Birthdays

We have had a few birthdays in our family!  At the end of April, I turned 35.  That's right - I'm not afraid to admit my age! :) At least not yet...

Jerry brought home roses for my birthday.

I requested Saltgrass Steakhouse for my birthday lunch, so we went after church with my parents! It was so very yummy - I had to get a picture so I could remember how yummy it was.

My children were with me in the jewelry store a few weeks before my birthday, and since I am all baby girl all the time right now, I of course, had to look at the little girl jewelry before I could leave.  I saw a little girl necklace that was the shape of a shell with a small diamond in the center.  I exclaimed how great that would be for Hannah since her name means "beautiful shell." Lo and behold, he told Jerry about this necklace so my boys and Jerry went and got me the necklace for my birthday!  Technically it is a gift for Hannah, but it is so incredibly sweet that Aaron remembered that I exclaimed over it and told Jerry and they went and found it for me.  A perfect birthday.

Then Aaron turned 9! I cannot believe my firstborn is already 9.  Time really does go so quickly.  He and Ethan alternate years having a party, so this year he just had a family over for some play and pizza.  He requested a Resees cake, so I made him a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting with chopped Resees on top.  It was amazingly good.  So good I think we have to throw out the rest of it so that I do not eat every last bite...

He decided to spike his hair into a mohawk just for his big day.  Lovely, no?

Finally, one of my grandmothers (my mom's mom) turns 80 this weekend! Her whole family is throwing a huge (like over 100 guests!) surprise party for her. I really hope she doesn't have a heart attack from such a shock at her age... ;) Anyway, with all the adoption stuff going on right now, there was no way we could make a trip to Wisconsin to be there with her, but I did have the privilege of making her a chair back cover for her big day! I embroidered "Birthday Girl" on one side and "Kiss me, I'm 80!" on the other.  I hope she likes it!

Catching Up

It has been a long time since I really posted anything of value here...Can I pull the, "I have been really busy - feeling overwhelmed, actually - and this new little baby is reeking havoc with my stomach!" card? Will you have sympathy on me then?

So, regardless, I have done a few things lately that are somewhat blogworthy. First of all, I got new spring shoes! That's right, shoes. I loved the ones you posted recently, and mine are the same style. I wear these almost all the time now.

I know some people wouldn't like the second pair because it shows the toe cleavage. I never knew that toes could have "cleavage" per say. It is actually kind of nice to know, because for me, it is the only kind of cleavage I will ever have! I had never thought about this apparently horrifying problem until I shopped for shoes at Target.com and read the comments on some of the shoes available. You wouldn't believe how many people are unable to wear a pair of shoes that shows their toe cleavage. Yet, I imagine that these very same people would wear a pair of open sandals...scandalous, isn't it? (Or should I say "sandalous"?)


I also made a baby buggy cake for a joint baby shower for two of my friends who are both in my Sunday School class. They are due just a couple weeks apart, and both are having baby boys. I think the cake turned out well, but I was so disappointed because almost no one showed up to the shower so we had about 4 times as much cake as we needed. I took it to church the next morning to allow the guys in our class to eat some and still most of it was left. We then moved it down to where the youth group meets. They were done and milling around, heading to the service, but some of them ate it and about half of my cake got eaten. The other half got fed to the trash can. How sad. People said it tasted good, but now I am beginning to wonder.

I did make some really cut gifts for these friends, though. And I know they'll get thoroughly used! I went with some onesies and a burp cloth for each. I also made some washcloths for one of them since I had a separate shower to go to for her since she is also in my Bible Study group. I'll post those on Mothers of Invention.

Finally, I broke down and bought one of these:

Yes, I bought a Swiffer Wet Jet. I really cannot believe I did, either, because I have always been fundamentally opposed to paying for something that I have to continue to pay for more and more somethings to continue to use. I think it is a great idea for the manufacturer, but not so great for the consumer. But here's the thing - I am sick of pulling out a disgusting mop that looks like it is full of bacteria to "clean" my floor. Every mop I buy breaks, or gets discontinued right about the time I need a replacement head for it. I know that I could regularly bleach the mop head and all of that, but I am lazy. I thought that especially with children crawling on the floor, it would be nice if it was actually clean. And we have a cat...need I say more? So my mom had already gone to the dark side and bought one of these a while back and last week she brought it over so that I could "just try it out." And what do you know? I really liked it. It is fast, easy, and really gets up stuck on dirt. Not that my floor ever has stuck on dirt, but that is what I have been told. So when I saw a $3 off coupon in the paper this last Sunday, I considered it to be divine revelation that I was supposed to buy it. And :::gasp::: I like it. There, I said it.

Where We Homeschool

So I've seen people putting up where they homeschool, so I'll pitch in. Here is where we do all our written work and crafts:

But for everything that is not written (Bible, reading, history, read-aloud's) we are here instead:

I also thought it would be fun to show you Jerry's "cosmic retribution" from Valentine's Day morning! Would you rather change a flat or go to the dentist???

Also, I am getting fewer and fewer orders for "cutesy" stuff, and more for the chic designs. I just did a blanket Friday that is simply a monogram, and it is so cute. It is similar to the one burp cloth I made for Lily. The lady who ordered it loved it and thinks that the woman she bought it for will love it too.

And since this post is already totally random and full of many, many things, I'll add one more! I made one of my absolute favoirte crock pot recipes today. We had two other families come over for lunch after church, so I wanted something that could be ready when we got home. This recipe pleases every time. I would have taken a picture, but there is none left!

Chicken Soft Tacos

1 1/2 lbs. frozen chicken

1 can rotel tomatoes

1 pkg. taco seasoning

Simply put the frozen chicken (yes, still frozen) in the crock pot. Sprinkle the packet of taco seasoning on top, and then pour the tomatoes on top of that. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. When it is cooked, shred the chicken and serve!

Dare I say, "Easy Peasy"?

The Importance of Good Stablizer

You would think that after 5 years of running an embroidery business that I would have learned everything there is to learn about it already. Yet I still learn. For instance, I re-learned a lesson I forgot about when I was making the onesie for little Jack. Good stablizer makes all the difference in the world! I get away with using really cheap stablizer (butcher paper to be exact) on my burp cloths, blankets, and security blankies because the fabric is sturdy and doesn't really need much other than somehting to hold the fabric still while the machine does its thing. Not so with stretch knit fabric! I learned when I was doing bibs that I need a good stablizer on the back of the bib and a water soluble clear stablizer on the top of the bib in order to get the graphic to stitch properly without the fabric moving all over the place while it stitches. I figured that it needed stablizer on top and on bottom because there were two layers of knit together in the bib. Well, it turns out that any knit, even 1-ply knit needs both! Here's a picture of the onesie with only bottom stablizer (and a good, expensive one at that):


Notice how the outline doesn't match up at all with the frog legs! Now look at the onesie when I use a top stablizer as well:
Now you can still see the clear stuff on there because I hadn't washed it yet when I tok the picture, but look how much better it is! I tel you that I wouldn't be able to sell any knit stuff if there wasn't this water-soluble stablizer. I think this onesie turned out really nice. Do you think Tina will like it?


And I thought you might enjoy seeing the holes in the wall I found.
Hole with partial hole started above it.

Wall dent from metal fighter jet.

So I found out that Aaron is the culprit on the holes. When I went into their room to put Ethan down for his nap this afternoon, the hole on the bottom is much bigger and perfectly round and the bit you can see poking out on top is now a full white circle too. I was so shocked. When I asked Ethan about it, he said Aaron did it and Aaron confirmed that to be true. He said he just picked the "blue stuff" off. "Blue stuff? You mean the wall???" Yeah. Bye, bye wall. I think Jerry will make him pay for the repair plaster with his chore money. I don't want to severly punnish him because he did tell the truth, but there needs to be some consequence.

So we need to start a homeschool discussion here soon. What are you doing for Sarah next year?? I am starting to think about what to do with Aaron. I don't want to order the next package from Sonlight yet because Ethan needs one more year to do it with him and I want to combine them on it. I have been looking at other kindergarten stuff and have many, many thoughts!