To Whom it May Concern...

Dear Lady at Wal-Mart who can't count,

Everything you did made me want to smack you. First of all you had probably 30-40 items in the 20 items or less express lane. Then, as the cashier started to ring up your items, you decided to go and grab a box of tea "real quick". So, you kind of jogged away, got your stuff, came back, patted me on the shoulder and said, "See - that wasn't so bad now was it?" The polite thing for me to do would have been to smile, brush it off and move on with my life. But I just couldn't. I was in a hurry, running late and you were being a twit. Then, to top it all off, you didn't look before you backed your car out of your parking spot. You almost ran me over. Missed by about 3-4 inches. Yep. I really, really wanted to smack you!

Signed,

Annoyed

Dear 10 Year Old Boys,

I'm glad that you enjoy your imaginative play. But you are loud. Too loud. And when I tell you to quiet down, I don't mean for you to be quiet for 5 seconds. I mean that the volume of your voice needs to stay down at all times. And if you don't understand what I mean by the term "at all times", I would be happy to explain it to you.

From,

A mom with two other kids who are already in bed asleep

Dear Parent of visiting 10 year old Boy,

When you called and asked if your son could come and stay on Friday night and Saturday, I assumed you meant Friday night and Saturday during the day. Silly me. Apparently you meant Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning. When I asked you what time you were going to come and pick your boy up and you stared at me like I was speaking in a foreign language... I am concerned. Very, very concerned.

Sincerely,

A mom who is wondering if she now has another child living with her forever

Dear Twilight Fans,

I can appreciate the fact that you like the books and the movies. What I don't appreciate is the glares and obnoxious comments when I explain that I'm not a fan. Can't we agree to disagree on this one?

Respectfully yours,

Tired of Twilight

Dear People who are Sick,

STAY HOME!

Wishing You All the Best,

Someone who doesn't want to get sick again

Dear Blog Readers,

I'm sorry this post is kind of whiny. I'm a bit tired. I'm very overwhelmed and I promise not to write again till I'm in a good mood.

Love Always,

Melissa

Thank Y'all Kindly

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all the opinions that you shared for my little project! After carefully considering what everyone said...

I decided to go with an option that I hadn't even presented to you. I apologize... I liked the white, but when I laid it all out, all I saw was the white stripes. I really wanted the stars to be the focus. So, I laid it all out with the green and it was just too busy. I asked Hubby what he thought and he had a good idea, but I didn't have the fabric that I needed. So, I did what any crazy quilter would do - I went to JoAnn's. And there I found just what I was looking for.

And so, without further ado, here is the quilt top... (please don't look too closely... mistakes abound on this crazy thing)

And this is the fabric I'm using for the back.

I wish you could feel how stinkin soft that stuff is!! Baby Girl tried to pack it off several different times this afternoon and she has informed me that she NEEDS a blanket with this fabric. She also told me that if I wanted, I could find a different fabric for the baby's blanket and she would just take the blue piece. She's a generous soul... I may have to go back to JoAnn's and get her a piece of this stuff - maybe in pink :)

I'll show you more pics when it's all done. Now I have to decide if I'm going to tie it or quilt it. I'm the world's slowest quilter... so I'm thinking of just doing the ties... but I know quilting will look nicer...

Anyway! Thanks again for sharing your opinions... I hope the fact that I changed my mind completely won't deter you from sharing your thoughts with me again!

HELP!!

I need your advice on a baby quilt I'm putting together for my awesome cousin whose wife just had a baby boy!! I can't decide how to arrange the blocks... so you get to help! You'll have to use your imagination just a bit... I love the way the blocks turned out...

This is what it looks likes when all the blocks are together...

Anyone see my mistake? Yeah... I miscounted my blocks! Can you believe that they asked me to teach a sewing class to the women at my church? I think this is a bad ides since apparently I can't even count... anyway, I think it looks to busy this way... what do you think?

I think I'd like to do sashing in between the blocks. I have a couple of options... white with a blue divider block.... (imagine the sashing going across the top and bottom too)

white with a green block....

or green...

What do you think?? I think the green sash looks too busy. I'm leaning towards the white with the blue, but I'm not sure... any suggestions??

This is Halloween

You're probably tired of reading Halloween posts... but I really want to get this up. You can skip this post if you'd like, okay? Let's start with the food. I got ideas from Family Fun, my friend Rachelle, or my own crazy brain. First off we have...

one eyed one horned flying purple people eaters...

witches fingers....

brains...

mummies...

eyeballs...

and the ultimate Halloween breakfast!

As for the costumes... I finally got Red's done...

Little Bug was a cowboy - again... and of course, he still hates having his picture taken, but I did get one good shot!

Baby Girl was a queen (it's actually a dress from Belle's Enchanted Christmas, but it worked)

I was a pirate...

Baby Girl and Red designed our jack-o-lanterns this year...

Fun was had by all, but I ended the night feeling like my head would explode! Sinus infections are such grand things...

Hope you had a great weekend!

What's a Girl to do at 4:53 in the Morning?

Write a totally random blog post... of course!

• Little Bug got up around 3:45. Hubby got up with him. Apparently he wanted breakfast and a potty break. Go figure. I don't think he's fallen back asleep yet... but I sent Hubby back to bed seeing as how I can't sleep anyway...
• Why can't I sleep? Well, exactly one half of my nose is plugged up. It's so plugged that I cannot even blow my nose and it keeps randomly running down my face... while I sleep. Can I get an EWWW?? Thank you.
• I am not done making Halloween costumes. Slacker Mom of the Year. Baby Girl's costume isn't even started. Luckily - she's flexible. She dug into the dress-up box and went to school as a clown yesterday and tonight she's going to be a princess. Not the fairy princess that she wanted, but no one ever really gets what they want, right? Well, unless you're Red. Then you get your Jedi costume - no matter what. I've been promising to make him one for 2 years... this year he's holding me to it.
• And speaking of making things... I'm using a Simplicity pattern for this costume. May I just get something off my chest here.... THERE IS NOTHING SIMPLE ABOUT A SIMPLICITY PATTERN! There. I feel better. I measured Red and bought the pattern that SHOULD have worked. The Jedi robe fits my husband... since it was a one size fits all type thing... and the tunic fits me. I wonder what the models look like that they base their sizing off of??
• We had a ghoulish dinner last night and then watched old episodes of "The Addams Family" on Netflix. I'll try to do a Halloween post with costumes and food stuff later... maybe tomorrow.... or next week... or... um... sometime.
• I get to host book club at my house in a few weeks. We're reading "The Hunger Games" and may I just say how much I love that book? Have you read it? If not, I highly recommend it! If you have read it, would you like to help me brainstorm a bit? Can you think of any discussion questions? I have a thought of few already ... but I'd like to hear from you guys :)

AND....... I can breathe! The nasal decongestant has kicked in...which means I can now blow my nose! And I think Little Bug finally fell asleep! Can I get a w00t? Yeah... probably not at 5 a.m. Maybe later...

Welp. I'm gonna see if my brain will let me go back to bed for awhile. Happy Halloween!!

9

Tomorrow is Little Bug's birthday! This kid of mine has sent me on the biggest emotional roller coaster over the last 9 years. For example... right now, he's supposed to be asleep. But I just caught him down the hall putting all of Baby Girl's Littlest Pets into the washing machine. Frustrating that he's not in bed? Yes. Maddening that he's made a big mess? You betcha. Funny to see the crazy way he's got all the toys arranged? Yup. It's a mixed bag with this kid. His troubles make my heart ache. But his accomplishments give me joy like I've never known.

Another example... the children's organization in our church is called the Primary. Every year they put on a program for the adults. There is usually a lot of great music and a small speaking part for each child. Last year we tried to get Little Bug to say a few lines.

He screamed.

I cried.

This year I got him to say the lines.

He grinned and giggled.

I cried :)

And so, to celebrate this glorious boy of mine, I thought I'd share a few pictures with you... enjoy!

This photo was taken this summer in Utah. I have lots of pictures like this where he is squinting, closing his eyes, deliberately looking away from the camera or glaring at me. He's a pretty typical boy in the fact that he does NOT like having his picture taken...

This was the first day of school... see... here we have the glare...
This was a trip we took to pick raspberries. He wasn't a fan of the small prickles on the bushes... but he had fun wandering around. Again, he wouldn't look at the camera...

Little stinker! He's pretty darn pleased with himself in this shot...

Ah... here we go! This is the smile that melts my heart!

Happy Birthday my Little Bug! You are such an amazing kid! You've grown so much this last year... I can't wait to see what the new year holds in store for you!

Why We Love Sale-ing

Yeah... that says "sale-ing". And yes. I know it's not a real word to most people... but it is to us! You see, I grew up with a mom who LOVES to get a good deal. And so, garage sale shopping comes natural to her. When I was growing up it was frustrating at times... people would ask where I had gotten my J. Crew jeans (there wasn't a J. Crew for hundreds of miles) and instead of telling the truth, "My mom scored these at a yard sale for .50! Awesome, eh??" I would just kind of blow it off... "I don't know. My mom got them for me somewhere..." and then I'd change the subject as quickly as possible.

Now that I'm older I don't care who knows that most of our possessions are 2nd hand... in fact, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can save a buck or two or more... sometimes a lot more.

For example... Baby Girl got some money for her birthday. She wanted to get one of those stuffed Littlest Pets. She had $10 and that was the exact price of the stuffed animals at WalMart. I told her to hang on to her cash and we could look around a little before she spent all of her money.

The Saturday after her birthday we went out garage sale shopping and stumbled on a sale that had stuffed animals for a quarter a piece. They had SIX Littlest Pet stuffed animals! So, for $1.50 she got $60 worth of toys! She had enough left to go get one of the smaller plastic animals at Target and she's still got $2 that she's saving for our next "sale-ing" trip.

Maybe it's genetic... but man! I love a good deal! And it appears that Baby Girl likes the idea too :)

I'd Forgotten...

Red is off to a science camp for a few days this week. I hope that he's having a fabulous time! I hope that he's learning lots and having fun with his friends. I hope he's staying warm and playing hard. But I hope that he'll be ready to come home tomorrow because I sure miss that boy!

You see, I'd forgotten how much he does for me each day. I've really taken him for granted. You see, he's a pretty darn responsible kid. He gets himself up each morning and makes lunch for himself and Little Bug. He gets his breakfast and sometimes gets cereal for the younger kids if I'm not up yet (my kids are early risers... I am not!). He'll take out the recycling, help fold laundry, and get toys cleaned up. If I give him a job, he might whine a bit but, he always gets it done. He makes me smile and laugh several times each day. And every night, before bed, I get a hug and a kiss.

Of course... Baby Girl and Little Bug aren't getting teased. The house is staying a little cleaner with one less kid around. And I'm pretty sure that our grocery bill went down (even though he'll only be gone for 3 days).

But all in all, the good outweighs the bad. Yep... I miss that kid

Who Would've Thought?

6 years ago tonight I was headed to the hospital to have a baby. We didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl. The last ultrasound had given us a 60% chance for a girl. After two boys I was pretty hopeful for a girl, but, of course, would take whatever came our way. The doctor had decided to induce me a few days early. We got set up at the hospital the night before and then waited.

But there's something you must understand about me: I don't deal well with pain. So, I had some drugs in my IV when the contractions first started. Then came the epidural (manna from heaven, thankyouverymuch!). And then the decision was made that I would need a c-section - which meant that I would need a spinal block. Copious amounts of drugs were swimming through my veins. In fact, I was so drugged out that when my baby was born the doctor said, "It's a girl" and I responded with, "What's a girl?" I think this little moment of unintended humor set a pattern for my Baby Girl. She loves to make others laugh. When she was younger it was pretty random things that she'd throw out there and a lot of courtesy laughing on our part. But, as she's gotten older, her ability to make us laugh, really, truly laugh, has gotten more refined.

For example: The other day I picked Baby Girl up from school and we headed out to run some errands. This is the conversation that followed...

BG - "Mom! Stop! We have to go to the house and get Baby Girl!"

Me - "Wait... what? Aren't YOU Baby Girl?"

BG - "No Mom. I'm just the narrator of this story!"

We both laughed till our sides hurt. She has her moments of pouting, but usually even that dissolves into giggles after awhile.

She's a good mix of princess and tom boy. This picture was taken while she was playing a Star Wars video game with Red and yelling "GET HIM!! SHOOT THAT GUY!" all while wearing her princess dress and tiara...

She's not always daring or willing to take risks, but once she gets warmed up to an idea, you'd better watch out because she'll dive right in! (pun intended)

She's the first to forgive and give hugs. She's always thinking of others and trying to find ways to cheer people up. She's creative and clever. She would paint or play with clay all day long if I'd let her. She loves to dress up and put on a show for anyone who is willing to watch.

But most of all... BEST of all... she's mine!

Happy Birthday my little Twiddle! I love you so much and I hope you have a wonderful day today!

xxxoooxxx

Mom

Just Try...
I dare you to watch this video and not smile... go ahead. Try it.

A post with actual information about me and my life is coming... I've just been a tad on the busy side.

My hubby suggested that I blog about something. He pointed out that my last post was about me wandering around talking to myself... and that I ought to write something so that everyone knew that I hadn't gone totally crazy. So, just in case you were wondering, I haven't lost my mind... not completely. I'm guessing that I've got another year or two before people will really have to worry about me!

Troubled

I was shopping today when I noticed a lady looking at me kind of weird. I started to check myself...

• zipper up - check
• nose clear - check
• matching shoes - check
• pants without a hole in a revealing spot - check
• as clean as a mother of 3 kids can be - check

Hmm... I couldn't figure out the weird looks. So, I went on my way. A little further on I got a few more strange looks from a guy who kept looking around me. I decided to move on a little faster. What in the world was going on. It wasn't till the next row that I figured it out...

I was talking to myself! I haven't been shopping alone for about 10 1/2 years now. I've always had at least one child in tow while at the grocery store. And, even when they were tiny babies, I would talk to them.

And now, after all this time, it seems as if I've created a habit that makes me look like a crazy lady. The question is... do I do something to try and stop it? Or do I milk it for all it's worth and make people wonder about me everywhere I go?

Decisions, decisions...

Do you have any odd habits that may cause others to wonder about your sanity? :)

Google is My Friend

I have Stat Counter on my blog so that I can see how many people come to visit me here in blog land. One of the great features of this is being able to see what Google searches people used and ended up on your blog. I love seeing what crazy things bring people here. Usually it's "royal icing tiara". I made one a couple of years ago for Baby Girl's birthday cake. And, I did have one of those this time... but the others were great too... just had to share!

"waterproof parody or spoof or curse i'm melting" - I have absolutely NO idea what this might be. No clue at all.

"brownies baked in muffin tins" - this kind of worked. I think I over baked mine.

"stealing winco poppy seeds" - um, I'm against stealing of any kind. Yeah.

"never use pc again" - not sure if pc is supposed to be 'personal computer' or 'political correctness'. Either way, I'm good.

"have you ever wanted something so bad blogspot" - I have no idea if blogspot wants anything... but it was nice of you to ask!

"dh had the hiccups" - I have a good story about this! When we were first married Hubby got a bad case of the hiccups. It was late at night and he was tired and wanted to get to sleep. I told him to open his mouth as wide as he could and the hiccups would disappear. Yeah... I lied. Moments later he had the LOUDEST hiccup I've ever heard and two seconds after that, I kid you not, the baby upstairs started to cry. That's right. He hiccuped so loud that it woke our neighbor's tiny baby up! Still makes me laugh to think about it... I would have felt bad for the momma of that little baby, but she liked to vacuum at 5:30-6:00 in the morning. Yeah. We, as the downstairs neighbors didn't love that... anyway! Moving on!

"link:http://flickr.com/photos/caitiesportfolio/" - this is from a mosaic I did awhile ago... but why in the world would you google search the link instead of just typing it into the web browser box thingy??

And last, but certainly not least...

"so many butt cracks" - Ha!! I'm hoping that this person wasn't looking for photos...

So, what have you Googled lately?

Confession
I admit it. One day I wanna be part of something like this...

No, not the Oprah Show, although that might be cool too... no, I want to be part of a flash mob! Because really? How fun would that be?!

Delicious

Every week we have Family Home Evening. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this program, every Monday night we gather the family together. We start the evening out with a song and a prayer. Then we have a spiritual lesson, play a game, and then end the evening with a treat. We aren't perfect in doing this every week, but we try. It's something that the kids enjoy... especially the treat part. I mean, really... who doesn't love a good treat? Since they seem to remember more about the treat we had rather than the things we discussed, I decided to try and tie a few of our treats back to the lesson.

Back in August we talked about the creation of the world... and we followed the lesson with these yummy little tidbits! (The purplish grey blob is an elephant... and that's not a Yin and Yang symbol... it's supposed to be dividing light and dark... just in case you were wondering...)

This last Monday we talked about how our faith is like a seed. We need to nourish it to help it grow. So, of course, we all worked together to make these...

I feel like the treats give the lesson an extra little umph and hopefully it sticks with the kids a little longer.

Do you have any tips or tricks to help reinforce lessons/ideas/rules for your kids?

Bizarre

We don't get many storms here in the desert... but when we do, they're usually really strange. Take the clouds that rolled in tonight (please note that these are straight out of the camera... I didn't adjust the color or the focus on anything).

It reminds me of "the Nothing" from "The Never Ending Story". I found a clip of the opening of the movie...

So, what's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

And Off We Go!

The first day of school was on Monday and I had some pretty mixed emotions. On one hand, I have 3 hours every day to run errands without having to look at the toys or fish or listen to a child whine about getting a treat. It's been nice! On Wednesday I went to Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, and Kohl's all before 10:00! It makes me smile just to think about it.

On the other hand, my baby is now in school. Which means that I'm not a mom of "little" kids any more. For the last 10 1/2 years that is how I've identified myself. A mom with small children. But that's just not the case any more. No more babies. No more toddlers. Not a pre-schooler to be seen. All of my kids are "school age". With one child hovering in the "pre-teen" arena. And honestly? It makes me feel a little old ;)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few pics from the first day of school...

Red wasn't very cooperative. He almost begged me not to take a picture of him at school. Normally I would have laughed and then taken his picture anyway, but he was a little nervous. So, I pretended to be a good mom and honored his request. He did let me take a few shots at home...

Little Bug isn't a fan or pictures either....

Baby Girl was super excited for her first day! She let me take lots of pictures...

She ran off to play without even saying goodbye...

Everyone had a great day and was excited to go back again the next day. And me? Well, I'm still adjusting. I'm sure I'll get used to the whole thing eventually. Maybe. I hope....

Punk

I know I put this on Facebook... and so some of you have already seen these photos, but they were just too funny not to share here on the blog.

Anyone who knows Red knows that a Mohawk is SO NOT his personality. We cut it like this on Sunday night and we'll be cutting it again this Saturday. He's loving it for now, but doesn't want to keep it forever. I think it's great and it gives me a funny kind of happiness to see him be a little daring like this. He's usually a little more on the reserved side. I'm just glad that his punk hair hasn't affected his attitude....
At least, that's what I'm hoping! Have you or your kids ever done something more "daring" with your hair?