The Gang's All Here

My sister and brother-in-law were in town this weekend. We had a little too much fun playing with the camera at our after-church-lunch-spot. It's not too often that we're all in one place at the same time. We had so much fun and I miss my sister terribly when she's gone!

Well we didn't look thrilled... but really we were I swear!

My dad grew that face fuzz to look cooler on his motorcycle. =)I need to remember to take more pics of the two of us together!

Now I lay me down to sleep

How come I can only sleep during day light hours lately?

I haven't had a good nights sleep in almost a week.

I'm exhausted right now, but if I sleep now, I'll be up for the day tomorrow by 2AM.

When I lay down at night I can't turn my brain off, I can't get comfortable, lately I've been too hot to sleep with even a sheet (I prefer to have a frigid room and then pile on a blanket or two) and like Megan tweeted last night, I feel like I have restless body syndrome. (I loved the way she said that, it was exactly what I felt!) That's right, it's way worse than just restless legs.

I started off today Jodi style... with a big Mt. Dew!

I'm not thinking or speaking in coherent sentences. (I'd be embarrassed if you knew how long it took me to write this piddly little entry!)

Anybody have any tried and true get-to-sleep & stay-asleep methods?

always, sometimes, never

Elise started this, then Jodi borrowed it from her, and now I'm copying both of them and sharing some of my always, sometimes, nevers with you!

I always
~take a multivitamin before bed every night.
~let numbers I don't recognize go to voice mail.
~turn on my computer within 5 minutes of walking in the door.
~leave my sewing machine sitting on the dinning room table.
~wave to Aaron as he leaves in the morning.
~have one basket of clean clothes and {at least} one basket of dirty clothes in my bedroom floor.
~wear flip-flops during the summer.
~keep a blanket thrown over my couch so that the dog hair won't get directly on the furniture.
~have room for ice cream.
~have chapstick in my pocket.

I sometimes
~pretend that I can't hear the dogs whining when they wake up at 5 AM... if it doesn't bother Aaron enough to get up and let them out... then let 'em whine.
~stay up past my bed time reading blogs or sewing.
~forget to turn my phone's ringer down before I go to bed and wake up to random twitter messages in the middle of the night.
~make Aaron spaghetti for dinner 2 or 3 times a week because it's easy {he just likes noodles with parm cheese- no sauce} and he loves it.
~buy someone a gift and then get myself the exact same thing a couple days later because I like it so much.

I never
~wear my hair up in public.
~grill out at home even though I LOVE grilled food!
~debate things with my Dad.
~get in the car without sunglasses.
~grow my nails out.
~stay organized for more than a week.
~really figured out how to decorate our house beyond the hodge-podge that occurred when all of our stuff collided in one place.
~look forward to bathing suit shopping.

That was fun! If you decide to get in on the action let me know so that I can come read yours too!

updating my jewelry wardrobe

Last night I was upset about something I'm not *suppose* to get upset about. Since I couldn't take my - well lets just call it what it was - anger out on the source I took it out on Aaron. Over a silly piece of cake of all things!

And then I bought myself some jewelry! HA!

~I was upset because I just found out that our friends Dana & Michael who welcomed their sweet daughter Brooklyn into the world in February are already off birth control to try for their second. I don't expect them to put their family on hold simply because we haven't been able to start ours, really I don't, but it was an unexpected blow at a fragile time.~

My 1st Quilt Along

Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts just finished up hosting a quilt along and ended up with a B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! quilt. {Seriously, click over and scroll down to the bottom} Somehow I missed the beginning and was too intimidated to try to catch up by the time they were on week 2.

Lucky for me, Amanda had already decided to give that beautiful quilt away because when she saw how it turned out she HAD to have another one! So here we are on the first day of the second 9 patch quilt along. When she announced she was doing it again, I got started right away. Even though today is only day 1, I have 7 blocks made so far {you are only suppose to do one each day} so I'm ahead... which NEVER happens!


I can't wait to see how this turns out {probably why I'm ahead right now} and if it is even 1/2 as lovely as all the quilts from the first round I'll be tickled pink!

My first 7 blocks. Every time I made one it became my new favorite. I think they're going to go together well!

Bugs are good as dead...

... if they decide to take a chance and come inside my house!

The first line of defense is a big 'ole doofy dog I lovingly call my "seek-and-destroy" tool. No bug, flying or crawling, can escape her constant watch. She will follow it around and eat it if she gets the chance.

If my bug catcher dog should happen to be in her crate, outside, or the bug is just too dang high up in the air for her, enter my macho husband. Aaron has been a known to smash bugs with shoes, hats, newspapers, and even his bare hand!

Tonight, I had a serious case for these two! As we came in from our putt-putt showdown, I heard a bug flying loudly right next to my head. Clover was still in her crate so it was all up to Aaron. The bug flew up towards the celling, Aaron took his hat off and swung it at the bug. He made contact and the bug was catapulted to the other side of the room, bouncing off of the wall 3 times in the process. He was a dead little sucker but he was not done with his torment yet. His blood and guts were smeared on the wall in all 3 places that he touched. Two of them were low enough for Aaron to reach but the third required standing on a chair. This spot was right over the doorway from the living room to the dinning room. Aaron stood on the chair, cleaned the spot and bent over to get down when ... THWACK ... he smacked his head right into the top of the door frame!

I'm STILL laughing {after making sure he was okay first of course} and he is nursing his massive headache with a frozen bag of broccoli and some Tylenol.

But just remember, the bug is dead and that's all that really matters!

Note to self #1

When riding in trucks with dogs, do not leave purse OPEN on the floor under a hot dog's drippy tongue. EWWWW!

late at best

Apparently I love supporting the greeting card industry but could care less if I actually bless the intended recipients with the cards I purchase!

Take for instance Father's Day. Now I did not see my dad on Father's Day since he was out of town, but I did see him the next Saturday and I even gave him his gift that day, BUT I had forgotten the card. I have also since seen him no less than 6 times. The card still sits on my dinning room table, completely filled out with loving sentiments. Way to go me!

This weekend my uncle and my brother-in-law both have birthdays. I bought them cards and had hubby sign his name. This was amazing progress for me! Both cards were destined to be on time if I put them in the mail today. I even have stamps!

ROADBLOCK

Where is my address book? I've stashed it away in the depths of God only knows where and can not find it for the life of me even though I've completely trashed two rooms looking for it.

Once again, the cards I've purchased will be late at best :(

The total came to $474.11

If you happened to catch any of my twitter updates from earlier today, you may have seen that I had to take my Dolly Llama to the vet because a giant gash appeared on her leg.

Last night Aaron went to the bed room and immediately called me to come in there. There were 5 spots of blood on the quilt. The biggest was about the size of a quarter and they were all in the same general area. It had to have come from one of the dogs, but we had no idea which one. All three had been up on the bed at some point. They were all walking fine {no limping}, had all eaten their dinner, and were all curled up sleeping in the living room at that point. I wasn't sure who to suspect. I went and rubbed them all down but never found anything, none of them flinched at any tender spots, and there were no blood spots where any of them were laying in the living room so I kinda just figured it was Clover chewing her nails/feet {she does that often and I have no idea why!} and that she was fine now.

We went to bed.

This morning I got up at 5:15 to start the day and in my blurry, sleep crusted eye state I saw something on the back of Dolly's leg when I let her out. After she did her business and came back in I checked it more carefully and she had a HUGE gash on her leg. It seriously almost wrapped completely around her foot! {It was at the point that I call a dog's wrist.} It wasn't bleeding at that point. I have no idea how she did it. I have no idea when she did it. She's still acting fine!

I waited until business hours (not to mention daylight) to call the vet and they made me an appointment for this afternoon. They didn't seem very concerned since she wasn't showing any symptoms. When we got there they first thought maybe they could staple it, then decided that stitches would be best, THEN looked at it closer and found that the gash actually goes 2 and 1/2 inches up into her leg!!!!!! She had to be sedated and have multi-layer stitches. I had to leave her there for 4 hours to give her time to go into surgery and then recover.

She's home now and acting like nothing is wrong still.



Dolly is very camera shy. She got up and ran out of the room as soon as she heard the click of the camera! Her bandage is on her back right foot and even though she can reach it, she hasn't tried to get it off yet!







I think she was getting a little aggravated that I would dare to follow her around with my camera and take pictures while she was in this state!

*see the fuzzy pieces of bed in the back ground? Clover shredded one of the blankets in her bed while Dolly was gone. I guess the separation was just TOOO much for her to handle. Spoiled brat!*











"NO MORE PICTURES MOM! A girl needs her beauty sleep! I'm going to my private place and you may NOT bother me here!"


*see the dirt in the bottom of her crate? Dolly is my mud hole digger. When she's outside, she digs a hole and lays in it to stay cool. She always comes in filthy but luckily most of the dirt manages to stay in her crate. I did make her get up and let me clean her crate after this picture. I'm so mean!*


She's now sleeping happily in her crate, but it's Clover who is pacing the house whining and wanting so badly to play with her bestest friend!

I'll take atleast one every day please

I was with the boys this morning & we were getting ready to go out to the park. A & R were getting their shoes on and I was putting their chairs back in the kitchen from breakfast. As I came back in the living room I ask if they were ready to go.

A said, "Just a minute, I think I need a hug first!" and it was one of those great big, huge, full body, head on your shoulder, tight squeeze, no less than 3 minutes hugs!

... and that's why these boys have my whole heart!

Making it up as I go along

I got in touch with my inner MckMama today and made up some salsa type yumminess. I had two avocados that were just about to get too ripe and I wanted to use them up without making guacamole. Lucky for me I picked up a bunch of cilantro last night while I was at Fresh Market and had tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and left over corn just laying around. I mixed it all up, sprinkled it with lemon juice, and dashed it with salt & pepper. It is down right good!

ignore my poor picture taking. I need to take some lessons from MckMama on that too!

I've been taking the easy living of summer a little toooo easy around here lately. I spend my days hanging out with the coolest 2 & 3 year old that I know personally.(I've read about some mighty awesome youngins through some blogs I haunt, but hey, I don't know them personally. I get to hang out with these awesome boys!) We go to the park, have picnic lunches, snuggle on the couch and talk for rest time, watch jets fly overhead, have tickle wars, say our letters & numbers, sing silly songs, drink out of fancy reusable water bottles, potty train, walk over speed bumps across the road, eat cookies & cucumbers at local farmer's markets, and ride with the wind in our hair. What I wouldn't give to live like this EVERY day!

When I get home in the afternoon I've been walking and quilting. I haven't gotten many projects actually completed due to the extremely nice weather. (NO humidity in VA in July = HEAVEN!) But I wanted to share my latest completed project... there are MANY more in the works.

It's just a simple strips quilt. I actually started the whole thing based on the backing fabric. Which can also be seen as the flower strip at the top of the front. I loved the pink, green & yellow combination and wanted to really highlight the colors. The quilting is a grid pattern with each line 3inches apart. It was great practice for me since I'm still so new at quilting, but it didn't turn out as perfect as I'd been hoping for. There are two puckers on the back, the DARK pink fabric I used for the binding ended up bleeding through in 2 places, and in attempting to square up the quilt I ended up making it long and skinny - it's an awkward size. So even though I had plans to give this away, it's sitting on my sofa right now and I've got new projects in the making to give to that friend. I don't want her to have my practice mistake quilt. But it still works great for me to cuddle up with on those days when I take a nap after Aaron goes to work.

Here's the back. Using a solid piece of backing fabric made the back a snap, but it also attributed to why my quilt ended up being long and skinny. I really liked quilting in the grid pattern, but next time I do it, I'm going to put the lines just a little closer to each other - hopefully that will make it a little more crinkly. This one did end up getting crinkly, but I took these pictures before I washed it because I had a feeling the binding fabric would bleed through. The two places that it did bleed are not that noticeable. It just looks like somebody spilled some fruit punch juice on it and then it didn't come all the way out in the wash.

Taking quilt pictures outside is SOO much better than the ones I got inside! I'll take them all outside from now on. In fact, I might go back and re-take a few of the other quilts I've done.

Set a Goal

The path I walk on at the park has mile markers. My treadmill obviously keeps track of how far I'm walking during each workout. And I've mapped a 1 mile path through my neighborhood. So I've decided to slightly tweak the Steps to Labor Day challenge from A Daunting Tale of Scale Warfare.

I'm going to set a goal for myself each week to walk a certain number of miles each week. I'm giving myself one slack day each week. That way I have room to catch up or go beyond the goal! The number will increase by 3 miles each week, challenging myself to walk an extra half mile each day from the week before. My goal for this week is 15 miles. That is 2.5 miles each day {for 6 days}. I'll let ya know how it's going on Sunday evenings since I plan on making my weeks Monday-Sunday.

*I'm maily doing it this way because I had a hard time getting my pedometer to take an accurate reading over the weekend. This way all the steps I take throughout the day are extra on top of my goal, but I'm still getting pleanty of walking in each day.*

Steps to Labor Day

I'm joining {kinda unofficially} a challenge put on over at A Daunting Tale of Scale Warfare to take a set number of steps by Labor Day. The reason I consider myself unofficial is because #1 I don't have a pedometer {yet} so I have no way to know how many steps I'm taking on a daily basis. {I'm working on fixing this because I'm tired of making up excuses!} #2 I have no idea what to set my goal at. Our lovely host has set a goal of 586,500 steps between now and September 7th. That sounds like a heck of a lot to me right now, but since I don't know how many steps I typically take in a day, it could be very doable and I just don't realize it.

My point, for right now, is that I'm going to be more conscious of walking/moving instead of just sitting still. In fact I'm going to take my problem child foster dog on a walk right now!

And I'm working on getting a pedometer so that I can join this challenge more officially! If you want to increase your movement and join Steps to Labor Day, head over to A Daunting Tale of Scale Warfare, and we'll all walk together!

"Yes" Mom Challenge with a Twist

Can I crack the egg? {shells won't be in the brownies if I do it}
Can I pick out my own clothes today? {your mom already laid out clothes}
Can I have a Popsicle? {you have on a white shirt}
Can we cut pictures out of the paper? {I don't feel like picking up tiny scraps of paper for a week}
Can we play with water balloons? {then we'll have wet clothes & we'll have to pick up balloon pieces}
Can we paint with shaving cream? {your dad probably needs that shaving cream}
Can we make smoothies? {that will create a lot of dishes to do}
Can we give the dog a bath? {you'll be a mess AND the dog will be a mess}
Can we go to the park with the big tire swing? {but we'll drive right past 2 perfectly good parks on the way to that one}

This list could go on forever, but I'm cutting it off here because today is the 1st of July and for the entire month of July Jill Savage is challenging all moms to say "Yes!" to things that you might normally say no to. Say "YES" to things that might create more work for you, give you something else to clean up, and take up time. What would it hurt if the kids make smoothies today? I'll have dishes to wash whether they make smoothies or not, so go ahead, have some fun!

Here's the twist for my "Yes" mom challenge. I'm not a mom. But it just so happens that this challenge is for the month of July and I'm watching two little darling boys, A & R, for the month of July. They are 2 & 3. I watched them last July too and we had tons of fun hanging out at parks, napping, and playing with play dough. But this year, they are getting older and to the point that we can do more fun things. I want to make this a fun month for them so I'm taking the challenge to say "yes" to things that I might not normally say yes to.

Since today is July 1st I started today by taking baby steps. We went to the park and then stopped at a farmer's market. It was a pretty nice day, but just a tad too hot for my liking and we had already been outside for a couple of hours. I was ready to get back in the car and blast the A/C to cool off. I turned the car on and rolled the windows down to try to cool it off a little while I was buckling everyone in. As I got in and got ready to pull out I started putting all the windows back up since I had the A/C set as high as it would go. I hear a little voice from the back asking if we could leave the windows down, please.

Normally I would say no. I'm hot. I want, no NEED, air conditioning! But I paused just long enough to wonder, what is it really going to hurt? I said "YES!" There's really no reason we can't all be happy here. I can let them keep their windows down and I can keep the A/C on in the front. It's true that I was not being energy efficient, I was "cooling the whole East Coast" as my grandma has been known to say, but I was comfortable and the boys were delighted.

More exciting things to come as I say "Yes" to A & R having a fantastic July!