A Big Thank You!

 

Growing up I spent a great deal of time at Mr. & Mrs. M's house.  If my parents ever went on vacation, they took care of  me.  Mrs. M and my mom have been friends long before I was born.  Their kids, Kathy and Craig, would stay at our house when Mr. & Mrs. M would go out of town.  Craig is the only person I know that is now doing what he said he would do when he was little. I can remember him saying he wanted to make toys.  He would draw pictures of fascinating toys.  Now, he is a designer and makes toys.  So cool!  Anyway...when Craig was little someone made him a bunch of bean bags for all of his army guys, etc.  Fast forward to the present.  We now go to Colts games with Kathy and Michael (well, we try at least--I will try to be better next year, Kathy).  Craig and Diana had their son on the same day and at the same hospital where we had Bridget.  Our moms ran into each other--surprise!  What fun!  So Craig designed and had the sandbags made for his son and nephew.  The smallest amount they could make was 2000!  So Mr. and Mrs. M generously gave some to us and to my brother Steve.  Our kids just love them!  They stack them, play army guys with them, toss them, put them in dump trucks, play with them in their castles, and the most unexpected use thus far--they make perfect pillows for all of Kathryn's Polly Pockets.  Thank you so much, Mr. & Mrs. M for this great gift that is used in new ways daily!  

Prayer Request

One of my college friends guided me to this blog.  This family is just going through such a difficult time.  Leslie has cancer.  She is a TU grad.  She and her husband have a two-year-old son.  If you have a moment, please read their blog and lift them up in prayer.  If you are willing, please leave a comment of encouragement for them as well. I look at Henry.  He is the same age as Leslie's son.  I can't imagine going through all that Leslie is going through.  This family will be on my heart.  Please join me in praying for them! 

Has it really been a Year?

I can't believe my youngest child is going to be one tomorrow.  Where did the time go?  It is such a bittersweet thing for me.  There has to be a last baby...that is what I keep telling myself, what Jerry and I keep telling each other.  She is cutting her fourth tooth.  She will soon stop nursing.  She is cruising around from toy to toy and furniture to furniture.  Soon she will be walking.  She is eating table food.  My precious baby is not a baby anymore.  I love the baby stage.  I really do.  Even though I can be so tired and can't really remember the last time I slept through the night, I just love the baby stage.  Bridget is my koala bear.  She won't go in the nursery. When she cries, she wants me to hold her. She wants and loves to be held, and she holds on for dear life most of the time.  I cringe at how I must have rushed Kathryn and Jack when they were little.  I was waiting eagerly for them to walk, to run, to go on the potty, to eat regular food...to be big fast.  Now I am in reverse...take your time, it will be ok, nurse some more...it just goes by too fast.  B makes us laugh.  She is wristy like Kathryn was.  She lets Kathryn mother her.  She will be tough because of her two big brothers.  We are so blessed, and we are so thankful!  

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

My little girl is getting big.  Time is going by quickly.  Yesterday I took Kathryn and one of her friends to a pottery studio and out for ice cream.  It was a fun afternoon. The timing was perfect as her teacher didn't give out homework this week!  It is still hard to believe that she is already seven.  She is quite the passionate little girl. She loves to sing and play the piano. She can pick out tunes on the piano all by herself.  She loves to mother her little sister. She loves to cook and loves to make her own cooking videos a la food network.  She has a wonderful sense of humor and loves to do arts and crafts.  She loves to read too.  She teaches me so much daily.  

Early Wish!

Happy Valentine's Day--a day early!  :)  This is always a crazy, fun time in our family as it is also Kathryn's birthday!  We have much fun planned, and so I have much to do.  We celebrate Valentine's Day in the morning and have our special breakfast, and then it is on to the birthday! I wanted to get this up as these cards were fun and easy to make.  Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!  

Monogram Cards

 The challenges are out, but I just haven't been able to get to them yet.  I had hoped to make these cards fit Beate's challenge, but then I just decided to make these very clean and simple.  A good friend of mine had a birthday yesterday.  So these cards are made with her first initial and with papers I know she likes.  I also took a picture of her birthday card.  Hope you like it!  Thanks for looking.  

Where is the lightening!?!

So yesterday I was sitting in the library reading and trying to finish my study for tonight.  Not proud that I wasn't done, but that is the reality.  Anyway...  Henry was watching Dora/Diego and I thought I would have some time to study.  Well, I finished reading this verse which talks about doing things in God's strength and not your own and watching what you say.  Then as I'm looking up the next verse, I hear the cheerful sound of Henry's little feet running on the kitchen floor.  I look up, and there is my son running naked around the kitchen table.  

"Henry, where are your clothes?" I ask him.

"I pooped."

"Where did you poop?" 

"I naked."

"Where did you poop?"

Then he runs over to the corner of the family room to show me his pile of clothes and his open, poop-filled diaper sitting behind the rocking chair.  Lovely.  Let there be no doubt that he is ready to potty train now.  I guess he got tired of waiting.  So I cleaned him up.  Cleaned the carpet up. Explained yet again how he just can't take off his clothes and run around.  

Then I went back to my study, and Henry went to go play with Jack.  I finish looking up the next verse which says,  "Whatever you do.....do it all for the glory of God."    

I'll take "Delegates for 100" Alex

Oh to understand all that is happening on "Super Tuesday."  We lived in SC for four years.  It was so fun--oh the political fun.  Speakers, adds, phone calls, visits from the President.  Now we live in a state that has a really late primary I feel very removed from all the political stuff.  I don't even know when our primary is...need to find that out.  Tonight as I was watching everything unfold on CNN, Kathryn was asking me about the maps, the colors, the numbers.  I feel like the more I watch, the more questions I have.  I would love to just have a glimpse of understanding at how all of this worked.  Super delegate?  Somebody won ten super delegates? What on earth is that?  I couldn't be more confused. Oh to go back to Mr. Fluegge's US History class and ask better questions.  Oh the graphics...those guys must just have a ball.  Maps, colors, set design, music...and we haven't even reached the super fun part with the maps where they can take off a state and then put up a new state that is either red or blue.  It is the political version of Viper99000 or whatever the weathermen are using these days.  We always say that it seems those weather guys must really have fun with all their tools and graphics, especially around here with all of our wacky weather.  Oh the math on CNN...if I ever go back to teaching math (very unlikely), it would be so different.  "When are we ever going to use this?"  Watching the news.  How many word problems can you make just from watching thirty seconds of primary coverage.  Oh the fun!  

Sorry this post should have had a disclaimer: 

This is what happens when you are on Henry duty during primary season and the house has run out of chocolate!  

Random Stuff to Start the Week

Our team's little brother won the super bowl!  Yeah!  I think we got the biggest kick out of watching Peyton cheer for Eli. What fun!  

 

Henry got up as soon as the game was over.  He was ready for the day.  Wide awake!  Lovely.

Jerry was looking at my weekend sketch card yesterday and saw my eyelet kit.  He goes, "Awe, look at your little girl hammer."  Nice.

Jerry made wings last night, so I told the kids they had to stay out of the kitchen because there was hot oil on the stove.  "Hot oil is dangerous, so you need to stay out of the kitchen," I told them.  "Just like a volcano," said Jack.  You have to love his comments.

I was finally able to upload a card onto splitcoast and start my "gallery."  One lonely card...need to work on that too. 

After lunch today Henry was running around and gave me the "Oh no!" look.  Then he threw up in my hands.  Lovely.

All in a day's work.  :) Happy Monday!

Paper I Just Love & WSChallenge #33

Well once again it has taken me a whole week to post. Sorry about that.  Life is just busy.  I have been working on planners, and so it was a treat for me to take a break from those to do Beate's challenge this weekend.  I must confess that at this point I pretty much collect paper.  I have decorative paper that I just love, and sadly, I don't ever use it because I just love it.  This weekend I decided to use a bunch of stuff that I just love.  The card was inspired by a tag my friend Shay made at my tag making party in December.  The little metal charm says, "thanks."  It is hard to see in this picture.  When I have some extra time, I'll have to update this with the details about the stuff I used.  It was very fun to make this even though it took forever.  Normally I am a "mass produce cards quickly" kind of girl, so it is fun to take a long time to do one card.  Thanks Beate for the great challenge!  Hope you like it!