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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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!!!!!

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

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

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.

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

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

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:)

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.

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!

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.

 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

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

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!!!!

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

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

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

1. workout for 30 mins
2. have a meeting with someone about the new playground (and give him some work:)
3. get a storage space for the play ground (for FREE!!:)
4. get my book done
5. 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! 

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

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

Best line of the day

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.

 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

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

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)

Quilt done!!!!

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

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

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;)

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

Be back soon.... promise.

No photos, no cord

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

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

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;)