Strep throat!

I must have angered the gods again. I have strep throat for the first time in my life and OMG does this suck. ( My mom says I had strep in high school but I swear I had tonsillitis... I could be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time.) Not only do I have my big half marathon on Sunday but Dan is out of town today and tomorrow. He was very sweet to me yesterday while I wallowed in misery on the couch all evening. He even offered to cancel his trip but I knew I wouldn't die... I just felt like it.

Seth and I went to the doctor today and he was so good. We had to wait for freakin' ever to see the doc but when you are sure you're sick and you already paid the co pay, you aren't leavin' till ya see the doctor! I started on the antibiotics and here's to hoping I feel better for Sundays loooong walk! Luckily the big kids have Theater Week so they are staying after school all week long for 2 extra hours to practice for the Friday performance. I think we'll be having Mickey D's for dinner tonight. I can fathom standing in the kitchen to cook anything up tonight.

On to happier things.

Simon and Hannah at their performances.

For all of Simon's belt tests so far Dan has held the board for him to break. This time it was my turn. I was worried that maybe I'd do it wrong or it might hurt but all my silly worries were just that, silly. He broke the board like a champ and I didn't sprain a wrist or break a nail. :) He did a great job.


Hannah was so cute tumbling around. I shouldn't say cute anymore about her since she is beginning to look so grown up. She is only 9 so I can still call her cute for a while.

She is an novice gymnast but she is learning and loves it. She is so good on the bars. My mom was there and she got some great pictures.


Once I am all better I'll get some quilting updates posted. I got my huge quilt back and I noticed a few areas that had tension issues. I am trying to decide whether or not I should make her fix it or if I should live with it. It isn't a show quilt and most people would never examine it so closely.

The art of juggling

Wow, a whole week since I posted last. Oops, sorry 'bout that. Time just gets away from you sometimes. I've been trying to remember what's been keeping me so busy and it turns out it's nothing to terribly exciting to tell ya the truth. But since you are so kind to check in on all of us I'll share whats been going on.

Hannah and I had a fun time together on Saturday. We had a bit of mommy daughter time and had ourselves a little pampering. We each had a manicure and a pedicure. It was so much fun.


I have my big half marathon coming up in less than 2 weeks. To prepare for it last weekend we walked 10.2 miles! I think I can handle the 13.1 miles on the day of the race. I am excited to do this. I've never participated in a marathon of any kind. I know walking it isn't all that challenging but you have to start somewhere, right. Maybe I can work into running. Maybe.

I've also worked a bit more on the last Pay It forward that I have to do. I am not going to share pictures of it until after it's recieved. The two remaining ladies don't know what is destined for them. Will it be the adorable pin cushion or the mysteriously unrevealed project.... hmmm....

Also, there is a big yard sale going on tomorrow that I have been trying to get stuff together for. I am amazed that there is always more stuff that we held on to for no reason and it needs to be gotten rid of. Where do these things come from and why do we still have them? This isn't the Great Depression where I need to keep everything that could possibly be reused. I should let it go to someone else who could use it and make room in my house. Maybe make a bit of money too!

What else? Ah, Simon is testing for another belt today (The novelty has worn off for me. I think they are handing the belts out just to get you to fork over more cash every 2 months.) and Hannah has a gymnastics recital tomorrow. Tomorrow will be so crazy. I don't understand why things always have to happen on the same day. Not only is the yard sale and the recital tomorrow but Simon has a birthday party to go to! AHHHH!

Parenting is actually the art of juggling.

And lastly, I got to go out last night with the MOMS Club. We went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It was my first time going there. It was very yummy yet very expensive. I had lots of fun though. I mean really, spending a day with friends, food, and chocolate, it is always going to be fun.

There you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about my week. :)

Fire

Did that get your attention? I have been waiting for a few days to finally get some pictures of our field trip this week. I forgot my camera! We went to a Firehouse. It was so much fun to watch the kids trying on the clothes and pretending to drive the truck. I even put on the big hat to try and convince Seth he wanted to do it but he just said no. The hat was pretty heavy.


Simon looked so cute in full gear!


Hannah mostly drove and pretended she was on her way to put out fires.


Seth, well, he adopted a big fire fighter. He drug the poor man around and made him help him on the truck. The fireman was very nice to Seth. (Sorry the picture is blurry. I didn't take it!)


We all had a great time. It was so fun to take the kids there.

Other than that, I haven't done to many fun and exciting things this week. The weather has been nice so I've spent quite a bit of time outside with the kids. Seth loves his new sand box. It is actually a pretty sweet deal because I can bring a book out and sit with him while he plays with his dump trucks in the sand.

I have made a bit of progress on my last pay it forward I have to do. Once I am done with it I'm going to make the baby quilt out of the Dandelion Girl fabrics I bought, do a quick quilt for Project Linus, and then on to the big king size quilt for my aunt. If I keep up this pace she'll get her quilt by her 20th wedding anniversary (she only got married about 2 years ago). I'm quick like that.

Tomorrow I get to be really exciting and go pick up composters for my mom and I. I live life on the edge, I know. Actually it'll be neat to have a compost bin. Hey, free dirt, right?

Paying it forward

I made another of my pay it forward gifts. Just one more to do!


Yes, this is some funky and unusual fabric. I chose the frogs for my friend because she just recently won her first law case and her clients were well, frogs.

To add to this gift of a reversible cooking apron, and to have a bit of fun with Hannah, we made pot holders last night.


I like helping her make things. It's hard not to step in and do it myself though. She won't get good at things if I do it for her...

I got one of my quilts back last week ahead of another one that I am waiting on. I hate waiting.


I threw the binding on it. This quilt just makes me happy. I can't explain why I like, I just do. Is it the colors? Mellow and ocean like. Probably.

Farm animals and the ocean

Two posts in one day? I can't help myself...

Today is just gorgeous! Tiff suggested we take the kids to Atlantic Farms again and let them see the animals. Um, ok. Sounds like fun to me!

The office was closed so we didn't have to pay, of course that meant we couldn't get food for the animals, but we were able to walk around and see them. The kids had a blast.


We were done walking around the farm and not quite ready for lunch so we drove a few minutes away to the ocean. A little running around on the beach and collecting sea shells is just what we needed. There was a little bench with a great view of the water where we ate our lunch. Also added for Seth's enjoyment a new house was being built near by too.


It was such a lovely way to spend the day. Ahhh.

Now the little man is wiped out and taking a nap. Maybe I can get some work done with some fabric. I am very good at ignoring the sink full of dishes in favor of playing with fabric. Oh, I got some pretty fabric in the mail yesterday to make a baby quilt with! It's so totally girly and cute.

Disney

Here are a few photos of the kids at Disney World. Of course, Simon has to make faces. He wouldn't be Simon if he didn't.

Sandbox fun

Saturday was a beautiful day. Sunny and in the low 60's. I finally went to Home Depot to get some sand for the new sandbox. The kids all played in it for hours. It will be so awesome to have this summer. Seth has recently found a love for tractors so digging in a sandbox is right up his alley. Anyway, I took quite a few pictures of them playing.

Dump trucks are fun in the sand.

Bury those toes.

Goofy grin. (He has the remnants of a tattoo on his check from his trip.)

She was intent on her work in the sand.

She's beautiful.

Damn my kids are cute.

After my walk this morning (I am doing a half marathon in a month! Yikes!) and a shower we made some banana bread muffins. Yummy! Seth helped me out. The big kids came in looked around and left... but still wanted to lick out the bowl. I let them have it but geez, they didn't earn it. I forgot to get pictures of the big kids licking the spatula.

My babies and another baby

Where do I begin. First off the kids are home safe. Their flight ended up coming in 3 hours later than originally scheduled but they got here and that's all that matters. I heard all day from Seth, "Hannah, airplane. Airplane, Hannah." Their little friends (the hermit crabs) managed to make it through security. Of course in Orlando yesterday, that isn't the only thing that made it through security. Yeah, some guy tried taking bomb making materials on a flight to Jamaica. Does my family attract weird things? Are we prone to being around strange happenings? Do I live in the danger zone? (Who's singing the Top Gun song right now?)

After dinner the doula that I back up called to tell me that two of her clients were in labor. Of course, I jumped at the chance to attend a birth. Well, one of her clients contractions didn't really get going but client A's did. Since we weren't sure what would happen with the other mama we both went with A and her husband J to the hospital. She wasn't a candidate for an epidural due to rods in her back so she had two options, labor naturally or have a c-section under general anesthesia. With the help of her fabulous husband and two wonderful doulas she did it naturally. Woo, hoo! It's never as easy as it sounds for the mama but she was great. (The other client took a shower and went to bed... still haven't heard if she had her baby or not yet.)

I got home at 6:40 am. I took a 30 minute nap and got up to get the kids ready for school. Once they were off to school I stuck Bob the Builder on the TV and managed to nap for about an hour through Seth demanding, "Mommy, up!" We took a shower and made a run to Costco. I knew he'd fall asleep on the way home and was hoping he'd take a good nap today. Luckily for me he slept for almost two hours. I got all the food put away and laid down for a while. Not long after we were up it was time to get the kids from school. Simon was out about on time and Hannah was late... no wait, she wasn't late after all. She had Chorus and once I realized that today was Wednesday I remembered the had Girl Scouts too. I have no brain on a normal amount of sleep, I think I become utterly useless on roughly 4 hours. Such is life.

I made spaghetti for dinner because it's easy and then we took Hannah to Gymnastics for her make up class. Thank god Simon didn't want to to to Tae Kwon Do today. I think I'd have pulled out all my hair.

I am tired. Hopefully I can get some good sleep tonight. It was worth missing sleep to see another beautiful baby come into this world though. It's such a powerful experience and I always feel blessed to be a part of it.