More Glitter Nails and An Apron

Seriously lacking in creativity in the title of this post.  On the upside you know exactly what you're getting.

Yes I am still obsessed with the glitter nails.  I did pale blue today with the tips sprinkled in chunky silver glitter and then a dash of fine silver glitter.  It looks very pretty in person.

As a followup gift for my mother in law I made a handprint apron of the kid's hands.  It turned out adorable.  Well their prints are adorable, my fabric paint writing is not as cute.

Okay I'm done for now.

Ballet Cuties

I decided to upload a few pictures of my adorable ballerinas.

Little d is getting so big.  She's just now getting her two front teeth back in and she's in the process of trying to grow out her bangs.  We'll see how that goes...  Here she is minutes before their little recital.

Little m did wonderfully.  This is the first time she's been in front of strangers to perform.  I was so proud of her. She acted like she's been on stage all her life.  Reminded me of Little d's first Christmas school program.  This is a picture of her right before her performance.

I made their red, green, and white tulle tutus after seeing this tutorial on Pinterest. I mostly followed the instructions.  Not to tough.  They looked absolutely adorable.

On a side note, after my doctor appointment today I ended up with a steroid shot and antibiotics.  Fluid behind the ears and possible bacterial infection causing the prolonged laryngitis.  Yea me.

Christmas And Coughing

It's that time of year again. I am actually not to stressed right now. I've already completed the inlaw Christmas. Which is infinitely easier with Little d being able to take Dramamine. Plus we don't HAVE to spend the night over there since we can actually travel during the day. And since it always falls on a school weekend, that makes me super happy.

I have gifts bought and I just need to take a few minutes to sort organize and wrap them. This weekend I caught up on laundry and am catching up on dishes.

The down side of this last week is that I have some type of cough/laryngitis thing going on. I pushed through last week and now I think it's catching up to me. I literally collapsed on the couch this afternoon attempting to shake off extreme fatigue. Here's how last week went...

Monday I attempted to fun all my errands and get all the supplies I would need for the week/parties. I think I was mostly successful.

Tuesday Little d had her little Christmas dance recital that was so adorable. I actually recorded it and posted it on YouTube, but I don't think I'll link to it here, just on FB. BTW it took about 8 hours to load the two minute video.

Oh I forgot most of my spare time Mon-Wed was taken up making deer/hog sausage with my dad. It turned out great, but the processing was W O R K. The grinder had issues! But now we have meat for a while. I digress...

Wednesday, Little m had her dance recital and was also so adorable. It too will be uploaded, maybe by tomorrow morning...

Thursday, pretty much all day I spent making these:

{for some reason blogger is only showing html so I don't know how to move that photo at the top to this spot right here. awesome sauce}


Which were adorable and time consuming. Plus my mom helped by pretty much getting the party craft project (a paper plate wreath) cut out and bagged for 36 students. Yes did I mention that the other first grade class didn't really have room moms, so my partner in crime and I did both classes' party.

Friday, we had the school party at one and then came home and got ready for the Girl Scout Caroling and Christmas party. Both were fun for the kiddos. And a relief I think for the adults that everything seemed to go off without too much of a hitch. (Excluding the drama that one mom caused over the three dollar cost.)

Saturday I cleaned all day long. I did four....that's FOUR....loads of dishes and who knows how much laundry. Being that busy all week means that chores fell WAAAY behind.

Meanwhile I have this cough going on. I am not running fever, but it is annoying. And pretty much lost my voice on wednesday and it's not returned. Little m was up most of the night with her own cold, and Little md spent a good deal of the night restless. That means guess who was dead ass tired today. I did manage to get two loads of dishes done, and another load of laundry. (Are you keeping count that that is 6 dishwasher loads of dirty dishes in 2 days. And guess who is still not finished??)

Oh my Little d is whining about me typing and not rubbing her back to sleep...off here!!!

Guess what I forgot to post about last time?

My tenth anniversary. It was December 1st. I was literally sidetracked when something shiny caught my eye. (remember the glitter nails hehehe)

ANYway. Guess what I am contemplating? Re-joining CTMH. Ugh, I know. Eating words right this freaking minute. It's just I think I could do the workshops here at the house. And I clearly don't already have enough going on.

We put the tree up tonight. We are using colored lights this year (our white lights finally bought it, and we had 10 brand new boxes of colored lights on hand). I also bought some really cheap glittered plastic ornaments. Read: unbreakable. It is not the prettiest tree I've ever put up that's for darn sure. :) Next year maybe we'll get a new one.

I think I've done most of my Christmas shopping. I said most.

Wait did I just gloss over my anniversary again?? I guess it's because we celebrated with the Dallas trip so it doesn't feel like it just happened yesterday. Ten years, though. That's a milestone. Can you believe that I made it all this time married to this man and didn't know until just today that he loves candy corn? I guess he's trying to keep it fresh...hehehe!

Ok...I am too tired to post more, so I'm just gonna close for now--

Glitterrific

I am currently hooked on Pinterest. Please someone schedule an intervention. NOT.

If you are familiar with this website you know that glitter is featured prominently. I realize now that I am a fan of glitter. Glitter letters on burlap Christmas stockings. Glitter on shoes. Glitter on glitter. Aaaand glitter on fingernails. Here's what I'm wearing now...baby pink.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a pin of a set of nails painted with Mercurial nail polish by Lynnderella. Let me see if I can find a link to the nail picture...ok click HERE to see the phenom nails. So I made a decision to try to get some nail polish. No. Don't even try. She's closed shop until next year.

Next stop. DIM (do it myself...duh) I tried it on my toes first. I did one at a time. First I painted with gray polish. Then I immediately sprinkled it with silver glitter. Then I gently pressed the glitter at the tip so it wouldn't hang over the edge and I gently pressed the top of the nail to make sure the glitter was stuck into the polish well. After I did all the nails like this, I painted over them with a thick coat of clear.

I absolutely loved it. The online polish cost $12 a pop (and the minimum order is five bottles). I used my OPI polish (but any brand would work). And the silver glitter was cheap craft glitter (89 cents--according to the label). I was so thrilled (and psyched to be wearing it to the Dallas game) that I couldn't wait to try even more colors.

Here's what I found out. The polish is not indestructible. By any means. It chipped away fairly easily, but it was also easy to fix. In the hotel room I simple painted the chipped tips with gray again and hit them with the glitter again. You couldn't even tell there was a touch-up. Also I really would like to find a super thick top coat. I am going to try to stop sometime at my local Sally's Beauty Supply and see what they have.

I thought that maybe a fine glitter might work better. Against chipping and also so that the nails don't feel so rough. Today I dive-bombed Hobby Lobby. I got Christmas presents, craft supplies for school party and ..... wait for it.... GLITTER!! The pink you see in the picture is a fine pink iridescent craft glitter over a baby pink Revlon polish. The picture really does not do it justice.

I can't wait to try mixing glitter for a custom Christmas mix.....stay tuned!

Gotta go back to school again!!!!

Any fans of Grease out there? That's where I stole the title. I hate most of all the day back to school after a vacation. I miss Little d. I hate getting up early. I don't like anything about it.

Today I should be doing dishes. And grocery shopping. And cyber shopping. I am not doing any of the above. I did make some phone calls this morning. And I worked a CCD thing.

Calls: Paid a far overdue medical bill of $22. I swear we didn't receive the other notices. Also checked on the major Christmas present order (they sent an email that something was wrong, but the order has already been processed so the email was in error). That's 20 minutes I'll never get back.

CCD thing: I am subbing for a class of 4th through 7th graders while the real teacher is out mourning the loss of her husband. For starters I don't know why you would put 4th-7th together in a class. Second they are heathens. In every since of the word. I actually kicked a boy out last class because he would not stop hitting and talking to another boy. Hitting. Girls hitting boys. Boys hitting girls. Boys hitting boys. Boys playing DS. Seriously disgusting behavior. So I wrote up a contract for them to sign this morning. They will sign it or they won't stay in class. If they break the pledge they have to get a parent to sign a note or come sit with them in class whichever I deem appropriate. Uhg. Just disgusting.

Okay I'm going to do a load of dishes. Just disgusting also.

THE Game!

Well I can say that going to the Dallas game on Thanksgiving was one of the most exciting times ever!! I had an absolute blast!

We left around 1245p on Wednesday and after hitting traffic, didn't arrive at the hotel until almost 7p. That is a loooong time in the car. Fortunately D and I were cracking each other up and having fun the entire time. We superquickly got ready and headed out to eat--we were starving. We drove about two seconds down the road to Saltgrass. If you have never eaten there...oh my goodness. D talked me into ordering a filet mignon. It was too die for. Absolutely the best steak I have ever eaten. And they served it with these super thin onion rings. Ugh. We were so stuffed!!

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (waffles were great) and then hung around for a while and got ready for the game. We left the hotel at 115p and got to the stadium around 130p. Our parking pass put us about fifty feet from the front door. (I don't know how close, but we were really close.) After a brief pat down, and search, we were in....the...most...awesome.... stadium....ever.

We had amazing seats behind the goal post.

There were scantily clad cheerleaders.

There was fire.

There was a W in the Cowboys column!!

Seriously. Best Time Ever!

A little about the littles (part one)

I haven't talked too much about the daily stuff going on with the kiddos. I think I'll try to take some time to talk about each one in detail. Let's start with little d:

She's in first grade and reading above grade level. Her favorite subject is math. But she loves music also.

She is shy around adults and strangers. Her word for it is nervous. One time she said 'mom, you know how I get nervous around them and talk soft.' I thought that was so cute how she recognized that she talked soft.

She is so beautiful. Except for her snaggle tooth. LOL. I know I am not the only parent that has dealt with that situation. She refuses to pull a tooth and it's just HANGING THERE! You can see the top of the tooth actually hanging off...and it's been that way all week! Seriously. I told her it needs to come out before she goes back to school for sure! Yeah-cause I'm totally in control of that.

She loves to do art projects. Right now she is cutting up magazines for a collage on a poster board. She came to me to ask for the supplies--so it's completely her idea to do it. She still has a great imagination.

She's also a deep thinker. Her questions sometimes give me pause. So far I've not been too stumped, but she hasn't ask about the birds and bees yet. Yikes. That would be a hum dinger.

I enjoy the time we get to spend alone together in the car home from school or to and from CCD. It's these times that she asks me questions and tells me stories. Then and bathtime. Or bedtime. Actually now that I think about it, bedtime is her favorite time to bend my ear. And I usually let her for a while because she can be stingy with her information at other times of the day. I have stopped trying to get anything out of her on the ride home from school about what actually happened at school that day because unless she's in a good mood, she just gets irritated with the peppering of questions.

Fortunately we have similar tastes in music. Katy Perry for instance. I don't let her listen to a few of the songs obviously, but we jam to others. Lemonade Mouth, Selena Gomaz, and a few other Disney productions are in our rotation.

She once got in trouble for talking at school and has been the perfect angel ever since. I had her parent teacher conference the other day and her teacher remarked about how quiet and reserved she is. Then she told a story about how when they were playing a spelling game on the carpet, Little d finished her turn and then did a little dance and was singing 'I did it' or something of that nature. The teacher thought that was just the cutest thing. She got really great remarks and grades--no worries there.

I should close for now to attend to the littlest of the littles who needs a cuddle with mommy--he's leaning over the gate making hugging motions to me....

Scrapbooking, Lasik Update and Dallas game

A former workshop attendee invited me to a SU! (that's Stampin Up! for those not in the know). And guess what? I'm going. I am too excited!! Here's how bad it is--I don't even think I have any scrapbooking adhesive on hand. How pathetic is that?!?

It's a card WS and for $20 I can attend. Cool. Here's to hoping I can find the time to post pictures.

What's even better? I'm going with my BFF. We never get to hang out--in fact we hardly get to talk during the school year. She works as a special education aid. And she's super busy during the school year as well.

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After my checkup on Friday, my vision is 20/30 and 20/20. Which means I am legal to drive, but I still am not seeing as clearly as I was before the surgery (with glasses of course). I am way better than pre-surgery without glasses. It's due to my eyes being dry (from some of the drops and from the surgery too I guess). It should improve over the next few weeks. At least I certainly hope so. Because not seeing peoples faces across the room is waaaaay annoying.

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D is taking me to a real live Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving. I am beyond excited. It's to celebrate our ten year anniversary that's coming up December first. Little d is out of school for the week (I heart this school calendar) so I feel like it's okay if I'm away for a couple of days. We have never taken a vacation since the kiddos were born.

A quick funny. One of the school moms I'm friends with said in all seriousness (when she heard we were going without the kids) "What are y'all gonna do for two days? I guess you could shop..."

I thought to myself, 'Yeah. Two days in a private hotel room? Shop, yeah that's it. First grown up vacation since the kids were born? Shop, um hmm seems like the perfect choice. Celebrating ten years together? Yeah....shop, I mean since we'll have no interruptions or no listening for little feet steps?'

Out loud I said "Yeah I don't know." I didn't have the heart to tell her that shopping is not even my second choice...

Shall I actually start posting again?

So. I am really missing the old blogging me. I went back the other day and read a couple of old posts. I was so fun then. Or at least it seemed like I was. I threw in a few jokes, there were pictures to add to the stories, there was scrapbooking. Oh yes there was scrapbooking. (PS Blogger? If your listening...scrapbooking is a real word so stop underlining it in red squiggle.) Huh. "squiggle" passed the spell check.

The problem with all that is that it takes serious amounts of time. Editing photos. Re-working paragraphs. Finishing a complete thought.

The upside is that everything important gets captured.

I hate that I am missing so much. I mean if I wrote every day or every other day even I would be cataloging all the cute stories and milestones of the kiddos. All the crazy humorous crap that happens to us as a family.

But if you look at this blog over the last year, it's like we didn't move to a new house, it's like we fell off the planet. We didn't...by the way. We just got busy. Or rather I got busy.

So I am going to try to step it up. I am challenging myself to write more often. The posts may not be riveting or even worth reading to anyone else. And judging by the feedjit traffic it doesn't really matter, because no one is reading :)

To finish off this post I am going to attempt to give a brief timeline of my week.

Monday: Up at 530 get ready get little d ready get to school by 715 back home take care of kiddos hopefully get to go get groceries leave at 215 to pick up little d back home by 3 stop kids from fighting until bath time at 630 dinner and bed routine until 9 hopefully i get the other two asleep by 1030 so i can crash before 11.

Tuesday: same overall schedule except afterschool take little d to dance from 4 to 530

Wednesday: little m to dance from 4 to 5 then leave to take little d to CCD (where i also help with a class) at 6 and get home around 8

Thursday: try to get cleaning done and laundry and make sure little d has studied for spelling test

Friday: thank the Lord above that the week is over (except for girl scouts, birthday parties, inlaws requirements, church, and any other thing that comes along)

Of course I didn't list the stuff I do to assist with CCD, Girl Scouts, Room Mom, Cookbook Committee...

D was my own personal chauffeur this week as my vision was fuzzy. Around Wednesday (on the way to CCD) he said he couldn't get much done. I said what do you mean. He said I've been driving you all week. I said...now you have a taste of what I do all week...

:)

Lasik for dummies

Okay I don't know why I titled this what I did. Poor google-ers out there.

I finally had Lasik done. On 11-11-11. Little d was off from school and it just worked out perfectly. I have to admit that it is a little freaky to know that a laser is searing flaps of your cornea off and then reshaping your eyes, but I made it through. It helps that my brother, husband and sister in law have all had it done. And my sister in law is the pre-op nurse.

And yes I can now see without my glasses. :)

Now I don't have superhuman eyesight, but I think things can still get better over the next weeks and months. The eyes seem to be healing wonderfully and I am dutifully following my post op orders. Friday I go back for a followup where they will check my vision.

Today I bought my first pair of sunglasses in at least 10 years. That was kinda a big deal for me. D was with me so that made it even more fun. Oh and they are total Dolce and Gabbana knockoffs. I mean I think they are...at $15. But they have fun rhinestones on the sides!

My new obsession by the way....Pinterest. Holy cow. I am on it all day. And because of it (or in some cases in addition to it) I am obsessed with cowboy boots, glitter nail polish, and food that is made cutesy.

I hear screaming. Must go attend to the littles.

Just gonna random type....

Just about two seconds from putting little d down for the night. So this is one of those i can't believe it's been almost two months since i posted no time for capitals posts...

All three kiddos did wonderful at the docs office today--d and md got checkups and all three got flu shots.

School year is rocking along. Both girls are in dance. Little d in ballet tap and jazz, m in ballet and tap. I promise you have not seen anything cuter. And one day I will post pictures--honest.

Went to the local chapter of the pink heals tour (pink fire trucks).

Fall festival was fun--or at least active. Girls both got their face painted by a professional--again pictures someday. I cringe at the thought of how close we probably came to contracting pink eye from the community makeup...

I am not only room mom, heritage cookbook commitee member and girl scout troup assistant leader, but also part time CCD teacher.

Which if you are keeping track means Thursday evening is my only real night off. AAAAAANNNNDDD that's stretching it.

"little d get your teeth brushed!!" for the 25th time.

This weekend I am:

Friday: field trip chaperone

Saturday: trip to inlaws

Sunday: cleaning entire house and making caramel apples...

Gosh. I need a break. I know--I'll go the Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving.

No seriously--I'm going to the Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving. Fur Reals. Tickets bought and hotel booked.

Sigh. Off to the whirlwind again....

Busier than ever...

I have come to the rationalization that life will not slow down. There were some brief moments of slow during the summer, but now that school's back in session the hurry begins in earnest.

This lazy labor day weekend, we are fighting off the first set of sniffles for the new school year. All on the mend thankfully. Today is a birthday party for a school friend. Tomorrow cleaning for the week of Little d's birthday party.

And speaking of busy, Little md just made a present for me. The smelly kind. Hehehe.

Maybe I'll be back later with another post.

Demons

I guess we are all chased by some demons. Whether we let others know about it or not. Over the summer I faced a couple.

Since Little d was about nine months old she's been getting carsick. I've posted about it before, so I won't belabor the details. But it changed my life. Instead of David and I travelling to long distance birthday parties or weddings or whatevers, we stayed close to home. Or one of us would go and leave Little d at home. I made enemies with my ex-sister in law and my mother in law over it. Which to be perfectly honest, probably would have happened anyway.

I've spent hours and hours stressing over how to get her to and from things. Over calculating minutes in the car and sleeping times and dozens of other things that no one else ever gives a thought to. I know carsickness is not the end of the world, but somehow it became my arch nemises, my own personal demon. And I spent countless hours making sure it didn't happen--not on my watch! D seemed much more nonchalant about it, but he was a good sport to humor my fanaticism.

Then last year I bought a box of Dramamine--chewable for kids. I thought that it was for kids 6 and up and finally Little d was old enough. Imagine my surprise to read the label that had dosing for kids 2-6 also. Anyway. There never seemed to be a right time to use it. Until this summer. Our POC trip.

The arrangement was this. I would drive down with Little d and Little m. (Little m has absolutely no problems in the car.) D would drive down with my mom and Little md--whom we have yet to test out on car trips while awake. I waited until after lunch to give Little d her tablet. Then exactly one hour later we set out. She was sleepy before we left which I took as a good sign that the medicine was in her system. After about 15 minutes of driving she would look like she was dosing off, and then she would wake herself and say "mom turn on the radio" or "mom sing Twinkle Twinkle" as if to keep herself awake. She had asked repeatedly if she would get sick if she stayed awake and I told her that I was very sure the medicine would help her even if she was awake.

My daughter and I talked and visited the entire trip down. One whole hour with her in the car and awake and not throwing up. By the time we reached POC I was ecstatic. In fact beside myself with joy! This was a day that I had waited for for so long. I pointed out landmarks and got to hear--for the first time--"mom, are we there yet??" And I loved every minute of it. Little m fell asleep and drooled the whole way down...

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Something else that I conquered in POC was going to Memaw's house. I haven't been in the house since she passed away. My grandfather lives with my mom and dad, and we needed to go get a recliner out of the house for him while we were in POC. I went up with D to load it up. It was kind of weird to be there, but not as emotional as I thought. Of course here I am writing about it a month later, so the feelings aren't as strong as they were.

I had a dream about her the other night. She was playing the piano at a wedding and I was desperately searching for a camera to take a picture. I was so happy to see her again and to get a second chance to see her play the piano. I kept thinking I need to take a picture of this because I never did it when she was alive. I woke up with a mix of happy and sad.

I still haven't been in Grandma Hawes' house. I think that may be hard too. I probably won't find out until Christmas...

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I have a new demon now though. I'll have to write a post about that soon.

Swing of Things

Namely the swing of my toe against the door frame leading to a "beautiful job" of breaking my toe. That was over two weeks ago and my foot still swells, hurts and is purple in places. Supposedly it will be healed by week three and I can stop taping my toes together everyday.

So you shoulda seen me shopping the mall for Little d's school clothes last week. Or doing laundry. Or stepping over the baby gate and hearing (and feeling) my toe pop again.

This post is going to be like all the rest of late. (Like the entire last year.) Meaning--rambling and not even remotely entertaining. But I need to document somehow and goodness knows I'm not scrapbooking. (I mean, how could I? When the office is still not set up.)

We came back from POC. I tackled not one, but two demons on that trip. In fact I started a whole post for it....which is still in editing.

We finally got a new table and chairs for the kitchen. Now we can all sit around the table together. And it's glass topped so I can clean fingerprints--and let's be honest, faceprints--off of it several times a day. But it was my pick and I do love the way it looks in the kitchen. Wait---I may have a picture for you.... well no. I guess I don't have one on the computer. Anyway.

School is starting soon. In 10 days to be exact. I am so depressed about it. Little being gone again. I hope and pray that her classmates and teacher are good matches again this year. We were so blessed last year.

Little m is completely potty trained. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but I guess it still amazes me that it ended up being so easy.

Little md is growing like a weed. He eats big folks food now, rarely does he eat baby food. And he's even started sporadically sleeping through the night. Wish I could say the same for the girls. Little m does better than Little d--can you imagine??

Last night we celebrated my parents 40th anniversary here at the house by cooking a Thankgiving style dinner. It was delicious. Mom and Dad had to go back to POC with Poppy, but my bro and his little family stayed to swim. {We bought one of those little above ground pools when we got back from POC this summer and it really is nice because all of the kids can stand up in it, and the grownups fit too!}

I am spending my time this last week of summer cleaning and organizing the house. I need in the most desperate way to be able to start this year of school differently than last year. Last year was a completely chaotic mess, with us out here at an unfinished house and D working nights. Just miserable. This year we are at least all together and secure in our home. But it would be nice if the dining room was not filled with tons of leftover stuff from our old house, and office was set up and organized so I had room for paperwork and scrapbooking. Paperwork-so the kitchen counters weren't filled and scrapbooking-so I could find a little de-stressing this school year.

I started back on WW again. This first week I'm down three pounds, so I'm feeling energized about that. I'm hoping my foot heals so I can do some working out as well--although housework counts too.

D is off this week. Yeah!! His job is going through a changeup and I am hoping everything works out. He works for Dow Chemical Company and the unit he works at was bought by a Brazillian company. So technically he'll be working for Braskem. I think that's how it's spelled--anyway--we don't know how this change will effect his 401K, or insurance. Hopefully they will get that info to us before the changover in September--or whenever it happens.

I could talk about politics, but really things kind of speak for themselves don't they? I mean if the economy wasn't so far in the toilet it would be comical, right? Spend more than you make and then just get a bigger credit card?? Makes perfect sense to me!

I haven't been on the computer much these days--three kids require a lot of time!! :) But this morning I sat (to rest my swollen foot) and I happened to click on this blog I've read since before Little d was born. It first intrigued me because the blogger and I share a first name, but she writes so well, I was hooked. I check in every once in a while and over the summer I have maybe looked in once. She slowed way down on updating so I didnt' check that often.

Anyway-today I looked and am shocked beyond belief. Her family was in a head on collision in July and her husband was killed instantly. I felt it in my gut to read the story. She suffered broken ribs and one of her small sons has a broken leg. It horrifies me. It makes me want to hold on to D and never let go. I am not strong enough to cope with that. I mean I guess I would have to be, but how on earth?

In honor of my Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary (tomorrow), here's a picture of them last May at a wedding. I am so proud to call them my parents.

Have a good weekend!