Blog?

Book Sharing Monday

2010-06-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

I went to the local library book sale this past Saturday, and I just had to snag this 1970

"The Sesame Street Book of People And Things"

Ben actually really likes it, I'm surprised, cause it's kinda weird. It has a lot of story board panels, like watching the show actually. And 1970 Sesame Street was a lot different than the 2010 version. Cookie Monster was just "Monster"... Kermit was there, which I don't think he is ever on anymore. Maybe he was replaced by Abby, Zoe, and Elmo.

And how cool is this that Oscar was Orange?!

I have quite the vintage SS book collection accumulating.

I just love it :)

St.Patty's Day 2010 {Toddler Style}

2010-03-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ben and I invited friends over for a St.Patrick's Day get-together

It was so fun having everyone over! The planning was really fun too :)

We made a little garden basket and stuck some mini pinwheels in (they were supposed to be prizes for the kids to take home, but I forgot to mention it and no one did)

We had green apple (pear) sauce..
Lots of tulips..

Benny and I made little caterpillar decorations yesterday. It was really fun, and sticky. He liked those caterpillars a lot more than the real one we found outside today. I'm trying really hard not to give him my bug fears, but I REALLY hate caterpillars.

We had more of a rainbow theme than just green ( ya know, leprechauns and their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?.. my mom didn't get it either, she just thought we were having a gay pride party... Umm...

Rainbow streamers. rainbow cupcakes (that were really good, and really easy to make), and a rainbow fruit tray. :D

Too bad I didn't get a picture of the spread before we demolished it :)

It was a fun time for sure.

After nap Ben and I picked up some blue sand for the sandbox. I wish I could have gotten it before the party! It's so fun! We'll just have to have everyone over again!

2 Blog posts in 1 Day? Can I do it?

2010-03-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to show my before and after shots of the office.

Before:

Yah. Wow. Nice mess.

And!
After:

We painted an accent wall, this beautiful blue and I am in love with... bought a new standing shelf (from Ikea, where else?) and
Taaa-Daaa!!

And over on the side wall I put up these chalk-board stickers that are SO awesome. I have a fun time sitting and doodling on them. :)

So there we go! Before and After!
Pretty awesome huh?

Friday is here!

2010-03-05T07:02:00.001-08:00

Man it's been a good week. Started out kinda shaky. Not sure if it was my hormones or what but I was a little teary for a few days. But I shook it off. We had a great rest of the week. Story time was Wednesday. Ben FINALLY did really good! Of course it was the last time we're meeting for a few weeks and spring story time will start up. But he got his own carpet square and sat by himself, he usually sits on my lap. He sang along to the songs! He followed along with all the activities! I was beaming with pride. I couldn't stop smiling. I was just so proud of him. He was finally comfortable and enjoyed himself. :)

We had plans to have a sleep-over at my mom's that night. So after nap we started on the drive out there. My sister had called to see when I was coming since they lock their doors and my mom wouldn't be home until 6:00... she said she would be there, but then called again RIGHT before we got there to tell me she went with her friend to go apply for job. Great Kelly. Good Job. Now what do we do?? We had about an hour to spare. Luckily the sun was shining so we drove over to the park, we drove around and looked at barns and cows, and then stopped uptown and had a doughnut. Ooooh yah. :)

James got home last night! And he brought me a super surprise! He bought me these great converses that I've been wanting for a while! Actually, I hadn't seen these before, gray with purple and green lining. Soooooo cute. But... he picked them out all by himself so they're the wrong size... lol, but I was able to exchange them at the Ann Arbor location. YAY! Ben got new shoes yesterday! Gotta love spring!! NEW SHOES!!
Even Blue likes them :)

James took my car when he went to Indiana, along with the mail keys! So first thing last night I dashed off to get the mail.. and WOO HOOO!!!! I got my etsy stuff!!!

I ordered a piece of vintage Mr.Men fabric from zwizzle

It's an odd shape, but I'm hoping I'll be able to cut it into perfect pieces and make a quilt from it.

I also ordered a stash of fabric pieces from beansupplies

I am so excited to finally put these together and make them into a quilt. Hopefully I can get my act together and finally learn how!!

At this point I have 3 quilts ready to be sewn. LOL!! That's a LOT when you don't know how to sew a quilt.

I also came across FleaMarket Style magazine while checking out some blogs online. I was going to order it right away, it looks so awesome. But after I got to the website I found out you can't order a subscription! I freaked out!! I tried to sign up to win a copy. But HA. Me? Win something?? Right... you have to have luck for that.

After my stop at the mail box last night I cruised over to Busch's to pick up a bottle of wine and some groceries and I thought, eh, I'll just look and see. AND THERE IT WAS! On the shelf in Busch's!!! I grabbed it and ran. Didn't even realize it was $9.99. Oops. I wouldn't normally pay that much for a magazine. ;)

Great week. Now it's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining once again. We had lunch with my mom today, did some last minute shopping for Brendan and Angie's baby shower tomorrow morning.

And you know, I think James and I actually needed that time apart. We are both so happy he's home ;)

Now.. time to enjoy the weekend :)

March is here! We've made it!

2010-03-01T17:02:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked in Ben's room this morning, the sun was shining! And BRIGHT! It was a great start to the day. The snow and gloom has reeeeallly been wearing on me. Well, both of us I think. Ben has been feeling pretty good lately, but he's had some bad days the last few weeks, just feeling grumpy and antsy. Today when we were out on a shopping spree he was pointing to so many spring things, "Look Mommy! Birds!" "Berries on trees!" It was really cute. We're going downtown Ann Arbor tomorrow to meet Grandma Joan and Aunt Cee for lunch, it'll be nice to walk around town. Hopefully we have a little more sun.

After blueberry-strawberry pancakes we headed over to Gym America for some tumbling fun.

Of course he didn't want to leave and had a nice melt down, it was really fun having 35 parents stare at me... really? Like your kids never cry when it's time to leave a play place? Oh.

We ordered pizza for lunch, which was awesome, and short nap, then headed out on the town. I invited some friends over for a st.patty's day/spring party, and I am so excited that I went out and bought some party supplies today :) Ha! It's not for 2 weeks! Ah well, at least I'll be prepared :D

For Book Sharing Monday I wanted to share Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner, which I just picked up from Kiwanis over the weekend. I've seen this book around before, but never read it. Boy am I glad I grabbed it!

It is hilarious! I love the rhyming, the jokes, the voices you get to use while you read it. I'm not sure if Ben really understands the whole story, I have read it so many times now I have had the opportunity to try and explain to him that Skippyjon is pretending when he goes into his closet. It's such a cute book. Highly recommended.

Another February Post!

2010-02-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

Great start to the day. My husband is going to Indiana for a week for a conference... so this morning I went out and had some Mommy time since I won't have any of that.. for a whole week.. Oh my.

So I started off and went to Kiwanis.

I found this awesome Masters of the Universe sheet.

And these adorable pots to plant some seeds in.

And I'm not sure if I'm going to use this for cooking or what, but I really love it.

I just love the old folks who run Kiwanis. A couple Grammas wrapped my breakables up for me, in old patterns. How cute.

Next I headed off to a mom-to-mom sale which was so awesome. I was thisclose to buying baby girl stuff. They had sooooooo much great stuff for baby girls. I found a few good things for Benny, but the boy stuff is always limited. And I found a great addition to a baby shower gift for only a quarter. And it still has the tags on.. Ohhh yah.

We painted a wall in the office, a beautiful blue color, it might be my favorite color in the whole world. I have before pictures to post, but I'm still waiting for James to hang a shelf so... the "after" pictures are still on hold. I did a lot of cleaning out of old crap I haven't used in years. I really like how it's all coming along.

So on to my week by myself. My sister's coming over to spend the night tonight, and we're going to meet up with my mom tomorrow so they can babysit while I get my hair cut. Yay. I need it so bad. I ran into an old friend today and I wanted to run and hide I felt so ugly. Not good.

Book Sharing Monday

2010-02-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Here's another great book that we have received from Paperbackswap.com

It's long! There's a story that goes along with learning the alphabet. It's a cute one. An oldie too. Older books always seem to be better.

We went to my Dad's for dinner last night, and on the way home Ben cried and cried, he ended up going to bed early. I thought it was a sugar crash, he didn't eat too much dinner and then had cheesecake, and then marshmallows. Ugh. But then this morning he woke up with a bad runny nose and a horrible cough. Poor baby.

So we haven't had the best day.

Hopefully it just lasts for a day like last time.

Book Sharing Monday

2010-01-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a while!

3 MONTHS actually!

My last post was November 1. Today is January 25th! A lot has gone on that I wish I had blogged about, but my computer broke a few months ago, and the one I'm using now is really old and slooowwwww.

We've been loving the Dexter library. I have been going on the website and requesting books on there, then when I go with Ben he can play, (they have a great kids section) and we can pick out books and DVDs for him, and then I just ask for my books they are holding for me when we check out. It's awesome.

This is a book called The Foggy Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt

The pages are a thin vellum type paper. I think it's called vellum, I may be making that up. It's like tracing paper but a little thicker. You can see through it, so it gives the effect of looking through a foggy forest! You can sort of see whats on the next page. It's really cool.

There have been so many more that we have been enjoying. I'm going to make an effort to keep up with Book Sharing Monday again!

November has arrived

2009-11-01T19:10:00.001-08:00

I’ve been having a strange time lately. My ex-step-dad (uh huh) has been extremely nice to me. It’s been nice, but … strange.

He arranged for my brother, his friend Jake, my sister, (with my mom) to all come over and help take care of a bunch of things around our house.

They broke up and removed the concrete in front of our front stair case. That took some muscles. Believe me, I tried to smash some up, it’s harder than it looks.

We also cut down the giant pine tree that was in front of our house. I liked that tree. I’m pretty sad. But I think it was the smartest decision to make. It was dangerous, or would become dangerous, covered in ice, and the larger it got.

It came down very easily and was cut into pieces in no time.

My brother and I had matching butt holes today. LOL

My mom brought over the dogs, and a new Diego truck for Ben. He had a good day. Luckily he woke up early, we had the time change, so he took an early nap before everyone got there.

We’re stilllllllllllll raking leaves. We have a lot more to go. James even broke out the leaf blower today. It didn’t go any faster. It was just easier. Raking is really hard!

So, what do you think the insurance inspector would say now? LOL!

We need to start planning on what we’re going to put in front of the house now! We can actually grow something with that tree gone. And we need to! It looks so bare! We’re going to install a picket fence in the spring. But we need some sort of bush or something in front there.

I’m sure the village is going to be so happy when they come by to pick up “sticks and leaves” at our house! HA!

Halloween!

2009-11-01T18:53:00.001-08:00

Friday Ingrid and Ben went trick-or-treating downtown Dexter. It was fun! I enjoyed going into all the shops, since I haven’t spent any time in town yet.

Later I took him downtown Ann Arbor, and just him and I hit up Mainstreet for some treats. It was fun, kind of wet, but he really enjoyed it. Then we met James and his parents for dinner at the Blue Tractor, which is always good. Good beer :)

I made a cape for Woof. It was my second cape, and it was pretty funky. It wasn’t the shape I was aiming for, and it wasn’t easy to sew on the “W”.. I made some progress though, it’s a little better than Logan’s was.

When Halloween finally came I think Ben was a little tuckered out. After going twice on Friday, he was like ReallY? Again? I've never been into Halloween, but I knew he would enjoy it once we got going.

The first house was an old woman who invited them inside, which was pretty funny.

But after he warmed up to the idea, he started having a great time. We only did one block, up and down, but it was enough, it was pretty cold out.

I took down all the Halloween stuff today, even tossed out the pumpkins, it was fun, but now it’s over. Whew. We have SO much candy. James bought 3 (!) more bags for trick-or-treaters, we ended up getting about six. So we have a LOT of candy.

In the Midst of Autumn

2009-10-25T18:22:00.001-07:00

We had Ingrid, Maya, and Olivia over on Thursday. It was so fun to have everyone over to our place. I can’t wait to to it again. The weather is pretty mild still, so we had a chance to take a few turns on the tire swing. :)

Kelly came over for a while on Saturday afternoon, while my mom got her hair did, so we decided it was a good time to carve the pumpkins we have. James missed out, he was out watching the football game, but I figured my mom wouldn’t be doing any pumpkins with Kelly this year, and I figured she would like it. It was FREEZING. For some reason I thought it would be Ok to do it on the porch. But my hands were frozen stiff. Kelly did most of the work.

Ben loves Halloween. It has taken a lot of reassuring that the ghosts and zombies you see all over aren’t real, just pretend like any other stuffed anima we have at home. We’ve done a lot of pinching and poking of zombies just so he’s sure. Now he’s really into it.

We took him outside last night, and lit candles in the pumpkins. He thought it was pretty cool, then we took a walk outside in the dark. He calls night time “good night” and he thought it was pretty cool to be outside at night.

Today we went to Allie’s Halloween Party. Ben was so excited to get dressed up in his cowboy costume. So excited that when it was time to take a nap he just layed there and said “Halloween Party! Halloween Party!”… so nap didn’t happen… until we got in the car of course. We drove around a little so he got about 20 minutes, then he was good to go and ready to PARRTAAAYY!

Kristen did such a good job with Allie’s party. They have a great backyard with all kinds of fun stuff. Ben had a GREAT time.

There was even a giant pumpkin.

And balloons!

And jello jigglers!

And a pinata!

Ingrid was a little freaked out by all the Halloween stuff. She’s still cute when she’s freaking out though.

We had beautiful weather, and a great time. Thanks for throwing a great party Kristen! It was SO much fun :) !

Good Weekend!

2009-10-18T18:29:00.001-07:00

We did a lot this weekend, and it was a really good one. It has been a good feeling to have a lot going on and lots to do.

Saturday my sister Raquel had a Halloween party with a hayride with all of her 8th grade friends over. We went over before any of the 8th graders arrived. {OH yah}

My dad had a big garden this year and grew a bunch of pumpkins. Ben picked out a TINY pumpkin. It’s the cutest pumpkin ever.

My dad bought Ben this new winter coat. It’s really cute, really warm, and super soft. Thanks Dad! :)

After the short stop at my Dad’s, we went to Red Robin and got some take out and pigged out on the living room floor when we got home.

Today we went to Jenny’s Farm Market in Dexter. They have a wide variety of things to pet, ride, climb, and eat. It was a lot of fun. We all took a hay ride and it was Soooo much fun.

And of course we had some hot cider and donuts.

We still had time to swing on the tire swing

And check out our pumpkins.

Happy Birthday Benny! New House! New Stuff! Lots going on!

2009-10-07T18:05:00.001-07:00

So these pictures are backwards. So just go with it. LOL.

This is today! My Dad and Raquel stopped by so my dad could take a look at our furnace. I’m glad that he did so now I know that it’s ok to run. We’ve been FREEZING!

While they were here we played on the tire swing. Ben went on the right way this time. I was so nervous, but he did really good and held on reallllly tight.

These are pictures of my messy house so Leah can see what it looks like…

Our bedroom

Ben’s room - with his new bookshelf I painted with chalkboard paint!!

Kitchen

Bathroom – how exciting..

Living Room

Dining Room – new

Office – huge mess. Waiting for the shelves to go up so I can organize the rest of the crap that goes in there! Ben got a new little desk from my mom, and I painted his magnet board with chalkboard paint. I hung those up today. It’s Ben’s office area. It’s super cute.

Here’s a close up of Ben’s chalkboard bookcase.

Ben’s new desk

Ben’s birthday banner. I also made some stuffed monsters but I didn’t get any pictures. :( All that hard work and no pictures to remember them.

Here are a couple things we put up so far. We put up these bars to hang utensils on. They’re super cute. I love Ikea. I also put one over the sink, to hang the bottle brush and scrubbers on.

Our bathroom is completely empty. They didn’t even put a shower curtain rod up. So far we’ve done that, and hung up a towel rack

And a toilet paper holder. :)

Now back to Ben’s birthday! Backwards style.

My Dad, Irma, and Raquel, bought Ben a wagon. It’s awesome. And they also put up a tire swing in our front yard. It’s SO fun.

Amber made Ben this AWESOME monster birthday crown! He wouldn’t wear it until he was preoccupied with cake, so he finally wore it. He wears it every now and then. It’s SO cute. She’s so creative.

Here’s' a picture of Ingrid stealing a bite of Ben’s cake. LOL!

And here I am mid-HAPPY birthday! LOL!

The cake.

So this is home-ownership

2009-09-25T19:54:00.001-07:00

Wow what a week

It started out kinda chaotic. We moved EVERYTHING on Sunday, which wasn’t the original plan, we had talked about moving all week, and moving our “big stuff” this weekend. But I decided (for us:) ) that we should just get it over with. The house was SUCH a mess, I wasn't 100% ready to move, so at the last minute things got pretty unorganized.

But it has worked itself out. It always seems to happen that way.

The first couple days I felt claustrophobic with all the stuff EVERYwhere. But now I've got things at least distributed to the rooms they go. So it’s starting to come together. Slowly.

(This one is Ben eating a tomato,

I had to take it to show Dad, who hates tomatoes!)

So the first fun thing that happened…

We don’t have screens on our windows, the seller took them down to paint and didn’t put them back up. They are a pain to put up, so we’ve just been opening up windows sparingly and keeping an eye on the cats. Especially Charles who has hit puberty and all he wants to do is go out and impregnate some females. Yummy.

Well we were upstairs in Ben’s room, and the window was open. On that side of the house the window opens up to the lower roof. I was busy unpacking and Ben says “NO Charlie!”. I turn around and Charlie is on the edge of the window, I grab him, pull him back in, give him a beating, and then go on with my day…. well Charlie walks into my bedroom, turns around and bolts toward the window. It was like slow motion. And then Charlie was on the roof.

So I was trying to use my niccceeessst voice, to get him to come back in. Remember that I’m home with Ben, and James is at work.

I get his food bag and shake it.

Then Charlie comes face to face with a really pissed off chipmunk. I was sure they were going to duke it out. But luckily the chipmunk figured that Charlie was a little bigger than him and retreated.

Then Charlie started to climb the tree.

And climb.

I call James, he was getting off work in about 20 minutes anyway, but told him to stay there while I tried to get him in.

So I haul Ben outside to try from out there.

By the time we get outside Charlie is back sitting on the window ledge.

ARGH!

So I run back inside, with Ben in tow.

Of course Charlie is back in the tree.

And climbing higher, and higher.

So I call James and tell him to come home and help, this is useless.

Of course Charlie gets so high he panics and sits there and meows.

Howls.

So we coax, and coax, he attempts to come down a few branches.

But THEN! He finds a nice large squirrel nest made of sticks and leaves and decides to lay down, take a bath, and a quick nappy.

LMAO!

So we gave up, we left, went out and ran our errands, had dinner and came home, to that little shit just running around the house like nothing ever happened.

Fun adventure #2 More window fun

After the Charlie incident we went out and bought these half window temporary screens that just sit in window while you have it open.

The windows are 100 years old, they’ve been painted over 50 times. They are warped, they are crazy hard to get open and closed.

So James attempts to get some screens in, and you have to get the window open 10 inches to do so. The first two windows are too stuck.

The third window smashed into 100 shards of glass all over the dining room.

James was SOoooo pissed. And I have this sick disease, or disorder, whatever you want to call it, when something bad happens all I can do is laugh hysterically.

It just struck me as really funny.

So today WallSide Windows is coming out to give us a quote.

Yay.

On to the next adventure.

It's Officially Ours

2009-09-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

Surgery Day has come to a Close

2009-09-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

Wow today was such a long day.

Up early, we woke Ben up so he could have his last drink, since he couldn't have anything after 7:30. So we kind of chilled and watched TV and took our time getting ready since we didn't need to be there until 9:45.

Everyone was really good at the hospital, no real complaints there.

Ben was nervous, like he always is at a doctor's appointment. I was nervous, which I KNOW wasn't helping, but I couldn't help it. They took us right back, pretty much, and after trying to get his vitals, blood pressure, etc, and getting no where with it, due to Ben's anxiety... .they gave him what the they said was going to be "Goofy Juice", Juice being the primary word here... Ben hadn't had anything in hours, so he was excited to get juice. No juice. Nasty medicine in a syringe. Greeeaaat. But we got it down, and maybe 5 minutes later Ben was Goofy. My mom and James thought it was pretty funny, slurring his words, wanting to play and blow bubbles, but he couldn't make his blower work... I was just crying. LOL. I couldn't keep it together. Seeing him like that was just breaking my heart. I hated it. He would start to fall asleep in my arms and then get up to try to play, but he wasn't able to. It was a little entertaining, but at the same time I just wanted things to get started and be over with already.

They took him back, he happily went with them.
Thank you Goofy Juice. I said they should change the name to "Stranger Juice" since he just willfully went with any stranger who asked. lol
They said it would be an hour.
It was longer.

I was pacing and pacing, it was one long drawn out anxiety attack.

Finally Dr.Wan came out and told us, and drew diagrams, it went fine.

He can't have any rambunctious play, (HA!) (He's going to be 2 in like 2 weeks!)
for

4 weeks!

No riding toys, no bath for 3 days, lots of Tylenol 3, poor poor baby.

The wound looks gruesome.

I'm still teary.

We may be closing on the house this Friday.

I just want to drink a few beers, eat some pizza, and go to bed now.
t

A Change of Zoo Scenery

2009-09-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

We decided to hit the Detroit Zoo today, and compare it to the Toledo Zoo. We discovered they are just different, really good in their own ways. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other.

Last time we were at the TZ the butterfly house was empty… I was really bummed.

But it was open at the DZ today!! It was gorgeous. I want to live there. There were butterflies flying all around our heads, landing all around, and having snacks. Ben loved it. We all did! It was awesome.

Aunt Kelly came too. Ben loves her so much.

They have a kangaroo area where the kangaroos roam free and you walk through. They are SO cute.

Here’s Ben covering his eyes before running through the water spritzer with his Auntie.

Here they are poking their heads up in the Prairie Dog area.

Ben looked a little claustrophobic..

The Polar Bear tank (tank?) is SOooOO much fun.

I think he had a good weekend. I tried to make it a good one, since he has a quiet week ahead. {Tomorrow is Ben’s surgery}

Wish us luck!

Plans, plans, plans,

2009-09-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ben is such a big boy now. I walked in the room the other morning to him just sitting at the table having a drink. It just amazes me what a toddler he is now! You'd think I'd be used to it, I guess I'm adjusting. :)

We sewed Woof's leg up the other day, he was one of my first sewing projects {ever}, so he's not the greatest. I think he's still leaking from his arm, so he might need another operation. But Ben was such a good nurse, he patted him on the back and told him "It's Ok, Woof", and we gave him a bandaid after, and he insisted on getting his ice pack boo boo buddy for him. He's such a sweet boy.

So we STILL don't have a definite closing date or move date.

It's driving me nuts.

I've started to pack and really get an idea of how the next 3 weeks will happen, but not having it set in stone is just too much to handle............

SO

I've decided to start working on stuff for Ben's birthday, since we will be so busy from now until then, and I really want it to be great. I'm planning on having the party at our new house, if all goes well. I'm sure it will be fine to have it there.

It's going to be a Monster theme. I have started to make cute invitations, at this point I have a huge mess everywhere of cut out monsters. I also started a fabric birthday banner, so there's pieces of that all over too. I have so many projects going on, at least I'm feeling creative lately. It's like a breath of fresh air after feeling poopy for a while.

Here's a sneak peek of the super cute invitations so far:

Drawing lots and lots of monsters...

And cutting lots and lots of monsters...

And then gluing lots and lots of monsters....

They're going to say something like "Our Little Monster is turning 2"... it's a little cliche, but it's a little cute too.

Book Sharing Monday

2009-09-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

Baa-Choo!
by Sarah Weeks and Jane Manning

This is one in the "I Can Read Book" series.

It's so fun, I'm sure I was meant to be a story-time lady, I do the voices so well for this one :)

And Ben loves it, he likes to fill in all the parts that he knows ... it's about a Sheep who has a cold and has a sneeze that builds up, builds up, and then... Baah Ahhh

No choo.

Book Sharing Monday

2009-08-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

Merry-Go-Round
A Book About Nouns
by Ruth Heller

Unbelievably, Ben likes me to read this book to him. My MIL bought it for the pictures, it's about nouns. I say unbelievably because it's just kind of boring! It's about nouns!

"Nouns are highly effective. The last kind of NOUN is COLLECTIVE. A tumble of feathers, a clamor of birds and a riot of colors abound."

"Wives is the PLURAL of wife... but just add an S to giraffe."

Pretty exciting huh... lol

But the pictures are interesting and different from what you find in other children's books.

Leslie Science Center is really awesome

2009-08-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Kelly has been visiting for a couple days. I want her to stay for the week, but my mom will (hopefully) need her support after Tuesday's court session...

So today we went over to the Leslie Science Center.

It's free, there's great trails to walk, they have rescued birds that you can see in cages. There wasn't any one else there, it was great weather, and a great day.

The owls are so cool. Ben calls them the HOo hoos.

Ben had a lot of fun walking the trails. He would cover up his eyes when we would go through weeds that covered the trails. It was really cute.

Here he is having a little rest on a bench.

We saw a couple butterflies that was really exciting. It was better than being at the zoo!

They must do some sort of a garden project for kids. It looks really fun. They have all different gardens, medicinal herb garden, a "pizza" garden, and then just individual gardens that kids grew themselves. Must be some sort of a community garden project to teach kids? I want to join, it looks so fun. I LOVED the 'Peter Rabbit' garden.

It even had Peter Rabbit's jacket and shoes that he left behind!

I got a lot of great ideas for my new yard :)

Just Another Weekend

2009-08-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ben has started to "pull" me, when he wants me to go do something with him. He pulls my arm and does this growling like he's pulling reeeeallly hard. It's pretty funny.

Saturday we went to the Heritage Festival. It was cooler weather, it was actually nice to enjoy the day and not be sweating to death. We got to wear long sleeved shirts! I can't believe I'm not complaining about it, it seems like we had about a week of summer, but I really love fall.

It was just my mom, my sister, Ben and I. They had a toddler area with toys, and a petting zoo area. Ben really enjoyed the day. He was a really good boy. We heard lots of music, and before we left we got to sit and have a beer while Ben danced! It was fun. I always enjoy good people watching, and Ypsi is full of interesting characters to stare at.

There was another sad camel to ride. $5. This seems to be a new trend with fairs and festivals. I don't remember seeing a lot of camels when I was a kid. They seem really sad.

Yesterday I skipped out on a family dinner over at James' parents house. His parents are actually out of town, but his sister had her parents in town (gotta love complicated family situations) and they invited us over. James and Ben dropped me off at Dawn Treader downtown, I spent an hour in there, picked up 2 new books, then walked home. It only took me 35 minutes to walk home, I even stopped for a bottle of water. After I got home I took a bath and relaxed. I really enjoyed my day!

Lets see that picture again

2009-08-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty proud of this one.

Found my plug

2009-08-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

We went to the Hudson Mills "Metropark" last week, in Dexter, it's really close to the new house. It's beautiful! We only checked out a small area, I packed a dinner-picnic, James had to use charcoal, which he hates.. but whatever... and we played on the swings, played with some dinosaurs and trucks we brought, and took a walk down to check out the river. It's a really nice place.

Here's Ben playing guitar with a giant stick.

It's so strange to see our place "For Rent".

This picture might be a little too small to see, but can you see Charlie's little head poking up? He can be cute. Sometimes.

Lost camera cord

2009-08-19T06:21:00.001-07:00

So I have stated to pack.... a little... and of course now I can't find my camera plug! What a pain!

I'll search for it today,

The only other update I have is that our mortgage application is up and rolling along, but our mortgage broker says that it's going to be September 15 or later that we close. Ben has surgery Ben 14, so hopefully we can have all this settled before !!

House update

2009-08-13T07:02:00.001-07:00

Well we have a done deal. The seller is going to install the radon mitigation system, using a company that we picked. They lowered the cost of the house $300 (wow. big deal, $300 over 30 years is so helpful...) and they are buying us the home warranty ($400), so in the end we didn't get the cash that I was hoping for to fix everything, but James' parents said they would help us out, we'll pay them back of course.

SO the appraisal has been ordered, after that the mortgage process can officially begin hopefully pretty soon we will have an idea when we can CLOSE!!

Look at this awesome picture: This is what we look like when we wake up from a long nap :)

We got some big boy underwear. It's pretty exciting

Look at Ben's afro! He needs a trim I'd say. Hopefully this weekend.

2009-08-10T06:49:00.000-07:00

I am getting beyond nervous with the whole house buying process at this point. We had to negotiate back and forth 6 times, at the end over $400 before we agreed. Then we had out inspection ($425) ( ARGH. Why can't the inspection results be available before we are agreeing on a price. It's an awful game.) So then we get the inspection results (56 pages long). There are a million little things that need to be fixed, some of which are pretty important.
1. Gas leaks found all along the piping coming off the furnace. They were actually labeled and tagged by the seller. Of course he knew about all of these problems, he had his own inspection. Why wouldn't he just fix what NEEDS to be done?!

2. Corroded pipes coming off of the water heater. New(ew) water heater, bad pipes. Explain that.

3. High radon levels. Yay. (at least $800 to install radon mitigation system)

4. The toilet isn't installed correctly and physically moves back and forth.

5. The bathtub backs up

6. All the plugs and switches are new in the kitchen but aren't GFI. Why install something new and not do it right??

7. One plug in the 3rd bedroom needs to be grounded.

8. The railing and stairs off the back need to be updated. Not up to code.

9. New windows a must.

10. Some wiring exposed in the upstairs closets/eaves. (Eaves? Is that the right term or did I just make that up?)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

So we made an addendum to our agreement asking for a $2,500 credit at closing to fix all of the items that NEED to be fixed. So keep in mind the seller knew all of these things existed when we were agreeing on our first offer, which he only came down from $4,100. And he isn't paying for a home warranty so we have to buy our own ($400). We just did a rough estimate hoping he would agree to it and give us our house! I told our landlord what our status is, our lease is up Aug 31. (21 days and counting). He said we could stay through September if he doesn't rent it, but he's already listed it on facebook and is going to start showing it. We will be homeless! If worse comes to worse we can move our stuff somewhere and stay with parents or whatever. But I REALLLLLLLY don't want that to happen! Moving twice?! Moving in with parents?! NOOOOooOOOO!!!

So we've been waiting since last Wed/Thurs to hear back from them and hoping he'll just agree, or lower it down a little ($2,000 maybe?).

We still haven't heard. So James called our agent, who spoke to the seller's agent last week. The Seller's agent is in the U.P. The seller is "out of the country", but is thinking that he wants to "do the work himself". Um no.

No.
No.
No.

He hasn't done anything right yet. The toilet isn't secured down for god's sake, we have to cut the linoleum and redo the toilet! He's worthless, and being too cheap. He doesn't care about the quality of the work, of course not, but if any of this isn't done correctly then we are screwed. We don't have money to fix all of this, and it all needs to be done right away!

The radon system is a big one, there are different options of how it can be done, and some of them will greaty change the utility bills!

This is just awful. I can't take much more stress. I'm trying to just stay calm and relaxed, I've started to pack, started to weed through things and start the moving process. I figure we should be ready to go by the end of the month no matter what. I'm going to call to schedule the appraisal today.

AAAHHHH!!!

I just have to keep this in mind : :-D

A little of what we've been up to

2009-08-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

We've been so busy lately. We're buying a house, we just had a surprise 60th birthday party for my MIL, on top of all kinds of other crap that's going on. We've been trying to stay focused on staying happy and making sure to take time out to do fun things just the three of us.

We went to a friend's wedding last week, was it last week? My sister babysat Ben, his first time being without one of us at bed time. They did great. My camera died as soon as we got to the wedding, so the only pictures I got were of us before we left.

My MIL's party was such a pain to plan, but it turned out great.

My mom, sister, Ben and I all went out to lunch on Saturday and went to the toy store after. Ben got a new monkey set and fell asleep with a tight grip on it on the ride home. I took this picture driving down the highway. Danger is my middle name.

After we got home I cleaned out my car and Ben was having fun pretending to drive.
He's such a boy. :)

We checked out the playground at Eberwhite elementary school the other day. It has an awesome wooden play structure. James and I had fun running around in there too! It got a little claustrophobic at times though. It's definitely made for little people.

Book Sharing Monday

2009-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:00

Chippy goes to the Dentist

Yet another book I remember from my childhood. I love these cause they're part of the "A Happy Ending Book" series. Chippy eats too much junk, doesn't brush properly and has to go to the dentist for a cavity. I just love these old books. They're kind of girly, but a book's a book, Ben doesn't seem to mind.

Independence Lake is awesome.

2009-07-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday James, Ben, and I went to Independence Lake for the first time. It is so awesome! They have a lake, and a little beach area, a play ground area, picnic tables galore, bbqs, trails to walk, and a splash pad! It was so fun that I took Ben and Aunt Kelly back yesterday! I haven't uploaded those picture yet though. We have had a good couple of days!

The water is really cold, which would be great on a really hot day!

But it wasn't that hot that day, it was great weather, but Ben thought the water was just too cold. So did I.

He let me cuddle him to warm him up :)

Book Sharing Monday

2009-07-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

It's Not Easy Being Big!

I remembered this book from my childhood, and searched and searched and finally found it on Amazon as "rare" for $2.91 :) I just love vintage Sesame Street.

Photos by Benjamin

2009-07-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ben has learned how to use the digital camera.

He gets a little excited and can't hold it still every time.

And his finger sometimes gets in the way.

2009-07-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full swing! Fourth of July was kind of boring.. but it was Ok. We went to a party at my mom's boyfriend's grandparent's house... (whew that was a mouthful) They have a super weird house that is old and moldy with carpet on the ceilings... they used to be crazy drunken swinigers in their prime. But they have a beautiful backyard with an inground pool, so that was fun. It was crappy weather, about 65 degrees, and the pool was about the same.. but of course Ben had to try it out. Luckily, my sister, the best Auntie in the world took him in there.

This picture is hilarious, the look on Kelly's face shows how freezing the pool was.
Ben got cold, he started turning purple. I'd ask him if he wanted to get out and he would chatter back Noooooo. LOL!

We've done some art projects lately. We painted rocks and glued googly eyes on to make a Rock Family. It's really cute. I should take better pictures. The rocks are a little too big for him to play with.. he does... but I'm afraid he's going to drop one on his toe. So they are living on the window sill for now. He loves them though, he thinks they're pretty fun.

We went to the Manchester parade that kicks off the fair week. It wasn't Ben's first parade, but now that he's gettin bigger he can really have fun. They threw candy, he thought that was soooo fun. He would run and pick it up and then throw it back. LOL.

They had a camel at the fair this year. That was pretty exciting.

Once again Super Auntie took Ben on a bunch of rides. He loved it.

We didn't eat any food, shoot.

He loved this ride. Truckin' USA. LOL

Gotta love the ghetto spray paint art on the kiddie ride!

He cried when it was time to get off.

And of course, the Spinning Apple Ride...

We had Ben's latest night yet that night. We didn't leave until 9:00, he usually goes to bed at 8! We got home around 9:30, had a bottle, but he didn't fall asleep until 10:15. I was exhausted. James was in Boston so I had him all to myself, and I was so sleepy after that long day.

2009-06-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Ben had a great weekend over at my Mom's. He loves spending time with Aunt Kelly. Every time she leaves the room he yells "KELLLLYYYY". It's super cute.

We took him out to the toy store in Jackson that is Awesome. He picked out a new taxi and a ChooChoo conductor hat. It's the first hat he really likes to wear. It's reallllly cute.

Book Sharing Monday

2009-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Wiggle'n Giggle Book

It's an oldie. We got it from James' mom.

You stick your fingers through to make hands and legs for the different characters on the pages. Ben thinks it's really fun.

Grandpa's in town, it finally feels like summer :)

2009-06-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

Ben tried out his new cereal bowl with the built in straw this morning. :) I always give him a straw with his cereal to suck up the milk, and then I found this bowl and was disappointed that I didn't invent it. It's awesome.

After breakfast Ben and I drove out to Manchester. My Grandpa arrived in town for a 2 week visit. My mom took today off to have some family time. We all went to Chelsea, it's their 175th anniversary celebration this weekend and they had all kinds of awesome stuff going on that Ben could participate in.

Colors the Clown was there with her posse of animal friends, including a pig in a tutu, a chihuahua (also adorning a nice tutu), baby rabbits, a peacock, a cockatoo (or something like that) (the cockatoo should have had a tutu too it would have been a cockatoo in a tutu, which would have been pretty rad.)

There were a couple McDonald's characters there too, and surprisingly Ben ran right over to them to say HI!

They had these big tubs of bubbles and big dippers, I'll have to find something like this, cause Ben could do it himself and Loved it! A guy from the newspaper took his picture, hopefully he'll actually be in it this time.

It was a good day.

Book Sharing Monday

2009-06-22T19:55:00.001-07:00

Book Sharing Monday June 22

This is an awesome Sesame Street coloring book from 1987

Picked it up from the Salvation Army for 33 cents :)

There wasn't ANY pictures colored yet.

!!

And I especially loved it back when Bert & Ernie took showers together
<3

Wowza Ben!

2009-06-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today was an.... interesting day...

Got up early, started the day, put Ben down for a nap around 10:30, he didn't actually fall asleep until 11, we were due at Kristen & Allie's at 12:30, so I got up and started lunch and turned on the TV to wake Ben up around 12. I figured he'd be fine and have another nap later after we played. We stopped for gas, got a drink, and he was totally excited to go over to "Play!" at Kristen's...

We get there, everything seems fine,

and then...

Ben wigged out.

Not sure why, I assumed he was tired, we bolted to avoid any accidents with Ingrid and Allie.

He didn't fall asleep again this afternoon. He seemed Ok. He was very demanding with me, but not super scary cranky.

Maybe he just wasn't in the mood to share.
I get it.
I've been there.
Maybe that's where he picked it up from. :-P

Allie gave Ben a really cute Thank You, and Amber brought Ben a prize ( a book you might just see on an up-and-coming Book Sharing Monday) that he made me read over and over this evening.

Kids are strange.

There are no pictures to commiserate this day.
Is that the proper usage of "commiserate"?? I dont' know. Whatever.

Deminski & Doyle!

2009-06-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

Oh jeeze,

I was quoted on Deminski's blog.

I used to love listening to D&D on 97.1 on my drive home from work, then 97.1 became a sports station so I lost D&D. But then I found Deminski's blog, and was surprised to find out that they are back on the radio and I have been missing it! SO I commented on his blog, and he wrote about my comment. I feel like a nerd. LOL

http://deminskianddoyleshow.com/blogger.html

June 17

2009-06-17T17:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen these "Baby" Bananas? They're really weird. I thought Ben would think they're fun, and he does, but I don't even want to try them, they just seem really weird.

We went and picked up a little pool the other morning, the day never really got that hot, but after finger painting, and rinsing off with the hose Ben ended up in the pool anyway.

- Shopping in Meijer, found a magnifying glass :)

- Finger Paining

Just look at the roses!

- He's been naked in the backyard a lot lately, I've been able to collect a whole photo album of naked water gun shooting to show his future girlfriends. This is the ony one that doesn't show his full package :) LOL Poor kid born to a mean mommy

We finally made it down to Top of the Park last night, it was empty, pretty depressing, we didn't stay that long though, we were gone by 7:15, maybe more people showed up after we left. Ben had fun jamming out and making new friends. A woman from the Ann Arbor News took his picture, I'm waiting to see if he'll be in the paper, or at least on the website! :)

Book Sharing Monday

2009-06-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Gerald McBoing Boing by Dr.Seuss

Is a favorite of Ben's. It's about a "Noise making boy" who doesn't say words, makes crazy sounds instead. I'm always asking Ben if he's Gerald McBoing Boing when he won't use words and does his "eh Eh eh" ....

Today must be Sunday

2009-06-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

James has had a lot to do at work lately, so he's worked most of the weekend. I really need a mommy break, I guess I don't realize how much he does actually help out on the weekends.

Ben has started to love his Woof dog that I made him when he was just a little baby. It's SO cute, he wants to take him everywhere and take him for naps.

Our pictures arrived from Purple Frog!!
They came in a beautiful package, and Alicia threw in the wallets that Joan bought so I have pretty much every picture I wanted!

Check out the roses in the backyard!

Yesterday we went to Tristan's for Ellee's graduation party. I just LOVE their house. It's so huge, and I just love Jo's taste. The river is so peaceful, and their yard is so big. I think I might move in with them.

This is their cat Frisky who is like 15 or something. He is locked in the dog kennel at the back of their barn cause he poops everywhere unexpectedly. He has some weird growths going on, and his eye doesn't open right anymore. Aaawww Frisky.

Their swing was really low to the ground, so Ben had his first Big Boy Swing ride. He was pretty proud. So was I :)

What do you do with radishes?

2009-06-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

So we got our first bunch of vegetables from the CSA farm this week. It wasn't much, but it was enough to overwhelm us with a bunch of stuff we don't know how to cook, lol. We got a bunch of radishes, spinach, lettuce, leeks, and some eggs.

So I started looking for recipes for some ideas of what to do with this stuff. (Allrecipes.com)

Tonight we had

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

(The pictures are from the website, I didn't think to take picture of dinner)

With a Bean Sprout Spinach Salad

Minus the dressing on the website, James attempted to make it, but it had an egg in it, and it turned out weird, so we just put some ranch on it. Haha.

It was SOooooo good.

These pictures are from the other day, I was letting Ben take pictures, and we were taking a bunch of self-portraits, he thought it was pretty hilarious.

We found a bunch of View Master reel thingys at a garage sale last weekend, for 10 cents. We already had a View Master at home, but it only came with one reel. So it was exciting to see dinosaurs and sponge bob in there.

My mom bought him this Sponge Bob suitcase at a garage sale too. It's really fun. Now we have to take a vacation so Ben can pack some stuff up.

She also bought him these awesome (size 9, haha) Spiderman slippers. He thinks they're pretty awesome.

On another note, I downloaded a sweet virus onto my work computer. It's pretty scary looking. I'm still trying to finish this slideshow for James' family, and I have encountered every problem you could ever imagine. My next idea is to move all 4 gB over to Joan's computer and try to burn it from there. I feel so bad about the whole thing, I've been working on it for a month or something stupid now, it should really be done.

Booooooooooooook Sharing Monday!

2009-06-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Today we've got Just Like Ernie

I Love, love, love old Sesame Street books. We've got quite the collection going. This book is about Bert trying to be cool like Ernie, it's pretty funny.

June, Then and Now

2009-06-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

June 2008

June 2009

Gotta LOVE Garage Sale Season!!

2009-06-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

My mom took off work today, a scheduled vacation day for once, to go to the Stonebridge garage sale with me. The year before last I took my big fat pregnant ass all over that subdivision and got some reallllly good steals. Last year we were in Florida and missed it. So we were so excited about it this year we decided to go on Friday... which wasn't the best idea... I don't know why we didn't think people would be at WORK?! Duh. But it was a good time. Ben got a bunch of stuff, of course. He stayed home with Daddy for the day, so when I brought home a trunk full of new plastic he was super excited.

Especially with these Rescue guys or whatever, I even found one in a freebie box!

My goal for the day was to find some new play food, this was the best we could find. They really aren't that great. He thinks they're pretty fun.

Later we dropped Ben over with his Grandparents and James and I went out for a belated birthday dinner. We went to Carson's. It was pretty good. Now James is out with his brother and some friends for a boys night out, and I'm sitting here being bored. :)

James is 28

2009-06-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today is James' Birthday,

His parents bought us tickets to go to the Tigers vs Red Sox (they're big Red Sox fans, his dad grew up in Boston) with them and Logan

It was another beautiful day. It was Ben's first baseball game, he loves to watch it on TV with Daddy, so we were really excited to take him.

It was a big day. And a good day.

Logan was a pretty good boy, he usually is when he's not with his mommy, but having both of his grandparents there to spoil him brought out the whining in a little. It wasn't too bad though. James' dad is a really nervous car rider (or driver for that matter but he NEVER drives with anyone else in the car, so James had to drive) and he reallllly got on James' nerves yelping and grasping the dashboard for dear life. James is not a crazy driver, especially when he has his son, wife, and other family in the car. Jeeze. By the end of the trip James yelled "STOP FUCKING FREAKING OUT". It was aweseome.

Book Sharing Monday!

2009-06-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

Today we've got When Bunny Groes Up - a Little Golden Book

My mom gave this to James last year for his first Father's Day.

It's about a bunny trying to figure out what to be when he grows up. In the end he decides he wants to be a Daddy. It's really sweet. Aaawwwww

Tomorrow is June 1st.

2009-05-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty good day at the Zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect. I wish I could move somewhere that had today's weather every day.

Logan went with us, he was a good boy the whole day.

Ben didn't have a nap before the trip, not even in the car because he was so excited to go to the "ZOO!"! He got a little overly tired at the end of the trip, but we were there from 12-4, so it was a long day. Grandma Joan (James' mom) has bad hips and knees so we walked rreeealllly slow, but it was nice just to enjoy the day. We have a membership this year, and I think we have to go 3 times to make it worth it. This was our second time, we'll definietly be going at least a few more times this year. We're also going to hit up Binder Park Zoo and the Detroit Zoo at least once.
Ben loves to go, we all do. <--- Giant Termite Hill

We'll see how we feel about it in August. We'll probably spend a lot of time with the Penguins.

Ok. I'm rambling.

Lately

2009-05-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Not much to report lately,

Got a new sandbox for Ben, Ingrid came over and played one day

Leah and her family came to visit, Ben and Evan are just a couple months apart (Ben's 19 months and Evan is 15) so it was fun to have them together.

Ben is loving his new cat brother. Good thing or Charlie would be hitting the road, he's a little pain in my ass.

I picked up a couple new books to read,
The Likeness by Tana French that I've been waiting to come out in paperback

And Kristen (sister in law) let me borrow

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

I can't wait to read it.

Went out with the girllllllllllllls last night, so today was another recuperation day. I hate those. Drinking is stupid. But I had a good time. My hangover definitely wasn't as bad as it was last time. Thank God, I'm getting too old for that.

Almost forgot Book Sharing Monday!

2009-05-25T19:14:00.001-07:00

Whew, made it just in time :) It's still Monday.

Today is Memorial Day, we stopped by a couple BBQs, it was a long day.. a good one though.

Today for Book Sharing Monday I'd like to share

Rosie's Walk
by Pat Hutchins

It's mostly a picture book.
It was one of my husband's favorites when he was little so we bought it for Ben last Fat her's Da y.

Photos!

2009-05-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

Check out the photographer who took Benny's pictures yesterday!

http://purplefrogphotography.com

Check out her blog, she has a "sneak peek" of Ben's stuff up!

First Ever Book Sharing Monday!

2009-05-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to share

The Boy Who Looked Like Lincoln by Mike Reiss (writer for The Simpsons)

I bought this one for Ben when he was really little, I don't know if he is old enough to appreciate it yet, but I think it's pretty awesome.

It's about a boy named Benjy that looks like Abe Lincoln. He gets made fun of a lot, and ends up going to a camp called The Camp For Kids Who Look Like Things. It's hilarious. There's even a kid who looks like "the back of a horse". Benjy learns to like the way he looks. It's a great book.

Ooooh the weekend

2009-05-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday we got a new kitten, I wasn't that into the idea, since Tuna just passed away last fall.. but now that we have him home I'm glad we did it. It's so fun to watch Ben and him play.
His name is Charlie, he's pretty cute.

And then...
I really like driving around to all the parks around town according to the A2 Parks site (Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation) there are 157 city parks. I'm even thinking of going down to city hall to purchase an official Map to mark off the ones that we've visited.

...

So today we found

There was a yellow dinosaur that lived there, it was a great park

Then we found

But I don't have any more pictures from there for some reason, so it must not have been that exciting.

Then

This was another great park. Huge play structure, and a tire swing!

It was a good day. Then James' car died. Ah well...

This Years Mother's Day {2009}

2009-05-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had some family over to our place for a picnic, all premade food, it was awesome. After we ate, we all colored with chalk.

Here's my brother showing off his snail.

Ben's chalky pants

My baby boy

Some of the guests, Michael, Cee, My Mom, Matt

Logan, Kelly and Benny picking flowers for their mommies.

All in all it was a good day. My favorite part was the 2 hour nap after everyone left.

2008 Mother's Day Presesnt

2009-05-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

My Grandma passed away March 2008. We were very close.

My mom gave me this book for Mother's Day last year. It was a gift my Mom gave to my Grandma on Mother's Day a while ago.

Inside I found a few of her personalized bookmarks, and

these pictures of the house she grew up in, in Detroit.

It's some sort of real estate card, with all the info about the house printed on the back.

It's a pretty fun piece of my family history.

Some more stuff

2009-05-14T07:14:00.001-07:00

On a walk the other day I noticed this...

Every year the city of A2 forces people to replace parts of the sidewalk in front of their house that needs to be fixed up. If you don't do it yourself, the city does it for you. Well on a new patch of sidewalk someone took marbles and pushed them down into the cement to make this awesome peace sign. I was very impressed.

Curtains

2009-05-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

This isn't such an exciting post, but here are the curtains we put up in Ben's room so it can be a little darker at 8 pm

Yay.

Catching Up

2009-05-14T07:06:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of the bookshelf I painted for Ben's room. I thought it was going to hold much more than his last one, and it's already full! He has a little library going. I'm a little crazy about books.

Haven't posted anything in a long time

2009-05-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

No new projects lately. I made another tablecloth, not sure if I have any pictures.
I also made curtains for Ben's room.
I'll post pictures tomorrow.

I've been working on creating the DVD slideshow for my husband's family. I have come across some really sweet pictures while scanning. I have decided to take the time and edit them.

I love the mushroom pictures.

The Deminski and Doyle Show: New Web Home For D&D

2009-04-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

The Deminski and Doyle Show: New Web Home For D&D

First Table Cloth

2009-03-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Woooo I made a table cloth, it's definitely a little off, but eh it covers the table so I guess it does it's job

Crayon Roll

2009-03-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty proud of this one:

Valentines Decorations

2009-03-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

I made some valenties pillows out of fabric that Kristen gave me for my birthday. It was fun, but I can't make perfect hearts that's for sure.

Bad Pictures of my Pin Heads

2009-03-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

This is a really fun project that I've done a couple times now, take shrinky dinks and make little circular heads, poke them through, and cook them. They are really cute pin heads! I love them.

George's Valentine's Shorts

2009-03-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

I made Curious George some special boxers for Vday

Mom's Christmas Present 2008

2009-03-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Flower Purse

We took these pictures a couple months after Christmas, it's actually on Ben's pillow I made :)

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Kelly's Christmas present 2008

2009-03-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Monster Bag

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More for Ben's room

2009-03-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

We made some magnets to go on Ben's magnet board in his room, Mr.Men style of course. James made Mr.Greedy, Kelly made Mr.Birthday. We used shrinky dinks, it's really fun. I plan to make more.

Ben's wall decorations

2009-03-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

So for Ben's new room decorations. Mr.Men theme. I drew them, colored them, "laminated them" with packing tape, cut them out and poster stickied them up. They're really cute, and Ben likes to point to the books and find the character on the wall.

Little Miss Scary & Mr.Mischief

Mr.Tickle & Mr.Rush

The same Mr.Rush & Mr.Strong

Mr.Tall & Mr.Messy

Mr.Bump falling off the chair & Mr.... can't think of who it is, but Mr.Mischief just stole his nose

There's Mr.Mischief on the other side of the window, running away from this mischief he just committed.

The forest, Mr.Lazy at his house

Mr.Happy, Mr.Slow, Lil Miss Contrary, Mr.Funny & Mr.Sneeze

Finger Puppets

2009-03-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

I made finger puppets to put in Benny's Christmas stocking!

Snowtime

2009-03-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

I cut a bunch of snowflakes for the windows this year. I just loved them. I saved them actually. It was more work than you would think it would be!

Dinosaur Blankie

2009-03-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

I attempted to make a dinosaur quilt that came from a kit. It turned out pretty bad. It's pretty pathetic actually. I just didn't take the time to cut the squares right and it's just all wacky.

Ben likes it just fine.

Tristan's Baby Shower Gift

2009-03-10T19:39:00.001-07:00

This might be a little out of order, not exactly sure of the exact timing of when I finished the project. I worked on a lot of things on and off at at the same time for a while.

But this is what I made for Bode and Emerson when they were born

I didn't think to take pictures before I gave them to her. Ah well. They were pretty cute I thought.

Monster Blankie for Ben's First Birthday

2009-03-10T19:31:00.001-07:00

Got the idea from etsy... Monster "IN" my bed instead of under... :) It's cute. Came out smaller than I had wanted.. but it's still cute.

There's Ben opening it on his birthday 10-03-08

Owl Purse

2009-03-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

First Zipper Ever. Pretty good if I don't say so myself.

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That's a cute puppy!

2009-03-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Woof!

Next up?!

2009-03-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

The glass marble magnets :) I love making them, these are part of the third batch I've made!

First Project

2009-03-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

Felt cars that I made, out of a template in a book, they don't really look like they were supposed to... !

The yellow one was first... .kinda looks like a banana on wheels

Next was the blue... he came out better for sure.

All in all a good first project

A List From the Beginning

2009-03-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

I want to keep an archive of all of my craft projects, so to get things started I'm going to go back and post everything I've made in the past year. Enjoy. There's some good stuff in there, LOL!

Hmmm

2009-02-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

I never thought I would start a blog.

I think I'll show off my stuff that I try and make.

Like today I made a crayon roll.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Maybe.