Urgh

I haven't been on here in forever! And now I'm in a funk. I hate to have a negative post, but a gal's gotta vent!! Looks like I will be out of a job in about 6 weeks. My most favorite job ever. Seriously bummed. But times are tough and I can understand how a small business can't make it. It's not like we needed the paycheck for bills. Granted I need it for MY bills, but that's another story! But the job is my sanity! My only time away from the kids! Waaah. I want to whine and cry! Since Rock was never supportive of the gig, there's certainly no empathy from him now! Maybe another opportunity will present itself when the time comes, but all I can think of now is endless days at home! The job is about the only reason I leave the house! Now what?!?

Ok moving on.... Here are some lessons I have learned since last posting. A child really has no sense of danger. And if left unsupervised for just a moment, will find himself on the roof of the house. One of the scariest moments in my life!!! Rock was patching some shingles on the roof while Owen played in the backyard. I was inside with Erik and then Erik went out. Owen came in and I heard crying. When I asked him if that was Erik, he said, "yes, he's stuck on the roof!" WTF?!?! Are you KIDDING ME?!?! He wanted to see what Daddy was doing. Luckily he was scared and didn't wander far from the ladder, but I about crapped my pants and hoped like hell I wouldn't fall with him in my arms as I attempted the rescue! Rock was on the front of the house and Erik was on the back, so Rock didn't know he had company up there. I swear I was shaking. Egads. Another scary moment today as I looked up and saw Erik fall to the ground from the play fort in the backyard. This kid is going to take us to the emergency room, I just know it!!! Owen is usually a good kid, but they had some sort of squabble and he pushed Erik and down he went. Luckily he was still in his heavily padded swimsuit and didn't appear to be hurt. He got right up after a little crying "Owen pushed me!", and continued to run around like nothing had happened. Good lord, this kid is like a cat with nine lives. And I'm wondering when "the good one" Owen turned into the devil?! He didn't say a word, but his eyes welled up with tears and he hung his head while I questioned/lectured. Then Erik jabbed him in the watery eye. I guess that made them even?!

Anybody have any tips on removing silly putty from clothing/fabric? Some moronic Easter Bunny put Silly Putty in the boys' baskets. Hopefully he (she/ME!) remembers and doesn't do it again next year, even if it IS only $1 at AC Moore.

Not a huge mess here, just a nuissance... must monitor Erik's visits to the kitchen and the drawer that holds the tape. Erik's toy giraffe is totally wrapped in tape and he's starting on the parking garage, see below!

Kids should not be given styrofoam packing peanuts even if you think doing so will buy you 5-10 mins to get the dishes taken care of. They don't even need a fraction of that time to destroy them and make a huge mess. And I thought this would be easy to sweep up, but styrofoam+broom=serious static!

Pennies for Alexander

I'm copying this from the group on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=43767340887). Kari is one of my sorority sisters, and their tragedy has effected me so much more than I could have imagined. One of the women taking donations, Betsy, is also a sorority sister. I've taken my boys to this park and look forward to seeing the new equipment in place this spring. I think it's a great tribute to this little guy! So this cause means a lot to me and I feel like I can't do my trivial blogs again until I've acknowledged the serious events of the last month.
Here's the copy:
On December 30th, 2008 Kari and Lyle Judson lost their sweet baby Alexander Hinton Judson to RSV. Alexander was a healthy 11 ½ month old who loved playing with his mommy and daddy and twin brother Dominic. A few days after Christmas Xander and Nic came down with a terrible respiratory infection. After a short battle with RSV and Pneumonia Xander closed his eyes and was received in heaven. Kari and Lyle made a truly selfless decision in the midst of their own unimaginable grief to donate baby Xanders organs to help save the lives of others. What a testament of their love. On Friday, January 2nd Kari and Lyle left the hospital where brother Nic was still recovering and drove to Holy Family Catholic Church to say goodbye to the love of their life four days before his first birthday. We know that Xander got the birthday of a lifetime in Heaven and if you were silent and listened carefully that day you could hear the angels singing to him. Nic celebrated his 1st birthday in the hospital with his mommy and daddy, his girlfriends (the nurses) and his new guardian angel. Today Nic is finally home and doing well. Now the journey begins for this family to find peace in this tragedy. Your pennies can bring a bit of joy back into their lives. The money will be used for the park addition where Xander and Nic made so many wonderful memories that will forever live in the hearts of Kari and Lyle. Some of the money will be used for RSV awareness which is vital to stopping this horrible illness from taking another child from his or her parents. Xander’s kidneys were the only organs viable for donation and they went to a 32 year old woman in Florida. This little boy and this family saved the life of this woman!Lyle and Kari would like to have a see saw donated to the park. The see saw is representative of the twins, one being UP in heaven and the other DOWN on earth. We are asking everyone we know to donate $3.60 to this cause. That is one penny for each day this little boy graced us here on Earth. Even if you don’t know this family any parent can imagine what they are going through and this little piece of you can make a huge difference in the life of another! You can change the world one penny at a time! Thank you!

If you feel you can make this donation please go online and make your donation through PayPal to:
betsyball01@comcast.net
Or can be mailed to:
Andrea Faust
Attention: Pennies for Alexander
2619 Hampton Park Drive
Marietta, GA 30062
Please make checks payable to Andrea Faust

Thank you for your support for this beautiful family. This park addition will be a great place for Nic to play in the coming years and a great memorial for the joyful life little Xander lived for such a short time!

Donations can also be sent to:
PICU- CHOA FOUNDATION
Att: Steven Wagner
1687 Tullie Circle, NE
Atlanta, GA 30329

And here is a link for RSV information: http://children.webmd.com/tc/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv-infection-topic-overview

The Weekend is Here!

Ok, my dad totally freaked out seeing the pics of Owen's faces while getting the haircut, so I've removed them from here and facebook to appease him! If you missed 'em, too bad! They did remind me a little of Danny in the Shining! That can't be good!
So, I'm boring. Life consists of tv, kids, scrapping, and eating. So that's probably all you'll hear about!
Today had breakfast with Michele T. and Carol B. with baby Fletcher, too! We went to IHOP at my request because of those darn commercials showing the coffee cake pancakes!! If i didn't watch tv so much, I'd never have known about them! I had the lemon blueberry variety, which were delish! I wish I was feeling better so I could have REALLY enjoyed them.
Anyway, another day of feeling crummy... might be all this bad eating and watching tv! but took a snooze on the couch as the kiddos ran amok. Then I altered some clothespins for photos. I decorated them in a dog motif, thinking one or both would be a good gift for my sister for Christmas. Here they are:




They're the Creative Imaginations Bare Elements Diane clothespins, which measure about 4.5"x1ish". I'm hoping that's a good size to hold a 4x6 photo. The papers are from the Die Cuts with a View Pets Stack and the printed ribbons are Marcella by K. Oh, and the paint is Making Memories.
Following craft time, it was lock down time. I helped Rock install new chains and locking doorknobs around the house. We suspect Erik is plotting his escape so we're trying to slow him down a little bit.
Then we ate spaghetti... made at home!! I'm usually the spaghetti cooker, but Rock made it tonight and it was super tasty. Tomorrow morning he's doing something with the Masons and he's pretty nervous. I'm sure he won't sleep much, and I'll look forward to feedback later tomorrow. Well, he's not allowed to talk about it, but I'm sure I'll be able to tell by his face if a goat was involved ;)

Just another day in the life!

Ok, so it's another day of feeling crappy. And Erik slept in my bed for the 1st time since surgery, so didn't sleep well during the night. Made up for it on the couch this morning and until around 1:15pm, yikes!
Finally got up and went with Rock to get haircuts for the boys, who were beyond shaggy. We took the Teddy Bear Owen brought home from school Monday (we have to keep a little journal of his visit with us this week), so I brought the camera to get a photo. I'm glad I had it b/c Owen made the craziest faces at me as he was getting his cut! He was miffed b/c the gal had to comb out tangles before the cut, so he kept making mean faces at me. They cracked me up, so here are a couple:


Erik is going to give us a run for our money, no doubt. This was one of his adventures this evening. Can't keep him out of the fridge and he apparently likes the egg carton. I feel blessed to have a family, but at the same time wonder if I was really meant to be a SAHM.



Tonight for dinner we ordered out, woohoo!! I get so bored eating stuff cooked at home, and Rock is the total opposite. So we ordered from Taco Casa. I was having second thoughts after not feeling well and ordering Mexican! But I loved it!! That's right, I've lived in GVL for 9yrs + 2 yrs, and have never eaten at the Taco Casa that's less than 2 miles from our house! Had a quesadilla, which looked more like a little pizza, and half of a Nachos Supreme, and they were delicious!
Rock's been griping about getting a haircut for some time, and I usually do it at home for him. I've been dragging my feet lately, but finally gave him a cut tonight. I may or not have accidentally given him Vanilla Ice stripes over his ears! yikes!sorry about that ;)

1st Post!

Yippee! My first blog over here! I was blogging on MySpace, but haven't been on much lately. I'm mostly on Facebook now, but as far as I know, there's no spot for my rambling! So here I am.

Had surgery last week so Rock's been home to take care of me. I'm tired of being in the house, so last night he took me to dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube, which is a new eatery here in GVL. We were lucky enough to have it be All You Can Eat Wings night! Woohoo!! I think I ended up eating 18 and Rock did 21. We were both painfully full, but think we sampled most of the flavors. I think I'm a traditional wing girl, so while some of the flavors were tasty, my favorites were the ones that tasted like Buffalo wings. I liked the Hot and the Arizona Ranch, very tasty. A guy at a table diagonal from us ordered the Atomic, and shortly thereafter made a trip to the restroom! He was sweating when he left! He let us smell the leftover wings, since he only ate one. Pretty potent smelling! We also enjoyed the Premium Pretzel appetizer. Love soft pretzels! And the chips were great, too. I feel full again just thinking about it! Look forward to going back and taking the boys because they've got lots of cool automotive stuff as decor, and outside, there's a race car with Toy Story 2 details, and I'm sure they'd love that! And the kids meal comes in a car shaped box :)

Tonight I finished a project for the store. I think it turned out cute! It's a Christmas ornament chipboard minibook, that I may teach as a class at the store where I work. It's made from the Creative Imaginations Bare Elements Matt mini chip book, American Crafts Christmas paper, ribbon, and Rub-Ons; QuicKutz $1 clear stamps, $1 dies, and metro font; some ink, and silver embossing powder. I think that's all : )