Where did I go??
What happened to ME??
well....I have once again been neglectful..sigh..
Sometimes I do wear too many hats..
any way here we are on the eve of another Memorial Day Weekend.
My best friends husband Tim got home from a long deployment. There are many who are thrilled that he is home..me included.
Julianna is 16 months old today. walking, talking and she is a little pistol..so funny.
Owen is a space dude, he loves space, planets, asteroids, galaxies..all of it.
Donovan is officially a 5th grader.. he leaves in a few days to spend 6 weeks in Chicago..sigh, it never gets easier.
I have been sewing, I made a dress for my bf's daughter for her daddy's homecoming...
I sort of followed a pattern, but really just did my own thing.
I have nearly finished the process to open Heidi's Home Day Care..just waiting on a permit number.
Chris is working baseball.
uh.. that's it...I never did upload the pics from Vancouver..someday I will. I think that for now things have slowed down enough that I can blog some more.
if for some reason you are die hard about the inner peace of me, i invite you to peruse the archives for some good posts.

and am still surviving. The transition, that is. from leaving my family and going on THE MOST INCREDIBLE VACATION, then returning.
Between my sister and I we took over 1500 photos. I should mention that about 1/16 of those were mine, ok maybe 1/8, but they are still being uploaded and backed up and edited, although, my sister has a real flair for photography, she needs very few edits if any in about 95% of her shots. Yeah, I know, I am jealous too. Anyway.
I am a dumb ass, sorry for the harsh language, but the other night, for whatever reason, I went ahead and cleared off my camera, not 1 split second before I remembered that I had yet to move all the trip pictures to the computer for backing up and storage.
THANK GOODNESS I am married to a forensic computer geek, we think he was able to recover them.. I will have to wait until Sunday to find out.
Once I have some good images to choose from, I will share.
IN the meantime, this is how my trip went.
Mon,fly to CO, Tues, fly to Seattle, visit the Space Needle and the EMP, (experience music project), then we stayed in Bellingham that night.
Next morning, early,we were off to catch a bus to Whistler to see the Ladies Giant slalom, Alpine Skiing, which had it's 2nd run of the day postponed due to poor visibility.Then we were off to drive to the ferry, and ride the ferry to the B&B in Roberts Creek where we were staying. Next morning, we spent the day on Grouse Mountain, back to Roberts Creek for the night, next morning we went to Vancouver to the Richmond Oval, for Speed Skating, and then we walked around the city, taking in all the sights, then off again to the Olympic Stadium to see the short track skating.
We left early Sat morning to ferry back to BC and drive to Seattle and fly back to Co, then Sunday I flew back into OK. WHEW!!
We both had such a great time, there are little stories and details I will fill in with pictures, like the breast pump incident, and Dari's shoes..so those must be told with the pictures.
So until then...

I will elaborate on the hopefully part later..
I am slated to fly to Denver, then to Washington, and drive on into Canada with my sister and partake in the wonder that is the 2010 Winter Olympics.
I am excited!!
I am nervous!!
I am worried!!
I am a lot of things
I am leaving my family for a week....Chris? he will be okay, Donovan I am sure will do fine.. and Owen will never remember...it will be like I went away for a few hours.. I HOPE
and Julianna.. well she is still nursing.. we both are.. and I really don't want her to wean yet, but have prepared myself for if she does.
I won't be in a position to store any milk I pump, so I will pump and dump while I am away, but I am trying to leave some here for her to 'remember me by" so that when I return, we can pick up where we left off..her pediatrician assures me that she will not forget.. but I am preparing for it just in case.
I am very excited though about going to Canada, and to THE OLYMPICS...wow..
I have no idea what to expect.. but I will be face booking it and tweeting it, in case anyone follows me there..and if not, well I will update when I get back. Now I have laundry and packing to do.
TA TA!!

So, a family was in Arkansas, and someone had left this dog by the side of the road.
They brought him home with them to OK.
They posted ads, and signs( via family in AR)
they waited for 10 days.
Then they posted him on Craigslist.

I saw the ad the day they put it up, I am frequently browsing various CL postings.
I emailed them and then spoke with them on the phone.
It sounded like the poor dog escaped a terrible fate.
I wanted Donovan to meet him.
Donovan needs a pal, he is going to be 10, and Dash is more my dog.
So we went to meet him.
Charlie, they call him.
CUTE
FUN
RAMBUNCTIOUS
and Donovan fell in love.

We agreed to have Charlie come visit us, since we had 2 other kids, a dad and a dog who needed to meet him.
He came over yesterday...
and now...he is ours.
Dash loves him,
Owen loves him,
Chris likes him, and loves to play with him.
And from what I can tell, Julianna loves him, but he sure does love to give her kisses.

Welcome to our family Charlie!!

So I pulled it off.. I thought the practice cake I made for my daughter was mediocre at best, but was terribly pleased with how the final cake turned out.
She loved it,
I stuck with pink, purple and white...made the sugar cookie "1" a bit smaller and thus lighter..and sifted the powdered sugar so my buttercream icing was not grainy.

I might try to offer to make similar cakes for friends...just for a gift, not for money, it's fun to bake. And did I mention how yummy the icing and cakes are??

over the holidays...and never posted good pictures.
So what I made is a cape for Owen, from scratch, but I used a template for the cape shape.




He absolutely loves it, but doesn't really wear it, yet, he plays with it, but isn't into the wearing it.. I can't quite figure it out. I made it for him since he found a cape at the library which he hates taking off, it's attached to a shirt, so I thought for sure he would like one of his own. But I don't think he likes the way it ties.
What he loves most about it, is it is a Brobee cape with all his frineds from Yo Gabba Gabba on it. He LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba...which means I might be trying to make him a YoGabba Gabba cake in April for his 3rd birthday.



I made rag quilt letters for Julianna.
I ordered vintage fabrics off Etsy and used them for the letters, she likes to throw them around, but I do believe she will grow into them, since Owen loves them, too.
I even made a little bag to store them in, and I did not have a pattern for it, I just made it up.



And I made a child sized snuggie for Donovan.
I was going to make a funky snuggie, where the arms were one each, Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos, but figured my sister give him enough Bronco wear, and he gets a ton of Bears stuff from his dad and family, so I just made it all Sooners. He loves it and sleeps with it all the time.
When I can get around to it, I am going to sew the cuffs all the way around, and the collar, the little stay put stitches I put in came out, he is a bit rough with it.





Not a super seamstress, but I am making more letters for a 1st birthday we are going to, and a skirt for Julianna's for her 1st birthday.
Maybe I am not void of talent afterall.

So I spent most of Friday and yesterday, making sugar cookies, decorating them,



baking cakes,



icing them









and putting it all together

,

just so I know what I am going to be getting into next week before her party..
it came out better than I imagined, so next week, it should be pretty great.
I will post more photos then.
...


want to thank Amanda for the ideas for the cake in the first place.

Chris found this link while reading a blog last night.
While I have posted some questionable material in the past..
I really honestly have no words for this one...
not posting to offend, or shock.. I guess I am sharing because I can't believe it.
you will have to decide that on your own..
without further adieu;
a very brazen woman

HEEEEYYYYY YOOOOUUUUU GGUUUYYYSSSSS!!!
Remember that?
Morgan Freeman? Rita Moreno? Bill Cosby?
The Plumber who came to fix the sink?
The Adventures of Letterman?
Giggle Goggles?
Jennifer of the Jungle?
The Six Dollar and Thirty Nine Cent man?
the Blue Beetle? I could go on and on..
I loved that show...
oh and and who could forget all those catchy tunes...
Silent "E", The "Ly" song.
Well recently, Chris came across this little "cover tune", and I had to share.
Coming from a house with 3 boys and one grown boy, Lego's are all over the place. We love the "Ly" song..so this was Awesome!!!
Thanks Babe for sharing.

Enjoy!!
p.s. if you link to the Lego "ly" song..check out the other songs done in "Lego"

I should add, that for those of you/us who have school aged kids, they have started running a current version.. not as hip and the 70's one, but still great for todays kiddos.

Right now, just about anything that Owen likes is declared "My FAVORITE"!!!
"Owen, would you like some Apple Juice? "Apple Juice?, MY FAVORITE!!"
"Owen, would you like to watch Yo Gabba Gabba? "Yo Dab Dab!!! MY FAVORITE!!!"
"Owen, time to get dressed, first, your underwear!! UNDERWEAR?? MY FAVORITE!!!"
You get the idea.
Anyway, for about 6 months, maybe more, this book was his favorite, he just could not tell us.. now that he can, I want to share it with you.
I think Emma Dodd is a very creative writer.. I got both of these books, this one and this one when Donovan was about Owen's age, and Donovan loved them as much.
I love how she uses "S" for all the sounds the colors make in Dog's Colorful Day









and the fact that Dog eats his "meal" in Dog's ABC..








I can honestly say that we read the Colorful day book more than the ABC's but both are nearly memorized in our house.. Chris and I can't skip a page or forget a word. Owen is right on top of it to correct us.
I love that by reading it, he can count to 10,






knows all of his colors and his entire alphabet..



I do suggest both or even one if you are trying to introduce letters, colors or numbers to your child.
Have fun reading!!