What's Going on in my Life

Bad news first, one of the black puppies died.  My Mom had been asking me if Tippy had enough teats to feed all of her pups.  I guess not.

Now on to some fun things going on in our lives.  This kid gets to go to California with the high school band (he will be a Freshman next year!) in December for some Bowl.  Not the Rose Bowl, but another one I've never heard of.  Not only do they get to perform in the parade and the half time show, but they are going to go on a harbor cruise, Seaworld, and Six Flags!  Sounds like fun, right?  Even more fun for Derek and I, our son is earning the money HIMSELF!

This kid had about 6 or 7 inches of her hair cut off.  She wanted it shorter, but the lady at the salon told her to try this length first before she goes any shorter.  This way, she can still wear it in a ponytail.

What's going on with me?  Well I haven't sewn, knit, or done anything really useful in the past week.  I have just caught the Downton Abbey bug, a little later than everyone else.  They have the first season on Netflix instant streaming; and since I just started watching, I'm missing season 2.  But!  The season 2 DVD comes out February 7th, and I just might have to get it.  It's the "U.K. unedited addition", I wonder how big the difference is between the U.K. and USA editions?



Awwww, Pictures of the Week

Our dog, Tippy, had her "batch", as my son says, on Tuesday night.  She chose to give birth in the tiniest space possible, where I couldn't get a good head count.  I saw 2 brown pups and 3 black ones that first night.  Wednesday, my son said he saw 3 brown and 3 black.  Wednesday night I realized there were 4 black pups.

It wasn't until yesterday that Tippy finally left her house to come out and greet me, when I realized there were 4 brown pups and 4 black pups!  One for every member of our family!

Sooooo, anybody want a puppy?

Birthday

Wow.  Another teenager.  I think I'm too young for teens, wasn't it just a few years ago that they were born?  Last week my 2nd born turned 13.  He's passed his older brother in height, his voice is changing, and his turning into a man right before my eyes.

Do you want to know what he was most excited about to turn the big 1-3?  Facebook.  Yup, I'm one of those moms who won't let her kids get a Facebook page until they are officially 13.

He also got an iTouch that he hasn't put down since he opened it.  Derek and I decided this year to give a "big" present on the kid's birthdays and try to spread the love over the year instead of all at once at Christmas time.  We'll see at the end of the year if it worked in our favor or not.

Quilt Progress

I decided on using the Small Plates pattern from The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmakerfor my quilt.

After spending a time over a three day period precisely cutting strips and squares, I decided I don't know why in the world people like quilting! 

Once I got done with the cutting and got to the fun part of sewing, though, I liked it a little more. 

Didn't these blocks turn out cute? 

I'm a little worried that I didn't buy a wide enough variety of fabric.  The pattern calls for 20 different prints, and I used much less than that.  We'll see. 

Addicting Little Series

My son got the first 5 books in The 39 Clues series for Christmas.  He went on and on about how great the first one was and begged me to read it.  I did, just to please him, not really expecting anything from a book that my 10 year old enjoyed.  Let me tell you, those little books are chock-full of adventure!  I'm addicted and read all 5 within the week.  Now I've ordered the rest and can't wait until Tuesday so I can find out what happens next.

Within the books there are also clues and riddles for you to figure out yourself.  My boy solved a code within some of the pages and the message was this:

"This competition is about hope"

It reminded me of the scene in A Christmas Story when the boy gets his decoder ring and finds the message, "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine".  Yup, my boy felt just about as disappointed as Ralphie with the message he found.

New Old Bedspread

My mother had some old quilt tops that either my great-grandmother or great great aunt made many moons ago.  Since my girls have a new double bed that they share, I needed a new bedspread.  We pulled out the quilt tops and found this sunbonnet block one.  Isn't it cute?  And just perfect for their room!

I'm not so sure it's a quilt top, though.  The seams are finished on the back, with bias tape covering up the unfinished seams on the front.  The sides also have this thicker tape border like in the picture on the left below.  I think maybe it was meant as a bedspread or bed cover. 

Are there any quilters who read my blog?  If so, what would you do?  Would you make a quilt or leave it as is?

It's currently soaking in Oxi-Clean right now to try to get the stains out of it.  You wouldn't believe the stank that came off this thing after putting water on it!

I read so many things on the internet on how to clean old linens and Oxi-Clean seemed to be on most people's lists.  I even saw one website that recommended soaking the linens in buttermilk!  Could you imagine that smell?

Update on my progress:  I soaked this for 24 hours in the Oxi-Clean and that didn't get rid of the rust stains.  Any ideas for what might work? 

Wounds

My older son has reached that magic age where he loves horror movies.  He and his friends were counting down to see The Devil Inside, and it came out this past weekend.  After the movie, four extra boys came over to spend the night.  They all came in acting like the movie wasn't scary at all and what a disappointment it was.  I was surprised that they were home so early and looked it up online and saw the running time was only 82 minutes.

That night, all Derek and I heard was creaking from the floorboards above us in our old house from them running back and forth, back and forth - I don't think I've ever wished for a ranch style house or basement more.  I also vowed that night that it would be the last time I let five 8th grade boys spend the night.  Good thing for my kids that I have a short memory, because I'm pretty sure I've said that before.

The next morning, Nate had a big red mark down his nose and also on his forehead.  He said he thought he heard a noise behind him and turned to run .... and ran right into the wall! 



The forehead and nose on day 3.

 

So..... I'm wondering if they were just trying to act all manly, and maybe the movie was a bit scarier than they let on! 

I thought it was so funny and had to share, he didn't think so (hence the "evil eye" in the picture above).

Red and Blue Quilt

I'm going to tackle my first quilt with the above precious fabrics.  I think I need more red, right?

Book

I want this book:




Real bad.

Some Random Thoughts

1.  My husband bought a Disney app for the iPad called Where's My Water?  At first I thought he was crazy, not only because he downloaded a Disney game, but he also paid money for it.  I just want to go on record for saying this is the best game ever for the iPad!  I think I was also go ahead and say, I think it is the best $0.99 we've ever spent.  It's so much fun and I feel so smart when I figure out a way to get Swampy some water.  Maybe I'm just easily entertained.  Go check it out if you have an iPhone or iPad.

2.  I have found the BEST remedy for not being able to sleep this week.  I have a hard enough time falling asleep at a reasonable hour anyway, much more so when my man is out of town like he was this week.  Well; Derek happens to work with a guy who plays a mean Indian flute.  When Derek met him he came home and told me about this guy, and that he even won a Grammy for his music.  Well ... I looked him up and Derek was just a couple of letters off.  It turns out he won a Nammy - the Native American Music Awards; still an honor, I'm sure. 

The coworker was so nice, that he gave Derek a couple of CDs of his music.  I decided to play one of them the other night and I was out like a light.  I'm telling you, I still haven't heard past track 2 because I am instantly relaxed and right off to sandland.  I'm not sure if he will take that as a compliment that I use his music to sleep, but thank you, dear Golana for helping me find a non drug remedy!

3.  Having kids grow up and into adult shoes stinks!  I had to buy my 8th grader a new pair of sneakers yesterday in 5 months his foot grew from a size 7.5 to a 9.5!  Unfortunately, they don't make cheap men's sneakers. 

I will leave you with some pictures of my daughter yesterday who had a serious case of static electricity going on.

A Few of my Favorite Presents

This past Christmas was one of the best ever.  I got some amazing presents from my kids, including:

A big iron skillet from my second born.  I can't wait to fry a whole chicken on it using Lucinda Scala Quinn's method.  I have a couple of smaller sizes, but this one is juuuuust right.

My other son got me a CD that I wanted.  I'm loving The Black Keys right now.

I also got a decorative tree made of roses and a box of blue vase rocks from some of the others. 

My man gave me a wonderful electric blanket; and just in time, too - since it's finally gotten cold in GA.  It's so fancy, that it has a dimmer button for those (like me) who hate any emission of light during the night.

The one who thinks they got me the greatest thing of all, was my youngest. 

I haven't used it, yet - I guess I need to so she'll know how much I love it. 

My sister and her family got my kids a joint present this year:  a tether ball set.  I wanted to add a picture for her so she can see how much they have enjoyed it .... do you see how the ground is brown and stomped down in a perfect circle around the set?  They love it!

My Young Composer

My oldest son entered a contest a few months back .  Local music teachers were given a theme by the conductor of the orchestra; and students were to compose a piece on piano using the theme as a starting point.  My boy's piece was one of the ones chosen to be performed by the orchestra at their Christmas concert!

It was pretty cool, he had a couple of individual orchestration lessons with the conductor and got to choose which instruments play which part.  Best of all was hearing his creation performed by an awesome orchestra.

While he has moved way beyond my piano and music skill, I do think I could teach him a thing or two about bowing and enjoying the limelight a little more.

Check it out:

My Month

Wow, a month passed without a single post from me.  My month was busy with going to class parties, sing-a-longs, and concerts galore between the six kids.  I finally got a chance to download some pictures and here are some things I missed telling you about.

First, my redhead turned 7.  She had enough birthday money to buy herself her first American Girl doll, but we found a used bedroom set someone was selling that she fell in love with.  Can you believe she chose to spend the money on furniture rather than a doll?!?  She and her little sister pooled up their birthday money and paid for 2/3 of their new ultra girly furniture!  They are so proud and once I finish painting their room I'll put pictures up.

We had a week of very nice weather in December with temps near the 70s.  I happened to look out the window one of those days to see my little girl playing and had to snap some candid (through the window) pictures.  Notice anything different about her?

Below is when she caught me snapping and sulked off.  By the way, those are tennis balls.

My youngest boy finally lost a top tooth......

and discovered the joys of playing with tape.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Last night was the last night I'll ever have a 5 year old child.  Sad, isn't it?  Well she wasn't sad!  She had me french braid her hair just so she could take it out first thing this morning for curly hair.

This morning she wore her finest birthday dress to school (good thing there was no P.E. this week), and had me bring Popsicles to her class for after lunch.

And since I can be talked into things easily, she had me check her out of school early to play with her new Moxie doll. 

I usually make them their favorite meal for supper and when I asked her what she wanted tonight she said, "Junk."  I don't think I can do that, so I guess we'll just have her next favorite thing ... PB&J sandwiches.

Thanksgiving 2011

Things I'm thankful for -

My church - we recently changed churches and I'm so thankful for the new one we found.  It's not like any other church we've ever been a part of, in fact - no two services have been alike.  Derek says I have a short attention span, so maybe that's why I love not knowing what to expect.  There is one thing I do expect, though, and that's for the Word of God to be preached and for my life to be changed.  It is every week.  Oh- and they feed our family on Wednesdays for free.  I love knowing I don't have to cook one night of the week.

My family - I'm so thankful for a devoted husband whose funny, hardworking, loving, and can make me laugh in almost any situation.  Yesterday marked our 17th Thanksgiving as husband and wife!   I'm thankful for all of our kids that are healthy and happy.  My youngest got an ear infection last week and was put on medicine.  She asked for pills instead of liquid.  As I gave her her medicine that first morning I thought, I am so glad that we are out of the liquid medicine phase.  I know that's stupid, but when you have a couple on liquid meds at the same time, do you know how many dirty teaspoons you go through?  So I guess I'm say I'm also thankful for modern medicine.  Speaking of phases, I'm out of the liquid medicine stage, the diaper stage, the not knowing when you're going to throw-up and you spew all over the sofa stage, the Teletubby stage .... and for all of that, I am thankful.  While I do miss the cute toddling around, I kind of like this teen/ tween phase, you can hold pretty good conversations and they are really funny.

My home - while it feels like a money pit sometimes, I love my house and I'm thankful for it.  Not only the house, but the location - I love my community and the things offered in it.

My extended family - My Mother makes the best dressing you will ever put in your mouth, while my Father makes the best jokes.  I love going to spend time with my family, and we all had a lot of fun at their house on Thursday.  I got to meet a 94 year old great aunt that I've never met before.  I found out today that she inspired Derek to start to exercise more and drink only water, but then again I've also seen Derek drink two cans of Coke today so far.  The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins while I enjoyed visiting with my Mom and sisters.

Lazy days - I am thankful when the kids are out of school and we can just sit back and relax with nowhere to go.  I've taught one kid how to play Cribbage and the rest of us have been enjoying a new card game I got called Dutch Blitz.  Just like it says on the box, we think "It's a vonderful goot game!" 

I did find out something this week - my sweet little angel on the right cheats at cards!

My van - Some people make fun of our 12 passenger van, but I love it.  Sure, it looks like we're a commercial company carrying cargo; but the kids have lots of room to spread out and we can take 4 extra friends with us anytime, anywhere.  Can your car do that?

A free turkey from Ingles - Yes, I earned a free 14lb bird with my turkey points this year!

There are so many more things that I'm thankful for, but I'm not sure the pages of my blog could hold them all.