Fruit Sculptures

Here is the latest fruit sculpture. I made this bumble bee for Connie's twins' 3rd birthday. Just like the last sculpture, the base for the bee is two styrofoam half circles covered in foil and then covered in pineapple. I was going to use blueberries for the black part, but didn't have fresh berries handy and frozen ones would have been a mess. So I got black licorice. And stuck it with toothpicks, pushing them just far enough to make them invisible. The eyes and antennae & stinger are licorice too. The wings are made out of tissue paper gathered with a twist tie.

Things I learned last week

1) Church Community Appreciation Days = free lunch/dinner (depending what time you arrive...we found that arriving around 3 p.m. you can basically count the meal as both lunch and dinner) and free fun for kids. Had we not been homeless, Kaiya would not have had the opportunity to have her first pony ride.



2) Earth's Best Organic Teething Biscuits = peace and quiet while out to eat. We ate out for every meal and these things rock.

3) The public library does not become boring to a 2 year old. Ever. No matter how much time you spend there.

4) On a serious note -- I never ever want to be homeless. I found myself in a mood several times during our "ordeal" last week and really had trouble snapping out of it. Nothing seemed to be going right. I'm not sure the point exactly that it clicked for me, but I remember thinking that my family was together, all healthy and alive, and that is all that matters. I can't imagine having to worry about where the next meal for my children was coming from, having no way to protect them from the elements, etc. That is reality for many people in our country as well as overseas.

5) One of the areas that I need to grow in is how I deal with my expectations. When I get in my mind that something is going to go a certain way: For example... I am going to move all my stuff into the house on Thursday. And then for some reason, I don't get to move my stuff in, I get in a cranky mood. I don't have quite as much trouble dealing with people who don't live up to my expectations, for some reason it is just circumstances that tend to dictate my mood. I'm going to try and make a conscious effort to work on this. It is not something that I want to pass on to my children. Circumstances do not have control over feelings. I choose how I feel.

Better close for now. Tomorrow is church shopping day #1.

Proud to be an American

Like many other Republicans this election, I wasn't extremely excited about John McCain. Regardless of my lack of enthusiasm, I knew I would vote for him because of his stand on things that I value. Since the convention, however, I am really excited about the Republican ticket. I'm excited about Sarah Palin -- she's kind of like a breath of fresh air. After watching John McCain's acceptance speech and viewing footage from September 11th again yesterday, I feel proud of our country's decision to go to war. A friend sent me this video via e-mail and I wanted to post it.



I heard a news anchor remembering yesterday how they were reporting that after September 11th stores were selling out of American Flags. It seemed everywhere we went we would see the red, white & blue... on cars, homes, stores, etc. Where have the flags gone? I'm planning on getting one this weekend.

Our new house

It's been quite a week. We arrived Saturday night and Tony had found a hotel for us to stay in until he heard from the property management group that we had been approved for the rental house. We heard from them Tuesday night and got the keys on Wednesday. We didn't have time Wednesday to get our stuff moved out of storage so we got a few essentials... air mattress, pack 'n' play, etc. to get by for a night. Wednesday evening... our first in the house I spotted a lovely cockroach on the kitchen counter. ICK! If you remember our house in Florida and the scorpions and ants you might wonder, like us, what is with the BUGS? After talking to a few neighbors, they assured us that it happens from time to time and has to do with the weather this time of year. Plus our house being vacant for a while. The property management company hired and exterminator and they are spraying the house as I type this. Anyway... we decided to hold off moving our things in until after the bugs are treated. So, later this afternoon Tony and some movers will get everything in. I can't wait.

The house is PERFECT for us! Here's a link to the details and some photos of the home. Just a few notes... the bright pink striped room is now painted a light pink/peach. The turquoise/pink room is now painted baby blue. Perfect for us!

Internet will be installed later this week, so the posts will be sparse until then.

Summer Memories

We made a ton of memories this summer living near family. The pictures below of Kaiya visiting miniature ponies with Nannie. I found out over the weekend that we'll be heading to Charlotte on Saturday. This Saturday! :) We are excited and sad at the same time. It's been a wonderful summer. I'll post pictures once we arrive. I don't know anything about our housing situation. Tony's taking care of everything. And it remains a mystery for now...

Cedar Point

While Tony's brother was home on leave from Iraq, the entire family went to Cedar Point. We had such a blast. Think Six Flags times 10. Bigger, better rides and a huge park. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip. Kaiya was a little shy on the first ride, but she warmed up pretty quick...

No hands!

Kaleb had the time of his life...

And the best ride I've been on in a really long time... Top Thrill Dragster. This 12 second ride took like 15 minutes to wipe the smiles off our faces. Check this out...

Why Ruthie is a great photographer

These photos were taken 2 weeks ago when my sister Ruthie came home for a visit (Thanks Chris!). It was great to see her -- we miss her a lot. But seriously -- doesn't she take good pictures? She is still learning... but I think she has a future in photography for sure. She really captures the moment. And to me... those are the best kind of pictures.

Kaleb getting some Mimi love.

Papa & Kaiya

Bekah & Brent w/ Ziggy & Katie

Eating a graham cracker... the only part of a S'More Kaiya can have... :)

Sweet Feet

I've been in a funk lately. For a number of reasons I suppose. I think the main thing is that I am ready for my family to be back together. With the exception of a week in June and a week in July, we've been apart from Tony since the first of June. It's starting to wear on everybody! Tony is house hunting this week -- so you can pray specifically that he would find just what we need (3 bedrooms, fenced yard (okay... that's a bonus), within 10 minutes from the office, allowing Money Bags (cat) and in our price range).

In other depressing news... I lost one of my side stone diamonds. And... despite the fact that I had all my prongs checked at the jewelry store and work done on it 4 weeks ago, they will not replace it for me. I'm pretty bummed about it. The jeweler did agree to put a synthetic stone in for me until I have the $$ to get a real one back in. But I'm still pretty annoyed with him.

I haven't had anything pleasant to blog about for awhile so I've been waiting. And finally yesterday some happiness... family pictures we got taken in July turned out GREAT!

Garage Sales

Had to post a picture of my latest strange garage sale find. Couldn't pass it up for 50 cents. I'm sure my husband will love me for getting him such an awesome shirt.

I had no idea...

By the way... he will NOT be wearing this in public. :)

Bath Boy

Would the real Slim Shady please SIT DOWN?

Please SIT down. Please SIT down. This is my 7 month old standing up... he lost interest in crawling after a week. Heaven help me.

People who annoy me, pt. 1

I'm making this post a part 1 because I just have the sneaking suspicion that I will find a few more people in life that annoy me and will warrant a blog post about it.

This post is for those people who don't control their pets. The following scenario has happened to me twice now:

Standing in line checking out at the pet store. The next thing I know Kaiya has been licked from chin to forehead by the ugliest, most slobbery dog on the planet. And the owner, who has the dog on the leash is not intervening!!! As I scoop Kaiya up and hold the line up while I wash her face with baby wipes, the owner laughs -- "oh you silly dog," not apologizing or acknowledging that their animal just french kissed my child. I think they think that it is so cute that their dog loves kids so much.

Two times this has happened to me!!! And the best part is that you KNOW had my child pulled their dog's tail they would have asked me to get control of my child. I think I am going to start giving Kaiya self-defense lessons against canines. And I promise I'm not a dog hater... this just annoys me. :)

Anyone else have funny kid/animal stories?

Nothing says summer fun like...

...finger painting...

...your entire body.
...5 kids in a kiddie pool.

...a serious game of t-ball.

Water Park

How is it that I have been a month behind in blogging this summer? It's crazy... and I'm going to catch up one of these days. Mid-July we joined friends on a trip to the water park. Baby Aeva turned "1" and so we went to the park to celebrate. Although Kaiya had no idea what a water park was she couldn't sleep out of excitement and was still mumbling "wa-wa park" at 10:30 p.m. Turns out that it was more than she could imagine and she had a BLAST. About halfway through our day I realized that I could put a life vest on her and she could manage riding on a two-person intertube with me down the big slides. They won't let me hold her, but she can sit on the middle section of the two person tube and I can wrap my legs around her. Once we figured that out, she really had fun. She was quiet as a mouse the whole way down the slide and when we flew out the bottom she just started cracking up. Giggles over and over... and she wanted to go again. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Rachel & Connie

Kaiya in an over-sized life vest

And... we've been hearing about the wa-wa park for weeks now. She has a new doll house w/ little dolls and she piles the whole family into the car. If you ask her where they are going... 9 times out of 10 they are headed to the wa-wa park. :)