The Fabric O!

I hate Walmart on principle; but, oh! how it is like crack....

A few days ago, I was passing by my new favorite section in Walmart - Fabrics. Since I got my sewing machine this past Mother's Day, Ben has intermittently been guilting me with reminders about using it.
I have a few projects in mind and I AM going to be using it on a regular basis, but the idea of looking through fabric and trying to figure out how much I need is overwhelming.
Anyway! I was passing by the fabric section and I saw a huge sign. $5 Bolts! "Whoa." was quickly followed by "Wow!" I glanced through them and was immediately freaked out by the concept of "what do I make with it if I buy any?"
So, I had to walk away and ponder about it.
I went back today and made up my mind to pick up a few bolts. Each one has 5 yards of fabric so it comes out to a dollar a yard, which isn't bad. (I've been trying not to think about the quality of the fabric, so don't even go there.)
Here is my booty and I am thrilled:

Visions of flirty skirts are dancing in my head!

I broke out my sewing machine and now I'm just trying to make sure I find some patterns that don't exactly LOOK homemade... you know what I'm talking about. Oh, and the grey and black striped fabric was Ben's request. He wants me to make a hot pencil skirt out of it... Heehee!

Happy crafting! I'm in heaven!

Found You!!

I just came in from a rousing game of Hide-and-go-seek with the hubs and three of my nieces.

Before I go on, picture this: it got to 90-something outside today and I was extremely happy to just stay in the air conditioned heaven of my dungeon room. However, I was coaxed out of my cave by an email. "Your photobook is ready for you to pick up." YAY! So, after the kids went to bed and we were sure they wouldn't be whining and crying for the next hour and a half, we ran off to Costco to pick it up. It's beautiful! (There are only two typos, bad me!)

Anyhoot, when we got home, we called the nieces up and accepted their proposal for a romp in the yard. I didn't exactly go kicking and screaming... more like whining and threatening heat exhaustion.

The first thing we established before we started were boundaries and game style. I'm sorry, I'm not about to go running for base with "It" chasing after me. So, once found, found. Round one was pretty fast, I found everyone without too much trouble. Round two is where things got interesting. I was the first one found, so I went back to the porch swing where I witnessed two of my fellow hiders running from one spot in the yard to a new hiding spot. I really felt that was down-right fishy. PLUS they chose a hiding spot in what some considered to be out of bounds. SHAME, SHAME!!

So, we went over some re-worked rules at the end of that round. Yes, you are allowed to change your hiding spot, but now that the Seeker knows that you are doing this, it'll be much harder to sneak around without getting caught. The out of bounds spot was deemed okay in the end, but it ended up being the worst spot to hide after that round.

We had a few more rounds where I discovered that moving my spot caused just as many problems as it solved and I was found in ridiculous spots (In the middle of the lawn in full sprint, sneaking through the side yard, kneeling behind some potted tomatoes). After that we paused briefly for a beverage break.

After that, the biggest problem for some of the hiders was to keep quiet after having their carbonated drinks. Do some people seriously not know how to stifle their burps??

I witnessed in one of the final rounds Ben climbing a tree, Cammy hiding in a hollow spot in a bush (in plain view from a certain angle), and poor Baylie wandering round thinking they must be moving because she couldn't find them. The resulting hullabaloo from that area of the yard came when an indignant Uncle accused his bush-hiding niece of giving away his spot.

Heard from the front yard: "I saw you pointing!"

"No, I just did this..."

"You gave me away. I saw you!"

"Hoot, holler, complain, complain!!"

When the three finally came back to the front yard, it was explained to all parties that "it's just a game" and "you don't give away other hiders". All was (mostly) forgiven... but I was nearly positive that someone *cough! cough! BEN! cough!* was going to say "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

Final round!!!

I was found in 10 seconds... lame....

Ben had compassion and said to go hide again... everyone got a second chance... I don't know where everyone else was found since I WAS THE LAST ONE! YAY! Of course, he found me sneaking down the side yard, in full view. Lame....

Well, I guess the point I was trying to make is that I haven't played a good game of hide-and-go-seek since I was a kid! Aside from coming in hot, sweaty and smelling like I-Don't-Know-What, I had a good time! It's been ages and I felt just a little bit young again.

Next time you're in Utah in the summer, swing by and we'll hit you up for a game!

The Culprit: Baby Bear

Not two seconds ago, I came skipping down the stairs after chatting with my mother and my niece, who is staying in Utah for a couple of weeks. Upon entering my room, Audrey's head whipped around and she had that guilty smile. You know the one.
I asked her what was going on, at which she giggled nervously and smiled even bigger.

"What happened, Audrey."

Audrey lifts up her white bear, "Baby Bear touched your buttons," and pointed at my computer.

Uh-oh... "Did you touch my buttons?"

Audrey lifts her white bear to cover her face, "No, Baby Bear touched your buttons."

Aha.... "What buttons did Baby Bear touch?"

Audrey points at several on my keyboard.

"Okay, well, tell Baby Bear not to touch my buttons anymore, okay?"

"Okay," she cuddles her white bear close and whispers, "Baby Bear, don't touch Mama's buttons, okay?"

At which Baby Bear, in a soft, squeaky voice, says, "Okay."

Kid Moments

Henry moments don't happen too often yet. Usually, when asked to say something like "Mama" he responds with an energetic "Duhaaah!" a la Timmy from South Park.
We keep telling him the names of things: Cup, Fingers, Ears, Toes, Aubergine... the usuals. He, however, is taking his own sweet time in giving us some satisfaction.
Thus far:

Baa! = Ball

Ksssh = Kitty

Dada = Dada (He mastered that one a long time ago.)

Hi = Hi (whaddayaknow!)

Recently he was sitting in his highchair having some lunch. I had been watching him and he looked straight at me, pondered for a few seconds and said, "Mamamamama!"
It was awesome!


Audrey has been up to her usual verbal tricks:

We were at Walmart and she saw a display with tricycles on them.
She ran over to them: I want to buy this.
Mom: Do you have $40?
Aud looks at her hands: No.
Mom: Well then?
Later on, she saw something else she wanted. The conversation was exactly the same except that she also looked inside her pockets to see if she had any money. Cute!

I was filing my nails recently and Audrey pointed to the nail file: What's that?
Mom: A nail file.
Aud: It helps your lips to grow?

At the dinner table to the tune of Old McDonald: I love butter on my bread, E - I - E - I - O!

Imagine when you change your mind mid-word: I have to go poo - otty....

Until next time... :)

I'm feeling much better now...

I was in a horrible mood a few days ago. Everything was difficult and I just felt sortof sad. I'm not sure why and I just couldn't come up with any way to alleviate the crummy feelings.

So, I went looking around online for a deskmate. I used to have an alien that would say aloud everything I typed into it's box. This provided many hours of silly amusement. I tried finding it years later, only to find that it just didn't exist anymore. At the very least, it was well hidden.

I also used to have a program that each time clicked on, would make a sheep appear (up to about a dozen, I think). The little animated sheep would wander around the computer screen, doing silly things, eating, sleeping, getting abducted by aliens, etc. That program is still around. I'm toying with the idea of downloading it.

I did end up finding in my hunt, a program that would make a cat appear on my desktop. It does a lot of cute things too, and I can even play games with it, if I so choose. CUTE!!

He chases butterflies, eats kitty food, sleeps in his little cubby, puts paw prints on your screen, and generally behaves in a cute manner. That cheered me up a bit.

But here's the thing that REALLY cheered me up. This one can't be downloaded onto your desktop which is really a shame. The website saves your preferences though and so you can go back to it whenever you want. It asks you a few questions about your "ideal guy" and lets you pick what he looks like. You can even attach your own beau's face to his head creating a bobble-head effect.

Then he floats in his ManQuarium and gives you lovely compliments.

Yeah.

When he first spoke up, Ben's head snapped around and he said in complete shock, "What is THAT?!"

"That's my manquarium. He compliments me. Hee hee!"

Eye-roll, "Ooookaaaay..."

It WAS very silly, but it was MY kind of silly and it cheered me up almost instantly. An artistic man giving me compliments from my own personal aquarium and he even looks like the love of my life.

An example of what my virtual man tells me as I'm working on my computer. Most are cheesy and some are really funny :

"My ManQuarium is meaningless without you!"

"There's room in this ManQuarium for one more... care to join me?"

"You're more beautiful than a Picasso. Less creepy too." (HA! HA!)

"Does my ManQuarium exist when no one's around to see it. Do I exist without you?"

"I know, guys are supposed to be into cars and stuff, but I'm just into you."

"Before I met you, I just felt so... trapped!"

"Goddess I wrote you a haiku: My ManQuarium, Full of my Goddess' charm, And lots of weird fish"

"Goddess I could just swim here, talking to you for hours."

"My wetsuit is at the dry cleaners... what does that mean?!?"

Ben is completely creeped out by the ManQuarium, but if anything, it just makes it funnier to me. I'm sure I'll get tired of him eventually, but how can you get tired of a captive audience telling you how awesome and beautiful you are?

Bliss...

So now I have a virtual kitty to play with and pet... a virtual man to compliment me tirelessly... what more could I want? How about a virtual child that does everything I tell them to without whining, crying, or throwing up on me? That's the ticket!

Flowers on the Sill

I have not always been a lover of roses. For many of my teenage and early adult years, I thought they were campy, cliche and didn't really smell all that great. I think it must have been shortly after meeting Ben that I started enjoying these flowers. He was well aware of my feelings about them, but even so, every bouquet he gave me had at the very least one rose in it. He's given me many flowers over the years and always arranges them himself.

A few days ago, I happened to notice that several of the many, MANY rose bushes in the yard were about to burst forth in bloom. I grabbed my clippers and took a stroll through the back and front yards to find some vase-worthy specimens. After trimming them and cutting off the most offensive thorns, I popped them in a vase and took them downstairs. The first night I was amazed at the intense aroma coming from the blooms, especially the lilac. The second night, it was almost overpowering! (The vase is on the window sill just inches from my side of the bed.)

The purple one on the left is some sort of variety that looks like crepe paper when it opens.

There was only one white rose that looked ready to open and it's still, even today, sitting there in bud form.

Lilac.

I think I've become a bit of a fan in the past few years.

I believe I've come to appreciate the beauty, scent and romance associated with roses. Though they still are not my favorites, they have moved up the list significantly.

Summer has officially arrived and is exploding with color every day! Must be time for a garden party!

By way of Updates

It's been a while since I've given any kind of update on the kids. So...

Audrey: still growing like a weed, NO POTTY ACCIDENTS in WEEKS!, loves going to the park to play with her cousins (or anyone for that matter), has successfully cut her TV intake to less than 8 hours a week (not her choice, of course). When she can't watch regular TV (only on Wednesdays) she will ask for her "Jesus Movie" which is a narrated scripture slideshow or "animal movie" which is BBC's Planet Earth. We will almost always let her watch these shows as they are spiritual and/or educational (clever girl!). She received her first ever french braid last night after bathtime which was a bigger accomplishment for her mother but props to her for standing still long enough for me to muddle through it. She asks all the time to go to school and is always disappointed when we tell her she has to be five. As an update since the last blog, she played with her new flannel board during church today and was better behaved than she has been in weeks! Yay!

Some recent, funny Audrey-isms:

When kissing me goodnight she pats my cheeks, "Mama you're not ouchy. Daddy is ouchy, he has polka-dots on his face!"

Singing to herself the other day, "Patty-cake, patty-cake, bakers man, bake me a cake as fascist you can..."

Oh, and she LOVES playing kickball.

Henry: still growing like a weed, is walking so well it's strange when he decides to crawl and is "this close" to running, has been trying to cut his molars for weeks and just might break them out in the next few days, loves his mom and dad so much that he doesn't like when they leave for ANY reason at all (even if it's to get him some milk), will stay in nursery only if mom or dad is in there with him (he just MIGHT be ready to go in by himself by the time he is 18 months old), loves going on the swing at the park, loves when dad throws him high up and catches him. He is learning how to go down stairs backward, but most of the time forgets and starts going up again. He does the cutest little "ant stomping" dance where he stands and stamps his feet and giggles.

He is also learning what the camera means and is turning into quite the ham.

In case you haven't heard, Ben has been accepted to UofU and starts there this fall. He will be gone a lot more, but (hopefully) will be done in 2 years or less. We should also be paying in-state tuition (hooray!). He gets up for work at 2:30 every morning and catches naps here and there throughout the day, but it's been great to have him home for the summer. He works out in the yard every Thursday and has made some serious improvements. He and Dad built my garden bed (which I love!), the new side yard gates, and miles and miles of pruning, weeding and mowing. He's still a devoted NASCAR fan (boo) but has recently started watching movies with yours truly (yay!)

As for me: The crafts, if you read regularly, have been logged. I have at least another 20 projects waiting in the wings though, so look out! The gardening has yet to be logged... it's going fairly well. I have corn, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, carrots, radishes, beans, lettuce, peppers, sunflowers and various flowers sprouting all over my garden. I also have an enormous quantity of elm seeds trying to sprout as well and are getting mixed up with the flowers.

My writing has been waylaid by special events going on in the Flyff world. I know; waste of time, but it's a FUN waste of time. I also picked up some new reading habits lately and haven't been getting to sleep until after 11pm every night, which wouldn't be bad if Ben didn't get up at 2:30, Henry at 4:00 and again with Audrey at around 6:00. I've taken to letting him out of his crib at 6 and letting him and Audrey play in the room until I can drag my fanny out of bed.

I made some amazing shish kabobs tonight that were a hit with the crowds here (thanks for grilling them, Ben). It's astounding what a little fresh rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper can do. They were too pretty to eat, but we did anyway and they were awesome! I will be attacking the leftovers tomorrow at lunch time.

Keep an eye out for more new blogs. I have a few brewing in my noggin... Until then.