving it.

cupcakes with the best easy frosting the world has ever seen.

Gift opening (note that she does not have that cute 4 shirt on..... see last photo for reason.)

Do not think she is happy.... must do better next year:)

Couple of days later on her real b-day (one of the first things she did with that magical wand was wish mommies hurts away (Man I love that girl).

This doll came from her cousin, he had a hard time picking out a good gift for a little girl (I think he did great).

My princess

2011-07-14T18:41:00.002-05:00

Both kids come screaming/yelling up to me today and this is what followed:

Z: Each of you gets to tell me your side of it. Elijah you can go first.

E: Ada was trying to pull the blanket out from under me and I asked her to stop nicely many times and she would not! Then she said that she was going to tell on me, so I had to come and tell on her first!.

Z: (keeping a straight face) Ada what is your side?

A: Brother (this by the way is what she always calls Elijah and I think it is SOOO cute, Mark thinks she should call him Elijah) was using a mean voice with me and I did not like it.

Z: (me to Ada) Did you pull the blanket out from under your brother?

A: No.

(I look at Elijah)

E: But she tried to.

Z: Ada did you try and pull the blanket out from under your brother?

A: Yes.

Man we are in trouble in the teen years.

2011-07-12T12:30:00.001-05:00

Rainy day/ crazy kids

2011-07-11T11:21:00.000-05:00

It is raining and I am not sure that we are going to swimming. The kids are running around and around going CRAZY (must be the weather).....

just asked the kids if they want to go and the answer was one yes one no (guess we are going.... fun in the rain ...... what fun will this be?????)

Oh well I will check back in later.....maybe or not.

Pretty way to arrange flowers

2011-07-08T08:17:00.000-05:00

Found this idea in this magazine and love it! (just found out they have a blog and am going to add this to my Reader.... one more blog can not hurt right? ;)

Reflections

2011-07-07T06:44:00.000-05:00

We have been having swim lessons in the am (which is when I blog) so my blogs will be short and sweet for a little while:) Hope you enjoy the photos.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-06T08:12:00.000-05:00

Shhhhh Do not tell my sister:)

2011-07-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

I got her quilt done. I hand quilted it and LOVED it. Also I hand did the binding and I will never and I mean NEVER go back to doing on the machine (it just looks SOOOO much nicer done by hand.)

Anywho here are the photos:

Now all I have to do it mail it..... that might take some time:)

Summer Fun.

2011-06-30T14:38:00.000-05:00

I am always running out of fun things to do in the summer time, so the kids spend a ton of time out in the yard. (do not get me wrong I love that they spend time in the yard and they love to spend time in the yard, I just.... well you know sometimes feel like it would be nice to do more. When I saw this over at Tatertots and Jello (great name yes?) I printed it out right away. Now the way I like to file things away is ......... well to leave them on the printer for a LONG time, forget about them then they are new a second time:) Well I forgot about them and today I "discovered" them again!! So I cut them out and got them laminated. I am in the processes of cutting them out right now (well right now I am blogging, and giving my hand a brake from cutting them out (I 1/2 a million sewing scissors I should get some general craft ones))

Here are mine: (which BTW are really hers):

Are they not the cutest things you have EVER seen? Pop over and get your selfs a set for long summer days.

Trip photos

2011-06-30T09:09:00.001-05:00

****BLOG WARNING ***** BLOG WARNING**** LONG BLOG LOTS OF PHOTOS*******

Now that we got the warning done with if you are still here you can look at a ton of photos (only 28 really). I will try and keep it the stories short (you know I am not much of a story teller so that should be easy (hahahhahahhh)).

We went to Philly on the train. (we love traveling by train!) Here is my dad and Ada making waffles (they made them almost everyday..... my dad makes GREAT waffles).

Grandma love.

Ada and me on the bus. (I thought it was from when we where eating, but Elijah told me that those seats where wood.... how does he remember that???????)

This is at my moms community gardens. They are soooooooo wonderful.

Right in the middle of the city is this full city block of gardens.

This bee was loving these plants, but it was hard to photograph.

Here is my mom's plot.

She has a pond on her plot and these are lilly pads (I think).

This is a compost bin that she built (cool right?)

I love how she uses all kinds of things to make the garden wonderful.

I love these little flowers (they are tiny).

I have no idea what this plant is, but it is COOL.... do you know what it is?

This is another persons garden that I loved.

Just more wonderful flowers.

They have this HUGE fence all the way around the gardens. Very pretty.

You will notice that I have a lot of photos of these 3 wonderful people from the back (I was slow moving and always seemed to be a little behind (but that also might have been because I was stopping to take photos;)) (quote from Elijah "Yeah you do like to take photos!")

This is Rocky's foot (well loved).

When it snows tons they sled down these stairs.

Cool stairs down to the water.

Not sure why they have these cantaloupes here, but Elijah was sure they where cannonballs.

Here is my daughter dancing before the wedding photos are even not :) (We where sitting in this park when the wedding group came by (it was also our wedding anniversary).

Just a cool kid I found at the park:)

I love these flowers and what to get some.

Just a couple of cute kids being silly.

I love these two photos of the kids and could not pick just one.

That is it for today. Thanks for sticking it out.

We are back

2011-06-27T17:01:00.000-05:00

We went on a 2 week trip on the train. I will be back tomorrow (if I still have internet ) to tell you more about it, but it was great and I have a ton of photos to show you, until then you will have to just love this one of the kids (I love the look Elijah's face , silly goose). BTW whip cream on smoothies is messy.

Good news Badish news

2011-06-10T07:24:00.000-05:00

Last week both Elijah and I had blood draws. His to check his allergies and me to see if FINLAY we get some clue as to what was going on with me. I checked both results on line today.

First the good news: Elijah's egg numbers are DOWN again!!!!! (insert happy dance here) This is so good!!! I am soooooooooo happy that he maybe out growing the egg allergy. This does not mean that he can eat eggs, but it is a good sign mostly because we have been giving him baked eggs and his numbers are still down! (is that too many !!!! for one paragraph?)

Now on to the badish (I know this is not a real word) news. My test results are all still normal. How is this bad news you ask? Because it means that we are still no closer to knowing what in the world is going on with me. It bummes me out not know what is wrong with me. I try and be patient, but sometimes I just WANT TO KNOW!!!!!!!!!

Just smiling knowing that the world is what the world is and I can not ~~fix~~ change it. Have a nice day everyone.

Teacher Gift

2011-06-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

Two days ago I finally figured out what Elijah and I should do for his teacher (I cut that a little close right?). I had a charm pack that was just waiting to be used and a kid who loves to sew... match made in heaven. So E and I started sewing this cute table runner on Tuesday night and we got it done last night. He did about 1/2 of the work.

I think it came out really cute.

Here is the back (I hand stitched the label on last night (did I tell you that I am LOVING hand stitching:))

We also made these cute magnets using Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. This stuff rocks and I can not wait to try it on some jewelry this summer (you know when I have tons of time because the kids are ~~fighting~~ playing:)

Now for a note from Ada:

AAAAadddddddaaaaa

azxcvbnm,.,.//.,mbAAWRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFFFDDDRHFE4THNN VV

And just because this was such a pretty salad I had to show you.

Have a great day.

Have you ever wondered?

2011-06-08T08:31:00.000-05:00

Who was out there reading your blog? I often think that only my folks and close friends read my blog but today I clicked on my followers link and there where a bunch of people (ok only 3 or 4 ) that I did not know and I think may be reading. I know that I did not have a big following and I do not need a big following (I do not want the stress of having to write all the time knowing that tons of people are reading) but it is nice to know that some people read my blog.

Anywho we are winding down the last couple of days of school (E gets out on FRIDAY) and we are really looking forward to it. It will be fun to have him here ~~to take care of Ada~~ to do stuff with. I am hoping to get more crafting done with them both here (does that sounds strange? well I know that E will help A have fun without me so maybe.....cross fingers......). I have been doing stuff and someday I will have more photos, but for now I have this one of a shirt I did for my neighbor that just turned 2:

Sorry that the photos kinda suck I forgot to get a photo before I gave it to his mom and then I had to deal with moving 2 year old. But I am very happy with the way it came out. I decided to hand stitch and I think it made it better. I am loving doing hand stitching these days. I have been doing my sisters quilt by hand and loving it also. (photos one day).

Gotta go move the water for the garden to the other half of the garden. Have a nice day and stay cool if you can (our AC is out and will not be fixed until tomorrow (when the heat breaks)).

DRUMS!!!

2011-06-06T12:54:00.046-05:00

Today I went into Elijah's class and we made drums. The kids had a blast. The project is easy (and a lot easier if you are only make one or two:).

I will tell you right now that I did not come up with this idea on my own. I am by NO means telling you that this is the only way to make them I just thought it would be nice to have a tutorial that had photos. I could not find one so I am going to make one for you.

So first you need to go get the boards I got 1 X 3 X 8' ( you get 2 drums/board). Next cut them down to 1 foot sections. ( I was lucky enough to have a husband to help with this part.)

Then we Mark put starter holes in 2 of the 4 sections (this helped the kids get nails started).

(no photo because he got mad at me when I was taking photos.)

Next you put 2 (one with holes and one without) at a 90 degree angle and nail 2 nails in.

Do the same with the other side (now you should have a kinda square depending on how well you held the sections while you where nailing them (one kid even nailed his wrong and made a kind of parallelogram (super cute))).

Next you let the kids decorate the frame. (we used markers, but if you are brave you could use glitter (I know I let the kids have hammers and I was scared to let them have glitter LOL)). (this is a photo of the decorations when the drums are all done, but you get the idea.... right?)

Theirs are so much cuter then mine!

Next you want to take the shipping tape and stretch it across the frame (we started with the nail sides to help sure it up. You want overlap your tape and make it as very taught. (Sorry I have no photos of this stage I hope you understand it. If you do not I will try and take a photo when I do the next one and update here). Then you want to tape the other direction (this will make a kinda of cross pattern of tape). The last thing that you need to do is run some tape around the outside to keep everything in place.

Good luck, let me know if you are confused, let me know if you do one (and show me photo:)

(Oh and I got a little black and blue, but other then that we all made it through with out and injury!!! It might have been the miracle for the day:)

What will:

2011-06-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

This pile of stuff (boards 1foot long, shipping tape, nails and a hammer) and a group of 13, 1st graders (10 of which are boys) make? Stayed tuned tomorrow (update from the hospital if I have to;) to find out and I will make a tutorial for you. (trust me it is a COOL project.)

Things I have been thinking about:

2011-06-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

If I put on a sock and it fits and then I find out it is my sons is my foot getting smaller or are his socks to big?
If I start talking to my dad while I am listen to a voice mail from him am I going crazy or can I blame it all on the meds? (and no he was not here)
Are we good parents for teaching or lazy parents for not wanting to do it if we have our kids make salad every night? (they love salad BTW)
If Ada will "love me until I am bones" should I be freaked out by that or just go with it?

I guess that is it for now. I am feeling a little slow today and can not think of all the other great things (that were so funny in my mind) right now.

We went to the International Crane Foundation a couple of weeks ago and because I know that my dad love to see photos I am including one from that day. If you are ever in the area it is a GREAT place to see, and they do wonderful work with cranes all around the world.

Man she is getting big!

2011-05-31T13:58:00.000-05:00

Ada had her last day at her school last week. She will not be going back there next year (our school will be having 4k and she will be going there). We have been going to her pre-school for 3 years (2 with A and 1 with E) and I cried when she left that last day. She has been doing ok with it (a bit more crying that first day, but ok since then).

Here are some photos:

Today is the first school day that she is not going and we have had a great day. I even got some sewing done on her quilt. I have been doing some knitting, and some sewing (and some hand quilting (my first ever project) for my sisters quilt.) I will have some photos one of these days.... I think.

Have a nice day.

Wonders of nature

2011-05-29T09:32:00.000-05:00

Thanks Dad!

And because we have 2 kids:

2011-05-28T10:32:00.000-05:00

My sweet first born.

Not sure why she stays with us?

2011-05-28T10:26:00.001-05:00

The cat that is.

Maybe it is because we let her do anything she wants (including sleep in my garden seeds).

For my Dad.

2011-05-27T13:07:00.000-05:00

Who has been very nice about not bugging me everyday for an update while I have been not blogging. I will be back soon, I hope.

Can't stop Making them!

2011-04-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

Kari stopped by this weekend to show me how to make these cute little birds, and I been making them like crazy. She found the pattern and idea over at Myrtle & Eunice (go check out her birds after you look at mine;)

Here are mine:

Oh and Kari also let me have this pussy willow branch and a bunch of felt for the birds (she really is a great friend right????)

I got all my birds in a row (hehehehehehe). I love my little oriole.

All of birds will one day have these cute little feet, but right now I am just making the birds and will work on the legs later (that is the hardest part).

Have a nice day.

Haircut

2011-04-09T15:47:00.000-05:00

I love it. It feels so go to have less weight on my head. Also I did not do anything with it today (not even any product) so I am hoping that it will look even better tomorrow when I pay some attention to it:)

On to other news I have a yummy flat bread in the oven for dinner. I am using this recipe and it is GREAT and EASY (2 things that are a must). Now I just need to find something to do with the new potatoes I have.

Walking (laughing, giggling, running, jumping)....

2011-04-09T08:22:00.000-05:00

Phenomena.

We have had walking phenomena before in the family now our little one has it. I brought her in for a finger that was hurting her , which they said was fine. As we where about to leave I asked the doc to listen to her lungs..... and yep they sounded yucky. Oh well at least she did not wake up screaming (she did still wake up at 4:30, but not screaming:)

Have a nice day... I am off to get my hair cut (whack it off, photos later).

I am getting better.......

2011-04-08T10:29:00.000-05:00

Sorta.*

As many of you know my son has a egg allergy (along with others). For most of the last 7 years we have been an egg-free house. In fact during that time you might say that I kinda was afraid of having eggs anywhere near my son (it was the one thing that he eat that resulted in my using an epi-pen). In the last 6 months his allergy has gotten better so we have started adding eggs back into our house. Well today I made my first hard-boiled eggs in ...... well it might be 7 years.

They are nice looking eggs yes? They are sitting on a napkin that I made over the weekend (I think I might have to go out and get more of that fabric, it is a cute line and I LOVE IT ALLLLLLLL).

*OK so I did wash my hands at least a dozen times while I was cooking the eggs and the pot is in the dishwasher so maybe I have not completely gotten over my fear of eggs:)

Not kidding this is what the Doctor said

2011-04-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

So I had to take Ada into the doc because she has been coughing up a storm. While we where there I mentioned to him (not our normal doc, but one I like) that she has been walking up at night screaming because she is scared.

Doc: Are you scared of monsters?
Me: (WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING SHE NEVER TALKS ABOUT MONSTERS!!!!!)
Doc: Because you know that you can spray monster spray to get rid of the monsters. (then turning to me he says:) Its just a spray bottle with water in it.
Me: (SHE IS NOT A 6 MONTH OLD SHE CAN HEAR YOU!!!)
Me: (smile) OK

Great now she is going to be waking up screaming about monsters and she will know that the "monster spray" is just water and will not NOTHING.

hummmmmm wonder when the next time he is on call in the middle of the night.... might have to find out, call, and let him hear her screaming. (smile)

BTW she just had a cold so the visit was all for not and we may have made a problem bigger.

Day Eight

2011-04-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

Just a wonderful street photo in Roma.

Coffee.

Market Photos

Sorry if this makes you hungery.

Yummy Veggies

You know you are in an Italian market when you see boxes of sun dried tomatoes.

Everything you need to make coffee.

Flowers

More cherry blossoms.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.........

My sweet parents.

More wonderful buildings.

I just can not imagen how long it takes to get all that paint off their faces.

Cute pink Smart car (I want one of these.... where could I put the car seats????? hummm maybe I need to think about this one.)

Sorry about the bad photo of my mom, but I just had to have a photo of one of these cute trucks. (I think I saw one at ToysRUs the other day;)

I did not do anything to the color of this photo... the light was just like that. This is the view out of the window of our apartment.

Day Seven

2011-04-07T10:53:00.000-05:00

My dad got to Roma on a rainy day and we took him out to walk around. I love this photo of the umbrellas.

He did not think he could walk far, but I got him all the way to the Pantheon (can you tell that I love that place?)

This is what I want when I am their age. Are they not the cutest couple you have ever seen?

We have come a long way from:

This kinda makes me sad a little bit .... thinking that one day my babies will be big like my sister and I are now:( (maybe I will try to stop feeding them again.... it did not work last time, but who knows maybe this time.....;)

BTW I wanted to get a purse while I was in Roma... you know a nice leather one. But the last thing my husband reminded me about before I left was how Mr Walker was giving us a pay cut. So I was trying to be good (and I think I did a good job). But I could not pass up this purse. It was super cute and ..... well super cute. If you find you MUST have one like it you do not have to travel to Roma to get it, it came from H&M. That is right I went 1/2 way around the world to buy a purse that I could have got a the mall... oh well it is still cute, right?

Oh while we where there Italy was celebrating 150 years of Unification.

Just because

2011-04-07T10:17:00.001-05:00

I cut her hair yesterday and I think that she looks SOOO GROWN UP! It is kinda killing me. (Dad do not yell at me for cutting her hair...please)

Sorry that the photo looks so funny, it does not look like that in iPhoto not sure why it looks bad now.... maybe I will try and fix that later... maybe it will just fix its self:)

Day Six

2011-04-04T12:59:00.000-05:00

It was a rainy day so we (like most of the tourist in Roma that day) decided go to Vatican City. There was a long line, but it moved SOOO fast.

A wonderful Michelangelo (I love Michelangelo).

This guy needs some work done.(heehehhehh) All kidding aside this is one of the statues that Michelangelo used as inspiration.

Wonderful floor and purple marble basin (this thing is HUGE).

Another wonderful ceiling.

I want to figure out how to make this cool shapes in a quilt.

Just Mom and Me.

Not sure why you are seeing this, but I like it so I guess you just have to deal with it:)

Day Five

2011-04-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

Here are the Spanish Steps. It is a great place to meet people.

Here is the Piazza de Popolo. It is a very pretty piazza that I had never seen before.

The twin churches are one of the things that make this piazza so beautiful.

This is a live statue, many of the piazza's have people earning money this way.

Inside one of the churches. Kinda dark photo, but I like it all the same.

Now that is a ceiling.

I love this photo.... one of my favs from the trip.

Trevi Fountain again, on a sunny day.

While I was gone my 7 year old lost his first tooth. (he was eating a hamburger and felt something in is mouth, took it out looked at it thought it was part of the burger, put it back in his mouth and eat it.)

Had to give the lovely Tooth Fairy an IOU (BTW she is NEVER going to get that tooth;).

Day Four

2011-03-31T09:44:00.000-05:00

Are you sick of photos from Roma yet? (of course you are not, how could you be sick of Roma????:)

My sister and I went off to find a market (that we did not find... we went every way but the right way to find it). But we did find a fun area of Roma that I had not bee in .... I thought, until we found the pyramid. That is right Roma has everything even a pyramid! You can read about it here if you want to know more about it. My sister thought that I was making up the fact that there was a pyramid in Roma, but she believed me when she saw it. We also found my first cherry blossoms of the season!

That night we went to a really great restaurant.

Sure that we did more then that, but that is all the photos that I have and I do not feel like looking at my notes:)

Day Three

2011-03-30T16:03:00.000-05:00

My sister wanted to go to a museum (can't remember what it was called, but I do know that it had TONS of marble in it and most of it was missing hands, arms, feet.... you name it... but what do you expect after .... well I do not have any idea how many years (maybe I should have had my sister write this post;) )

There where also cool mosaics.

This woman could use a nose job.... hehehehe

It was pretty cool to see these faces from the past and look at all the hair styles (I have been doing a lot of looking at hair styles as I am ready to chop my hair off).

Love this hair.

Silly photo.

Man, how long do you think it took to do this hair?

This guy was really cool. They put different color "stuff" on him to make it look like blood (he is was a boxer).

This on was kinda weird because she looks like she comes from my family tree.

This was a cool fence (much nicer then our fences).

just a cool photo.

I think this was a tomb.

Mom liked this and wondered how hard it would be to mak into a quilt.... HARD.

I thought this would be a really cool quilt border (but lots of work).

We had dinner at a place and on the way to the bathroom they had this wall of wine cases. COOL.

Day Two in Roma

2011-03-29T17:47:00.000-05:00

I do not have a lot to say and a lot of photos, so most of them will just be photos.

This the road leading up to the Pantheon. I love this building and it is tucked into the middle of the city. You will be walking along on the little streets (which also have cars on them) and you look up and there it is!

Not a great photo, but it is one of the only ones of the 3 of us.

We had lunch on the square (it was dear def #5(as my mom would say), but a great place to see people)

I just love the look of the buildings (the colors are just GREAT.)

Not sure why I like this photo, but I do:)

Couple last photos of the Pantheon.

Here we are at Navona.

A wonderful door.

Weekend crafting

2011-03-27T16:54:00.000-05:00

I will get back to my Roma trip soon, but I wanted to show you a craft project that I did.

These are a pair of pants that Ada was IN LOVE WITH. When they would come out of the laundry she would hug and kiss them. Not kidding. As they got smaller and smaller (OK Ada got bigger and bigger, I just do not like to say that) she got sadder and sadder that someday she would not have them any more. I began to think about what I could do to make them last for her and I came up with the idea of a scarf. (it sounded like an easy idea at the time:) There where a couple of little problems ( a couple of holes and a little sticker stain) that I had to cover and I wanted to keep the pockets (they are just so cute).

So here is how it came out:

I think it came out cute, and she said "thank you" in the most uninspired way:) I hope she likes it later:)

There and back again*

2011-03-24T10:07:00.000-05:00

Well I am back from Roma and I had a GREAT time. I was there for 10 days (with my mom and sister for most of the trip and my dad joined us for the last couple of days of our stay) with no kids (Mark had to stay home with them... what a saint). I took over 500 photos (I did not count, but it took a long time to down load them). I am not sure how to tell you all about it or how to show you all the photos. So bear (is that the right bear???? I do not think it is, but what the heck) with me while I try and get all of the info out.

Roma has great buildings, this one was right outside of our apartment (this was my first time to rent an apartment while traveling and it was nice and I would do it again, but I did miss the opportunity to meet other people).

It was warm there! All those flowers are real:) (we still have snow on the ground and it is only in the 30's here in WI, but in Roma it was in the 60's (I think as they do every thing in c and I did not know how to convert it:))

OK this one was just for my Ada ( I was missing the kids).

Trevi Fountain

Not sure if I could have more necks in this photo, but what the heck:)

My lovely travel mates. Man I love these guys.

Some pretty ceiling (no idea where it was there are way to many wonderful ceilings in Roma.)

* If you do not know what the title is from that this is not likely to help, but just in cases:)

Cute Monster Tooth Pillow

2011-02-28T17:07:00.000-06:00

I saw this over at The Long Thread and fell in LOVE with it. I knew that I was going to make one for my 7 1/2 year old who has yet to loose ANY teeth (but he does have a couple of loose ones.... he was also almost 1 before he got any teeth so we are not surprised). I was at my friend Kari's house last week and picked up the background fabric from "fabric shop Kari" (she has the BEST prices for friends and a nice selection (not to say that she any more then most quilters, or me it just sounded fun to say)). Any way are you sick of hearing me talk about it and not showing you? Well I will try and load the photo now (cross your fingers.... remember what happened on Friday when you didn't????)))).

Good job it worked (thanks for the crossing them this time;) Elijah loves it and told me that he can sleep with it. It was SOOOOOO easy to make (only took me about 1/2 hour to make maybe not even that long... the hardest part was cutting the teeth and that was so not hard.)

Anyway if you would like to make one hop on over to The Long Thread pick up the tutorial.

It works!!!!

2011-02-28T12:02:00.000-06:00

Finally! I tried all weekend and could not get photos to work, but today it worked so here they are:

This is Elijah reading to Ada. I love how in the last year that his reading has just taken off. So fun to watch. (Oh and he insisted that I use this photo and not the one without the Sports Illustrated in it)

And here is Ada trying to make Elijah feel better. I love the way she just put her arm around him.

Happy Monday.

My loves

2011-02-25T13:24:00.000-06:00

OK this bums me out. I have 2 very cute photos that I REALLY wanted to share with you, and BLOGGER does not want to help me!!!! Oh well I never have this trouble and I do read (on one of the hum 10 (ok maybe the number is more like 58 but that number makes me sound like all I do is read blogs all day, like I would let my kids feed themselvies bread and water for b-fast, like I would let them watch tv so that I could read blogs, like I would ... (sorry got carried away there)) that other bloggers (do you remember how this sentence started? it is kinda long right:) have trouble with loading photos (see I did get back to what I was saying, now I am going to end the longest sentence in the world).

Maybe tomorrow I will be able to load them. We had ANOTHER day off today (this one was planned before all the sick-outs). We went to Target with our neighbor and her 2 kids (1.5 and 6 weeks) then out to eat. ( Man that does not sound as fun as it was.) Now we are hanging out until we head to a friends house for a fun playdate/craftdate/movienight/laughingnight/timeseefriendswehavenotseeninalongtimenight. (can you read that last one? Know we know why spaces are so important (a little learning so that you did not feel bad if you have been spending the last couple of ~~hours~~ hum mins reading blogs).

OK I am going to try the photos one more time cross your fingers.

Guess your finger crossing was not enough (or maybe you did not do it..... )anyway as you can see I did not get it to work.

YouTube finds

2011-02-23T21:27:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple things I found on YouTube that I liked.

This is so pretty.

How cute is this?

How sweet would this be if they could just get over themselves.

I just really like David and this makes me smile every time (the kids make me play it over and over) love the Elvis at the end. (I loved Kenny as a kid)

And while we are on David I might as well throw this one in, just because. (you might not find it funny if you are not a Dr Who fan.)

Enjoy.

Slow day

2011-02-23T12:29:00.000-06:00

I had a ruff night last night, so today I was slow moving. So Ada brought the tea party to me. She is so sweet, yes?

There was lots of friends, tea, and giggling (just what one needs when they are feeling not so good.)

She even when down stairs to get the camera from Dad so that we could get photos for the blog. (thankfully Mark is working at home today so Ada got to eat b-fast and lunch;) Oh and this is Ada's favorite of all the photos because it has piggies foot and arm in it.

Because even when you are not feeling well a good tickle and a bunch of friends can always make you feel better.

2011-02-22T13:48:00.000-06:00

Well Elijah is back at school today (insert happy dance here). He is happy, I am happy the only unhappy one is Ada (she liked having "brother" around, but she will get over it.... like when she is a teenager..... eeeek did I just say teenager.... do not think about it , do not think about it, do not think about it!!!!!)

Yesterday we went to the play Ferdinand the Bull, and it was fun. Both kids like it very much. After the play we went and helped form a circle of people holding hands around the capital. Wicked cool. We left after Ada started saying that her toes where hurting (we stopped at Starbucks to make sure that her toes where the right color and not getting frostbit.... and while we where there anyway we did partake in some tasty stuff (all for the name of pink toes you know:)) Then we took the bus back home ( I did not want to drive downtown and try and find a space to park when the bus would let me off RIGHT by where we where going).

Now are you wandering about the photo? Last night I was really in the mood for some spinach and not the raw stuff (I do not like the raw stuff) so I added it to the pasta sauce that I was making and it was YUMMY. Everyone liked it. I also made steamed/boiled carrots and they where SOOOOOO good (we had to make Elijah eat his pasta before we let he have more, man I never thought I would say no to veggies, but I did want him to eat something to fill him up also).

Hope you are having a nice Tuesday.

Busy week.

2011-02-21T09:19:00.000-06:00

E has been off of school since I last posted and is off again today. They say that he is going back tomorrow and we are all crossing our fingers. Elijah really misses being in school. (BTW we will NOT be home schooling anytime soon. I do not know how people do it, but I have a TON of respect for them.) That said we have been having fun this last week. Lots of play dates, sleeping in, and a big trip to the windy city.

The trip down to Chicago was great. We left around 7ish (we where ready at 7, but Brian and the boys where in so much shock that we where ready that it took them 15 mins to get over it:) and ate on the road (we found out that Elijah likes McDonald's sausage breakfast sandwiches (without the egg of course) and that Ada will scream if there is cheese on her sandwich:). We drove through down town and Elijah was amazed by how big the buildings where. I remember being like that when I would go and visit my Grandparents after living all my life in a small town.

The Field museum was fun and the kids loved it. After the museum we went to IKEA and I found out that I do not have to spend TONS of money in that store (less then 20$!!!!!) Then back home by 9:30ish. Some things that I should have done, but did not:

remember my camera ( lots of photos in my brain and will download them as soon as I can find the right cord, it might look something like this.)
remember to bring extra outfits for the 3 year old who sometimes has trouble making it to the potty on time (what was I thinking????) I guess I was thinking that she would be fine and not have one problem going to the potty EVERY time I ask and not throwing one fit!!!!!! Great job little girl.
remember to bring extra shirts for the boy as he tends to get car sick. (luckily he told us and we got him out of the car (about 100 yards away from LegoLand which we did NOT go in even thought I tried to get us to) and his tummy settled down.)
not to show up early because it will throw Brian off and he will forget all the lunch stuff that he made for us (including the Cokes.... we got more... all was ok).

Over all it was a great trip and the best part was that I was ok the whole day and pretty good the rest of the weekend.

Well sorry there are not photos and just lots of talk, but I needed to get it all out of my head. Hope you all are having good weeks.

2011-02-15T12:58:00.000-06:00

Picnic inside last week when it was COLD COLD COLD. Now it is BALMY (it is in the 30's
.... no really that is balmy.... really). I love the way that Ada is feeding Piggy also, she is a very caring "big sister" :)

Weekend, Photo Review

2011-02-14T08:23:00.000-06:00

Ada and I painted this cute little bird house. She wanted to make sure that the inside was done as well.

V-day card making.

Got the top on my sisters quilt done. I love it, now I just need to quilt it:)

Happy Valentines day.

No computer/ no photos

2011-02-10T12:54:00.000-06:00

Our computer was acting funny today so I am blogging on my i-pod. Not sure how long I can do this!Ada and I just had our lunch picnic style. For some reason the thought of sitting at the table really go me sleepy, so we eat on the floor. ( in the only sunny spot). Guess I really do not have a lot to say and Ada wants me to read to her so I will go. I do have phones of the picnic and will show you as soon as our computer is felling better ( it thought the year was 2000)Stay warm ( it was -10 when the guys walked to school today.

Good/Bad

2011-02-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

Good ---- My sister liked the quilt that I thought she would like
Bad ---- I was starting to really love the quilt and wanting it::)))
Good ---- Elijah has 2 wiggly teeth
Bad ---- Elijah is going to loose his baby teeth!!!!! (insert big mommy sad face here)

Overall the good things far out way the bad and that is GOOD.

Also just thought I would share this photo from the last time I was seen by a doctor:

The good news is I was OK.

Have a nice day.

Valentines day dreams

2011-02-07T15:01:00.000-06:00

Here is are a couple of things from the web that I would love to get on Valentines day:

How could you go wrong with this? (OK you could do it with fabric also if that was your thing:)
Would you not love to have someone make you a cake and then to cut into it and find this?

Here are 2 of my favorite valentines being silly:

BTW that is how miss Ada got dressed for bed the other night.