One On The Way

I really had good intentions for my poor neglected blog but life gets in the way. With all 4 kids in school this year at 3 different schools the running has increased dramatically. Gabe started youth group this year at our church (which is 45 minutes away). Zane is playing football and practices or plays 3 nights a week and sometimes on Saturday. Jack is just exhausted from his all day at Kindergarten. And Maci Clare is just her usual energized self everyday.
With another baby on the way, this has been an exhausting 6 months.
So there you have my excuses.

With that being said, here are some highlights of summer.Jack finished up his first season of t-ball. He loved it and actually learned to hit with no tee. So way to go, Jack.

My dad got the chance to baptize Gabe and Zane. We all tailgated while everyone was baptized. It was fun.
In June, we took a road trip to Iowa and got to visit with our Mid-Western cousins. They are just as silly as my own children. Maybe that's why they get along so well.
On our roadtrip, we stopped for a night in Indiana. Jim had to work a little so the kids and I killed some time at a zoo.

After we left the zoo, we stopped at Marengo Cave in Kentucky. It was really cool. Jack bought a stuffed bat while we were there.

The Cub Scout camp out was at Lake Greenwood in July. All the boys went and left the girls at home. They had a great trip but it was really hot.Maci Clare played her first game of putt-putt.

Jack made his first hole in one. We took a trip to Myrtle Beach for a few days.

The day before school started, we visited our zoo.

Jim built a new chicken coop for our flock. We like to refer to it as the "chicken mansion".

Jack turned in to our chicken farmer. He loves and takes care of the chickens. This is one of our smaller hens. Right after I shot this picture, it pooped down Jack's leg. That is what he remembers most.
Jim found this 45 inch rattlesnake on our front walk on a Sunday morning. He killed him and they skinned him. He had 12 rattlers.
My nephew, Luke was here for a visit from Virginia Beach and he even got in on the rattlesnake action.My doctor asked me if Jim was like Grizzly Adams or something. What do you think? Does he look like Grizzly Adams? Nah, just Chris Daughtry.And last, I am 6 months pregnant with another baby boy! Hopefully I will find the time to keep up with the blog more in the next few months.

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By posting this information, I am entered into a contest to win a free bra from Playtex. I did not receive any compensation for this post and thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

2010

I can't believe it is already 2010. I missed the whole Christmas season on my blog. I did very little decorating and haven't had much time to do anything else. My Christmas tree was down by 8pm on Christmas night because I knew I was going in to have surgery on the 29th. So that is why I have been pretty scarce. I was pretty sick the month before Christmas and didn't feel like doing much of anything. I decided to have my tonsils taken out and do it before the end of the year. It is not a major surgery but major enough to keep me in bed for several days. I still don't feel well enough to do much. I missed ringing in the New Year with my family. (I don't think they cared because they were all too busy playing Play Station). But it was kinda sad for me. I am taking it easy for the next week or so. I can't eat much (soup and pudding and ice cream). I've lost a fair amount of weight (which is a good thing but I am sure it will come back fast.) I am going to try to get back into my blog and post some things that I have stored up. It will probably be slow coming but I will eventually get there. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I won! I won! I won!

I won a book called "Tiny Baby Jesus". This is probably going to end up being a Christmas gift for the two little kids. Thanks, Karen.

Thrift Store

I love thrift stores. One of my favorites is about 25 minutes from my house and I usually try to head that way about once a week. Today I was on a mission. Gabe is performing in a play at a local college and needs a costume. So I headed out this morning.
The only part of Gabe's costume I found was a white button up shirt but look at my other fantastic finds. I looked here and saw what Holly bought and was inspired to show you my finds today. You'll have to excuse the horrible pictures. The lighting in our house at night is horrible because of the placement of all the light fixtures.
I found these two great pillowcases. I love the borders so I will probably use them to make something. Probably a dress or skirt or shirt for MC.
I also found this great piece of fabric which was in a box labeled "Valances" but is not a valance. It is sewn to a red piece of fabric and looks like a topper for a round table cloth.
This cute dress with the fur trim is a Laura Ashley and was only $1. It was a great find and will fit Maci Clare perfect by the time it is cold enough to wear it.
This coat was only $2 and fits Maci Clare. This is the perfect coat to go with dresses. The boots in the background are really cute and were only .50
This shirt was only .50 too. I mostly bought it for the inspiration to make my own with a cute butterfly but MC will definitely wear this one.
I also bought Gabe a pair of jeans and the white shirt. I only paid $10 for all of it.

Trick or Treat

We had a great time last night even in the rain. We got the kids ready and tried to get a few pictures before we left. I never got one of the 4 of them together. We usually get pictures on the porch but it was raining so that kind of messed things up. But at least I got individual ones.Gabe was a football player. That was easy enough since he played football this year. He decided not to wear his cleats so that was all he left out of his uniform.

Zane was Harry Potter. This one was a little trickier. I couldn't find a Harry Potter costume so I had to piece it all together. The robe came from Craigslist. I made the tie. Jim popped the lens out of a pair of his old glasses. The broom came from Hobby Lobby. I painted the scar with lipstick. So we did end up pulling it off but not very easily.

Jack was Darth Vader. I bought his costume at Walmart and we already had the light saber. He did not want to cooperate. He didn't like the mask and he really wasn't thrilled about Trick or Treating. Maci Clare's costume ended up being my favorite. The plan was for her to be an elephant but I found this flower costume in her closet. I bought it last year and forgot that I bought until I was pulling out her costume to get her dressed.

We left our house and went to the nursing home to see my grandma. We got there pretty early. The older people really liked the kids. They had candy to give to the kids and we left some for them too.This is a picture of my grandma putting candy in Maci Clare's bag. I love this picture.

Next stop was my mom and dad's church. They had a soup supper and trick or treat. Normally it is set up outside but this year since it was raining, they set it up inside. It was great. This is our neighbor, Casey. Can you guess who he is?The Incredible Hulk

We left and went downtown to trick or treat but there wasn't much going on. So we went to one more church function and then headed home.

When we got back home we lit up our pumpkins which we had carved on Friday night but never put outside.

Gabe's is a football with his number carved in it. Jack's is the bat hanging upside down. Maci Clare's is the face. And Zane's is ... well, I'm not sure. I kept saying it looked like a evil Sonic the Hedgehog.

We had a great Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun.

I Can Breathe Again

I finally feel like I can let out a big breath that I've been holding for 2 months. We are finally winding down a little. Today will be a post of random thoughts because I just can't even fathom putting together a whole post. Maybe later. So here is what has happened in the past week.
*Football is over. Both teams lost the first games of their play-offs. (I was a happy momma but some of the moms were crying. Come on give me a break.)
*Today I am working on finishing up some Halloween costume details.
*Gabe has been sick for 2 days.
*Jim has been out of town.
*We had Fall Festival at the school last night and Gabe had to go walk around with the little kids. (I paid him $2 an hour to "babysit" while I worked. Cheap labor.)
*We have been so busy my house has definitely suffered. I have very few Fall/Halloween decorations up this year. (to the dismay of Jack).
*My blog has suffered because of the busy-ness (and I've been a little unfaithful- Facebook, need I say more?).
*It seems there is always lots of "girlie drama" when you deal with adult women. I have been dealing with this drama and I am sick of it. Is that the price you have to pay to do volunteer work?
*Jack is out of school today for a teacher work day.
*I have been to Greenville (40 minute drive) 3 times this week which has cost me about $60 in gas.
Now for the positive:
*I have cranked out several new things with my Cricut. I'm actually thinking about setting up an Etsy account. Anyone doing Etsy? Let me know if it is worth it.
*Trick or Treating tomorrow! Love Halloween and I can't wait.
*Sunday worship and Bible Study at church.
*Hopefully I will be able to keep up with my blog a little better now. I can't promise but if anyone out there is still checking my goal is 2 times a week.
Have a fun night tomorrow night and I hope my next post will be a little more coherent than this one.