Excuses, a Birthday, and Some Furry Creatures

I have a very good reason for not blogging. My "g" key on my lap top was stuck. It probably had something to do with Camryn spilling coffee on it last week. When I would try to type anything, I had to hold down the backspace to keep it from doing thisggggggggggggggggg. And if I misspelled anything, I had to delete the whole thing and start over. Trying to type an e-mail or blog entry was maddening, so I gave up. Luckily, yesterday, our friend Kenny took it apart and attempted to fix it, and now the g is behaving itself.

We had a great weekend. Joe's 24th birthday was Saturday! My parents kept the girls at their house overnight on Friday, and Joe, me, and a few friends ate at McCallisters and then saw Transformers. Great movie! Afterward, we got milkshakes at Steak N Shake.

Saturday, Joe got up really early and went fishing with my dad. Once he got back, while Summer and Camryn were still at my parents' house, we had a good lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then made a grocery trip. We picked up the girls on our way home and then around 7, Joe's dad, grandma, and my parents came over for cake. Joe wanted an ice cream cake, so we ended up getting a Brownie Batter Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen. Deeeeeeeeelicious.

Sunday I dragged everyone out of the house for a trip to Lowe's. We ended up getting a lot of little things that we needed around the house, plus a pantry, finally!

After the movie on Friday, Audrey said she had to go pick up some kittens her friend had found so she could take them to the shelter the next morning. I don't know if it's because I worked at a pet store and saw and heard stories about animal overpopulation, the difficulty with finding so many animals homes, and the euthanization rate at the local shelters, or if I watch too much Animal Cops, but I said we would keep them at our house until we found them homes. Joe agreed, and she brought them over later that night.

Aren't they adorable?! It was obvious that they were not used to people. They were shaking and the more gray one was hissing at anyone who got near him. I'd estimate that they are 5 weeks old.

Saturday we gave them flea baths (they were COVERED in fleas), and they warmed up to us a bit.



This one is the only girl, we think.


We had to teach them to eat wet food. They are doing pretty good, now.

Warts and All

When I was in the fifth grade, I developed a wart on my left knee. It was in the same spot that my dad had one. Weird, right? I was so self-conscious about it. Every second of the day at school, I was making sure none of my classmates could see this wart. Oh, the embarrassment I would have endured if anyone had seen it!

This lasted a year or so, until the wart removing medicine melted it away. Looking back, I have to laugh about how ridiculously worried I was about that damn thing. It was a tiny flesh-colored spot. Perfectly normal, very common. If only I had this same feeling back then.

I do not want my kids to worry about their warts. I am hoping that I can help them develop the mind-set that little things like that should simply not register on their self-conscious scale. They have no warts yet, but they do have a few adorable little freckles. I have made it clear to them that I love their freckles and they make them even more beautiful. Hopefully in their minds, freckles will translate into warts, body shape, weight, and every other aspect of loving themselves the way they are.

Fun in the Sun

We had a great time swimming yesterday. My mom, Summer, Camryn and I got there around 1:30pm, Wes and Mia got there an hour or so after that, and Joe and my dad joined us when they got off work. Summer and Camryn LOVED the water. It only took Summer a few minutes before she had figured out how to use her float ring to swim around. She even went into the deeper water with us and didn't need anyone to hold onto her. Camryn is still a bit too little to use the float but by the end of the day she was walking around the 1 1/2 ft baby pool playing with pool toys and introducing herself to all the other kids. She waded over to a small group of kids and moms sitting in the water, and said, "Hi, guys!". When my mom went to retrieve her, she said they were asking her how old she is. It is pretty funny to hear what comes out of the mouth of such a tiny little girl!

Here's a few pictures I took while we were playing in the baby pool.

Instead of not posting anything at all...

I'll post about how I don't wanna post. Well I do... I just don't want to continue my streak of boring, not-comment worthy posting. I suppose my blogging strike could last forever if I let it, I might as well end it now.

We had a great Father's Day. Joe had a nice relaxing day, we took his dad out to eat at Tumbleweed, and we visited with my dad in the evening. Did I take any pictures? Nope. Don't worry, I already smacked myself for that.

Tomorrow after lunch, Summer, Camryn, and I are joining my Mom, my brother, and his gf at the pool they belong to. I love going there... the main pool is actually a huge man-made lake with a concrete bottom, and there is a couple other pools as well, including a really big baby pool. That's probably where I'll be spending most of my time tomorrow. I can't wait for the girls to play in the water and swim. They loved it last year, I bet they will love it even more this year.

Here's Summer two years ago:

(pregnant with Camryn)

This was last Summer:


I have to throw this one in, because I can't believe how little she was last year:

I will try to get some pool pictures tomorrow!

Pillow Fiiiiight!

A Sense of Community

I added a bunch of blog buttons back on my sidebar, plus a few new ones. Please check out all of those blogs, they are great. If you have a button and I didn't see it or forgot to add it, just let me know and I'll put it up. I made a new button for my own blog earlier, you know what to do with it :) I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm not too crazy about the Dirt and Lace Shirts button, I will probably do a new one soon. But feel free to grab it.

I just love blog buttons. I think it is a great way to spread the word about blogs we enjoy, blogs and their writers that we want to support, or people that need our thoughts and prayers. It adds to the feeling of community in the blog world. If anyone who doesn't have a button wants one, let me know. I need more practice!

I hope you are all having a great week so far. I want to blog so badly but I have absolutely nothing to talk about. Most people don't like to read boring blog posts, so I'm waiting for something exciting to happen. Or maybe I can do a post on how I don't appreciate when new neighbors rip grapevines out of my yard from over the fence. Way to start out on my good side, lady.

I hate doing posts without pictures. Here's Summer and Harley this morning ♥

Sorry I didn't mention this before, but I only found out the night it was supposed to happen... the Womb to Bloom launch party was moved to this coming Friday. There was a horrible tragedy in the owner's family (perp is owner's wife's cousin's ex), so he has been a bit consumed with that. But this Friday it is happening. I'll share more details in a couple days. I promise, Womb to Bloom is a site that everyone will enjoy being a part of, so don't miss it!

Joe just called and is on his way home, so I'd better go pretend I've done more than make blog buttons today.

Boxes, Bags, Plants, Elmo Head, a Potty...

You would think that buying a new home and not having to have everything out of your old one immediately would be a luxury.

Not. We have been moving for weeks. There is absolutely nothing luxurious about that. The above picture is two carloads of stuff that I have the pleasure of putting away tomorrow.

We agreed this evening that next time we move, we are hiring professional movers.

On the bright side, I have a new desk/office area.

A customer of Joe's let him have that desk. It's huge. You can't tell in that picture, but it takes up a fourth of that room! It's great. More desk space = less clutter.

A Baby Shower

Yesterday I went to my friend Audrey's baby shower. It was really nice.... Her mom had planned it all, and it was held at her house in the backyard. There was good food, games, and the girls had fun running around playing with all the kids there. I even won one of the games... the one where you guess which melted candy bar is in the diaper. I know my candy bars!

Mommy-to-be

Camryn with Audrey's mom

Today I have some shirts to work on, and we will be going over to my Grandmother's house to get the rest of our stuff. Joe is on his way back from a house that he went to look at with his Dad. His dad is probably going to be putting an offer in on it. It's about 30 minutes away, in the country. It's an older farmhouse, but in good shape. And it comes with 18 acres! It's mostly woods I believe, but there are some fields. I'm hoping he decides he wants horses :)

Time for me to clean up the messes the girls have made so we can get ready to go. Have a nice Sunday!

More Potatoes

Places where I have found potatoes:

-In the kids' play kitchen microwave.

-In between the stove and our "pantry" aka boxes of food stacked up in the kitchen.

-In the dog's bag of food

-The hallway

-Under my bed

-Under the kitchen sink

-In the kids' toybox

Have you ever smelled a rotten potato? I shudder thinking about finding any more potatoes in the next few weeks. Let's hope we got them all.


So many people are wanting answers to the April Rose situation. Hopefully we get closure and Beccah gets the help she obviously needs. I did read the Chicago Tribune article, and it was good to see that she has admitted to what she has done. I hope we get the apology blog post that she claims she will write. With that said, I forgive her. Mental illness is a powerful thing.

I know I'm really slacking on posting pictures here lately. Many are coming, I promise. I just need to clear out my camera a bit.

Summer has somehow gotten flour all over her head so I'd better go. Is it humane to tie your kids to you with a rope?

UPDATE: Now With Photo

My Day and April Rose

Well, I changed my layout again. I feel like my brain has been hiking up Mt. Everest the last few days. But, I'm pretty happy with my blog right now so I think I can take a break.

I also changed my shirt prices on the website today. I had them at $8 at first, then raised it to $10, but I've decided $10 is just a bit too much to charge for them, since they aren't screen printed. They are now $8 for onesies and toddlers and $10 for youth sizes.

I'd like to mention the whole April Rose situation here, since I've been reading so much about it the last few days, and since I had kept up with her blog and prayed for that baby. This woman, Beccah, obviously has some problems. She either did this for money, or did this for attention, but either way, to use people's emotions and steal from them requires there to be something wrong with your brain. My guess is she is a sociopath, similar to Casey Anthony. Sociopaths have no regard to human feelings, because they have no feelings themselves. Any emotion they show is simply them mocking what they see, and trying to imitate others to appear normal. This allows them to do things, such as make up a dying baby and play with people's emotions, or kill their own child, with little to no remorse. I truly hope this woman gets some help, although I'm guessing she won't and will come up with another scam in the future. I am not dissapointed that April Rose does not exist, however, because that is one less suffering baby and family. Our thoughts and prayers were not for nothing... I'm sure they got forwarded on to another baby and family that needs them.

This morning I awoke to no coffee. I talked myself into getting the kids ready and going to Target for some Starbucks and shopping. Target is definitely my bank account's worst enemy! After that I came home to meet the cable guy so he could hook up our new DVR. We ate dinner (pork chops, stir-fry, and brown rice), and the girls went to bed around 7:30. They had a long, no-nap day so I was definitely ready for them to go to sleep. They were really grouchy and uncooperative all day today, I'm really hoping they both wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow!

I hope you are all having a great week. Sorry I've been a bad, boring blogger lately, I promise I will start posting real posts every day.

Goodnight!

Photo Shoot Outtakes