*pat,pat,pat* Anyone out there?

Sorry, but like I said this is a crazy month. Hopefully soon I can post some pictures. One is of a purse Holly made herself. I'm quite proud of her creativity. Then as soon as it's finished a dress I'm working on. My first piece of clothing to ever sew! And then as long as I remember to do it before she leaves for her mom's, the bag I made Holly for her summer fun kit.

Summer vacation officially started for us this week. And so far it's been great. First we enjoyed Memorial Weekend with my fabulous friend Charisse coming into town with her family for a few days. They are gone now leaving the house feeling very empty!

Then we spent a fun evening at my friend Tina's enjoying her apartment's pool (that is one of the few things I miss about living in apartments).

And then just various other activities.

Sorry this is short, but Larry is headed back into town and we are going to take Holly to see Up before she leaves with her stepdad to spend the first half of summer with her mom and that side of the family.

But here is a picture of her from last night at her now former school at Movies with Mom night in the gym.

Crazy Busy

This week I am cramming a weeks worth of chores into two days. And I have had success! As we speak I am waiting to finish my last chore (well not including folding laundry, but I plan to do that while watching Wall-E tonight. that makes it less of a chore). Over half our house is tiled, so I am waiting for the first half to dry so I can move the furniture and mop the other half.
Why am I doing all of this so quickly. Main reason: Charisse is coming to town with her family!!!!! They arrive Thursday morning. I will spend the day with Lorelli so Charisse and Rob can get some sleep after driving all night.
So why do I have to have my chores finished by today? Well got an e-mail from Lori needing some help this week with Lucas. So tomorrow I am watching him for the day. YAY! Two days in a row with two of my favorite little ones!!
Hopefully tonight I will be able to finish or almost finish Holly's bag for her summer activity kit I am surprising her with. Then tomorrow during Lucas naps and tomorrow evening I can hopefully get a couple chew blankets made for Holly to give as an end of the year gift to her teacher. She is expecting this coming fall. This way it can be an original, useful, and cheap gift since I already have all the supplies. If not Ucreate had a link to a cute idea of a colored pencil bouquet. Something That won't cost me too much either.
OK, better go check my floor and finish it up before Holly gets here so don't have to worry about dirty feet and wet floors. Hopefully I will have some time soon to AGAIN get caught up on reading my long list of blogs I enjoy.

Check it out!

Click on the banner to the right to find out details to try to win the quilt!! It's gorgous!

Where do you go?

For crafty or other ideas for entertainment for your kids for the summer?

My mom turned me on the the magazine Family Fun a few years ago.

I am going to be pulling out my stack of issues within the next few days and going through them for ideas.

When we were kids, my mom gave my brother and I our summer entertainment kits each year on the first day of summer. What I can remember it containing was a skein of yarn for making our crochet ropes (basicly the same idea as the knifty knitter looms just on a MUCH smaller scale. I guess that's why I enjoy the k.k.'s so much), a new spiral note book for a summer journal, and film for our camera. There were more things, but I can't remember them. I am going to make my own version for Holly this year especially since there is a good chance she will spend the majority of her summer at her mom's since I will hopefully have a job. She normally spends only 4-6 weeks at her mom's. And there isn't a lot for her to do while she is there due to the heat and not having many toys there. So she ends up watching a lot of T.V. I'm hoping this might give her more things to do while she's there.

But I am looking for more ideas of things for her to do while she is here or there. We spend a majority of the summer at the library here, but that is not an easy option for her there. So please send ideas of activities for kids. Especially ones to keep them entertained on their own. (I don't know where her younger sisters will be during the summer. She is closest to the one just younger than her, but I think she may be with her dad or in daycare most of the summer. And her older sister and brother usually hang out together and exclude her when they are together :( ) Or let me know where you go to find ideas for your kids.

Thanks and good luck to all the moms about to be back on steady full time entertainment duty. Especially to those who have to deal with the heat like we do here in Texas.

How do you encourage and still get something you want?

I pulled my youngest out of school for a couple days with all this Swine Flu junk. I'm not overly worried about it, but being without health insurance I have to take a few extra precautions. I can get insurance for her no problem, but Larry and I would be the ones with huge bills. Holly also hasn't had time alone with Larry in a while, so I decided it was a good reason to pack her up and send her for a long weekend with just him. I figure the stuff has been around, but if it was going to show up, it would during this time. I ended up being right. She had Monday scheduled off from school. We were getting her ready that night for field and track day the next day when I got the call the school would be closed for the rest of the week. Thankfully the Health Department has realized they have gone a bit overboard with things and she will be returning to school tomorrow instead of next week. No worries now of being in school for another week into summer.
Anyway, yesterday at lunch time she asked if she could fix my lunch. She wanted to make her specialty special. I was planning on just eating some leftover chili from the other night so it didn't get wasted, so I told her we would see about her making lunch tomorrow.
So a little while ago she asks if I am hungry for lunch yet.
Conversation:
Me - yeah
Holly - Do you want me to make you my Specialty Special?
M - Well that depends on what it is.
H - Well it has chips on it, and a pickle and turkey or ham. And do you like mayonnaise or mustard?
M- What do you mean it has chips and a pickle on it? Is it a sandwich with Turkey, chips and a pickle? And do we have all of these things?
Finally I get her to explain properly she is going to make me a sandwich however I like with what we have here and she planned to put a pickle and chips on the side.
So then she proceeds to make me one the way I request or so I thought. The sandwich ends up with the wrong stuff on it. She made fabulous effort and did it all neatly, but was so excited she miss heard most of what I wanted on it and then what to do with the mess ups so we didn't waste.
Encouraging and still getting something edible when you are really trying to eat better can be hard!
*Noticed last layout made it a bit hard to read the post, lets see how this one works for now.*

Ready for some Changes

With Larry gone a great deal of the time I'm able to keep the house clean. Not a lot to cleaning up after 2 people. Especially when I can still make one clean up after herself with just a look, hehe.
But with all this cleanness, it's got me itching to make changes. We have paint here for the bedrooms, but I can't do that. I'm bad at painting and end up wasting a lot. Larry's an expert at it, so it will have to wait for him to come home. I would love to do some rearranging of furniture, but for some rooms I just can't figure out a better way to place stuff, or for others some of the furniture has been anchored to the wall. And then there is all the stuff that is way to heavy for me. So for now I will stick to changing up the pictures I have out and making a few decorative things. I also decided I would get my fix by changing up my blog. The background, layout, and title. I don't know if I like it all yet, so more changing may come.
There was some drama here this weekend. And some fun too, but it is late and I need to head off to get some rest. I will have to post about it another day. Hopefully though, I can get back to more regular posting soon though. It's that crazy time of year, the end of school quickly coming and tons of activities revolving around that, so don't be upset if it stays rare for a while.

"It's all coming back to me noooow...."

to quote a famous song.
What is it that is coming back to me now, you ask? My old self! Growing up I was always the super happy person. Always smiling, no matter what. Don't get me wrong. I am still very happy. Just that super happy feeling has not been a constant in quite a while. We have dealt with a lot of ups and downs in our marriage and are currently in a down again. Not with each other, but with factors outside of what we can control. But even when those downs turn back into ups, I haven't been back to that constant super happy.
It has bothered me not being like that any more. Many thoughts have run through my head as to what contributes to it. One thing I know that I need to fix is finding a church home. I found one when we moved to Plano, but didn't go like I should and then we moved. I have recently started researching again, but not putting an effort into going and visiting like I should. Just a few here and there. I use everything with our busy life as an excuse for why I haven't done it. I need to make those things wait and start going.
I had figured out some time ago what really has effected my mood change, but due to pure laziness and desire I haven't faced it. The main thing is I am no longer a teenager! I can not eat like one! I also have to actually make an effort to be active and exercise! I have put on quite a bit of weight in the past few years. Part of it is just getting older and my body changing, another is married life, and the last is due to happenings post surgery. Before the surgery I had already put on more weight than I liked just due to growing up. I was just starting to workout and get control of things when BAM! tumor appears. Side effects after kept me inactive almost immobile for a few weeks. It also effected my taste. I suddenly had a constant sour taste in my mouth on the left side (just thinking about it makes it come back). So I ate often to try and cover it up. And then the things that did taste good were super bad for you. Fattening, fried, or sugary. So that set me up for a bad habit and a lot more pounds gained.
I had read that exercising put you in a better mood, and found this to somewhat be true back before the holidays when I was doing good at walking/exercising. I had fallen off that wagon though. I just wasn't getting enough results in the weight or happy departments to keep me going strong. 2 weeks ago yesterday I saw something on T.V. that changed things. I caught the end of a show that had two woman talking about their book. I can't remember the name, but it was a cookbook for better eating. They were also giving tips. One was for a quick tummy reducer. They said for 2 weeks cut out sugar. Obviously this is hard to do since almost everything has sugar. But just really watch how much is in things and cut out sugary snacks, deserts, drinks, and so forth. So I decided to try it. I carry a lot of my weight in my belly and am very conscious of it. The first few days I did it I felt really off. Like I might pass out any minute. Then we had Easter, which is when Larry's mom's family has their family reunion. And passing up on desert just wasn't happening. I took a large amount of desert, but only one. And really it wasn't huge. I noticed though I felt a lot better. So I changed my plan. I didn't cut sugar out completely, but really started paying attention to how much was in things and chose more things that had A LOT less sugar. I am also paying more attention to when I am hungry. Am I wanting food, or a drink, and what time is it? I also noticed that as I eat I become more hungry and when I finish my meal am instantly craving a desert. I have started eating smaller amounts of things at meals and force myself to wait a little bit after eating my main meal to see if I am truly wanting that something sweet. And if I do I make better choices.
This week I have also been a lot more active. I have done a ton of work outside around the house. And Holly and I are now walking most evenings. I took a rest today due to all the rough work the past days, but most week day mornings I do a work out or go walking.
My point to all this: Tonight I was at the computer just poking around until time to go on my walk with Holly when I noticed I was in the super happy mood and I couldn't figure out what had me in it. I had just had a super rough time making dinner. I have bills to deal with, and my hubby is not home and probably won't be for a number more days. So what has me so happy? Oh yeah, this is that feeling I had been hunting for. Constant Super Happy. Thinking about it I realized he had been trying to push his way in for the past few days. I could kind of feel it. WELCOME BACK OLD FRIEND! AND I HOPE YOU STAY AROUND FOR A WHILE! To help I am going to continue my work outs and especially my new eating habits that really aren't too different other than I am learning to take control of the sweet tooth. And I noticed sugar fills me up a lot faster now.
Bonus: I've lost 10 pounds in the last two weeks!!!