Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

                                                                    truth in advertising!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun Run

Well today was the Poo's first school activity. She had a fun run today. She has been just so excited for a whole week waiting for this afternoon. We got there early and got registered and the teacher doing name tags already new her name! She had a wonderful time running with her friends and is so very very proud of her ribbon.

She ran the whole way without walking. She was nowhere near first but she wasn't last either. I am just the most proud mommy in the world right now! She ran her little heart out and had a great time :)

Catching up with myself

Well I have finally made it back! We have had so much going on as of late that I have found no time for myself much less the computer! Poo had her first day of school. She was so excited that she finally got to start kindergarden :) It was difficult for me to adjust but I think what I had the hardest time with was not being able to share it with my Mom. I just never thought that she wouldn't be here for these milestones. Friday was Poo's very first school pictures. I just can not wait to see how they came out. She looked so pretty.
Every vehicle we have has broken down at least twice in the last 4 months and it has been hell. I am grateful we live close enough to the school that we can walk when needed. We try to walk at least one day a week just because she likes it. One more car to fix and we will be done for a while hopefully!
Mr. C has had a break from his radiation treatments so I have had a little time to recouperate from the repetitive car rides. Hopefully they will start up again soon so we can get him completely well and be done with them all together. He is in very good spirits but I know he would like to be done.
We have been spending more time with our family and friends lately. It has been wonderful to get to see them so much more and the Poo has really enjoyed it. She is such a social butterfly!
This week I hope to have the strength to go through our stuff in the house and see how much we can get rid of. The constant clutter is killing me. I know we have things we have not used in ages and I just see no point in holding on to them anymore.
Papi is going to be busy in the evenings working on Sissy's car. Her brakes have decided that stopping when you push them in is optional. Never a good thing. When he is done with that he has the joy of installing a blinker switch in his truck. He has only been working on this for 4 months. I think it has become a personal vendetta between him and the truck. I offered to take it to the shop and have them do it but he adimantly refused my offer and assured me he would win this battle with the blinker.
All in all we are doing well and getting by. Spirits are high, money is low and we are happy to have a home and a vehicle to fix! Love you all and I will try to get back into blogging more often again.

So busy!

My goodness things have been so busy! Many birthdays, getting ready for the Poo's first time to start to school, and daily trips to the doctor for a friend. Miss Poo turned 5 just about a week ago and had her party at the local bowling alley. It was her first time to bowl and she just had the best time. She got a a lot of wonderful gifts but one of her favorites(and mine) is an early reading program called Start to Read. It is put out by School Zone publishing and is just a great little set. It came with five books to read, 1 comprehension book, a read along/song cd and a parent guide. I can't really say if it is helping her learn to read since we have only had it a short while but I can say she has really been enjoying it a lot. She loves the books that are in it!
She also got the Lalaloopsy doll she wanted and some new school clothes. She was just a very happy girl. We have been getting up early every morning and going to bed earlier each evening to get her ready for kindergarden. She is sooo excited about getting to go to school to learn new things and make new friends. Man oh man she has loved school shopping! Getting to pick out new clothes and shoes has been a lot of fun for a girl.
My niece Munchie turned 18 just a couple of weeks before Poo's birthday.Sandwiched in the middle was my birthday. I hope to get back to blogging more regularly once school starts, right now it is just so hectic it is a little hit or miss( mostly miss) on finding time to blog. I love you guys!

Rough night

My goodness what a night! All was going OK for a while. We had gone to dinner with friends and had a very nice time other than it took an hour for our food to come out, then we came home. Papi and Poo went swimming while I watered all the fruit trees and plants. By the time I was done it was nearly dark and still over 100 degrees. I got the Poo out of the pool and was just sweating bullets from dragging the hose around for an hour. I was so ready to get in and cool off. Mind you our house doesn't stay very cool, usually in the 80's but still that is a big improvement from outside. We all get in and I got Poo dressed for bed and started taking care of the critters. Just as I finished the power went out. This happened a few weeks ago and it took them hours to get us back on. Then we noticed one light was still on so we figured it was a breaker. Papi goes out to check the breakers and guess what he found. One of the main lines coming in had been hit by a limb from a pecan tree and snapped in two right by the house. We had no air, no fans, one light in the bathroom( our house is wired very strangely) and one little girl who was not happy in the very hot darkness with no bedtime story and no tv or movies.
After an hour trying to report the break we finally got an actual person who we were able to explain what happened. Papi ran an extension cord to the front of the house so we could have a lamp and a fan and we all started to settle in. We got Poo asleep and then we tried to lay down. Neither of us could go to sleep so around midnight we saw the flashing lights from the repair truck. Papi went outside to show him where the break was and about 45 short minutes later we had power back on. Yay!!! So sometime in the wee hours we finally got to go to bed and The Poo was so happy to wake up and have power again. She had a nice visit with Papi before he went to work and we have had a pretty good morning other than I am dragging my butt behind me. I hope every one else had a better Monday than us!

Catching up

Well guys, I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted. We have had a lot going on. Internet troubles have been high on the list. We had no internet for a week and the day before the service call we finally found out why. Fire ants had moved into our phone box and done a lot of damage. Our phone repair man was kind enough to replace our box with a sealed system that should make that more difficult in the future. Then the Poo's puppy at our dsl cable. Six times. Yes six times over 3 weeks. Papi finally just went and got metal conduit to run the line through since nothing else we had tried was working.
I have also been gone a lot driving a dear friend back and forth to the doctor. He was diagnosed with cancer and has no family near by so we stepped in to help share the load with other friends so no one person is having to do it all. He is such a nice guy you can't help but to want to help.
We have also been doing some minor remodeling and home repair. Papi fixed our leaking roof but unfortunately there is a lot of damage we will still have to fix but at least it is not getting worse. We also decided to remodel the Poo's bedroom and frame the walls and add insulation. Our home is very old and had no insulation at all and the walls are not exactly sturdy so we decided to start in her room since she has been asking for a pink room for over a year. Oh my it is so very pink and we are still not done. We still have one wall to move, one door to remove since we put a new entry door in and all new wiring to add. Then we have to finish the walls and floor. In the mean time the plywood floor is painted pink. We have added shelving and many other extras to make things easier for her to be independent. She so wants to be a big girl. Our dear friend Lynette helped us out on a big one. Poo just couldn't reach the light switch without a stool and we were worried about her trying to climb up on a stool in the dark. She gave us this wonderful little thing called a Kid Switch. It is an extender lever that is about16 inches long to help her turn the lights on and off by herself. It was so easy to install and she is LOVING it! Now Lynette was kind enough to give us ours but if you should want to buy one for yourself you can go to kidswitchshop.com and enter Blog 10 in the coupon code at checkout to get 10% off. They have a good selection to choose from and it has saved me a thousand trips already. Did I mention it glows in the dark and she will turn the light on for a few minutes and then turn it back off to watch it glow. It is so great for her to be able to do things for herself and it just so happens to be entertaining for her too!
I think her room will be a work in progress for a while but she has been able to move in and sleep in there for over a week now. She is doing so great, I just wish she wasn't growing up so fast. Kindergarten starts before too long. Where does the time go?

Lynette was given this item to review and recieved no other compensation. She was kind enough to share this with our family.

Mothers Day

Let me start off by saying happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there. This Mothers Day is unique for me since it is the first one I will be spending without my mom. Oh how I miss her every day, but today I can't help but miss her a little more. What I wouldn't give to be able to hug her again.
Here is a picture of us when we were getting along. We did not always get along so well but we always loved each other so much. I think that love is what allowed us to get under each others skin and irritate the other so easily. She could get madder at me than anyone else in the world when I did something she was sure I shouldn't do. Even as I became an adult that never changed. She always calmed down and came around eventually. Now do not for a second think it was one sided. She could aggravate me to no end but we always came to terms and accepted each other for what we were. Stubborn, pig headed, forgetful, and most of all, family.
I never understood how much my mom loved me until I had my daughter. I told my mom shortly after the Poo was born that I forgave her for all those times she wouldn't let me go have fun because she thought it was " just too dangerous", even though I assured her nothing would happen and I would be fine. We had a good laugh over it and talked a lot about how your outlook on the world changes when you become a parent. Sidewalks for instance seem perfectly safe until you have your first child. Then they appear to be a pit of death to a toddler learning to walk or a 3 or 4 year old growing into their feet and running in flip flops. Recliners seem perfectly safe until you have a little one. Those things are awful once your child realized they can climb up onto one and try to fly face first into the ground, or gets a foot under it as someone is getting up and gets a toe smashed.
I know why she saw the world the way she did and how hard it was for her to give us some independence to grow into the people my sister and I became. I understand why she stayed in the car outside of wherever we were , such as a concert or the skating rink, instead of going home and coming back to get us. We thought she wanted to spy on us when we were younger. Now I can see she wanted us to have independence and feel free to have fun, but be close by if we needed her.
I am glad we got to share these things before she died because if it is possible we were even closer in the last few years than we were before. She always told me she hoped to live long enough to see me have a child. She never thought I would. I was 29 when my daughter blessed me with her arrival and the day she was born my mom said if she died that day everything she had wanted in life was fulfilled. My sister and I both had a child to love and help grow, we were stable and happy, and we had a good relationship with each other. It was very important to my mom that my sister and I be close and talk to each other often. She wanted us to have a good relationship and each of us know that the other would be there for them no matter what. We do have that and it is truly a blessing. My daughter remembers my mom and misses her. She talks about her often and tells me stories about things they did together. I hope she is able to keep some of those memories as she grows up and always be able to feel inside how much my mom loved her.
My niece was already almost 17 when my mom passed away so she has memories to keep with her. I was so touched when she wore the patent leather converse tennis shoes my mom had gotten for her to the prom. She said she wanted her grandmother with her on that special day and it felt like she was able to take her to prom when she wore those shoes. How can you not be proud of a young woman like that.
I am going to add a perfect pairing in to the end of this post just because I believe it fits so well with the emotions I feel today. 1 John 4:18


18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Growing up I was never afraid of my mother. My fear was not of punishment but of disappointing her. I always wanted her to be proud of me and proud of the job she had done raising me. Her love was pure and perfect and completely unconditional. I thank the Lord everyday that I was able to have her in my life for as long as I did and for giving me such a wonderful family, be it blood family or chosen family. I have been blessed with a loving family and we all miss her so much. On this day I choose not to be filled with the pain of loss but to rejoice in her love that was given so freely for so many years and fill my heart with the blessings I see everyday. My family, my child, and the people of this earth that do things because they are the right thing to do, not because they are easy. Thank you Momma for teaching me to appreciate what I have and not to dwell on the negative. Thank you for teaching me that love is the greatest gift we have and we should share it with others. Thank you for being you. Thank you Lord for allowing me to be blessed with her in my life and hug her for me on this day created to celebrate her love and giving nature.

Appetite for Inspiration

What a wonderful time we had yesterday! Lynette@ Crazed Mind and I got the privilege of being invited to the Texas Beef Council in Austin. It was truly a great day. We got to learn a bit more about the Texas cattle industry and also taste the delicious food they were offering that was prepared by chef Richard Chamberlain.

Lynette's DH makes fertilizer and Papi makes feed for animals, so it was really cool to see it come full circle to the beef on your table. They had a lot of wonderful information to share and delicious food as well. We even got to play Top Chef and team up in groups to make our own dishes. If that wasn't enough we got to meet a bunch of wonderful bloggers and make some new friends as well as find new blogs to read.

All the beef was provided to us by Nolan Ryan Beef. If you have never eaten it, you definitely should. I am not usually brand specific on food, but that beef had the best flavor and texture of any I have ever had. I know you can purchase it at Kroger stores and order online but if you live somewhere you can't buy it be sure to ask your local grocer to stock it! It was fantastically delicious.

The Poo was very excited to learn that they had given us a goodie bag that had an apron for her and a real cow bell. She has played with her cow bell a good bit already and is just loving it! I was impressed that they included children into the bag as well as the presentation and made it more about family than just you preparing a meal for them. The Poo and I cook together a lot. I have found she is more willing to eat something new if she gets to help prepare it and knows what is going in and tasting it along the way so she can see how flavors change in the cooking process. I have never had a problem getting her to eat nutritious food because she is so involved in not only preparing it but in growing it and harvesting. When we harvest food from the garden she is able to try everything raw and again when it is cooked so she can see that it is the food we grew going from our garden to our tummies to keep us strong and healthy.Even more than that, it is a sense of pride and accomplishment for her to be able to say "I grew this in My garden!" She will definitely let you know very quickly that it is her garden.

It was so great to me that the Texas Beef Council not only understood how important it is to involve children in healthy eating but encouraged it and thought of kids when putting things together for all us bloggers to take to our homes. All and all it was just a wonderful experience and I hope I have the opportunity to do it again sometime.

Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter day! We certainly did. We got to visit with lots of friends and the Poo got to hunt eggs with lots of little ones. She got to play way into the evening with her friends so she had a wonderful time. We had a nice meal and good company. You just can not ask for more than that. We even got some rain that night! Much needed rain, I might add. I hope everyone got to spend time with loved ones and felt as blessed as we did.

Wordless Wednesday

                                                         The viewpoint of a 4 year old.

Prom

Last night was Munchie's senior prom. We went to help her get ready for the big event and I was able to surprise her with a beautiful necklace that I thought would compliment her gown well. She was really excited and I was so pleased we could be there for this huge milestone in her life. Now most of you know, Munchie is my niece but I love her like she was my own. I was just as proud as my sister when she got all dressed up to leave. I even got to help her with hair and make up. She looked so lovely. They found a beautiful gown for her that looked so good with her skin tone. I just can not hardly believe how much she has grown up. It seems like she was just a little tyke not that long ago. I was nearly dead by the time we got home thanks to the medicine, but I managed to make it through all the important parts and I think that is all that truly matters. I only had time to get a few pictures because she had an appointment to have pictures made before prom but she promised me she would doll up again so I can get more pictures. I am very much looking forward to it!

Ferret Fun

I have spent my afternoon laughing at my little angel and one of her best buddies. The Poo has been playing with our ferret Cyclone all afternoon. She just loves when he gives her kisses. She giggles and giggles and it seems the more noise she makes the more love he gives. They both enjoy it when he gets into her toy box and steals her toys. One of his favorites these days is her pom poms. He loves to carry them around and root through them. While running around this afternoon he discovered an empty soda box. Big big fun for a little guy! The next logical step is of course for him to drag the pom pom into the box. I somehow never thought a pom pom in a soda box would be hours of entertainment for a ferret and a little girl, but boy was I wrong! I am amazed by how much they enjoy each other. They even play tag together. Her puppy Prince gets a little jealous at times and tries to join in but he is just a little too excited for Cyclone to be comfortable playing with him. It is such a joy to watch them play and see how happy both of them are together.He is quite a cutie if I do say so myself!

Cooking in Advance

Well, I started my new medications for the Lyme disease yesterday. They are already making me feel awful.We ordered pizza for dinner, which we hardly ever do. I just did not feel like cooking. I was telling my good friend Lynette over @ Crazed Mind about my dilemma and I will be darned if she didn't have a solution. She had a new copy of Potluck Favorites by Hearst Magazines. It has 126 recipes for just about everything from appetizers to desserts. There are recipes for vegetarian and slimmed down favorites as well. I was looking through it and there are so many one pan recipes and casseroles that I can make all in one day and freeze for the days I feel awful. Now, I already have a copy of Slow Cookers plus Soup Stews and Casseroles from Hearst Magazines which we loved everything we cooked out of, so I am very excited to try the new recipes in Potluck Favorites. The one I am going to make tonight is ravioli and zucchini lasagna. It looks amazing! The even have some very yummy dessert recipes, which will make Papi happy. He has a mad sweet tooth:) The Poo saw the picture of the mozzarella and pesto grilled pizzas and asked if we could make those. They look very simple and only require a few ingredients, so I think she could make her own pizza and I will cook it for her. They even have grilling tips for the bar b que recipes that would work for anything you could possibly make on the grill. I am so happy to know that I can still feed my family well while I am on the mend. Thanks again to Lynette @ Crazed Mind for the new cookbook and help with a major dilemma. This is a review, I received no compensation. Lynette received a copy of the magazine for review purposes which she has graciously shared with me in my time of need.

Looking up?

It has been an interesting week for me. I have been doing a lot more research on my Lyme Disease to see if there was anything else that I could possibly try to improve my situation. I just did not want to believe that this is the best I could ever feel. I found many things both nutritional and medical that I thought might help. So, I got all my info together and went to my family doctor to see if she would be incline to try something out of the norm. To my surprise she had been reading up to and was on the exact same page as I was! I am hopeful again for the first time in 3 years but apprehensive at the same time as I know from experience it will get MUCH worse before it gets better if the new meds work. Unfortunately, if it doesn't get worse then I know the meds are not working. I only hope I can handle this. I know I am not as physically strong as I was the last time I went through treatment and it nearly did me in then. Luckily, I have a wonderful friend who will look out for The Poo if this should get bad so that is a great relief for me. My hope is to get through the worst of this and be back to my old self before Papi has his surgery. Once he has the surgery done he will be out of the mix for at least 3 months. He will not be able to do anything at all. Normally he helps me with the yard work and the critters and Plays with The Poo a great deal. Not only will he not be able to do those things, there will not be much he can even do for himself for a while. I do not want him to have any reason to attempt to put this surgery off again. Pray for strength for us. On a lighter note, I have many more reasons to be positive. Sissy AKA College Girl has been writing some wonderful blogs lately and I am so happy to see her writing again. She is truly happiest when she is writing and I love to see the joy in her shining through. Munchie was accepted to the college she applied for and will be starting pre med! Her prom is next weekend and graduation a month after. The Poo will be starting kindergarten in the fall and is very excited about it. She has been practicing her letters so she will be ready! I am so proud of all my girlies! They are such a source of joy for me. I am truly blessed to have such a great family and wonderful friends. I think I am even more blessed that I realize that even though we have had a run of bad luck and are still having major woes, that we are so blessed and can take joy in what we have instead of dwelling on what we don't.

Making a dress dummy

Now I did have to have help on this one, so a big big thanks goes to Lynette @ Crazed Mind for being willing to help me out. I have been doing more sewing lately and making shirts and dresses for Poo. We are trying to get summer ready and she loves dresses . It is easy enough to try things on her and see where I need to make room or take some up. She is very good about being still so I can pin the hems and whatnot. For me on the other hand it is not so easy. I really want some new shirts for working in the garden and in the yard. I want something cooler that I don't have to worry about getting stained or torn. Unfortunately, I am not a model nor do I have a model's body. Things don't always fit me the way they do on the front of a pattern so I needed a dress dummy. Now if any of you sew then you know that dress dummies are not cheap. I definitely could not afford to buy one so we went old school, redneck, ghetto, or whatever you want to call it. Here is my DUCK TAPE dress dummy! Now go ahead and have your laugh but when you think about it this is perfect. It cost about 10 dollars which is very good for my budget AND it is exactly my body. Whatever it looks like on the dummy it will look the same on me. It is much easier for me to make changes in the design if I need to and it is simple to do. Here is how you can make your own dress dummy.

You will need: 1 VERY good friend to help you ( you will be immobile and they will have scissors) 3 to 4 rolls of duck tape ( depending on how stiff you want it to be) 1 very snug shirt you are willing to cut up (short or long sleeves depending on what you prefer)

First, put on your snug shirt and set you main taping lines. Under the bust is a good place to start. Then do across shoulders and under the arms. Now it is time to just spin and wrap the tape all around you. You want the tape to be snug but not to tight. You want your bumps to still be there and you will need to have room for the scissors to get under it to cut you out. After you have several layers of tape all over, make sure they are interlocking with the shoulder area and the arms so it is one uniform piece. Now you are ready to be released:) Cut the underside of one sleeve to the armpit. Now cut from the bottom of the same side up to the armpit. Now you should be able to slide out. Tape the seam heavily and stuff with whatever you have handy. Mine is stuffed with bubble paper , plastic grocery bags, and scrap fabric since I did not have a lot of any of them.

I was lucky enough to be able to put mine on a stand and tape it to the stand for stability. So now I have a wonderful dress dummy on a stand for around 10 bucks. That's about what it would have cost for 1 new shirt. Now I can make several shirts and maybe even a dress or two for me without the hassle of getting it all done and having to rip out a seam because it doesn't fit right. Yay!!

Wordless Wednesday

All I can think of when I see this picture is just pure BLISS. Thanks to Never Growing Old for the WW linky!

Senior Pictures

Well, this weekend we managed to go get Munchie's pictures taken at the local park. We took about 500 so she had plenty to choose from. There were also Poo, Papi and landscape pictures in there also but she still had plenty. She was very happy with the way they turned out and is very excited about being able to get her graduation invitations out to family and friends. She was having trouble deciding which one to use so she put 10 up on Facebook for voting. After getting so many different responses she went back and decided to give each person the photo they voted on so everyone would have their personal favorite. I thought that was very diplomatic and showed a lot of consideration on her part. I sure am proud of the woman she has grown up to be. Even though I am only her aunt I am just as proud as any momma could be! Here are some of the wonderful pictures we took that didn't make the top 10 but we both loved. All in all we just had a wonderful family day in the park together. The Poo got to play for several hours so she was quite happy and it was just a beautiful day. So sunny with a light breeze, just a perfect day all around.We were lucky enough to get some very good pictures and all get to spend time together. We even went for a little mini hike in the dried up creek bed where we got some of the best pictures of the day.She is making her own graduation invitations as she didn't really like the ones the school had to offer. I can hardly wait to see the finished graduation invitations. I bet she will do a wonderful job on them. She is very artistic and has good vision for the finished product. I am just so excited!!

No Internet

Just a quick note to say our internet has been down for a few days. It really sucked but now we are up and running again! Still not sure exactly what happened but I will get back to blogging soon. We have a busy weekend coming, we are planning to get the garden planted, the trees trimmed and brush removed. Hopefully I will get some pictures to share :)

It's a PARADE !

On Saturday we all got up early and drove to Dublin, the home town of Dr. Pepper. Why did we do this you ask? Well, they had a big St. Patrick's Day parade.The Poo had never seen a parade this big so it was sure to be an experience.

Granny M took us all to a wonderful breakfast and then we walked outside to watch the festivities. We had quite a car full and everyone had a wonderful time! The Poo enjoyed waving at all the people who were going by and seeing the princesses in their gowns on the decorated floats. She also ended up with a TON of candy which they were throwing from the floats. Sissy was kind enough to help her get the candy that was too far into the street for her to reach and all candies were then divided. The Poo came out with the lions share. It was wonderful to see the excitement on her little face as the parade came by with horses and music. She was amazed by all of it. She cheered and waved and laughed at all the floats and ponies.

We spent the rest of the day playing with loved ones and then had a cook out to end the evening. She sure was one tired little girl last night. I think she even fell asleep smiling.