Just A Ride

A beautiful mermaid posted a link to this for me to watch after I had commented that I had had a particularly horrid and stressful week. It is something that I watch frequently when I've had a bad day to remind me that it is, "Just A Ride" and this too will pass.

Thank you so much McCabe!!

Giveaway

Head on over to my friend, Michelle's blog, One Crafty Mama!!

She is having a Giveaway over at her blog from my shop on Tuesday!

You have to go to her blog though to participate!

............

This is my life this week.

The softball fields.

My house is a mess.

As much as I love helping out on the softball board, I'll be happy when this week is done.

So I can get back to my house and family.

My redhead

*****************This picture was on the front page of Etsy last Friday! :)********************

I was taking pictures of my oldest for my etsy shop, Coronado Orange and then I was playing around in photoshop with them. She loved this picture so much she put it on her
"myspace".

You know how you have that "awkward phase" in junior high? Well, I think she is finally past that stage. Of course it helps tremendously that she has an aunt who spoils her and takes her to one of the best salons to get her hair done too. And then add in the fact that we love to watch America's Next Top Model, and voila!, she loves to pose. :)

Junior high has not always been the funnest place for her, but I'm hoping as we near the last 1/2 of it, she seems to be doing much better there. She is incredibly nervous to start high school next year. I just hope the confidence she seems to be having lately will cross over to help her transition to high school.

Here, where we live, her school is a K-8, where the "junior highers" are separated by the lower grades, however they still are basically all with the same kids.

So come next year she will be integrated with kids who come from all different schools too. While it's nice that they get to stay with their classmates for so long, it's almost like it's putting off that "intergration factor" when you merge with other schools.

Anyway, I just also wanted to show off my oldest today. :)

Roses

This is a closeup of one of the roses hubby gave me for Valentine's Day.

Crochet, crochet, crochet

These are two of my lastest creations that I've been working on and I have them up at my etsy store: www.coronadoorange.etsy.com

I feel like I have become a crocheting fool!

I'm also working on a blanket, another scarf, a bolero jacket for the youngest and I made a headband last night for the oldest (pictures later).

I also found a pattern for a yummy summer blanket too.

I also feel like I am collecting yarn. I just love the colors and the textures!!

My mom taught me to crochet when I was young and it is something I've always loved doing. It actually relaxes me too.

Of course because of the energy I've been placing on crocheting things, my scrapbooking hobby has fell wayside, to my dismay. I'm hoping to set aside one day a week to sit down and start creating pages again.

I've also been noticing a lot of yummy beautiful fabrics lately too and my yearning for sewing has been wanting to come out.

And with spring right around the corner, my yearn for wanting to photograph things comes out too!

It's times like these where I wish I didn't have to work, even though I do love working where I work.

It's times like these that I seriously need to clone myself, because I do love sleep and won't give that up.

Yummy

Nothing says Southern California like a sno-cone on a warm day in February.

Coronado Orange

My beautiful friend, Stacy, urged me to "put myself out there" and sell my creations. So I took a wild leap and starting crocheting at night when I was watching TV and I started making things. Right now, I have just made some beanie hats and scarves, but I keep finding patterns of things I want to make. And I have accumulated totes and totes of yarn. (I can't help it, Michaels keeps having amazing sales on yarns).

Crocheting is something that I've always loved to do. I started crocheting probably somewhere between 4th and 6th grade. My mom used to crochet and I asked her to teach me. Now this was a feat for my mom, seeing as I'm left handed and she was right handed. But somehow I caught on and learned.

Throughout my life I've mostly made blankets for people. I have made lots of baby blankets, and a few adult blankets too. One year I made a Grateful Dead blanket for my husband. That was a feat in itself, because I had to create the design from scratch and make it in a month. He was out to sea then and I didn't want him to see it, as it was a Christmas present.

In the past 12 years or so, I haven't crocheted much because other things just because life had gotten in the way and I have to watch how long I do it or my arm will start hurting.

So now I only do it at night when I'm watching TV.

I get inspired by colors and textures of yarn I see and patterns I want to try out.

I do plan on putting other things in my Etsy Shop as the inspirations come.

But for now, I have what you see in my Etsy Shop, Coronado Orange.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I just realized that it's been forever since I posted on here!

I have been so incredibly busy these days!

We had a wonderful Christmas and it was the best seeing my sister again. Even though we only live about 2 1/2 hours away (on a good traffic day), because we both have busy lives (she's a 1st grade teacher), we can't always get together as often as we'd like.

When she asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I couldn't really think of anything at first. Then I told her jewelry and I told her I had wanted a necklace from my friend, Stacy. She designs her own necklaces and has a store: BellaWish. I was SO pleasantly surprised when I opened my present from her and found this beautiful necklace inside!

Her necklaces inspired me to start creating again and she urged me to open up an etsy store of my own. I am working on that right now and I will let you know when it's ready.

My oldest is playing soccer on the All-Star team and so we are busy with practices and tournaments for that. Here she is this past weekend during one of the games (She's the one in red):

So, along with that, softball is getting ready to start up again, and since I'm on the board, I'm busy right now with that too.

And you know, I think January should be declared "National Organization Month", because every magazine has articles on organization, all the stores are selling totes and everyone seems to be in that mode after the holidays.

I know I am. I have a list on my refrigerator of what I have to do around the house and in what order I'm getting it done to make it most effective. I'm over 1/2 way done with the list, thank goodness. I figure as long as I get it done by the end of thise month, I'm good. :)

I've also been looking at other blogs and my friend Michelle, posted about a giveaway she had found on her friend's site: The Secret is In The Sauce, who wanted to let people know about a giveaway. These camera straps are absolutely adorable!! If I don't win one, I'm for sure going to buy one, so I'll get one either way!!

*SHEY* {B} Camera Straps and Slip Covers

So that's about it so far.

My time is up for now, so I need to get moving on the next item on my list.....

Ornaments

I belong to an email moms group and we have been together since our kids were babies.

10 years ago we started a yearly tradition of exchanging ornaments. One person each year is in charge of organizing it, picking the names and letting us all know who our "secret santa" is. Then we pick out an ornament (or other decoration) for that person and mail it to them. Then, after a date is picked in December, we all go to a chat room (it used to be AOL, but too many of us were having problems, so we went to chatzy.com this year) and open our presents on that night.

This is one of my favorite things to do each year. Some of the years our chats get so hilarious and funny, we are laughing our butts off and our family is just looking at us like we are so weird!

I am so looking forward to the day when I will have gotten an ornament from every single member of our group and that I have given an ornament to each on of my friends.

We are a special bunch of gals, inasmuch as we all come from different backgrounds, different lifestyles, and different parts of the country. We all came together because our children were born that same year. And now, while we do still talk about our children, our discussions are more about us and our lives and sharing it with each other.

These are the ornaments I got this year. I love them!!

Trying VERY Hard Here.....

4 years ago on December 19th, was probably the worst day in my life. That whole week was probably the worst week in my life.

When my mom died.

Christmas? Yea, not so much fun AT ALL.

But I vowed that I would not let her death ruin future Christmases for me, considering it IS my favorite holiday.

I LOVE decorating the house, both inside and out. I LOVE getting presents for people. I love MAKING presents for people. I love to see the look on their eyes, or hear it in their voice when I get them something that they wanted, or didn't expect or love.

I LOVE the whole month leading up to Christmas. I LOVE baking Christmas goodies. I love getting the Christmas cards out. I LOVE receiving Christmas cards and find out how loved ones are doing and what they did this year. I LOVE waking up Christmas morning and seeing the anticipation on my girls faces for when they can come out and see what Santa brought them.

I LOVE the ornament exchange that my email moms group does at this time and how we almost always end up having a crazy chat conversation on the computer and laughing.

I LOVE going to look at Christmas lights. I love how the house is so warm and toasty during this time (that is when it's not 85 degrees outside).

4 years ago, I couldn't wait for Christmas to be over. Instead of the excitement leading up to Christmas that last week, I was wishing it would be over as soon as possible. Oh, I tried my best to put up the best front I could that morning for my girls, trying to smile and be happy, but it just wasn't there. And it wasn't there for my sister. We were both faced with the wrapped presents that were under the tree for us from our mom. And the presents that were under there from us for our mom. We did get through it, with the help of hubby, who suggested we each other's presents that we had given to mom the night before, that way they wouldn't be sitting there Christmas morning.

This year circumstances are really testing my love for Christmas again.

Last week we had some heavy rains, and not that we haven't had heavier rains prior to this time, but this time we thought we had it all covered. A new roof, new rain gutters, we thought we were set.

Well, apparently the rain gutter guy didn't install the downspout in the proper positioning, because with as much water that came through the one downspout, it has seeped into the oldest's bedroom and totally ruined her carpet.

So the bonus I got for being Employee of the Year? Now has to pay for a new carpet. We have contacted the contractor who installed it and he, so far has said that he is not responsible for it.

He has yet to talk to me though.

I will be calling him in the next couple of days and try to get him to understand that he is responsible and should do the right thing and pay for it, to avoid going to small claims court.

So in the meantime, hubby has pulled up the carpet to get ready for the new carpet. The oldest did a fabulous job emptying her room for that. It's amazing the nooks and crannies I can find in this house to store her "room".

So he pulls up the carpet and what does he find? Linoleum. Linoleum??!! In a bedroom??!!! WTF?! But then we're thinking okay, maybe that's not such a bad thing. It probably protected the slab.

So hubby goes in there (after putting fans and heaters in there to dry it out) and finds the linoleum loose. So he starts pulling up a few of the tiles.

Yes, water under there!

So now he has to pull up the whole floor (carpet tacks around the edges and everything) so we can dry out the slab. Which pushes back the installation of the carpet by quite a few days.

Because you don't want to put new carpet on a damp slab or an seemingly dry slab, you've got to wait until a few days after that.

When did all of this start you ask?

December 18th & 19th.

The same time my mom had her stroke and died, 4 years ago.

So of course it's bringing back all the feelings of dread and doom and despair I had 4 years ago.

I'm fighting like hell to try and keep my spirits up and push forward to have a wonderful Christmas.

I told hubby last night that I don't want to know all the details anymore. Just let me know when the room will be ready for the carpet.

I want to be in denial on this one.

My Teenager

While taking the "calendar" pictures below, I wanted to take a single picture of my oldest in this "theme" (May). This is my absolute favorite one of her that I have taken in a while.

Calendar Pictures

Okay, so I decided to do a calenday for my MIL for Christmas. I wanted to just go through pictures throughout the year and put them on the corresponding month. The eldest wanted to "dress up" for each month and do a "year of pictures" in a day. She was SO excited to do it, so we did the photo shoot today. I thought I'd share with you their "year in pictures" and the theme she wanted to do for each month. I loved her ideas, they were so cute. :)

Here is January......

February........

March........

April..........

May.............

June..............

July...........

August...........

September.....

October..........

November..............

December.............

Latest Project

I don't know why, but everytime around the holidays I get inspired to start new craft projects. I was at Michaels the other day and they had some yarn on sale for ridiculously low prices, so of course I had to buy some. I do have some patterns that I am working on with it. Yesterday in my youngest's class, one of her friends had this hat on that was SO cute. My youngest said she wanted one like that and I told her I could make one. The pattern I had wasn't exactly like it and I do have to tweak it a little bit for the next one, but I did this last night for her so she could wear it to school today. :)

Conjunction, Junction....

.....what's your function?

Yes, I can hear you all singing that song in your head. :)

I now call myself a "Conjuction Mom".

That's because my children don't call me "Mom" anymore.

It's "And Mom!"

Or "But Mom!"

My little one is famous for calling me "And Mom". She does it ALL the time now. It's not, "Mom!", it's "And Mom!" Like she has some conversation going in her head and she wants to continue it out loud to me and I'm adding to it.

The "But Mom!" has been there for a while, and of course that's them disputing something I've said.

I'm now just waiting for the "Or Mom!" phrase to come out of their mouths. I don't know how they'll use it, but I'm sure they'll figure out a way. Maybe the oldest will use it when she's trying to "counter- offer" something to me.

Body Shots

Okay, apparently Body Shots is not just drinking alcohol off of someone's body anymore.

My oldest told me today that there were guys in the bathroom doing "body shots" today. She asked me if I knew what that was. I totally thought I knew what I was talking about when I told her and she was like, "No mom, that couldn't be it, because they were doing it in the boys' bathroom and one guy came out with bruises."

So I just went and looked it up in the Urban Dictionary, and this is what is says for Defintion #6:

"when two or more people, usually males, get together to fight. the fighting is not malicious but usually between two buddies/friends/acquaintances. the only area hit is the body from the waist up and neck down (torso) and arms. hence, the term body shots. plural is the most common use of this noun."

Nice.

So there's your newest lesson (and mine too, apparently) in the teenage drama that's going on.

Sigh......

Show Not Tell

In my oldest's language class, they have these assignments which are called, "Show Not Tell", in which they have to write about some part of the book they are reading from one of the character's point's of view. The most recent book they read is called Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes. She read us her most recent Show Not Tell last night and I though it was amazing. So amazing that I'm showing it here:

*************************************************

I stand there, silent and motionless. The fast pace of my pulse is in rhythm with their footsteps. As I look across the green, I see the red stream pouring in, each individual carrying a gun, ready to blow my head off at any given moment. I know this could be the end of me, and that I may never see Rab, Uncle Lorne, or Cilla ever again. However it's too late to back down now. Besides, being able to have a man stand up as a free American is so much more important than my living. All of a sudden, I hear that first shot. That first shot that begins our fight, our determination, for freedom. I lift up my gun to fire, and I pull the trigger. But, it won't shoot. I drop down to the ground to try and safely fix my firearm. At that very moment, a bullet blazes across my head, just barely missing my skull. My gun finally manages to work, so I bound back up to shoot a fire of my own. I find myself staring at the whites of their eyes. Those hungry eyes staring straight through me. Before I can pull the trigger, I feel a bullet, a British, gruesome bullet piercing through my flesh. That bullet knocks me to the ground, leaving me in a pool of my own blood. My mind is telling me to buck and keep fighting, but my body is in debate. The one thing that my mind keeps repeating to me is "One less man to fight, one less chance that a man can stand up."

****************************************************

Legoland

This past Tuesday, Veteran's Day, the girls had off from school. Since hubby was able to get the day off as well, we decided to go to Legoland. We had never been before, and the oldest was on the cusp of really being too old to enjoy it. It really is a park for little kids.


There was this one ride near the beginning of the park that the youngest REALLY wanted to go on. But here's the thing, you might get wet. Hubby and I were NOT in the mood to get wet that day, so the youngest and the oldest were able to go on this ride together. They had a blast with it!

And yet, here's another ride for them to go on, just the two of them. Hmmmm......wow, this might not be a bad thing. Hubby and I get to sit and watch the girls stand in line to go on a ride?? That was nice! Now, don't get me wrong, hubby and I LOVE to go on the rides. We love Disneyland, we love roller coasters, etc. It's just the waiting in line and having to deal with rude people that's the pits. Plus these lines here at Legoland were NOT long at all.

Oh, and yet ANOTHER ride that we got to watch them.....

Oh, and at Legoland, they have a parking area that is a "Reserved" parking area, and Volvo sponsors it. So they have this little display right next to it and so, of course, the girls had to pose with it. Yes, the woman and baby are made out of Legos!

There were Lego displays all over the park (hence the "Legoland" name...) that were just so cute!

Then there was this car ride that the girls got to go on where the cars are NOT on a track and they can drive them all by themselves! There were stop signs and stoplights as well! (I worry about my oldest when she DOES start driving because she paid no attention to the stop signs, yikes!!) Oh, and don't worry, I think the cars go MAYBE 5 mph at the most? Hubby said that the oldest looked like she was riding in a rollerskate because she was so big for it. LOL!!

This was a ride that only the youngest could go on. The horse just rides around a little track and goes slow around it. It was VERY cute!

Now, there were a few roller coasters there too that we all could go on and that was fun. The youngest, at first did not want to go on them, but then after she was on them, she was like, "That was fun!!" Ahhhhhh....we love it!!

Now, back to the Lego displays they had there......

Elvis, baby, uh-huh! (We took this one for grandma, she loves Elvis)

And hubby had to get his picture taken with "Darth Vadar"

Now, the oldest likes to take goofy pictures with displays........

SpongeBob!!!!!

Another goofy pic with the oldest.....

Mount Rushmore.......

San Francisco.......

Oh, no!!! It's attack of the Killer Birds!!!!! (yes that is a real bird invading the display)

Window Washers in NYC....

Vegas Baby!!

We had a good time there, definitely a park you can do it one day, but I don't really see us going back there again. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you lived nearby and had little ones though!! If you do, get a season pass and go there all the time, the kids would LOVE it!!!

Next stop....Disneyland in a week and a half......

A First...

Okay, so I'm at Michaels on Sunday, doing some craft shopping (actually I was buying frames, because I'm switching out all the frames I have) and so I go to my car and open up the door.

All of the sudden I'm having severe pain in my right hand and I'm like, "OWWWWW!!!" So I shook my hand because I think I felt something on it and this BIG BLACK THING gets shooken off my hand onto the seat on the inside of the car. I'm thinking, "HOLY SHIT, I just got bit by a Black Widow spider!" And then the thing flies off. Yikes!! No, I did not get bit by a spider, I got STUNG by a bee! (Oh yea, and I was screaming about it and there was a car next to me, but did they do anything? Oh, no....they just drove off!)

Okay, now for all of you out there who are saying, "Okay, big whoop, you got stung by a bee".......well, I'm 40 years old and this was the VERY FIRST TIME I have EVER gotten STUNG by a bee!!! So it's a little traumatic for me, give me some leeway here people.

So automatic reaction happens and I squeeze it and the little stinger that it had popped out. Whew! But of course that freaks me out too! So I start searching through my car for the first aid kits. Yes you read that correctly, KITS. Plural. I think I have like 2 or 3 in there. Hey, I just haven't gotten around to condensing them into one. And you'd think that with all the first aid kits I had in there there would be SOMETHING for insect stings. Was there? Oh no, of course not.

So I have this "cleansing wipe" where I got stung on the inside of my hand, and I'm getting ready to call hubby when I see that he's calling me. So I answer the phone and start going off on how I got stung, and then I had to remind him that I had NEVER been stung before. (hey people, I suffer from anxiety, so I'm freaking out a little, worrying that I'm allergic or something). And THEN I start cursing, dropping the F-bomb everywhere because I'm FORTY YEARS OLD and I've gone THIS long without being stung, WHY NOW? So not only am I in intense pain, but I'm pissed. I'm pissed that this stupid ass bee stung me and ruined my perfectly good record of never have been stung.

So since you're reading this, and I'm not dead, it's pretty safe to say that I'm not allergic to bee stings. Not that I want to go out and get stung ever again......

Halloween

Halloween.

I've always loved this holiday. I love seeing the girls all dressed up, but I also love seeing what others come up with as far as costumes go.

Me? I could never come up with that cool creative costume. I have a friend, Sue, who dressed up like a Sea Monkey with her husband (then boyfriend). My sister dressed up as a "Noid" (remember "Avoid the Noid" from Dominos WAY back when?) once. Those two have always come up with the most fun costumes.

This year may very well have been the last year my oldest dresses up to go trick-or-treating. Wow, I feel so old.......

She was a pirate last year and I told her I was not going to buy her a new costume this year, so we altered the costume she had from last year to make her a "Queen of Hearts" in a way.

My youngest wanted to be a skeleton. So I found this on on ebay. She was going to have her face done up too, but after we put the white makeup on her face, she got uncomfortable with it on, and plus her skin was a little sore and raw underneath her bottom lip (dry weather, licking your lips, you get the picture), so we took the makeup off.


We went trick-or-treating with good friends of ours in their neighborhood. Ours sucks. Hubby said he got like 5 trick-or-treaters all night. So sad.

The oldest got out the decorations a couple of weeks before Halloween. Here's our little Halloween "village".........

And since I have a thing for snowglobes, we have to have one for Halloween too....

One decoration we did forget to get out was the little Trick Or Treater guy we made years and years ago. By the time I remembered it, it was the day before Halloween and I didn't feel like going into the shed to get him out.

All the Halloween decorations are now put away and the few Thanksgiving ones that I have (and they were all my mom's because she loved decorations for EVERY season, so when we went through her stuff, I took some) are now up. That literally took all of about 5 minutes.