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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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*

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".

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.