Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A "summer scarf"


Here is a summer scarf I found on Pinterest today. It looked so easy I just had to try it.

Here is my version...



Here is the Pinterest version...

 
  Yeah mine needs a little fluff.  But I thought it turned out ok.  Hopefully if I wash it, it'll fluff out a bit?!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Our family has grown by 4 feet!! YEs you read that right....4 more feet!!!

Meet Oishii.  He is a 9 week old Akita puppy.  He was rescued by the Warm Hearts Humane Society in Arkansas.  The same rescue we got Phantom from, and he was with the same foster mom.  His was a gift to his previous owner, from her daughter.  She soon realized she could not take care of him and was dumping him in the Petco parking lot.  No-bets do not make good gifts.  Unless you are an adult giving your child the gift of a forever friend.

That is where our family comes in.  My kids have loved Phantom and I really wanted to give Phantom a companion.  It just so happens this little puppy showed up just in time for Christmas, but I couldn't wait until Christmas to bring him home.  So here he is a little early.  What a great Christmas gift for Phantom, and the entire family. 

He is not yet housebroken so that will be a challenge.  Luckily we started our Christmas break this weekend so we have this week to work on housebreaking and then its full days of work for me for the next two weeks.

Anyway, my niece and I drove to Mount Ida, Arkansas-yes a 6 hour drive- on Saturday afternoon.  We met Oishii and his foster mom and fell in love.  He is so adorable, little and fuzzy.  We stayed at a cabin at Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa.  It was wonderful!  It was a beautiful setting and filled with Christmas lights.  Phantom and Oishii got along great until Oishii ate out of Phantom's food bowl. 

We took a long walk with Phantom and Oishii's foster mom and her 11 year old Akita.  Just enough to tucker the dogs out for the long drive home.  The dogs did great on the drive home. I got the dogs home and settled and then left to pick up the kids.

It was GREAT!! They were so excited and appreciative.  They kept saying "Thanks Mom!!" So sweekt.  JoAnna thinks she can carry him around like a little rag doll.  Jace also tries to pick him up, but even at 9 weeks this Akita pup is still a handful for my little 3 year old. 

So here are a few pics from the cabin, the ride home and the introduction to the kids.  There will be plenty more photos/videos to come!!!









Monday, November 26, 2012

Christmas 2013

Here are some Christmas pictures for 2013...






Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Susan G. Komen 3day Event-Atlanta 2012!!

AMAZING!!!
UNFORGETABLE!!!! 
INCREDIBLE!!!! 
My 3 words to describe the 3day event!! This was my first Susan G. Komen 3day event!  We trained for months, raised money for months (ok my sister raised most of my money for me). It was such a wonderful experience!!!  We were so excited to arrive in Atlanta on the day before the walk began.  We had a great dinner full of carbs! We woke up bright and early the day of the walk.  Full of anticipation. Prepared to walk 60 miles over the next three days.  The four of use boarded our shuttle with bags overflowing!!! 
After a 25 minute ride, we arrived!!  We were greeted by cheers from the Youth Corps! They were lining both sides of the entryway, cheering us on and giving us high fives.  
Opening ceremonies began about 7:30am.  It didn't take long and we were fighting back tears. The flags were presented and they lead us to the starting line.  There were almost 1600 walkers present so it took us a while to get to the starting line.  
I cannot describe in words what we experienced the next three days.  It was a feeling like no other.  We walked 60 miles in 3 days along side some of the most amazing people I have ever met.  Our Atlanta CREW was AMAZING!!! They were dancing, singing and cheering in the streets.  They were the spark that kept us safely going on our journey.  I am not great with words, so here are pictures to describe our journey......

Opening Ceremonies.... inspiring.

Some of our AMAZING CREW! They were so much fun and so encouraging.




One of the many cheer leaders along our route! Atlanta really came out and supported us on our journey.  They provided snacks, drinks, motrin, and encouragement!!
Another member of OUR AMAZING CREW!! She was one of the first crew members we encountered on Day 1.  She rode her motorcycle up and down the route, playing her music loud and singing along!! So much fun!!

 
Here we are on Day 3 posing in Piedmont Park! Beautiful park!!

 This is Richard.  I learned about his story on FB after we returned home from the 3day Event.  He was a lot of fun on the route. He danced and sang and kept us moving along safely.  He is a third generation breast cancer survivor.  His father and grandfather had breast cancer.  He had a mastectomy at the age of 14! Can you imagine?! I believe he is now 65. Can you imagine, 51 years ago,  having breast cancer at the age of 14, having a mastectomy, and being male??? How difficult that must have been for a 14 year old kid.


 OUR AMAZING CREW!!  They were all dressed up and full of encouragement!!


 Our tents inside the convention center.  yes we were spoiled.  I think they have had bad weather in Atlanta the last few years so they have been camping indoors for this event. Lucky us!!




 Sara admiring the wall of inspiration!!




 Amy treating her blisters on Day 3.  yeah, we were unable to avoid those blisters.


 Some of our CREW at lunch on DAY 3


 Another one of our FABULOUS CREW members!!


 Day 2. PitStop ??? 

 End of Day2. 




  
More of our supporters in Atlanta!! They were amazing!!!  This was one of our favorite stops...they 
  
Amy going up the escalator on Day3
 
 We thought we had struck GOLD when we passed supporters with open coolers of caffeine!!!! 

  
 The finish line!!! 


Marissa helping Amy out with her shoe laces. At this point bending over is a luxury for most of the 3day walkers-but Marissa must have had her V8 this morning...lol.

Shoe salute!!!



You can make a donation to my 3day event at  the3day Atlanta 2013


Monday, October 15, 2012

Introducing...Phantom!!

We got a new dog!! An Akita!! His name is Phantom, he is a rescued dog.  He is 2 years old and already weighs 106 pounds!!!  I drover 4 hours yesterday to pick him up and then 4 hours home!! It was well worth the drive!  He is beautiful and so great with the kids.  Jace, my three  year old wouldn't have anything to do with him at first but he quickly warmed up to him and actually petted him a few times.

Phantom quickly found the mud hole in our yard-created by our neighbor.  (if you don't know that story-you will have to catch up on it later).

So needless to say I will have to get some sand to take care of the mud hole, because Keith said Phantom LOVED running around in the back yard.  I haven't seen him run yet, I was busy unloading all his stuff from the truck.  Yes I went crazy Friday buying stuff for him.  I think most of it will be going back since his foster owner was kind enough to give us a collar and leash.

Here are a few pictures and many more to come!!







the3day EVENT!!!

Its almost here!!! In three days we will be leaving for Atlanta and in four days we will begin our 60 mile journey.  We will be walking to erase breast cancer.  Its been a fun journey so far and I cannot wait for the3day event!!  

Thanks to everyone that has donated and has been a part of this journey.  

Come back for details and pictures of our journey!!!

This past weekend we walked 20 miles on Saturday as a test run. It was a lot of fun and definitely a learning experience!!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Hurricane Isaac

So schools in the area I work closed at 11:30 a.m. today.  That means we shuffled kids to the daycare and then closed at1p.m.  It was a little crazy since the storm didn't reach us until well into the evening but i guess they had expected it to come faster.

Oh well.  The kids and I enjoyed a break from school work-although we did count it a school day because we had "art class".  My kids LOVE to paint.  So anytime I get my paints out they have to get theirs out too!  So I gave them each a small canvas and let them at it.  It was great to see what they came up with.  I found a great idea on Pinterest I want to try next time we have a paint day.  I will need to find bigger canvas' for them though.... stay tuned!!!

So while I was combing the internet for inspiration for my canvas', I found this great idea on a blog.
Its called "Birthday Bags".  Every year on their child's birthday they gather birthday party supplies: cake mix, icing, candles, paper products, etc.  They place it in a bag and then deliver it to a local charity for distribution.  WHAT a FAB idea!!  I am always asking that people don't bring gifts anyway-what a great tradition to start with my kids.  It'll just add to the point I am trying to make about gifts-I want birthdays to be about celebration-not about the gifts. So we can take it one step further and help make another child's birthday brighter!!  Just like the blogger mentions, I never thought about under privileged kids not having birthday parties.  I have thought about them not having gifts-but never thought about the party.  So I think this will be a great idea.

Susan G. Komen 3-day Fundraiser

We are having a Zumbathon today to raise money for the Susan G. Komen 3-day.  We are giving away door prizes.  My sister already picked up a few of my pieces, but I thought a few pieces related to the cause might be nice too.  Especially since I woke up at 1:30am (that's what happens when you drink Red Bull with your dinner!)  So here are the pieces I started and finished tonight.







Field trip to the Old Capitol Building

Despite what my lovely five year old daughter says, we DID take a field trip today-even though we did not ride a bus. LOL. We took a trip to the Old Capitol building.  Although I don't know much about government, they did have a good time.   Next time we will take Daddy with us, although for 7 and 5 years old they learned enough for now anyway.





Friday, August 31, 2012

Art Room/School Room Redo

So I have had one BIG table for our art/school room.  Hasn't been working well.  It takes up the entire middle of the floor, its difficult to walk from one side of the room to the other when everyone is working, the kids distract each other, etc.  So I decided to make 3 small desks instead of the large table.  I didn't want to cut the large table top we had in case we wanted it for another project or my FIL wanted it back.  So I found the perfect size at Lowe's AND it was already cut!! yeah I probably paid a bit more for it precut, but it was the perfect size and easy.  I was in/out in about ten minutes!!

So as soon as I got home I started moving stuff around.  I am a bit of a hoarder! Yes I do admit it.  I have TONS of scrapbooking supplies but haven't scrapbooked much since we moved to this house 4 years ago.  I also love crafting, so I have a rubbermaid bin OVERFLOWING with stuff I WANT to make.  Yeah it's sitting right under my table.  Will have to weed through that fast as it is obstructing Jacob's desk at the moment.

Anyway, here are a few before...

I am so not organized-its a work in progress!

The massive table which I thought would be perfect-it was a mess, I just cleaned it off.


To the left is MY work table. To the right is a dresser FULL of stuff.



So as you can see it pretty much takes up the entire room.  Actually this isn't how I had it originally, this set up actually gave us a little more moving room.  But it left one side of the table and one book shelf unreachable.  So after much planning and still no organizing...

Here is Jacob and JoAnna's desk with my work table in the middle of them.


 Here is the opposite wall.  Actually on the other side of this wall is a coat closet, which I would LOVE to  open up to this room and put all this stuff in the closet and relocate the shelf and armoire.  I still have a lot of organizing to do.  But I hope with the new set up I can get that done quickly.  Maybe this next week I will work on the shelving in the closet AND then maybe knocking a hole in the wall!!!!

Here is Jace's lonely shelf.  He is only 2-soon to be 3 and isn't doing much school.  But I will have to pull our little table out of the garage for him.  He will probably be upset with me when he wakes up in t he morning.  He will feel a little left out I am sure.