New Cards I Made

sorry for the sideways image. I tried everything to

turn it but I couldn't get it to work for me.

Here are few cards that I have made for two guys that have been great inspirations!

I Am A Guest Blogger

Hey go check out Organizing with Sandy! She is featuring me as a guest blogger today. As soon as I can figure out how to grab her "guest blogger" button I will put it on my page. But for now this post will link you to my blog. This is my first guest post and I am super excited. She is featuring my before and after discussion on my craft room!
Thanks, Sandy! Oh and thanks to my friend Amy for bringing my attention back to that post the other day. If I had not come back to that post I would not have seen Sandy's invitation in the comment section!
Wow it was just FATE!!!!

Sandy has a great site for organizing, go check it out....Organizing with Sandy!

Where Have I Been?

I have been absent...I know.
I have been working out, AT THE GYM! Can you believe it. Well, if you don't know me then you are probably thinking, "umm, I guess". But you see, I have gained 50 pounds since having my two kids.
Let me lay it out here on this blog. Here where my real world people don't come. When I got pregnant with The Professor I had just joined Weight Watchers and gotten my weight from 160lbs down to 145lbs. Then I took the pregnancy test! That 145 went up to 180lbs with that pregnancy. It all dropped off without any problems down to about 160lbs. That is where I stayed until I got pregnant with Bella. With Bella I BALLOOOOOOOONNNNNED up to 202lbs at delivery. I struggled to drop any "baby weight" after her. It has been just short of three years now. I still hover between 193lbs and 197lbs. Just last week I weighed in at the doctor's at..........200lbs! GULP*GASP*BLACK OUT*
So I went straight to the local gym and signed my name in sweat and tears. I even got myself a personal trainer...Mr. T!
So, for 5 days straight I couldn't come down the stairs without visions of falling. I couldn't sit down with out striking that pregnant woman pose. You know the one, where you arch your back, reach back and ease into the chair. My legs felt like they were going to give out like twigs! I am finally feeling stronger. I am not feeling anything different in my shape yet but it will come.
Oh, did I also mention that I completely changed the way I am eating too! I cut out all starchy carbs...for now. I know, I know, what about whole grains? I will get them back into my diet. After I get myself off of the white starch addiction. I am also eating fish like 6 times a week versus zero times a week. I am also eating veggies 5-6 times a day versus 1-2 times. Oh, I don't snack anymore on the cookies, chips and junk in the pantry. It has only been a week but I am motivated and focused.
I really want my 145lb body back. I would love to see that flat tummy again. I would love to feel the air breeze between my legs again. Come on, no more rubbing thighs!!!!!! If only I could work out my boobs so that they would stop drooping, then it would be all good!

So, here's to keepin' it real and workin' it hard!

DIY Travel Lap Trays

We are getting ready to take a road trip to San Francisco. This road trip will take us about 8 hours in the mini van with the kids. One thing that I wanted to have for them was a lap tray. Something that they could write on, play with their toys on and eat on. It needed to contain everything and be easy to clean. It also needed to be easy to put on them and take off of them. So I looked around on line and found some great items but didn't want to pay the prices. One thing that I did learn from my online search was that my lap trays should be safe in case we were in a collision. I didn't want something made of hard plastic or metal. So I decided to craft it myself. So I gathered my supplies together and here is what I did.

Here is my supply list:

• Avon box lid (it fits across the seats, I had it on hand and it had a great "lip" around it to contain everything)
• Vinyl table cloth in cute patterns (I picked up mine at Kmart on sale for $2.99 each)
• Vinyl place mats (I got these at Kmart also for $2.99 each)
• hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
• old socks (two pairs per tray)
• beans (I had split peas and white beans in the pantry that I used)
• needle and thread in matching color of sock
  

Here are the pictures to give you an idea of how it was done:

I covered the lid with the vinyl table cloth using hot glue. There was no measuring involved, just laid the lid down and cut it out. The folds are not perfect but I don't really care about stuff like that when I am making stuff like this. I left the inside of the lid free of cloth because it would be covered by the place mat. I used the place mat because it would add more stability for a writing surface and would be easier to finish than trying to nicely finish and tuck the cloth.

Then I filled the socks with the beans and sewed them closed.

Then I hot glued the socks to the flat side (bottom) of the tray parallel to the long sides. This will give them some weight to stay on the kids laps and also keep the vinyl surface off of their legs.

That's it. I will let you know how it works once we get back.

Grammy Shirley

My Grandma Shirley visited from Oregon this past month. She had never met Bella and had only met The Professor when he was 18 months old. She lost her husband, "Grandpa Wayne" back in September so she was finally able to travel here to visit us.

Grandma Shirley, for as long as I have memories of her, was never a "soft" grandma. She never hugged, comforted or offered sweets. She smoked and criticized. She didn't get along with my mom so as a kid many of our trips to Oregon were without my mom and that was difficult for me. That also darkened a lot of my memories of Grandma Shirley. But as an adult I can see the whole picture. I can see how Grandma was unyielding, how my mom was young and naive. I can also see how neither one was willing to step toward one another in forgiveness.

Anyway, I wish that I could say that Grandma has completely changed with age. But she still smokes...ugh! She is still very quiet and non conversational. But there has been a softening around the razor sharp edges. She will embrace you when you give her a hug. She will speak words of love when you embrace her.

Bella has given Grandma a new name too! Bella began calling her "Grammy Shirley" and we all followed suit. Ya know what, it made me see Grandma in a slightly different light. She wasn't as domineering or frightening anymore. I was able to encourage my kids to give her love freely without any of my old feelings clouding them. I will never know a Grandma that hugs you with all her might. Who strokes your hair off your face and tells your stories. A Grandma that holds you on her lap or makes you cookies. My kids will know a great grandma that tells them how beautiful they are, though. It seems that being "Grammy Shirley" has softened her even more.

My memories will be of a Grandma with brilliant blue eyes that look at you in quiet speculation. A Grandma whose wrinkled hands are wrapped around a coffee mug rather than a chubby grandchild. But I will also remember a Grandma that sat me down in my Great Grandma's kitchen at the age of 19 and taught me how to make the traditional family desserts. I will remember watching her strong hands roll out dough. I will remember looking at her at 75 years old and thinking that there wasn't any weakness in her. My Great Grandma, Granny Viola, lived well into her 90s and I am sure that Grandma Shirley will too. I realized that she have passed this onto me. She has passed onto me a love of tradition in the kitchen.

I am growing up now and seeing bigger pictures and the whole person. I love my Grandma Shirley. I do not mourn the imaginary grandma I always wanted as a child. I rejoice in the gift of a strong grandma that God gave me. She has many lessons to teach me!

Knees

Take Me Away

I don't have much to say right now. I am trying to keep the kids healthy for our vacation. So far so good! I am trying to keep my head above water! Most days, lately, I just want to run away from being a mom and a wife. I just want to be ME, not the person everyone else needs me to be. I don't want to think about any one's needs but my own! That is absolutely selfish but that is alright with me right now. I need to feel selfish. I need time to myself. I need to sink into a tub of bubbles (like Bella above). I need peace and quiet and solitude.

I need conversations with God where the only things that I can actually hear are the birds, the breeze and God's voice. I don't want to hear the TV, the bickering, the cars driving by, the telephone, the doorbell, the whining, the questions, and I really don't want to hear one more person tell me that they are hungry!

Wow, I would love to sit in a field of flowers and watch the bees and the clouds and talk to God. I am sure that He has a lot to say to me right now. We haven't had many conversations lately! I have been too busy/feeling tired/frazzled/down/bored/frustrated or creatively blocked to turn to God. I complain that nobody gets my humor and my intelligence lately. Well, duh, the one person that does get it, is the ONE that I have not turned to!

These are the times I should be deep in conversation with God. Not just asking for more patience with unruly or bored kids but listening to what He has to say. I know that the words are there. You know that feeling when something is bothering you and you don't know what it is. I think, for me, it is when God is talking to me and I am not listening. He talks more insistently and it becomes more uncomfortable because I continue to ignore the "feeling".

It has taken a lot this past week for God to get me to listen. But here I am, I am listening.



Originally, I sat down to write about how I wanted to runaway (maybe to a cowboy ranch). How I wanted to be alone! But once I started to write, God finally got me to listen.

This blog may not be the fun and easy read that some of you came hear to read, sorry for that. But it was very cathartic to write and that was very good for me.



Have a wonderful weekend!