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Monday, November 30, 2009

Zoo Lights

So much fun! Not a lot of good pictures since it was dark- but lots of fun anyway!Lily says her favorite part of the Zoo Lights were the Sharks in the aquarium. Where there weren't any lights. For real.
They loved this little playground and it was even more fun because it was really dark.


Lily and I sharing a snail shell awww...so cute!



Decorating for Christmas

Oooh-What's in this box?Lily loves the Nativity SetLily decorates the tree
Floyd is not sure he likes the Nativity set- it's invading his space.
On Friday we brought out all of our Christmas Decorations and spent the day decorating. We needed a few things and actually braved Target- which didn't turn out to be so bad. Lily picked out a small sand filled toy- then decided at the last minute she wanted another Elephant instead. I put the little sand toy in the cart (without her seeing), thinking it would be a good one to put in her stocking. It was not meant to be however since the cashier (off all the things we got) couldn't get that one to scan. I was trying to distract Lily so she wouldn't see but it didn't work. She was super excited to get two toys that day! What luck! They were both only dollar or two each- but really- out of everything in the cart the one item I'm trying to be covert about is the one that won't scan. Sheesh. Anyway. Target wasn't too busy and we got what we needed. Now the countdown begins...

25 days until Christmas!

*****
Lily: Mommy what kind of day is it?
Mommy: What do you mean?
Lily: Is it still Turkey day?
Mommy: Nope- Turkey day is over. Next...Christmas is coming.
Lily: But where is Christmas?

*****
Lily: I have an enormously huge butt...heheeehhee. I'm hilarious.
Lily: Oh Floyd- you little meatball!
*****
I hope everyone had a marvelous Thanksgiving and I can't wait to see you all this Holiday Season!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are having a very Happy Thanksgiving- filled with lots of family, friends, and of course good food!

This year I can't pick just one thing to be thankful for- there is just too much good in my life. I am thankful for:
My Dad and Step mom for living so close and helping out with Lily whenever I need it- and for letting me do laundry at their house too!

Thanks Joeleen and Dat for introducing me to some of your friends and letting me hang out. It has been so amazing to meet new people and Friday night dinners have been so fun. I hope I can keep up with those soon.

Thanks to my brother John for making the smart choice of not trying to live in the Alaskan wilderness until he and his friend get a little more acclimated to Alaska in general. I'm so thankful he's alive and well but still working toward fulfilling his dreams.

Of course I am thankful for all of the blessings in my life- a job, a home, and to be able to afford the things we need.

I am thankful to the rest of my family and friends for always being there when I need them- whether it be a phone call or a visit. I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have so much back-up support and people to listen to me vent after a tough day.

And who could forget the apple of my eye- my reason for getting up and going in the morning- I am more than thankful for my sweet daughter Lily-quirkiness and all. Even though I can't say I am happy about all the things I have gone through in my life to get to the point I am at now- I can't really regret any of it because I have her. Love you sweetie!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Fun at the Library

Lily loves the computer and games they have at our local library. She can't use the mouse too much yet so she tells me what she wants and I click for her. The headphones are pretty cute on her too.

We love hanging out there because they have so much more than just books. We find all kinds of interesting movies, music, puppets and stories on CD as well. They have story times too but those are usually on the weekdays. She plays on the computer and they have a little play area too. We go every week and she always has fun going. I hope that by doing this she learns to love learning and reading as much as I do.

PS- Sorry about the cryptic post the other day. I can't say much of anything yet other than that we are both doing ok and I'll let you know more as soon as I can. Thanks to everyone for your suppport- we love you!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

One day at a time.

Five and a half years ago I lost nearly everything I believed was important in my life. My feet were kicked out from under me and the shoddy foundation I had attempted to build in my life collapsed-all in one fell swoop. There was nothing left beneath me to catch my fall. It took some serious help from many sources to pull myself out of a very black hole- of depression and hopelessness- and ultimately an absolute feeling of failure.

Today, again, I was shaken to my very core with completely unexpected news. Once again I felt my insides completely ripped out- things I held as true- torn down. The rug was pulled out and I fell. I had failed at protecting the most important thing in my life.

But I didn't fall too far. I held out my hand and caught myself. I have surrounded myself with people who absolutely back me up 100%. I can trust them, I can trust their support. Family, friends, co-workers- there when I needed it the most. I got up. Myself. And I can do this. I can make it through- one day- one step at a time. I know I can.

I have spent the last five years healing and breaking and healing again. I'd never been sure how much progress I had really made. I've always worried- will it happen again? Could I go back to that dark place again and not be able to find my way back? Now I know. I have laid a strong foundation in my life. I have what I need to make it through the really tough days- or weeks- whatever it takes.

I guess that's growing up. I guess that's life.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Fishes

Lily likes to look at all the fishes at the pet store. We stopped by there on my day off on Wednesday and I think we spent a good half hour looking at the fishes. Lily asked the Employee all about what she was doing and what the fish were doing. Ever curious, right? Then we went to see the kitties they had. They had a black one that looked like Floyd and Lily said, "Look it's Floyd's brother! What is he doing here?"

******
Heard at our house:

I am certainly ready for a swim!

Mom! Only babies like Winnie the Pooh ( I almost cried when she said that.)

Mommy- you smell like Auntie Joeleen's house.

I'm wonderful at telling stories!

******
Floyd taking a swipe at the pumpkin I was about to cook.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Apparently I'm so popular that I need a comment moderator

As if I get a lot of comments or anything. I have now changed my settings to review comments before they are posted because of some jerk-o posting spam in the comments(see previous post). That just freaking ticks me off. Grr. I'm mad- and you won't see your comment on the blog until I approve it. Sorry. Stupid spammers.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lily Helps

Lily uses the screwdriver to "fix" her school bus. That's my girl.

I love how she really wants to get involved in stuff like this. As long as it isn't mud- she wants to get down and dirty. She loves trucks and cars and trains and playing with sticks. She picks up leaves and digs in the sand. She loves helping me mix when we cook and loves to put rice or flour or oatmeal in a pan for her to squish/mix/dig/run cars through. She wants to know how things work and never ceases to amaze me!

Don't ask me why she doesn't have any pants. To her, clothes are always optional (at home at least).

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Holiday Cards

I made some Holiday Cards today as a gift for my Step Mom for her birthday- well her birthday was October 8th but I gave her an IOU for handmade cards. They were the project at the top of my list and my goal was to get them done this weekend so I can start all my Christmas projects next week. Luckily making a set where all the cards are mostly the same goes pretty quickly- once the design is settled- it is just a matter of "mass" production.This is the original design. I got some nice cardstock from a co-worker that I knew would be perfect. I needed the design to be pretty simple so I could make an entire set without breaking the bank. I looked at a couple of designs on some scrapbooking sites and came up with a simple snowflake design- not too Christmas-ey but still festive. This is the paper I chose. It is a handmade navy blue paper- very lightweight- with small gold tinsel throughout- that I got at a garage sale over the summer. So pretty. The pictures don't quite capture the navy color though.
My idea was to lightly stencil snowflakes randomly all over the paper- then use a snowflake stickeras a focal point on each panel (one large and two small). But when I finished the stenciling the snowflakes they seemed too contrastive (is that a word?). I tried to thin the paint but then the stenciling came out blurry. Then I had the idea of spraying some paint over the snowflakes. I used the spray top from Lily's hair detangler and some thinned out acrylic paint.
Here is the result. I think the paper came out amazing. I was very pleased with this spray experiment and I'll definitly use it again.

Then the assembly was relatively simple. After I cut the blue paper into the panels and mounted it on it's carstock- I put them together using some foam squares and circles to add some dimension.Finally I tested the Stamp "Happy Holidays" in a couple of inks to see which one would work best. I ended up choosing gold. I wanted to do blue but for some reason my blue ink does not work well with the new Acrylic stamps(rather than the old rubber kind). I think the gold stamp helped to tie in the tinsel in the paper though.Final Product. I originally was going to do some glitter at the edges like snow/wind blowing (you can kind of see it in the design picture) but I ended up making the card a little smaller and didn't have room for anything else. I think it would have actually been too busy with anything else since the Navy paper had a little more detail than I originally anticipated.