Thursday, January 31, 2008

Well, January is almost over....

and there's much to tell, like, where on earth have we been lately!

But, that'll have to wait 'til later. For now, let's just say we've been busy traveling :)

Today is the last day for Miss A to wear the splint! Tomorrow she can be free of it and we'll see how she does. Lord willing, all is healed and she will go about her business w/o favoring the arm that was broken.

Tomorrow is Miss E's birthday! My how time does fly. I can hardly believe my first little one is about to be a big 7 year old! Sigh. More on that tomorrow (if I can find the time!)

Just a recap for those new to the blog - the children are referred to on the blog in order of age as:

Miss E
Miss A
Mr. E
and
Mr. Baby (although he's becoming quite the little man and soon we won't be able to get away w/that any more!)

Please don't refer to them by their names on comments b/c I'll have to delete the comment :)

Thanks for your understanding!

Ok, so today is a very blustery day and we're so thankful to have a nice warm house to stay inside! We had a nice fire last night and CKB and I watched the "Bourne Ultimatum" - very good! If you haven't seen this series of 3 movies, we highly recommend you do so!


That's it for now, too much to do around here!!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Jeans update

Well, as I suspected, but hoped wouldn't happen, most of the decorations started to come off after a wash or two - figures - so, what did I do? Sewed them on like a good mama :) Ah well, that's what we get for trying to be "fancy" - ha ha.

Maybe it was because the iron-ons were old, years old, and maybe they wouldn't have stayed on even if I had just bought them - either way, they're ON now and they darest not come off again!

So, let that be a lesson to you! Don't try to be fancy ;)
(unless, of course, you want to spend a few evenings sewing on do-dads after the children go to bed!)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The cast cometh off!

Well, today was the big day. Cast removal day! Miss A has been counting down the days on a calendar in her room and today was the big day! This afternoon, she and I went off to the Dr. office where her cast was removed, new x-rays were taken and the Dr. said she was healing nicely - new bone was growing where the fracture was and she did not need another cast. Yay! She will wear the splint for a couple of weeks and at the end of two more weeks, if all seems well, she will be able to stop wearing it and resume all manner of horseplay, ha ha!

Aside from her arm being a bit stiff from being bent for 2.5 weeks, she seems to be doing great and enjoyed a nice cold Frosty on the way home :)

Way to go, Miss A!

Monday, January 7, 2008

In light of recent events....

We naturally found this article extremely disturbing....

click on link below:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59566


Lord, help us.

Miss Fancy Pants x 2

Well, on our Thanksgiving trip we experienced our first hole in the knee of some jeans w/the children. Miss E was jumping on the trampoline at our host's home and when she got down, she had a hole in the knee of her jeans - hmm, it just happened, I hadn't noticed them being threadbare or anything....of course, with all the laundry around here, who has time to inspect knees of jeans?

Anyway, so we commenced preparations to patch said knee. The split went all the way across the knee area so a 'traditional' patch like the ones my Mom used to use just didn't seem like it would be big enough. Aha, how about a square of fabric - special fabric that Miss E picked out by herself...a trip to Hobby Lobby later and we had a quarter or maybe an eighth, I don't remember, of cute fabric that she chose. About this time, I noticed that Miss E's jeans were looking a tad too snug for my liking and we purchased one pair in the next size to see if she was ready for them. Yes, of course she was. So, all of her jeans immediately went to Miss A, who incidentally was ready for them as well, and Miss E got a couple more pairs of the larger size.

Now, that knee that needed to be patched belonged to Miss A now. Sigh. Did she want to use the same fabric? No, of course not :) Thankfully I had some fabric on hand that was perfect for her. So commenced my journey into jean patching...and decorating.

I dragged out my sewing machine from the box it was still sitting in (and has been in for the past 1.5 years - it was temporarily lost for a year in the garage between the past couple of moves, but relocated in the most recent) and commenced searching for thread and such. In the process, I ran across some cute decorative iron-ons I had purchased somewhere along the way a few years ago and thought it might be fun to put those on another pair of jeans - you just iron them on, right?

Well, the iron-ons went quickly and looked pretty cute - here are a pair I did for each of the girls:




Then a few more iron-ons - I think we might run out of jeans before we run out of decorations:



Then, the knee still needed to be patched so I cut out a square of "Princess" fabric for Miss A and sewed it on later in the evening. The next day I found more iron-ons, one of which had a "PRINCESS" iron-on included so I added that to the other leg and then upon closer inspection saw that the other knee was wearing pretty thin, so I might as well go ahead and patch it now - save time, right? Ha ha.

And, what of that original fabric purchased for Miss E's jeans (when they were still her jeans?) - well, can't let that go to waste, so we decorated another pair of Miss E's new jeans:



Fast forward a couple of days - Miss E wore the horse/cowboy jeans and they go through the wash. Yep, you guessed it - the iron-ons came partially off. Argh. What was I doing last night? Sewing them on so they would stay. (hence the black thread dangling aside the jeans in the pic above) So much for simple and easy :) But, they're still pretty cute so I guess it's worth it :)

Oh, I forgot to mention - the jeans w/the fabric squares on them - aside from that first princess patch that I actually sewed on by hand all the way around in tiny tiny stitches....I bought some "stitch witchery" and used it to "iron on" the patches and surrounding ribbon - those haven't gone through the wash yet - I'm holding my breath, well, not literally, but I sure hope they hold up better than the little iron-ons did! I'll keep you posted ;)

Sunday, January 6, 2008

If you've got bananas (that are very ripe), you make...

Banana cake, of course...and banana pudding....and if you have time, banana bread....and...well, I didn't have time for that last one so the last few bananas went by the wayside, but this past week we "mislaid" some bananas and then, ahem, found them in a very spotty and ripe state - so much for quiet time for me this past Thursday - it was BAKING TIME! and COOKING TIME and....still quiet time :) Just, I was cooking and baking instead of crocheting, reading, cleaning, washing dishes, doing laundry...you get the picture. So, voila! We had banana pudding for dessert Thursday and banana cake for dessert Friday, Saturday and tonight we finished it off. And what did we have with it? Homemade vanilla bean ice cream, yum yum. We bought some vanilla beans not too long ago and have been wanting to make vanilla bean and the time had come to do so! I must say it was good, but not as good as Bluebell. Oh well, you can't win on them all!

Here's our cake - sorry, no pics of the pudding, it was devoured in one sitting, nor the ice cream, just plain 'ol forgot to take a pic - too busy eating it ;)


Saturday, January 5, 2008

Movie Time

We recently saw a preview for this movie, "The Ultimate Gift" and thought it looked interesting. Then, we heard from my Dad that my sister had recommended it to him. I added it to our movie list and we received it the other day. Last night we watched it. It was a wonderful movie - I highly recommended it and suggest you keep the tissue box nearby.

About the movie:
Jason thought his inheritance was going to be the gift of money and lots of it. Was he ever in for a big surprise. Based on the best-selling book "The Ultimate Gift" by Jim Stovall, the story sends trust fund baby Jason Stevens on an improbable journey of discovery, having to answer the ultimate question: "What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?"





Ok, and on a lighter note - are you a "Lord of the Rings" fan? :) Have children? No? Well, that's ok too, you'll enjoy this just as much as they will, but for different reasons (if you're a fan!) -

We watched "Lord of the Beans" this past week and while the children thought it was fun, CKB and I laughed out loud quite a few times - this is a great movie for everyone especially if the parents are fans of the original. Go and rent it, NOW! Even if you don't have children!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Update on Miss A and her fracture

Well, Monday we went to the orthopedic doctor and found out that Miss A needed a cast. After she won another round of Uno (cheered on by her Dr.), we went to casting down the hall where she picked her color and casting commenced. I have to admit that it was an interesting experience - I've never had a cast so I didn't know what to expect...plaster perhaps...but no, first there was a mesh type "sock" that covered her arm, then some super soft gauze cottony stuff was rolled onto her arm all the way up. Next came the super bright pink "cast" material which came on a roll - go figure - the man doing the casting got the pink roll wet and commenced wrapping up her arm. After one roll that encased the entire area of her arm that was being cast (a "long arm" cast) - he asked "Is she pretty spirited?" I chuckled and replied, yes, not to mention that she has a 20 mo. old little brother at home who is constantly trying to bang his toy hammer on anything and anyONE in his way" :) He replied "I'll make it a little stronger then" :) So, roll #2 came out and her arm was wrapped again. Arm placed back in the sling and off we went - it hardened up pretty quickly and I don't think Mr. Baby can hurt it...I don't think...

Even though her favorite color has been purple for a long time, she chose HOT PINK :)

Here she is - ta-da!



Ah yes, notice her shirt? :) The man doing the casting (no idea what his technical title would be) was a longhorn - ha ha ha - oh well :) Gig 'em Aggies!

After we got home and had dinner, I was honored to be the first one to sign her cast.


She requested Daddy be second



Then her big sister, Miss E


and brother, Mr. E with a little help from Daddy since Mr. E tends to write his name VERY LARGE at times :)




and even baby brother got in the act





Here is the finished product after Mama and Daddy had signed - we'll not show the final result since it shows everyone's names.


So, now we wait. I printed up a January calendar and posted it on the wall beside Miss A's bed for her to mark off the days until the cast comes off - 3 weeks from the date she broke her arm. Sigh. So far it hasn't seemed to phase her a bit :) NOW, to just get through the next few weeks without it getting wet at all - sigh - that should be fun!

Homeschool Humor

This is too funny - enjoy!

http://www.doublesharpevideo.com/HomeSchool2/Homeschool2.html