Rainswept Roofs

2009-05-11T08:45:00.003-04:00

Mother's Day was very nice, we decided to go to Greenfield Village since we have the member pass and were reluctant to spend too much money. No fancy brunches this year for us.
The weather was perfect, sunny with a slight breeze. Of course, everyone else decided to go there too, but we got there rather early so we managed to avoid most of the crowds. We hit the carousel first just in case Mr. Gasbaggy takes 3 times as long as the other workers to tell the rules man was working (he wasn't), then we wandered around. It's nice now that the kids are older we can explore the interiors of the buildings and actually learn a few things. When they were smaller, we had to keep on the move at all costs. They seemed to have the most fun rolling down one of the big, grassy hills. Even the teen got in on the act and we managed to sneakily get a picture of her, don't tell!

2009-03-19T12:48:00.007-04:00

We have been busy around here! Getting ready for Lydia's ice show this weekend means lots of driving to the ice rink as usual. Last month, I joined the Coraline Mystery Box Swap hosted by My Little Mochi and that has kept me busy and worried. Worried because I knew there would be swappers with tons of talent participating in this swap and I wanted to please my partner so I thought hard about what to do. My ideal project would have been to make a doll similar to the Coraline doll in the movie but I just couldn't make one that was good enough. Thank goodness I found a great pattern for the Cyclops squid thingie and he came out great. See him over there?
I also decided to make a shrink plastic bracelet which came out so detailed and cool and I made some fabric pins. I felt bad in a way for using so many downloaded images and not drawing any myself but my drawing skills are so bad, that I knew it would be horrid. So the box is on its way to California, hopefully it will get there today or tomorrow.

2009-02-19T08:19:00.004-05:00

Wow, it has been way too long since my last entry. To the right is one of 7 ATCs Lydia made at my request. We have this metal Ikea tree-like thing and I wanted to hang Valentine ATCs from it so she made some for me. I liked this one the best. We found some cute free downloads of vintage Valentines and she went to work.

The kids loved the little amigurumi frogs, I also made two cute little birdies for the girls, a tiny turtle for the boy and for all 3, I made some adorable hearts from a free Roxycraft pattern. The lesson learned this Valentines Day was take pictures of the goodies you make for the kids before you give them away because they will be hard to find after that. Especially with Kai because he always wants to sleep with them and they get lost in and/or under his bed. When I find them, I'll try to post a pic, I really loved how the hearts came out.

2009-01-29T14:41:00.002-05:00

Here they are after the recital, so proud.
Tess playing 'Ballade', as promised, I already posted this elsewhere but what the heck.

2009-01-28T08:02:00.004-05:00

The recital went well, it was in a church this time because the community center the teacher usually uses was already booked. The church was huge and a had a gorgeous and well tuned (LOL) piano. Kai did so well at his very first recital and Tess played like the old pro that she is having done this since age 7. Actually, she always gets a touch of the nerves, in the videos you can see how she's kind of hunched over due to being nervous but she plugged away and played beautifully. She was annoyed at herself for the few mistakes she made, because you know it is always perfect at home.

Kai doing his song, 'Chinese Dreams'.

This is their improvisational song, keep in mind, it is improv so there is not much melody just "noodling" as their teacher says. :)

Blogger won't let me add anything else so you'll have to wait to see Tess play solo.

2009-01-23T07:53:00.004-05:00

Sledding!

We have been getting so much snow this winter. Normally I complain about it but I have really been enjoying it this time, maybe because there has been so much that we haven't had the nasty brown ugly version because we keep getting new snow. Anyway, David has taken the kids sledding twice which is exactly two times more than last year. Like I said, there has hardly been any snow the last few years. My dear friend Nicki is a former Michigan resident now living in Texas and she asked me for some snow pictures so here they are. I don't have any oh so pretty ones, but I like these sledding shots very much.

This awesome toboggan was given to David by a older guy he talks to when he works out at the Y.

Tess getting splattered, look at the air she's getting.

Always together, these two.

When did my baby boy get so big?!

Lydia and friend looking cute.

2009-01-22T14:34:00.004-05:00

I made these Amigurumi froggies for the kids for Valentines Day. I was debating about making them different colors so they would know which frog was theirs but I had a lot of this green yarn, so here they are, standard green frogs. In order to differentiate between them and tie them into the holiday, I sewed little heart patches on their bums with the initial of each kid. The patten is from the Lion Brand site, they have so many Amigurumi patterns that are adorable. In addition to the frogs, I'm also making 3 little turtles. I have decided those are going to be different colors. One yellow, one blue and one either purple or mixed, I have to see what's in my stash.

Tess and Kai's piano recital is this Sunday, they get to play a song together. I am so excited about seeing them up there. He's playing a song called Jackson Blues, which is 3 very simple Blues chords while Tess does what their teacher calls "noodling", which she explains as a sort of Blues-ey improvisational thing. I know, the Blues? As their daddy says, "What do these kids know about the blues?". They must know something because it sounds great to this biased mama's ears.

2009-01-20T12:54:00.005-05:00

One of my projects for Christmas that did get completed was making book bags for my kids and our niece in Seattle. I found this wonderful and cute download from Kitschy Digitals called the Woodland Book Lovers Kit. It came with downloads for a reading log, book plates, book marks and iron ons to add to a book bag and you could personalize them all in Photoshop. The blog showed several ways that her readers had used the kit and pretty much all the ideas I used were from them. I love the way they came out. I ended up making just 3 bags with different colored pockets for each child, they all got the supplies. No reading log for the teen, however, she's out of that stage. I also didn't make her a book bag because I was worried she would think it was too babyish or tween-ish so I bought a really cool Converse canvas tote (try saying that 3 times fast) and ironed on small pockets with the little deer on them so it would tie in with the book marks and book plates. They were a hit with all 4, it made me happy. You never know how gifts like that are going to go over. Don't you the love the gnome stuffie pin? Another awesome idea from the Kitschy Digital readers. There are a few more images of the set at Flickr .

2009-01-11T01:30:00.006-05:00

Found this cool website that can turn your pictures into Tilt-shift miniature style photos. It is so fun to play with. I didn't have time to search my iPhoto library for a perfect picture to use but I think this one demonstrates the idea pretty well. I think I might start taking photos in a certain way just so I can use this cool application.

Neat, huh? It really does look like a miniature scene now.

I planned on blogging about our wonderful holidays and I may get around to it, complete with photos, but then again I may not. We had a great Christmas and we spent New Year's Eve up at the cottage, it was really fun for just the 5 of us to get away.
I didn't want to come home but we had our annual White Elephant party to host so we had to get back to reality. That party was a blast as usual. We get to see friends that we pretty much only see once or twice a year, we make our pledges to get together more often throughout the year but that just doesn't seem to happen. Ok, I don't want to end on a downer. We did manage to not get stuck with the worst gifts and I made sure each guest left with their heinous objects. I have to be strict or else we end up with all sorts of crap hidden in our house. One year, we found a mini JFK bust, a not so miniature Indian Chief bust, a scary stuffed Harlequin music box and a flute playing bottle left from our grateful guests. Ingrates! hee hee

2008-12-18T10:43:00.002-05:00

I am so behind! I tried to blame it on the snow and Kaiser being home sick from school yesterday (he's better now) but no, it's just me. I am a procrastinator and I'm slow, that does not make a great getting things done combo.

Things that are done:
3/4s of the Christmas cookies.
A few handmade ornaments the kids are giving to my mom.

Things that need to be done:
Make fudge
Make the rest of the Christmas cookies
Finish the handmade ornaments
Finish the book bag sets I'm making for Tess, Kai and my niece.
Finish decorating the house ( I know, it's the 18th!)
Take the kids to Fantasyland to see Santa
Shopping, shopping, shopping

Things I've given up on doing as I think it really is too late:
Taking a photo for Christmas cards
Sending Christmas cards to anyone but immediate family (sorry friends!)
Going to Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village, they are usually sold out by now

Ok, must get off my bum, they are predicting a huge snowstorm coming our way and that will mess up my already pathetic plans. BTW, I fixed the comments setting so anyone can make comments now. I have no idea why I had it set to only members of this blog may comment.

2008-12-11T11:02:00.003-05:00

These little bird ornaments are addicting and so easy to make. Well, as long as you don't try to use this odd upholstery remnant you have in your stash that is impossible to turn right side out when sewn into a very small shape. Anyway, the tutorial was kindly shared at The Purl Bee. The birdies will not be staying on that white tree as they are too big for it, that was only for photography purposes. BTW, I apologize for that awful picture. I was in a hurry to take it. Not a very good excuse. I need a professional photo stylist around here and some good lights probably wouldn't hurt either.

I am actually supposed to be working on some other adorable ornaments for an exchange with a friend. My only excuse for not having them done yet is that my sewing machine was broken. No really! It was! The hand wheel cracked on the inside, not sure how it happened. My darling, brilliant husband, said "Order the part! I'll fix it!" So I did and he did a few days ago. Yay for mechanically inclined spouses!

2008-12-08T14:40:00.012-05:00

Isn't he cute? A hedgehog pincushion! I made it today for Tess for Christmas, I know she'll love him and that she'll finally stop using my pin cushion which in turn will mean she'll stop misplacing my pin cushion. We both win! Got the pattern here. Well, actually, I was lead to the pattern from this awesome website called One Pretty Thing , just try and tell me you can't find something to make for someone on your gift list on their Handmade Christmas roundups. Whew!

Ok, I had much more to write but I have to get the kids at school and hide the hedgie! I should write about how my break was good, we went to the parade, it was cold. We went to Disney Wolrd, it was fun. We drove! We survived, we still like each other. The Mouse knows how to do up Christmas (of course!) and oh I have tons of pictures to share. Check my Flickr soon if I don't post 'em here.

2008-11-22T19:48:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to start writing a blog entry for a few days now and they all keep coming out sounding bitter and awful and I decided I'm not getting much out of blogging. I'm not really sure what I want to get out of it in the first place to tell you the truth.
I read other blogs and they are much more interesting and fun and I think I'd rather just read than write, so I think I will for now. Not sure for how long, a few weeks or months. All I know right now is that I'm too cranky and whiney about blogging to write anything I want anyone to read.

2008-11-13T08:51:00.008-05:00

Yeesh, next time I must rethink letting a crabby little softie take over the blog duties. Anyway, yes, it does appear many blogs are talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas now so I thought I would join the party today. Our family and my parents usually go up north to the cottage for Thanksgiving but we aren't this year so that will be different. If the weather isn't too awful, we may brave the crowds and go to the Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade which is actually called "America's Thanksgiving Parade", I'm not sure why. I suppose part of it is due to the fact that poor Detroit has such a bad reputation that they can't even put it in the name of the parade anymore. We are always out of town for the holiday so we never go to the parade, I think the last time we went Tess was only little, like not even 2 yet. I can picture her all bundled up in her fleece snowsuit with a little red nose, trying to clap with mittens on her hands. Lydia was 5 and seemed more excited about riding the city bus to get downtown than going to the parade, until we got there and she realized it was going to be a REAL parade with huge floats and gigantic balloons. Ok, enough reminiscing. I just told David we should go to the parade (btw, David, go to work already!) and he just sighed. Way to be enthusiastic, dear.

On to Christmas. So far, only Lydia has made a list, she wants a new Nano. An orange one with 8GB and video, they are very cool and also kind of expensive. New ear buds, an iTunes giftcard, a Barnes and Noble giftcard, clothes and a pair of black, low top Converse. Mostly gifts to keep her mostly solitary, which is how she mostly likes to be these days. Oh well, I remember being 14. As for the littles (I know, not so little, but that's how I think of them), they have been surprisingly quiet about it so far. I'm sure I will be getting a list from each of them soon enough.

They all have been sweet and thinking of others however and we all decided to pick an animal from Heifer International to give to a needy family from around the world. We can't decide on which one to pick, Kai is going for cute and wants to send a flock of chicks ($20). Of course, Lydia is thinking a trio of rabbits($60) is a good idea and Tess goes for the gusto with a water buffalo ($250), but I think a share of a water buffalo would be more our speed ($25). Maybe we'll do them all. It seems like such a great organization though, I'm excited that the kids are so willing and eager to get involved.

As for locally, they each buy a toy to give to the local Toys for Tots and we make fudge for our neighbors. We'll adopt a family this year as I dropped the ball on it last year and felt so guilty, so I better get on that early as I'm sure there will be even more families in need this year than usual.

2008-11-11T10:49:00.003-05:00

er, hi, just a Pumpkin Pal here, see me over there? It's November 11th? Oh great, what am I doing here? Aren't people blogging about Thanksgiving and Christmas now? No wonder she wants me to do this today, she's ashamed to be blogging about a jack o' lantern softie 11 days after Halloween so she sends the poor innocent orange guy to do it. Is it my fault that she took so long to crochet me? That she wasted countless hours watching bad horror movies on tv during October when she should have been making my legs and arms instead? BTW, I feel like I should be going to Jazzercise class with these things. What's with the stripes? Oh, now she says I'm complaining too much and should be grateful for my existence. Well, thank you very much Dr. Frankenstein, I'll be sure to think of you at my next dental appointment. Get a load of those teeth!

2008-11-07T11:57:00.006-05:00

Was your Halloween suitably scary? Ours was fun, we did lots of pre-Halloween activities. Greenfield Village, Treats in the Streets at the Detroit Historical Village and we even drove out to Flint to Crossroads Village/Huckleberry Railroad to ride the "Ghost" train and trick or treat in their old timey village that gets all decked out in corny Halloween decorations (see photo above). I'd say we got our uses out of the sushi costumes that David worked so hard on. Lydia makes for a convincing 50s housewife too, wouldn't you agree?

Can you see the tiny baby pumpkin getting eaten? My husband has an evil streak.

I know, it's November 7th, the election (Go Obama!!) is over and I'm blogging about Halloween. So sue me!

2008-10-19T14:28:00.004-04:00

This little boy turned 6 years old on Thursday. He brings such joy and light into our lives, he's a bundle of energy and such a big, funny goofball who is the first to offer a hug and words of comfort to someone who is having a hard time. I find myself feeling a little sad as he gets older and seems to be growing up so fast but then I think about the wonderful person he's turning into and I just have to let him go ahead and get bigger. What can I do about it anyway? He had a good birthday, his class had a field trip to an apple orchard and I came along as a chaperone, the weather was great. We did the hayride and the apple picking and the corn maze and of course were chased by yellow jackets while trying to eat our donuts and drink our cider. It wouldn't be fall in Michigan without bees in your face. After school we had soccer for big sis but then went out for pizza and had birthday cake at grandma and papa's house. It was a lovely day and I think he enjoyed himself.

I love you, my silly boy!

2008-10-14T10:25:00.002-04:00

Oh, October is almost half over and I have not even blogged once yet. Do you care? haha
Well, we are fine here. Soccer is almost over already, they get it done with quickly in this new town, apparently. The boy's team is doing well and the girl's team is improving and I am really proud of both of them. Watching the kindergarten team is hilarious the way all the kids follow the ball around wear ever it goes. Kai is not afraid to get right in there and has scored several goals this season, he gets annoyed that he is not the best on the team. Give me a break, kid. Tess was really nervous about getting too close to the ball at first but she has really pushed herself in the past few games and even made an assist that got them a rare goal in their last game.

Lydia had her first big cross country meet last Saturday, there were about 25 schools competing, it appeared to be a pretty serious deal for the bigger school who had large teams with uniforms and their own tents and everything. As opposed to Lydia's little rag tag school, who had sort of a Bad News Bear's vibe without the pot smoking, swearing kids or drunk coach aspect. So, they came in close to last, wow, some of those first place kids are serious runners, it was pretty cool to see how fast some of them were. I think Lydia had fun, she is really not into competing, so the fact that she even did this was impressive to me anyway. David and I wanted her to get on a team in high school for at last one trimester and she may even get a letter, woo woo. I think it's kinda cool as I never did any sports whatsoever in school. She probably won't do it again next year but she still figure skates which takes up a lot of her time anyway.

Well, what have I been up to besides driving kids around, grocery shopping, worrying about that dang rabbit and her broken leg (yes, the saga continues) and not blogging? It seems to be a whole lotta nuthin'. I am slowly getting rid of clutter but it is taking forever, I've been doing a little crochet and made a weird pirate guy and am working on a pumpkin companion for him.

2008-09-27T12:40:00.005-04:00

Our 22nd wedding anniversary is next Saturday. Yes, I was a child bride. haha No, but I was only 23, I think of that as pretty young now that I'm an old bag of 45. We were the first of our crowd of friends to take the plunge and we had the big church wedding and all. I only had one attendant, my cousin, who was pregnant at the time. I just saw her son that she was preggo with at the time a few weeks ago, he's been living in Toronto the past couple of years. He's a sweetie and such a grown up man of 21. Yikes, it makes me so sad because his mom was my bestest friend. I've written about her here before. We've become estranged for no apparent reason other than she met a guy and married him after 6 months of knowing him and decided I wasn't necessary in her life anymore. Yeah, I'm bitter and still really heartbroken over it all yet I can't bring myself to just pick up the phone and call her. What would I say anyway?

Ok, wait, this started out as a post about 1986. Here is a list of the top 20
songs from the year I got married:

1. "That's What Friends Are For".....Dionne & Friends
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian".....Bangles
3. "On My Own".....Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
4. "The Way It Is".....Bruce Hornsby & The Range
5. "You Give Love A Bad Name".....Bon Jovi
6. "Greatest Love Of All".....Whitney Houston
7. "There'll Be Sad Songs".....Billy Ocean
8. "How Will I Know".....Whitney Houston
9. "Kyrie".....Mr. Mister
10. "Kiss".....Prince & The Revolution
11. "The Next Time I Fall".....Peter Cetera & Amy Grant
12. "Burning Heart".....Survivor
13. "Stuck With You".....Huey Lewis & The News
14. "When I Think Of You".....Janet Jackson
15. "Rock Me Amadeus".....Falco
16. "West End Girls".....Pet Shop Boys
17. "Sledgehammer".....Peter Gabriel
18. "Human".....Human League
19. "Sara".....Starship
20. "Higher Love".....Steve Winwood

I don't know about you, but in 1986 I was NOT listening to most of this crapola. Mr. Mister? Huey Lewis? Gross! Hell, we played 'Master and Servant' by Depeche Mode at our reception. I insisted on a DJ because I wasn't going to risk any wedding band breaking out into 'Proud Mary' or 'Celebration' at my wedding reception, thank you very much. We had to supply the DJ with our own records and he probably thought we were the biggest bratty music snobs he ever met, we probably were. I think we did let him play the Hokey Pokey and maybe the Chicken Dance? Luckily there was no Macarena back in the Stone Age so we didn't have to suffer through that one. We weren't that mean to our guests and we threw in some Glenn Miller and other big band stuff for the oldies.

I doubt we'll do anything too special, we didn't even do much for our 20th two years ago. I think we're going up north anyway, maybe we'll go out to dinner. Boy, do I sound like a killjoy or what?

2008-09-25T13:45:00.004-04:00

A few things I'm liking very much post:

Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzel Bites. Oh my goodness, these are so so yummy and I can eat just a few and be satisfied. Plus, they are really cute. Yes, I said cute.

The Mentalist on CBS, Tuesday nights. Ok, it stars Simon Baker, who is quite good looking and charming and his character is troubled and flawed, brilliant, has a tragic past, he's very observant and is a former fake psychic, now a cop (or he works with cops, not sure of the specifics) he's trying to atone but his arrogance gets him into trouble. I've taken to watching CSI type shows to get my crime show fix and I just don't like them so when this show came along, I cheered. Yay, a detective show without the annoying CSI cliches. BTW, why are there so many damn CSI shows on tv?

New episodes of The Office starting tonight!

I'm still losing weight, slowly but surely and it is becoming more routine to choose the right things to eat and the right amount.
30 pounds down. I'm down to the weight I was when I got pregnant with Kai and passed a milestone I was aiming for. Yippee!

We found a place for Tess and Kai to play soccer and they both have great coaches.

All the kids are doing activities they enjoy and their schedules have worked out to enable them to do what they like without too much shuffling around for anyone. Thanks to my parents on a couple of days of the week too. I was worried someone would have to cancel something but we didn't have to resort to that so I'm happy.

Ok, that's all for now. Gotta go!

2008-09-19T16:21:00.003-04:00

Why do I always end up making rabbits? What the heck is up with that? I need to expand my horizons and get out of this creative rut. The thing about him I like though is, I did not use a pattern and he is not flat, he is 3 dimensional. That's a first for me, so I'm kind of proud, even though he is only a bunny and he doesn't have legs. There are more pictures of him at my Flickr account if you care to see. It just took me 3 tries to spell "are", wow.

So another first for me happened this week and it is rather embarrassing to admit but I made every single meal that my family has eaten so far this week, that has never happened before. I know! I'm a stay at home parent, I should be cooking all the time, right? well, I don't! I didn't! I probably won't start doing it now but I think I can say with confidence I will cook the majority of our meals at home from now on. Yes, I should have been doing that all along. Dang, it sure does save a lot of money. Duh...
Boy, I come across really smart in this post today don't I? Oh, and I baked a ton too. I think I'm getting into a groove with this kids in school all day thing.

2008-09-05T09:42:00.004-04:00

Look out, I'm feeling ranty today!

Never again pick Thursday to go out to coffee with your friends. Damn poetry night!

To my little boy, I love you to pieces but you could have let your sister put you to bed last night instead of making me come home early to do it because you were giving her troubles.

I'm already sick of going to the vet for the followup appointments for the rabbit's broken leg due to her own spaziness. Yes, we love her but $250 later and 3 trips to Ann Arbor with more to come and I'm over it.

Stop losing the internet connection, you stupid laptop!

Damn my rinky dink town for not having soccer this year because the field they usually use will be down for some kind of maintenance. Um, we have other fields in town for goodness sakes.

Also, what is up with not having any recreation opportunities for the kids of the city and not hiring another recreation director in a timely fashion when the good one left, you suck!

Oldest daughter, stop telling me I'm freaking out when I disagree with you in a calm fashion.

Other parents in the school parking lot, slow the hell down!!!

2008-08-27T20:53:00.002-04:00

Ooh, spooky.
Here we are in the Delaware MIne on the self guided tour, like I said in an earlier post, Lydia was none too thrilled about going underground but she toughed it out for us. So we were about 100 feet underground on the first of 9 levels, the rest of the lower levels are now flooded so needless to say no one goes down there anymore. It was very cold and damp and dark, of course and every once in awhile, Kai would get all paranoid and grab us. Silly boy. It was a cool experience, I'm glad we did it.

2008-08-21T22:14:00.002-04:00

I swear we are doing much more than viewing waterfalls and walking through cemeteries but a cemetery is what I have for you today. We were driving out of Copper Harbor yesterday on our way to Silver City and I saw this itty bitty sign that said 'Cliff Cemetery' so I turned off and we all trudged out of the car. This was not your ordinary cemetery location, there was no fence, no driveways leading you through the well manicured lawns. Instead, there was a small walking trail directly off the road leading into the woods. The overgrown, taken back by nature woods. We started walking on this tiny trail and did not see anything but trees and underbrush. Finally after about 200 feet, there was a broken gravestone laying on the side of the trail. Very sad, we kept going and saw the occasional gravestone off to the side almost buried beneath the weeds and wildflowers, then we got to what appears to have been the main section of the cemetery. They had wisely planted some kind of ground cover so the woods could not take over as they did on the outskirts of the cemetery. There were several gravestones standing and off to the side there were the ruins of what may have been a church. But we're not sure. I don't know what it is about old cemeteries that I find so intriguing, but I read the inscriptions and get very emotional. Anyway, I took these and I tried to convey the sense of peace among the wildness that was all around. The last photo gives you an idea of the size of the trail.

2008-08-20T21:36:00.004-04:00

Yes, more waterfalls. Isn't it pretty? So we left Copper Harbor this morning after spending 3 nights in the area. We went to a gorgeous beach on Monday at the Tobacco River park. The river ended at Lake Superior so the kids could take a dip in the cold lake, then go in the warm river to warm up. It was ideal. Yesterday we went to the Delaware Mine, we went on a walking tour in the old mine. Lydia was very freaked out about going underground but it was only 1 level down 100 feet so she decided it was ok to go. We all thought it was so cool to walk around down there, but kind of creepy too. The highlight for Kai was Oreo the skunk who is a house pet of the mine caretaker.

This picture looks like fall, doesn't it? But actually the weather has been almost perfect. High 70s during the day and 50s at night.

The lake at Tobacco River park.

This is some remnants of an old building that was at the front of the park, we couldn't figure out what it was. I thought the brick looked so pretty against the background of the green trees.

2008-08-16T21:34:00.004-04:00

Well, we made it to Baraga in one piece. I'm sitting here in the dark with Kai sleeping in his roll-a-way bed. David and Tess are downstairs swimming in the hotel pool and Lydia is hiding out in the bathroom reading a book. Well, it's the only place where she can leave the light on and she refused to go down to the lobby. Poor kid can't go swimming in her present condition. What a bummer and bad timing for her.

So we took a pretty leisurely drive getting up here, I like being able to stop wherever and whenever we want. We walked on a couple of trails and saw two waterfalls. The first one was Wagner Falls, you can see it in the picture. On the way back to the trailhead, Kai ran a little bit ahead of me and Lydia and he got out of my sight. I didn't think too much of it and when we got to the parking lot I figured he would be right there. He wasn't! David and Tess followed soon after and we started calling him. I figured he was hiding behind this big boulder he had found interesting when we first got there. No sign of him anywhere, David started yelling K's name in his extra loud daddy voice and still no Kaiser. I was really beginning to panic and then Tess said, "oh, he's here in the car!" and there he was, completely clueless. David had unlocked the car as we got closer to the lot and Kaiser just got right in to wait for us. As soon as I got into the car I burst into tears, I can't even describe the fear I felt in those few seconds when I didn't know where he was. I had even imagined him being in one of the two cars that had driven away right as I had walked up to the parking lot. Needless to say, the no running ahead rule is being strictly enforced once again. I was so angry at myself for letting him get that far ahead of me and not taking his safety into concern. So stupid!
Never again, I can assure you.

Laughing Whitefish Falls was gorgeous. David took all the pictures, he can be a camera hog and since he's more technically proficient than I am, I just let him take over.

2008-08-14T14:02:00.003-04:00

Didn't I just write about how much I hate seeing myself in photos? Well, I like my new haircut more than I loathe pictures of myself so here ya go. My hair was way longer than I like so I went for the much shorter style with many choppy layers. I like it, I really do!

I'm supposed to be getting packed for our big trip to the Upper Peninsula, I am so excited. I love love love the UP, it is so beautiful and tranquil and wild and full of so many things to see and do. We're headed all the way up to Copper Harbor this time and then a few days in the Porcupine Mountains. I'm looking forward to hiking for waterfalls and visiting some of the mining ghost towns. Ah, the many photo opportunities that await! We're bringing the laptop so hopefully I can blog a few times while we're away, if not, I'll see you when we get back.

2008-08-12T10:18:00.004-04:00

Back to the real world.
I have a tendency to stick my head in the sand when we're not at home. I get most of my news from NPR but the station up north mostly just plays classical and jazz. Unlike the Detroit station, which is pretty much all talk all the time. Or I read the local paper up north, the most serious issues they report on are the school millages and the condition of the lake. Which is serious business to their tourist driven economy but not as urgent to me as some of the things going on in the rest of the world.

So I come home and flick on the radio and am inundated by what is going on in the world and don't want to listen but I do anyway because I have to be informed, right? You know what I feel mostly? Scared, scared of what kind of havoc that idiot is going to wreak with his remaining months in office. I don't like this helpless feeling at all and I don't really like blogging about stuff like this. I suppose that's shallow but I like for this space to show a more upbeat version of myself. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can be kind of a downer at times and I don't like to show that side too often.

In the meantime, I turned off NPR for a few hours to listen to the local "Morning Show" radio people chat about Dancing with the Stars and gossip about Paul McCartney possibly getting married again. I'll go back to the serious stuff but I just needed a little break. Promise I'll be back to my regular chatty blogging next time though. Thank goodness for kids and photos and coffee with friends and upcoming vacations to talk about.

2008-08-10T21:15:00.002-04:00

My dear friend and her family came to visit us at the cottage a couple of days ago. We haven't seen them since last summer. They moved to Texas last year and we miss them so much. We all had a great time, talking, playing, eating. A lot of the time I was trying to take pictures of their youngest. As you can see, I had to get rather sneaky with her. David took the two oldest kids on the sailboat, it was really windy that day but sunny. The other kiddos went out on the paddle boat. I warned them about how wavy it was and they ended up having to walk it back. Silly kids.

2008-08-01T10:21:00.003-04:00

5 things I am hating right now.

1) Seeing myself in photos and thinking I look enormous even after losing 26 pounds. I still have such a long long way to go and that discourages me a ton.

2) The fact that my sweet little 5 year old is not being as cuddly and loving with me as he usually is. I miss my baby!

3) My damn eyes, which appear to be needing bifocals soon. UGH!

4) Gas prices that never stay the same for more than a day.

5) My hair! It's too long and dried out looking and thinning on the top. My hair is thinning!!! What is up with that? Hello, I am not that old yet. wah!

To end on a more positive note.
5 things I am loving right now.

1) Summer! My kids are all home, my husband doesn't have too work overtime as much and we spend so much time together.

2) My husband who spent all last week landscaping our front yard. For years, all that has been there are mounds of dirt and humongous weeds. Well, now there is slate and plants from our backyard like the hosta and the lilies and new ones like lavender, sage and coneflowers and a sweet Japanese Maple tree. The best thing about it? He did all this work last week while the kids and I were up north and didn't say a word about to me when he was with us last weekend, So we drove up Tuesday to what looks like a totally different house. To say it looked trashy before is an understatement. Now it looks lovely and well taken care of and I admit, I cried when I first saw it.

3) My adorable children. My oldest Lydia who is so brave and adventurous. She went on her hiking/backpacking trip in Pennsylvania without knowing anyone and had a great time. It was very rustic and they hiked a lot (17 miles one of the days), I'm so proud of her. My little girl Tess who has such a good heart and can love so much and isn't shy in showing it. Then there's my baby boy (I know, 5 is not a baby to most people) who is so hilarious and has such a sophisticated sense of humor. Sure, he can laugh at a good potty mouth joke with the best of 'em but he can also come up with these jokes that take a few steps of thinking instead of going straight for the obvious. Of course, my mind is blanking on examples right now.

4) My online photography class. Yes, I'm mentioning it again. It is informative, the community is supportive and the teacher is awesome.

5) Project Runway is back!! But can someone please tell "Suede" that taking about yourself in the third person does not make you cool. It makes you a douche. Jane thinks you are annoying, Suede. Jane liked your dress in the second challenge but thinks you need to tone it down. Jane has to go now. Jane is going to get slapped if she keeps this up.

2008-07-28T10:37:00.004-04:00

We have been gone up north to my parent's cottage so much this summer and it will continue right until Labor Day, I'm sure Thank goodness for cafes with Wi-Fi and a 5 year old who will play the DS while I try to catch up for 30 minutes. It is not enough time. I love being up here but I get a little bit lonely for adult company after about a week or so but then we go home and I can't wait to come back. Crazy! My parents come and go and only stay a few days on the weekends. I don't get it, they're retired for cryin' out loud.

I'm taking an online class on how to use my digital DSLR and it has been eye opening and fun and educational and it's bringing back my love of photography which I am so happy about. It has also been a confidence booster which I really have needed.
So I leave you with a few photos of our summer so far.

BTW, Big girl just got back from camp. I missed her but we already seem to be back to bugging each other. She thinks I'm picking on her when I ask her not to spend the whole day laying on the couch reading. Is this a teenage thing I need to just roll with? I want her to do stuff with the rest of us.

I took the younger 2 to a petting zoo up here, they love the horses and the donkeys the best. Tess turned 10 a few weeks ago and all of a sudden she looks so tall!

2008-06-25T15:56:00.009-04:00

Jeez, June is almost over and I barely made any posts.
We've had a busy few weeks. Two of my babies had graduations and they are all out of school. I love love having them all home for the summer. Even with the screaming and bickering. Oh, good news before I move on to the pictures. I lost my 10%! I am so proud of myself, I have a long way to go but losing 10% of my original weight is a big deal. Yay!

My big girl graduating from 8th grade, we have more set up shots of her with her friends but I really like this one for some reason. I have a high schooler!

Here is my happy preschool graduate, he got to keep his red hat. The little ceremony was so cute, his teachers had a whole party. We swam in the pool, then had pizza and dessert in one of the banquet rooms and they even had a photo show of all the past school year events. It was very sweet.

Last game for t-ball, look at those action shots.

One of middle girl for good measure, have I shown a picture of her since she got her hair cut short? It looks so cute, but I'm teasing because you can't see it too well in this photo. Take my word for it.

2008-06-01T01:36:00.002-04:00

The littles have been attending acting workshops with the Downriver Youth Performing Arts Center for the past 6 weeks and their performances were tonight. Little guy was in a sweet show called the Wackadoo Zoo, he played one of two lions at the zoo who did not roar but said cock-a-doodle-doo, instead. All the children had lines and they sang cute little songs and even did a bit of dancing. Oh my gosh, it was so darn cute. I cried when I first saw my baby boy up on stage, he did so well and was one of the youngest kids in the show. There were a few moments of him wandering around in a daze but for the most part he paid attention and did his job.

Tess was in a different performance as her workshop group consists of older children, mostly girls ranging in age from about 9 to 16. I think there were 3 boys out of the group of about 25. The show was a mix of song and dance numbers with short skits in between. It was fun to watch and my girl put a lot of effort into her singing and dancing. I had my eyes glued on her, of course, and could see her concentrating very hard. Every once in awhile she would break into a huge grin, she looked absolutely beautiful and radiant. We went out for ice cream afterwards and I went and splurged on Jamocha Almond Fudge from Baskin Robbins, that was my dinner for the night.

The Man has to go into work tomorrow, I'm thinking I may take the kids to the Henry Ford Museum for new Chocolate exhibit that just opened. They are supposed to have free samples. Just what I need, right? Tess has also been begging to go to Silver Spoon, the local family restaurant, on Sunday because she wants to try their peanut butter soup and they only make it on the 1st of every month. Why does she know this? Her brother was completely grossed out by the idea of peanut butter soup, but this is the child who has about 10 approved foods on his menu at all times. But that's a whole other sad blog.

Oh good grief, it's almost 2am and I'm still awake, what the heck an I thinking?

2008-05-30T15:13:00.003-04:00

Looky, looky! See the cool photo edge? I did that! This took me 30 minutes to do, no lie, but I figured it out without my husband sitting right next to me. Yes, I'm sure it is fundamental to all you Photoshop people out there, but for me, even with an online tutorial, it is a big deal to do this on my own. Now I know how to group layers and make an elemask. I'm way too excited about this. Ok, I'm off to make more edges. woo hoo!

edited to add: The term elemask was apparently named by the person who created the tutorial and is not a "real" PS term.

2008-05-30T10:53:00.002-04:00

I'm starting to get frustrated with my weight loss, I gained .4 pounds at my last weigh in and I have just not been sticking to the program like I should. I'm not even going overboard but it seems like if I don't stick to the points precisely then I won't have a loss for the week. I'm beginning to think I won't reach my 10% goal by my birthday in July and I'm really annoyed with myself about that. It's just food, dammit! Why am I so caught up in what I'm going to eat? It should not matter that much. UGH!

Our weekend was fun, we almost ended up not going because my dad was having some health issues but he turned out to be fine and we went up on Saturday morning. The Man put the dock in the water and made a fire pit, but he didn't have time to put his Hobie in this time. Not sure when we'll be going back. We met up with our friends for some fishing at the river. I was dismayed by the huge of amount of mosquitos. If they are this bad already then I can only imagine how hideous they will be in the middle of the summer. Poor little boy got attacked all over his face and ears.

Middle girl and her daddy are going on a class field trip to Higgins Lake and Mackinac Island next week, she is so excited about it. I went on this same trip with oldest girl two years ago and it was really fun. I liked being able to hang out with her friends and teachers in a setting outside of school. This turned out to be quite a dull blog, I mostly wanted to vent about my lack of weight loss and frustration at being a slave to food.

2008-05-22T12:34:00.003-04:00

Big Haircut

Here he is last week at the park, the picture is not that great but you can really see his huge amount of unruly hair.

I cut off a ton of his hair because it was getting so tangly and matted and the brushing sessions were getting out of hand. Anyway, here he is yesterday in the backyard. He likes his new look, he says his hair is "poofy" now. Not sure if that's good or bad in his mind.

2008-05-21T09:03:00.003-04:00

I have been doing some digital scrapbooking the past few weeks, I really like it as I can put a page together here and there without having to clear off the work table, get out my photos, supplies and tools. Usually by the time I get all that set up, my window of opportunity is long gone. I came across these two pictures and wanted to go down memory lane.

I think he is about 2 and 1/2 here, he was so funny at that age. All bluster and craziness around us but very quiet and almost shy around people he didn't know well.

This one is from Christmas of 2002, the girls are are 8 and 4 here. These outfits crack me up, not the usual clothes I would dress them in but they could rarely wear similar outfits due to their age and size difference so I'll cut myself some slack for the sparkles. Oh the good 'ol days, back when the oldest would actually put her arm around her little sister. She'd rather chew glass now than be affectionate with her. They still play together and all but there is no hugging or anything anymore.

2008-05-19T11:32:00.003-04:00

Oh yay! I managed to start and finish a Photoshop Elements tutorial and I think I understand what I did. This is a most important fact because most of the time I just do what it says and don't retain anything. This is mostly thanks to the help and knowledge of my wonderful husband who sat next to me and explained what was happening and why. He stuck with me through one
(ok, maybe two) outbursts of extreme frustration and was just an all around great help. The fact that he works on Photoshop for a
living and is a super genius at it doesn't hurt either.

We are getting set to go up north to my parent's cottage for the holiday weekend, I can't wait. We're supposed to meet some friends and their 3 kids at the dam, where the kids will hunt for crayfish and maybe fish and play in the river if it's above 45 degrees. You never know with northern Michigan. My friend and I recently connected again after a long time apart. We weren't out of touch for any particular reason, we're both just busy and she lives in Ann Arbor which is about a 45 minute drive. That's not very conducive to dropping in whenever and hanging out, it always has to be planned in advance to fit with our schedules.
Anyway, we had dinner at their house a couple of weeks ago and it was like we were never apart. I can talk about anything with her, she understands me and my weird sense of humor and annoying tendencies. The added bonuses are that our husbands are friends too and the kids all get along great. In fact, our two oldest have been friends since they were about 2 months old, that's over 13 years ago. Yikes!

2008-05-17T18:21:00.004-04:00

I discovered this application on the Mac called Comic Life and made this real quick just to get the hang of it. Click to see it bigger. I can't wait to show the kids how to use it, I know they will have a blast with it. Oldest girl already says she wants to make one about her bunny, the cute and adorable Speckles. I am so proud of how well my girl takes care of her pet, she pays her tons of attention, is always feeding her when she's supposed to and cleans the litter box on a regular basis. I can tell she just adores Speckles, she is so gentle and sweet with her. That's a side we don't see too often these days. To us, she can be kind of stand offish and sarcastic, not in a mean way but in a teenager way, if you know what I mean. It does make me kinda sad that I have to remind her to give me a hug when she goes to bed and she doesn't say anything back when I tell her I love her. Ok, that breaks my heart a little, but I try to remember that this is part of her growing up and she is supposed to be pulling away from us. I am thankful that she still seems to want to hang out with me and tell me what's going on at school and with her friends, I'll take any crumbs at this point, I guess.

Well, this turned into a different post entirely. I was going to complain about my total lack of ability at Photoshop Elements and my cute new BambooFun tablet that would be even more enjoyable if I could figure out that damn Photoshop, but I'll save that for another day.

2008-05-02T10:54:00.003-04:00

Just a quickie today since I have not posted in awhile. Were you worried?
I am still plugging away at Weight Watchers, have lost 13 pounds so far. This is good, yeah, but it is not enough yet for people to notice that I'm losing. But really, I don't think I want to hear how "great" I look because I lost weight. Because I was so hideous before? Thanks....

The little man has started T-Ball and seems to like it so far. He is very tentative right now and doesn't run very fast to first base so he has been out a few times. Luckily, he is fine with that. I was worried he'd get all offended as he takes things very personally sometimes. Yesterday we went to see a play with some friends. As we were getting ready to go, he decided he wanted to wear different shoes on each foot. Both pairs are similar in style and he thought it was funny. Well, when we got to the theater and her saw all the school groups going in, he got all nervous and said that the kids were going to make fun of his shoes. Poor little guy, 5 is too young to care about what people think of you. I wonder if that's just his personality or if he picked something up from kids at school or us or did I do something? Why do I start blaming myself? That's a whole other issue I don't feel like getting into right now.

Middle girl had her piano recital on Sunday, we are so happy that she is still playing the piano and that she still enjoys it and doesn't think of practicing as a chore. The other day I was comparing (in my head) how my two girls handled the big transition from 3rd to 4th grade. It is a huge change, they get a new teacher after having the same one since 1st grade. The workload changes and they are expected to be more organized and responsible for their work. Both of them struggled with organization and getting overwhelmed, we helped them and things turned around by the middle of the school year. The one difference I can see between them is when it comes to projects, like book reports. Oldest girl was very dependent on us for help with choosing what to, how to do it and I admit, we probably helped her way more than we should have. Younger girl is the complete opposite, she asks for no help, in fact, she doesn't want it and gets offended if you offer too much assistance. She gets right down to business. For instance, she did a report from a silly book she has about Ugly Dolls and wanted to make a diorama of Ugly Doll city. She found the shoebox, made a background and sculpted mini Ugly Dolls out of polymer clay. She allowed me to cover the outside of the box with butcher paper because she was having a lot of trouble but aside from that, it was a solo project. Her projects don't come out as polished as her older sisters but they are definitely hers. I kind of wish we hadn't helped older girl so much when I see how proud her sister is of herself when she completes a project.
Ah well, I don't think we screwed up our oldest too much.

Speaking of our oldest (like that segue), we found out this week that she got into our second choice charter school. We are all so happy! I was ready and totally willing to home school her but I was terrified of actually doing it, I just don't have the confidence in myself nor the discipline. I'm sure I could have pushed myself and it would have worked, but I'm still relieved.
You know what is the dumbest? My biggest worry was what my parents would say/think if we ended up home schooling her. Will I ever grow up? Good grief!

2008-04-08T20:46:00.002-04:00

This was taken a few weeks ago at Easter but I'm just now looking at this batch of photos. Do you ever take a picture that completely captures your subject's personality? This shot of my little boy is one of those. That look on his face is pure him, sweet, a little misheivous and full of personality. His hair looks a bit crazy and that smirk on his face cracks me up.

2008-04-07T10:21:00.003-04:00

The kids and were I alone over the weekend, the Man went up north to take our old tv and gigantic, heavy entertainment center up to my parent's cottage. He then had to leave abruptly on Sunday morning from the cottage to go to work, His bosses were having some important potential customers coming from France and they were freaking out about getting the studio in top shape for the visitors. Because we know that every single French person is the embodiment of style and culture, right? I'll admit, when we were in Paris many years ago, we didn't see anyone with a hair out of place or any sweatpants or sneakers in sight. In those days, before children and responsibility,, the Man and I were rather stylish and thin and were even mistaken for natives from time to time, quite an ego booster for us. Maybe that's why we didn't encounter any of the stereotypical rude French, because they didn't know we were Americans? This is with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, just call it my generalization overload blog for today.

The children and I had quite an uneventful weekend. Friday was pizza and movie night, I went slightly over my points allowance for the day. Pizza is what my WW leader would call my "trigger" food. A little bit is never enough. I'm not sure why I turned my relationship with food from a fairly normal one to a food is my only comfort one. It started when I had my 3rd baby, lots of circumstances leading to PPD, leading to food becoming way more important that it should be to ease my worries and help me to relax. It's almost embarrassing to type that out now, but I've learned from the other folks in my WW meetings that it isn't all that uncommon for a lot of people. So I'm trying to discover other ways to get comfort and relaxation, one of my comforts has become the internet and then that turned into another issue, spending way too much time online and getting almost nothing in return for all the time spent. Actually losing time with my family, in fact. I recently decided to limit my online time and in order to do that I had to drop from a group I had been with for a long time, but I had become obsessive with this group, checking on it constantly, posting many times in a day. I'll admit, I probably wouldn't have left had it not been for a few other incidents that don't need to be repeated here. I miss a few of the people I left behind but I hope to stay in touch with those few. I honestly don't think my leaving has sent much of a ripple through the group and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was hoping for a few emails asking where I was, at least. But that has always been one of my issues with this group. It was up to me to put myself out there to get closer to people, not expect them to do it for me. So when I see people forming sincere, deep friendships and I get envious about not being included, well, it is really my fault for not having the guts to put myself out there and trying to form solid relationships of my own with the people I felt a connection to.

Good grief, this started out as a how was our weekend blog and turned into an all about me ramble. Sorry, will be back to regularly scheduled less angst filled posting tomorrow.

2008-03-30T13:09:00.004-04:00

I meant to post this on St. Patrick's Day, oh well, two weeks late it will have to be. In case you can't tell, that's a leprechaun on the right and a little bus friend for him to play with. I love it when the little man draws, he is getting more confident about his skills nowadays. He used to get so frustrated when pictures didn't come out the way he saw them in his head. I have another cute drawing he did for his big big sister with bunnies on it, I think I am going to try to embroider it on a canvas tote. If I can figure out how to transfer the drawing onto the fabric. I'm sure if I Google it, something will come up.

I've calmed down about the school situation, the open enrollment for our second choice school starts tomorrow. Not sure when we'll find out if she gets in there or not. I have been tinkering around with the idea of home schooling her and my daughter says she's willing to try too if we end up going that route, but I was worried about what my husband would say and he's totally for it so that's a relief anyway. My mouth, however, is still vexing me. It's still really sore and I have to keep taking Motrin to keep the pain at bay.

2008-03-28T22:56:00.004-04:00

Easter was nice, although the annual Easter egg hunt that is held at the Historical Village was kind of a bummer. Due to the frozen solid snow on the ground, they had to hold the event in the playhouse with eggs scattered all over the floor. Not very challenging this year, then we turned our eggs in to be exchanged for candy and stuffed toys. We were late so our kids only got bubbles and the rest of the picked over reject candy and no stuffed bunnies. Oh well, it's not like we needed more.

The kids loved their mama made bunnies and the crocheted ice cream cones were a hit also. Yay!
The easter egg hunt held in our own yard was more challenging and as it has been for the last few years....very COLD! The lake is still frozen solid so the Man took the kids out for a romp while the snow was coming down pretty hard. They were all intrigued by the broken ice waves but the man was too nervous to let them go inside.

Our trip was wonderful until we got home and everything turned to crap.
Monday: Return home from up north
Tuesday: Take the kids to Ikea to look for new silverware
Things are still good, right?
Here comes Wednesday: Upper right tooth that has been bothering me for a week has gotten much worse so I begrudgingly make an appt with a dentist. Go to dentist and find out I have several cavities, some under the old silver fillings, some in front, some in between. Also a really bad upper left tooth that died months ago can still be saved but it will take a root canal and a crown. Some other teeth need the root canals and crowns too. The cost will exceed $5,000. Oh good, what a bargain. Guess what? We can't afford that! We decide to pull the worst tooth, and after much twisting, turning and breaking, the tooth is out. The worst part of that was the numbing shot that went into the roof of my mouth. OUCH!
The rest of this day and the following two days are spent with me in pain, being grouchy and not so pleasant to my kids. This afternoon, the Man comes home and is nice to me and I tell him how rotten I feel, he sympathizes. I go to get the mail and see that the results of the lottery from the high school we really want the oldest girl to attend has arrived. I say a prayer to the universe and open the letter.
Hello, this is to inform you that your number is 360

It goes on to say that anyone with 1-135 will definitely be going to the school

The next group of 135-160 will be on the immediate wait list

The next group of 161 and higher (that's us, we're HIGHER, we're FREAKIN' 360) we're on the long term wait list. The list also known as the no chance in hell of ever getting into this school list. I am pissed, I would have loved to have had the damn luck just for once! just once!

Wasn't that a fun way to end this mighty crappy week? I think so too.

2008-03-20T11:10:00.007-04:00

I went on an vintage stuffed toy pattern buying spree last summer and ended up only making one thing so I decided to break them out and try again. I chose the animals on wheels pattern. Making the animals was the easy part, 3 pieces whipped stitched together and stuffed, I know how to do that. Here comes the hard part for me, attaching the wheels. The directions call for cardboard wheels that you make yourself, a 1/4" dowel, 4 small spools and 4 upholstery nails. Here is where I am totally stymied, the directions are all fairly clear (except the spool size where they just say "regular spool" huh?) but I can't seem to think ahead as to how this will work, so I've stopped. Plus, I need an ice pick or an awl to poke the holes in the stuffies to insert the dowels. I also decided to buy wooden wheels but they are much smaller in diameter than the cardboard wheels would be. So, I'm not sure where I'm going with that either.

Oh, and the other problem? The darn elephant is way too front heavy and it seems as though it will tip forward. I had to break down and ask the husband to help out with it. I hate doing that. He is busy with his own projects and I should be able to do this, it really doesn't seem that hard. Feh....

Here they are waiting to be pierced. Scotty needs a nose, eyes and his collar, Ellie needs her ears sewn on (which will make her even more front heavy) and her blanket sewn on, haven't decided what to use for that yet. I may use some bits of an old felted sweater I have laying around. Note the cute pattern pictures, their Ellie is curvier than mine. I hope she looks more elephantine with her ears on. Yes, I realize it is pure folly to make a wheeled toy with white felt. It was all I had for a scotty dog, brown just seemed wrong and I was out of black *and* grey. Note that Ellie is green, so I guess Scotty could have been a totally off color too. I am uphappy with the stuffing in their necks, it looks a little wobbly. hmmm...sorry to be such a whiner about this. I hope to like them better when I actually finish. Maybe this is another reason I avoid WIP posts?

I have been sticking with Weight Watchers much better this past week and I was happy to see a weight loss at my meeting yesterday. I forgot how much it helps just to write down and keep track of what I'm putting in my mouth. My first goal is to lose 10% of my beginning weight. I won't say how much that is, because any mathematical type will be able to figure out how much I weighed when I started this two weeks ago.

2008-03-18T09:30:00.004-04:00

It occurred to me that I don't show pictures of
works in progress. That's usually because once I start something, I
just want it done and I think of nothing else. But I had some downtime in between making these bunnies so I snapped this shot. It took a bit of maneuvering to get a picture that doesn't show what an enormous mess is all around but I might have managed it. These two guys are waiting for their brother to be finished. I cribbed the design from a few bunnies I saw online, is that ok if you're just making them for yourself and not selling them? I hope so. Anyway, I haven't decided which kid gets which bunny. I was only going to make 2 because oldest girl has repeatedly stated that she has too many stuffed animals. But, I could not bring myself not to make one for her. Plus, I
think she may feel a little left out if she doesn't get one too. She's straddling that fence between childhood and teenhood and all that, right?

I *just* found out that my middle girl's teacher is retiring this year, she goes to a Montessori school and they stay in one class for 3 years. Well, this is my girls first year, so she is out a teacher. I am so so upset about this. We love her teacher, she has been teaching Montessori for over 20 years. UGH! I really don't want my daughter to have a brand new teacher next year. It's not that she can't adjust to a new teacher but the person they hire probably won't be as Montessori oriented. I'm not sure what we're going to do now. I'm already anxious about where my oldest is going to go for high school in the fall. Darn this school stuff, and the little guy starts kindy this September. That is going to be tough for me to handle, I think.

2008-03-17T09:00:00.007-04:00

I'm so proud of my girl.

The ice show was a success. She was great, she went to every practice, every show (there were 4 performances) without complaint and she had fun and she was good in all 5 of the routines she was in. I think skating has been so good for her. Not only can she be athletic, but she can learn to be comfortable performing in front of other people. Which, for my self-conscious 13 year old, is very important. One of the coaches said he felt she really came out of her shell this year. I noticed that too. For instance, she was in a 'Thriller' routine with a ton of people and they had to do a lot of dance moves. You know the ones. Instead of trying to get lost in the crowd and barely doing the dancing part, she was putting in quite a bit of effort and was not hiding.

The pictures are from yesterday, we didn't get many good action shots on the ice. It's hard when your far away and can't use the flash.

2008-03-13T20:57:00.002-04:00

Things are stressed around here lately, I'm having some weird health issues. I don't think it's anything serious. I hope.
But it's more annoying right now than troubling, I am going to see my doctor about it next week. I am beating myself up about my health because I think so many of my current problems are due to my weight, my poor eating habits and my lack of exercise. I know all this yet I don't do anything to help myself. I feel lazy and irresponsible and I do blame myself for all of my problems. I joined Weight Watchers again last week, was sticking to the program, counting my points, tracking my food intake and I weighed in yesterday to see a .4 pound weight loss. I was expecting more. Today I ate whatever I wanted. Very mature of me, right?
more sighs.....guess I'll go watch Reaper.

2008-03-11T11:57:00.003-04:00

Wow, look at Santa down there! It has been a very long time since I've been here, maybe I burned myself out with all that posting in December? Or maybe I've been to busy to blog? Yeah, right. Nope, just plain and simple laziness. Instead of catching up, I'll just get right to what is going on now. We're gearing up for the oldest daughter's big figure skating show this weekend. She has had some kind of practice or ice show related event every day for the past couple of weeks. This week is the busiest. She is in 5(!) routines this year, her most ever. I am really excited to see the show come together this weekend. I've only seen bits and pieces at the practices, it will be so different with the lights and props. This year's theme is 'The British Invasion/American Rock n Roll'.
It basically means they are skating to a bunch of oldies, which isn't so bad. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Queen are good but they also threw Neil Diamond and Grand Funk Railroad in there. Then they jump to the 80s with 'Thriller'.

She joined the synchronized skating team this year, they are a fledgling group but their coach hopes they can compete someday. I'm not so sure if she will want to do that, but we'll see when the time comes. They are doing pretty well, but my girl often complains about the girls who don't pull their weight and just sort of get pulled along by everyone else, she gets very annoyed.

Little boy starts T-ball in a few weeks, he really wants to do soccer again but our recreation department only does soccer in the fall, so he's a little bummed and very worried that he'll have to know everything about baseball to play. Poor guy, I've been assuring him that's not the case, I hope I get through to him.

In the crafty department, I've been crocheting a lot. Making mostly amigurumi. Oldest girl wants to learn two to crochet, I'm excited to teach her. She gets a little impatient though when she can't do it perfectly immediately. *sigh*

2007-12-31T17:38:00.000-05:00

So we're about to start our traditional New Year's Eve festivities. This is the night we let the kids each choose some normally forbidden food. The oldest girl always chooses Jeno's cheese Pizza Rolls. Middle girl hems and haws each year, this year she picked cereal straws, I am grossed out by these, but a tradition is a tradition, right? The Little Man's original idea was Cheetos but since he is spoiled by his grandma who lets him have those all the time at her house, he decided on the equally greasy but not as orange, Fritos. We also make 7-Up and lime sherbet punch and the hub and I have Pub Fondue with crusty bread, pickles, olives and our forbidden food, hard salami. Right now, the littles are taking a bath and making a mess, I am doing some last minute cleaning and then we'll play some games in front of the fire, eat our junky food and have our Family Talent Show with Daddy's Annual Puppet Show as the finale.

One of our traditions is to take my parents to Hamtramck (a Polish section of Detroit) for lunch and then to the Belle Isle Conservatory to see all the pretty flowers, but my mom was not feeling well today so we had to postpone that for another time. We all were sad about that as it is one thing we really look forward to every year. I leave you with the kiddos and Santa, who was not just a helper according to the Little Man but the actual Jolly Old Elf because "his beard was real and not just stuck on".

2007-12-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

I made Peppermint Marshmalllows for the girl's teachers this year, all wrapped up in a cute tin with some Penzy's hot chocolate mix. The marshmallows taste delicious but they do not look nearly as pretty as the ones in the Martha Stewart recipe. I took a pic of them in the pan but it was kind of unappetizing. They look better cut up. I love these little gift tags, I got the PDF from an eBay seller.

More bottle brush trees, I just can't get enough of these things. I used red Rite dye this time.

2007-12-17T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, here are a few of my current favorite things. The snowman ornament is from the Bethany Lowe collection. Wow, I just love some of her Christmas stuff. It is so old fashioned and sweet. I got Mr. Snowy here from Bayberry Cove.
I am thrilled with the dyed bottle brush trees, they came out great, I love the vivid colors I got from the food coloring. As you can see, I totally scammed the trees in a jar from The Adventures of Mama and Jack blog. The girls made the two with the red ribbons for my mom, I think she'll love them. I hope. The big one is mine, all mine.

Lastly, is this funky tree thing I bought at Ikea a few days ago, I wasn't sure what to put on it but I found a stash of red felt and decided to make these little ornaments. So we have a red and white theme on one side of the mantel, Yes, only one side. heh

2007-12-12T11:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm behind in blogging but things are still moving along in the right direction with regard to our holiday must dos. Husband put up the fresh garland and our blue lights on the house, it looks so good. A little moody but cool. The girls and I went baking at grandma's on Sunday and we made several different kinds of cookies. The ones you see in the picture are thumbprints, chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and lemon bars. You can see the lemon bars are a favorite of my children. The first layer is almost gone. I'm obviously not a food photographer, they taste much better than they look in the picture. I also made popcorn balls, another fave around here. My hands are always tingly the rest of the day after I make these, that's what happens when you stick you2 hands in popcorn coated with 254 degree mixture of corn syrup, sugar and butter. Yikes!

We also worked on bleaching and dying little bottle brush trees. Tutorial found here:
http://mamanjackjack.blogspot.com/2006/12/need-forest.html

These trees are popping up on many blogs and there is even a Flickr group for some:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/563828@N24/

We had a ton of fun making ours and will show pictures soon. BTW, if you want to try it yourself, I bought a huge bag of trees at Michael's for $8.99 (with a coupon). Such a deal!

2007-12-07T10:06:00.000-05:00

So I'm trying to to move away from the factory made decorations this year. We still have our fair share but I wanted to try to have more handmade touches all around the house. Hence the fabric trees and amigurumi elf. Of course, I can't hog the spotlight so I have many projects lined up for the kids. One of them was painting these wonderful wooden trees, snowmen and "people". I bought these pieces from an awesome site called Casey's Wood Products. Check it out here:

http://caseyswood.com/

They are from Maine, the prices are great and the shipping was crazy fast. I found Casey's through another blog, I would post a link to them but I cannot find it again. Note the teen and her "don't take my picture" expression. The Little Man loved painting his items, he was so patient and engrossed by the whole thing. He usually gets bored quickly with crafty play but he was going to town on these. I love the pipes that oldest girl put on her snowmen. Middle girl was at grandma and papa's so she'll paint hers soon and I'm sure I will post pictures if those too.

By the way, don't you just love the mess you can see in that longshot? Yikes, and that is after cleaning up a bit. We are just the clutter family around here.

2007-12-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

So here is our Christmas card picture, I'm surprised they still had some natural looking smiles left after all the photos I took. Even the bunny seems serene, look at her cute crossed paws.

Have you seen the new holiday stamps from the US Post Office? They're called Holiday Knits and I keep trying to upload a picture of them but it won't let me. They're sweet, trust me.

Found a cute site that writes personalized letter to your kiddos from Santa. It's free, I printed them out and will pop them in the mail today. I think the kids will get a kick out of it. Here's the URL: http://www.santawritesyou.com

2007-12-05T14:23:00.000-05:00

So here are the other fabric trees, I like the look of the white buttons. I made the little amigurumi elf from a pattern I bought from this Etsy seller: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=33135
My crochet skills still leave a lot be desired and I am so sloooooow, it took me 5 hours to make the little guy and he is tiny. Anyone notice that one ear is bigger than the other?

2007-12-04T14:11:00.000-05:00

These little girlies are called Dotee Dolls, named after their original creator who posted her tutorial here:
http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/search/label/tutorial
I made these for a Holiday Dotee Doll swap at Swap-Bot. I only needed to make one but I bought 3 different types of holiday fabric and I wanted to use them all. They are just so cute and you can embellish them in any way you like. I think my favorite is the candy cane one. I've been practicing with making different faces for them but so far they have come out looking odd so I'm sticking with the closed eyes, peaceful smile look for now.

I took several pictures of the kids yesterday for our our Christmas cards. I had them sit on the black futon and huddle together, the first 30 I took came out all out of focus (don't ask me how I did that) so I had to subject them to posing for another 30.
I ended up getting a few that I liked and I ordered the cards from Costco last night. The little man and I went to pick them up today. I really love the way they turned out.

2007-12-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

Well, for once I am ahead of the game for Christmas. Oldest girl and I spent most of Sunday clearing out the clutter so we could start decorating. I bought the Chocolate Advent calendars for each of the 3 kiddos. Usually I don't get those until the middle of December, I am such a procratinator. I decided I wasn't even going to try making an Advent calendar this year since I didn't even start thinking about it until November 27th. See, what I said about procrastinating?

I did make a few things, I found a tutorial on how to make fabric trees here: http://thesmallobject.com/stenopad/wordpress/?p=822 and they were so cute and easy that I made 5. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the other 2 because I haven't found the perfect spot for them yet. They are slightly different than these. By the way, the little house is a vintage cottage I found at a thrift shop for a buck. I just love it and would die for more but all the ones I've seen since I bought this one have been horribly expensive. Even the reproduction houses, feh.

I decided I was going to try to post at least one completed holiday project for each day leading up to Christmas. I'm only 2 days late. Really, for me, that's not so bad.

2007-10-15T20:12:00.001-04:00

His birthday isn't until tomorrow but I won't have time to post because we have a big day planned for the little man.
5 years ago tonight I was wondering when this baby was going to make an entrance to the world. My due date was Oct. 4th and still no signs of labor on October 15th! I was cursing my mother in law because when she found out I was due in October she proclaimed how nice it would be if the baby shared her and her fathers birthday or Oct. 17th. Hello?! That was almost 2 weeks after my due date! Well, he decided he wasn't going to share his birthday with anyone and I went into labor at 2am on the 16th. He was born 2 hours later, my midwife got here just as he was crowning and he came out screaming his little head off and he was so chunky and had a head full of hair (just like his big sisters) and was so cute and eeek.... A boy?! I have a boy?

My husband and I decided we wanted to be surprised and didn't find out the baby's sex. I didn't have an ultrasound anyway, but towards the end I had a feeling I was carrying a boy and I was terrified. What was I going to do with a boy? I already had 2 girls and was worried that I would not know how to be a mama to a boy. Seems so silly now.

I had to talk my husband into having a 3rd child, it took a lot of convincing and then it took even longer to conceive the baby. I look into my boy's big brown eyes and I can't even imagine him not being a part of our family. He is my last baby and the only one to be born at home, he's part of one of the proudest moments of my life.

So happy birthday my wonderful boy, I love you and your silliness and your sweetness and even your stubborn streak makes me smile.

2007-09-24T11:01:00.000-04:00

Been on a Halloween ATC jag recently. I really love the vintage Halloween images. I received that ribbon I used for background
in a 2 liter bottle swap. You had to stuff a 2 liter bottle with all sorts of crafty supplies. Ribbons, stickers, thread, rubber stamps, pens,etc. Well, I've had this ribbon for over a year and I just pulled it out yesterday and thought I should give it away because it was kind of ugly and not my style. Apologies to anyone who likes it. But then I started playing with it as a frame on these cards and I think they turned out pretty good. So I need to start using more "ugly" ephemera, right?

So this is the week of tv season premieres. Heroes starts tonight! I think we are also going to check out that Chuck show which starts before Heroes. But what I'm really looking forward in the season premiere of The Office on Thursday. I love the 'What we did on our summer vacation' ad that's been showing on NBC. Creed says he found out he has grandchildren........and children. bwahahahaha Good 'ol Creed, one surprise after the other.

2007-09-11T09:59:00.000-04:00

I saw a trailer for the new Ironman movie that comes out next year, I am not really a fan of comic book character
movies but this looked really cool. I'm not sure how to link so sorry, you'll have to go look it up. What surprised me about it is the leading man is Robert Downey Jr. and he looks kinda hot in the movie. HUH? I like his acting but I've never found him attractive. Maybe it was the Black Sabbath song playing in the trailer that got to me? LOL
Oh, and Gwyneth Paltrow appears to be in this movie too? I'm not familiar with the Ironman story so I have nothing to expect from the movie but I think I may actually go to see this in the theater when it comes out in May. So unlike me....

In other news, the little man started preschool yesterday and he absolutely loved his first day. He walked in the class with
confidence and is totally ready for school. Compared to the way he felt about preschool last year, this is a huge deal and
we are so proud of him. I am weepy about it, of course. Every milestone this poor kid hits is so hard on me, since he's the baby and every single one is the last. Oh well, I've gotta become more me and not only the "mama", right?

2007-09-10T16:50:00.000-04:00

Little man driving at Michigan's Adventure, love his singing.

2007-09-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

This is my beautiful daughter on her 13th birthday. Yes, a teenager at last!
She is a really special person and I hope she knows how great she is.

2007-08-04T00:13:00.000-04:00

Miss 9 year old requested that I create a stuffie swap for kids at Swap-Bot so I did. Only 3 other people joined but that's ok.
Anyway, she made these cute mice. I helped a little with the tail and the eyes but she did the rest.

2007-08-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

One thing I've managed to figure out how to do (in an otherwise rather unproductive summer) is learn to crochet. I rented a how to dvd from the library and that helped in teaching me how to do the various crochet stitches but I had to go to a knitting/crochet circle at the craft store up north to learn how to crochet a pattern. This water bottle carrier is my second finished Amigurumi, isn't he goofy? He's from a pattern in 'Super Crochet Wonderful' by Narumi Ogawa.

2007-08-01T21:02:00.000-04:00

There is this one "friendship" I can't seem to let go of, and I really need to. We used to have a lot in common and our families spent a lot of time together but she and I have grown apart over the years and I feel like she just doesn't really like me that much anymore. Our oldest kids are close friends and I feel like that's the only reason she even pretends anymore, but it hurts me to be around her. She works and I don't, I think she thinks I have it so easy. I know I do in a lot of ways but we give up a lot with me being home. Hell, I give up a lot being home and not in ways that involve money. Although that is something too.
I just like her and wish she felt the same about me, that is so junior high, isn't it? Why don't you like meeeee???
I often wonder if she feels I used her because I have asked her for help with the kids on occasion. She works from home and I have asked her for help in a pinch, maybe that pissed her off? Who knows, my oldest was spending a lot of time over their house, maybe she was resentful that I don't reciprocate as much? I wish she would just come out and be honest with me.
I have to end this, but I feel like I need to hash it out with her, but what's the point, really?

Felling pathetic..

So I leave you with photos of of my boy that I took last week while playing with the macro setting on my camera.

2007-07-12T17:46:00.000-04:00

My baby girl turns 9 tomorrow. I love her madly yet she exasperates me like no other. She's creative, funny, generous, helpful, affectionate and talented. This is the child who will spend 3 days making a stuffie cat for her mama's birthday even though it was pretty hard and she got frustrated. She helps the younger kids in her mixed ages class, she plays with her little brother endlessly and still loves to cuddle with her precious blankie.
Happy Birthday my darling girl!

2007-07-11T19:44:00.001-04:00

What I'm obsessed with these days:

1. The Office (US version)
I just started watching this show regularly this season. It is just so damn hilarious. I love all the cringe worthy Michael moments, Dwight's nuttiness. But what has me right now is the whole Jim and Pam saga, I am such a sucker for the unrequited love. The fact that the actor that plays Jim is really cute helps too.

2. Death Cab For Cutie
Ok, I am late to the party on this group but I am really into their latest 2 cds. My current repeat play is 'Someday You Will Be Loved'

You'll be loved you'll be loved
Like you never have known
The memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs
Like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved

It reminds me of my first serious boyfriend, he should have told me this. It would have saved me plenty of grief. Dork...

3. Amigurumi
These are so freakin' cute! But alas I am crochet challenged and have yet to master how to make these adorable little creatures. I can do all the basic crochet stitches (is that what they call them?) but when it comes to reading patterns I am a total moron. Picture me sitting in the corner complete with dunce cap.

4. Swap-Bot
The love continues. I have pared down the amount of swaps I joined for the summer but I still lurk about the site, reading the forums, checking out profiles of swappers and reading all the swap descriptions.

So how about you, my half dozen or so readers? What are you into right now?

2007-07-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

We went flying today! The local airport had a 'Fly-In". They had planes rides in a 2 seater open cockpit bi-plane and 4 person Cessna. I *really* wanted to go on the bi-plane but it was just too expensive, so we divided up and went on the Cessna.
The pilot took us over the lake, we saw our cottage, it was so fun!

Look at my little man, he had such a great time. I love how excited he gets about everything.

Oh boy, it's after midnight, that means it is offically my birthday!

2007-06-29T23:00:00.000-04:00

Well, you know it's summer around this blog, even less blogging from me than usual.

My migraines are still bad, I go for my next series of injections for this Botox as migraine prevention study I'm in. It's a blind study so I could get the real thing or a placebo. I really hope I got the placebo last time because my migraines have been as frequent and painful as usual. I have been getting migraines on a pretty regular basis since I had my oldest child almost 13 years ago. I often wonder if I would have been a much better mama if I wasn't plagued by these damn things.

So here's the list of things I've tried to reduce or eliminate the headaches and/or the triggers that cause them:

1. Feverfew taken daily
2. Regular exercise
3. Massage therapy
4. Chiropractic
5. Acupunture
6. Antidepressants
7. Talk therapy
8. Magnesium supplements
9. CO-Q 10 supplements
10. Cranial-sacral therapy
11. Reflexology
12. Physical therapy
13. Beta Blockers

There are more but I can't think if them at the moment. Some of these have helped, but were way too expensive to continue
on a regular basis. None of them eliminated the migraines completely.

2007-06-09T13:24:00.000-04:00

Me and the boy at my work table, I was looking at the pictures in my blog of this table when I first set up my work area and it's so different. Unorganized and messy now, it took about a week to go from immaculate to disaster.

I'm listening to a recording of the old time radio show, the Lux Radio Theater version of Madame Butterfly with Cary Grant, of all people. They make Pinkerton out to be the good guy in this one, I don't think he was in the opera, was he?
Guess I should brush up on my Puccini? Is that even spelled right?

Remember that Malcolm McLaren version of Madame Butterfly? Or am I the oldest person on Blogger?

2007-06-08T14:20:00.000-04:00

Made this guy for a felted sweater creation swap. He started off as a cat but slowly evolved into an owl. Jeez, what a bad picture.
My daughters didn't want me to mail him, but we had to. Hopefully he's reached his new home by now.

I had problems initially with this swap. I had already made a stuffed mouse from these same two sweaters a couple months ago and wanted to make something different so I decided to move out of my comfort zone and make a little purse. Oh boy, was that a disaster. It was clunky and ugly and the needle felting I attempted on it was just plain sad. So I had to go back to my old trusty stuffie making self. Oh well, I tried, right?

2007-05-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

Our Memorial Day weekend was fun, I am bummed that I missed out on our friends and their 3 kids visiting us on Sunday because I had a day long migraine. argh....
Get a load of my adorable kayakers.

2007-05-29T17:22:00.001-04:00

We sold the bike seat and I find myself so sad about it. That bike seat has held all 3 of our children on several different bikes and many, many memorable family bike rides. Our littlest is now 4 and 1/2 and just too big for it, so we decided that now is the time. There will be no more babies of ours to ride in that seat and kick us while we pedal to the park or the Pere Marquette trail we love so much. No more babies to wriggle their feet out of the straps, causing whoever is cycling to come to an abrupt halt and fix those feet before they get hurt. We've been reaching so many of these kinds of 'last baby' moments lately, the last 2 times I had a four year old, I also had a newborn. No wonder I am so reluctant to let this boy of mine grow up too fast, I indulge him and his whims way more than I did with the girls. So true is the stereotype of the baby in our family, he is charming and gets his way more often than not.

So now he'll be pulled in the bike trailer until he can ride on a bike himself, and then I'll be writing another post about how we sold the Burley and how sad I am to see it go. Life goes on

2007-05-23T10:01:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the sweet comments on my whine post from yesterday. Just to clarify, I wasn't referring to any one group or any one person in my rant. I seem to feel like this about all of my social networks. Not that there are that many, but you know what I mean. I know that I make myself feel like the outsider, that rotten little voice in my head that says I'm not good enough or special enough to be included.

Ok, let's not be depressing for two days in a row.

My 8 year old went to the eye doc yesterday and it turns out she's farsighted in her right eye. She'll need to wear glasses for
reading and working (haha) on the computer. I was shocked as I thought for sure she'd take after me (as she does in all other ways) and be nearsighed. But she isn't, and I'm glad for her. The frames she picked out are kind of boring, but I didn't tell her that. I wanted her to pick out these really cute and funky ones but she went for the more school marmish ones. No, I didn't criticise her choice! I was very supportive. That's what us mamas are supposed to be, right?

I am thinking of buying a Wii for the kids (um, yeah, just the kids), it just looks so fun in the ads. they really emphasize the fact that you can be standing and active while playing. I like that. It's pricey though and I know we indulge our kiddos so much, so I am still in the thinking stages right now. we'll see, that's my motto today.

2007-05-22T18:11:00.001-04:00

Warning, navel gazing and much whining below. Not the usual theme of this blog. Read at your own risk.

I'm feeling left out.

I used to think that being popular didn't matter once you got out of high school, but now I'm not so sure. I don't think I'll ever be that person that everyone wants to be best buddies with. Why is that? I'm funny, interesting, fairly well read, a good listener. Dammit, I'm good enough, right?
channeling some self-help guru here...

So why am I not the one being invited anywhere? Why does it seem I am the one who has to set something up for me to be included? I don't get it. Why do I seem to be last on the list? Do I have to extend myself even more than I feel I already do?
How come some people can come into a situation or a group and barely know anyone and then all of a sudden they are best pals with several others? How do they do that? I really would like to know.

I used to think not having close friends anymore was because of isolating myself when I when through episodes of depression but I have been really pushing myself to socialize for more then 6 months and things feel the same.

None of these feelings are being helped by the fact that my cousin, who has been my very closest friend since we were kids has pretty much dumped me for a guy she met last summer. They were living together after 3 months and got married after 6 months. She has not told me any of this herself, I've heard it allthrough the grapevine. real, nice, huh? I'm really hurt and cannot even bring myself to think about it too much.

2007-05-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

The Craft Extrvaganza was awesome, we bought tons of loot. I will post pic in another post. My camera batteries are recharging at the moment.

I found a great tutorial for a coin/credit card holder at this site
http://www.splityarn.com/

I made 3 of these for a small handmade item swap at Swap-Bot. It was scanned so it looks a little flat, but I really love the way they came out. I must make more.

2007-05-19T10:53:00.000-04:00

The girls and I are going to this today, I think we'll find lots of cool goodies. I'll try to post pics of any if we do.
My two men are up north, the big man called and said they were going mountain biking on a trail close to my parent's cottage. Little man will be in the Burley trailer, I hope he likes the bumps. I can't write too much about him because I miss him too much. Why is it when they're little, it's so hard to be away. Ok, he's 4 and 1/2, some may not consider that too little but he's still my baby. *sniff*

2007-05-13T19:12:00.000-04:00

It's only words.
You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: relaxed
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): eating
3. Your hair: longer
4. Your mother: generous
5. Your father: mysterious
6. Your favorite item: yarn
7. Your dream last night: weird
8. Your favorite drink: Coke
9. Your dream car: Mini
10. The room you are in: upstairs
11. Your ex: forgot
12. Your fear: balding
13. What you want to be in 10 years? graduate
14. Who you hung out with last night? husband
15. What you're not? confident
16. Muffins: poppyseed
17. One of Your Wish List Items: stare
18. Time: 7:16
19. The last thing you did: questionnaire
20. What you are wearing: tank
21. Your favorite weather: summer
22. Your favorite book: fiction
23. The last thing you ate: cereal
24. Your life: unfulfilled
25. Your mood: annoyed
26. Your best friend: nope
27. What are you thinking about right now? finishing
28. Your car: boring
29. What are you doing at the moment? thinking
30. Your summer: fun
31. Your relationship status: married
32. What is on your TV? photos
33. What is the weather like? sunny
34. When is the last time you laughed? afternoon

Your turn!

2007-05-11T23:23:00.000-04:00

A friend made lunch for me yesterday, it was delicious and we had some great conversation. Then, to top it all off, she took my 4 year old for the rest of the afternoon. Yes, she's one of those good friends. :-)
Then that evening we met up at a really fun park, where all the kids played and my 12 year and her 13 year actually spoke to each other for once. Heh, adolescents of the opposite gender can be so weird with each other at times.

So, it was a good day, then why did it end up with me being mean and unsympathetic to my 8 year old? Granted, she was being unresonable but so was I and since I'm the adult, I figure I should be the one to suck it up sometimes when it's late and she's obviously tired. But I didn't, and she cried and I felt like a crappy person. We made up before she went to bed, but I was stewing about it until I went to bed. Why can I be so understanding about some things but such a creep about others?

Today we spent the day straightening up this mess of a house. My fabulous husband cleaned our youngest kids' room. It was a total disaster. You know the kind where you can't see the floor? While he did that, the 8 year old helped me clean up the living room. My oldest was nowhere to be seen. She was upstairs making something and I was nagging her every few minutes to come down and help. Boy, did I feel dumb when I found out she was up there making me a Mother's Day present. She was so excited about what she made that she gave it to me early and it is the cutest thing. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see a picture.

The 5 of us are going out to brunch for Mother's Day tomorrow and then off to Tess' piano recital. It should be fun. I can't wait to hear my persnickity 4 year declare that nothing at the brunch is good for him to eat. lol

2007-05-08T14:16:00.000-04:00

I am still sleeping way too much, I know it is an avoidance tactic. Could it be more obvious? haha
What am I avoiding? hmmm, that's not as obvious. Let's see, housework, talking animals for the 50th time,
exercise, cooking. I was just not cut out for the life of a housekeeper. Stay at home mom, yes, I can do that
when it involves playing with the kids, doing arts and crafts, reading books to them.

But I'm just lousy at housework, I can't keep up, I get annoyed and oh so bored and the husband is
really getting oh so frustrated with me. I am home all day, why can't I get some laundry done? Why is the
house a constant mess? It isn't fair, I feel guilty, fall into spiral of self-loathing and then do nothing.

I am so predictable.

At least I'm still creating, the only positive thing I am doing, apparently. Can you guess the theme?

2007-05-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

Two new postage stamp ATCs, I like the praying mantis one the best. LOL

Ten Two Studios is offering free downloads again. There will be a new download from today until May 13th.
Have fun! http://www.tentwostudios.com/countdown/

2007-04-22T18:28:00.000-04:00

Been finishing up a lot of ATC swaps. The first set is Postage Stamp Head People, the second set is for Candy.
Aside from the ATC making, this has been a very unproductive weekend. I've been plagued by 2 migraines and spent half of today in bed. Not fun when the weather is so beautiful and your whole family is over all their various illnesses. Oh well, I popped an Imitrex and all is well now. Too bad it's 6:30 pm.

2007-04-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

We went up north for Easter and spent the whole week afterward there at my parent's cottage. My husband took the week off, it was a lovely time. The girls and I were very crafty with polymer clay, I finished the Lucy bag I had been knitting for months and the Boy and his daddy had a lot of male-bonding. LOL

Check out this photo of the annual Easter Egg hunt at the town's historical village. Yep, sneakers in the snow, no gloves and the Easter Bunny looms creepily in the backround. We take good care of our youngin's 'round here. LOL

But really, they all had a great time, even though mama forgot to pack the snow boots and snow pants.
Dang Michigan weather, it's supposed to be spring!

2007-04-03T19:24:00.000-04:00

oh, go check out this site, each day from April 1st to April 8th they are sharing images you can downlaod.
I still haven't figured out how to link so her eis the URL.

http://www.tentwostudios.com/countdown/

Cool, huh?

2007-03-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

Wah! Now I have the darn cold that's laid my family low for the past week. Wasn't I just complaining about being sick last month? No fair! My oldest is the only one who has remained unscathed, she's practically been locking herself away in her room to keep away from the germs. I can't do that, can I? I knew I would catch it anyway, my 4 year old is always touching my face and mouth and eyes all the time when I lay with him at bedtime.

I made the ATCs above this afternoon, just for the heck of it. I have some collage sheets with vintage images on them and I just love them. It's a gorgeous sunny day today, I must get outside with the kids to forget about my sore throat and stuffy nose.

2007-03-22T21:55:00.000-04:00

Look, it's Clocky!

The alarm clock that runs away and hides when you don't wake up. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time.

No stock in the company, I just think it's funny and perfect for me, the one who is impossible to wake in the morning.

2007-03-22T09:55:00.000-04:00

It's spring, it's raining, I have 2 sick kids in the house! oooh, thunder and lightning! cool!

Well, the vomits are over but the sore throat, coughing and runny noses remain and that would be ok if not for the fact that the girls and I had some really fun plans this weekend that we now probably should cancel due to illness. I am so bummed!
We were going to go up north to my parent's cottage with 3 of my friends and their daughters for a Mom and Daughter weekend, we have been looking forward to this for months. Damn germs, I really hope we'll be able to reschedule.

2007-03-17T15:26:00.000-04:00

Argh, I let myself get behind on a bunch of Swap-Bot swaps and I'm paying the price with bad ratings! I'm mortified, I'm usually a relatively conscientious swapper and I hate seeing those bad ratings in my profile. So I've been diligently working on them all week and feeling guilty everytime I get a cool swap in the mail. I'm almost caught up and have vowed to not join anymore swaps until I've finished everything.

Still have these to go:

1. Dragonfly ATCs make 3 for 3
2. Dollar Store Easter Swap
3. Altered Vintage Tin (this is way late!)
4. Photo Scavenger Hunt
5. Latin Matchbox Shrines 1 for 3
6. I Love Paris ATCs
7. Cute Socks and a Card

I know, I've got to get out of here and back to work!

BTW, the first ice show performance went very well last night. My girl looked so poised and confident out there. She says she wants to join the figure skating club and the sychronized skating teams now, oh boy. :-)

2007-03-15T09:08:00.000-04:00

The biggest girl has her ice show this weekend. They are having 4 shows this year! Rehearsals have been going on since early March. Tonight is the 4 and 1/2 hour dress rehearsal, oh jeez, she is going to be so whipped. I think I'll let her go into school late tomorrow so she can sleep in a little bit.

Needless to say, this week has been rather boring, just driving back and forth to the ice rink. My parents have been great about watching the other kiddos while we're at the rink. Back in the old days (3 years ago), the ice shows weren't nearly such a big deal, the kids all wore black pants and sweathsirts and that was that. Now they are huge productions with props, curtains, fancy costumes and lighting. I think the kids like it better and it does make for a more interesting show but I've been writing checks like crazy since January.

I am way behind on a bunch of ATC swaps, I was trying to catch up last night and David was watching me slave away and he said I was running an ATC sweatshop. I was trying to crank them out as fast as I could, I hope my partners like them even though they weren't the best work I've ever done.

2007-03-10T13:28:00.000-05:00

What does it mean when you dream Eddie Vedder comes to your house distraught because you told him his best friend Giavonni Ribisi has been murdered and you have seen evidence of it online? Then you continually try to log onto IMDB to show him and you cannot get to it no matter how hard you try. All the while poor Eddie is about to collapse from dread. Then you are in the street with your husband who is holding the plug in your stupid iBook cos it won't work unless plugged in. Real handy for a laptop. Giovanni Ribisi? WTF?

Then you and your husband are in the streets of Seattle (not San Francisco) being chased by drug dealers because you accidentally messed up their client list. Um, yeah.....

There is much, much more but I won't bore you with the rest, it involves rain drenched fanzines in alleys, vodka on the rocks and Eddie Vedder again.

I sometimes have these epic dreams and they freak me out with their realism.

Speaking of epics, Lydia and I were home alone last night and we watched The Godfather together. She sat through the whole thing, I think she liked it. It is one of my faves, of course. I made her close her eyes during some of the more gory parts, she hates blood. Needless to say, she didn't watch the horse head in the bed scene.

2007-03-08T11:41:00.000-05:00

My new work area, I am so happy that I *finally* have one area where I can store my tons of supplies and work on my many crafty pursuits. The taple top and shelves it rests on are from Ikea as is the groovy green storage cart (on wheels) and the stool. Note that they both conveniently fit under the table when not in use.

Our house was built in 1929, a bungalow of sorts with an unfinished attic when we bought it. My husband finished the attic and we cut out part of it to have a loft area and get more light into the house. This left the upstairs as one big room and we have slowly been turning it into a more functional living space. We're gettin' there. :-)

The last pic is one the little man took, I was instructed to "look like a goofball".

2007-03-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

Here are my cards for the Fabric ATCs swap, I used wool felt and felted the pieces on with wool yarn.

Today is Thursday and I think I'll take K to the indoor soccer field again to play, he really needs to let off some steam as evidenced by the antics I mentioned in my previous post. Crazy kid.

2007-03-06T16:09:00.001-05:00

5 reasons why you should never fall asleep with a 4 year old around.

1. Lemons and knives are not a good mix (no blood was spilled thankfully, just lots of juice and pulp)

2. A whole bottle of glue on your brand new Ikea tabletop mixed with paper towels (well, he did try to clean it up)

3. Glue marks on your brand new Ikea footstools (yes, I went on a spree)

4. Blue Tortilla chips imbedded in rug

5. The 'fridge door left open for at least an hour

Yes, I know, I should not have taken a nap, I learned my lesson.

2007-02-22T12:05:00.000-05:00

It's winter break here at our house this week and we've done a whole lotta nuthin' and no one seems to care. We went to Kai's play group yesterday and off to Border's so Lydia could use her giftcard, I love shopping at bookstores but it's not as enjoyable with 3 kids who only want to look in the children's section and that other problem of being broke and not being able to buy anything anyway.

Tess had her best friend over today, she spent the night last night. She is really a sweet litttle girl and they've been having a lot of fun together. Lydia is having her best bud over tonight for a sleep over, they will inevitably end up in her room with the door closed all night. You know how those tweens need their privacy.

We had a bunch of friends and their families over for a fondue party last Saturday, there were 10 kids and 8 adults and 4 fondue pots. We had 2 cheeses, one hot oil and one chocolate. yes, it was delicious and fun. The thing that got to me was the older kids, 3 girls and 1 boy, all 11 or 12 years old and I've known all of them since they were babies. One of them being my own 12 year old daughter, of course. It's such a bittersweet time, they are still kids that like to play and goof around but at one point they were all in Lydia's room just talking for over an hour. Just talking.....oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room.

2007-02-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

Wah, I have a crummy cold and I'm so struffed up I can barely hear out of my ears. Yucko, it is no fun to have a cold when it's below freezing outside. I have been in an ATC mood. Quite contrasting ones at that. The one with the cicada image is for a Haiku ATC swap, the other set was for a Sideshow Freaks and Geeks swap. Anyone ever see this creepy movie from the 1930s?
*shudder*

The Haiku goes on the back:

In the cicada's cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die.

-Matsuo Basho

2007-02-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

More ATCs, these were for a No Glue ATC swap. I like sewing on the cards, it's fun.

Kai and I are off to Target, then Jo-Ann's and the post office. Very exciting, right? I have an idea for some No Paper ATCs I need to make and I have to buy a felting needle. Have a great day!

2007-01-31T15:03:00.000-05:00

Cutesy alert! I made these ATCs for a We Love Hello Kitty swap at Swap-Bot. I know, you either love her or hate her. The girls and I fall into the first camp.

So instead of just doing whites sorting all day on my husband's birthday, we went to Ikea where he exchanged a defective transformer and I took Kai and Tess to the cafeteria for a snack. Good thing I did because after that we decided to go out for Indian food and of course, the Boy child would not eat anything there. So the not so healthy PB&J Uncrustable he ate at Ikea turned out to be his dinner. Mine and David's on the other hand was delish, Vegetable Pakora, Samosas, Channa Masala, Onion Kulcha, Naan, Vegetable Biryani and Chicken Tikki Masala. Oh so good. I was disappointed in the side of pickle, but you can't have everything, I guess.

2007-01-27T11:38:00.000-05:00

Birthday presents for Daddy.
The girls got out their polymer clay and made these adorable creations for their daddy. The 8 year old made the two bears and giant birthday cake tableau and the 12 year old made the bear with neck tie and cute little 'Happy B-day' sign.
Hee, hee, don't look too closely or you'll see some fuzz attached.

2007-01-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to my dear husband! We are the same age now until my birthday in July. Birthdays sure do change as you have children and get older. As he left with Lydia to take her to ice skating lessons, he told me what he really wanted for his birthday.
Was it a nice dinner out? A new power tool? A night at the movies?

Nope.

The poor guy said he really wanted for us to sort through the whites wash and get all the socks paired up.
Pathetic, no? What have we become? LOL