A Diva Moment

Take that May 21, 2012

Eight years ago today I woke up thinking, “Man, we are SOOO lucky that the peonies are in full bloom right now! Otherwise, we’d have no wedding flowers!” And then I began a quick mental checklist to make sure the last minute details were all in place. Although there are a few things I would have changed about the day, it still was perfect. So many friends, family and students. So much wonderful music. (I mean, really, it couldn’t have been my wedding without tons of music.) So many non-traditional things. So very us.

Eight years. I won’t say it’s been perfection. We are two people who are constantly evolving and figuring out how to mesh well can be tricky at times. Throw 3.5 little ones into the mix, and things get even trickier. Never mind the fact that sometimes we just pass as strangers in the night, or that our conversations seem to revolve around poop and sleep! (Not our, that of the babes, or course.) But eight years later, through all the bumps, we are still here, and will be for a very. long. time. That’s in part due to the fact that we began our journey as friends, and very good friends at that. It’s also due to the fact that neither of us are quitters and we made a forever commitment. So even though there are days, I still can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be pissed at or frustrated with because at the end of the day, we’re a good team . . . we’re two peas in a pod . . . .we mesh well.

Eight years ago, I know there were people who definitely didn’t agree. Of course there were lots of supporters, but there WERE rumblings. People doubting:

• “WHAT? They only dated for a week?”
•  ”Only a three month engagment? What’s the rush?”
•  ”Well, I hope they love each other.”
• And the best one was this anonymous postcard received about two weeks after the wedding.  ”Let’s give them something to talk about”, well you did and we’re still talking.   Just in case you didn’t know . . . Tacky, tacky, tacky. Your wedding was disgusting. Your ceremony was sacrilegious. [sic] Your reception wan an unedible [sic] joke (the one that you forgot to attend). Your abysmal behavior offended EVERYONE from start to finish. No one was impressed. Your immaturity and selfishness will be remembered by all. You wasted everyone’s time and money. Your wedding was so cheap, we hope you didn’t spend over $20, if so, you were ripped off. Perla your home kit bleach job looked awful, and if your husband refuses to kiss you on your wedding day, you will soon regret being so desparate. [sic] Several of us are hoping this was a “Green Card” marriage, that would help explain the lack of love. We hope God has mercy on you and blesses this unholy union. God will not be mocked. 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15

Do you think maybe this person was our biggest naysayer?  Pretty pathetic to send something like this anonymously, right?! But, no matter.

Eight years later, I say, “Take that!”

Tabletop easels November 26, 2011

About two months ago, I read this post over at Ikatbag about easels, which led me to pin this page.

This seemed like a perfect project to do with the babes. We happened to have some cardboard laying around. So we grabbed our supplies: ruler, marker, glue gun, box cutter and set to work.

Here are the pieces cut up and ready to be assembled.

And the completed easels.

The cardboard side they use for painting, I just clip a piece of paper to it and off they go. The other side was painted with chalkboard paint. (After doing these easels, I discovered this tute.

So next time I might try a different color!)

I must admit, the easels aren’t as big of a hit as I expected. But, I think that is to be expected with kids.

Silence November 25, 2011

It’s been a month since I last posted anything on my little blog. I’m never short on ideas, I am, however, short on time. There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. I have been getting lots of things accomplished, though. My mom came for a two week visit, which gave me a few extra hours to get things done.

So, what exactly have I been up to?

1 – Organizing DH’s office. It was a disaster. It had sort of become the “Oh-we’ll-deal-with-this-later” room. It was so messy, that we had to put the guest bed in the living room for a few days until it got organized. But, it’s now nice and clean. All of the babes summer clothing is packed away, their overflow toys are organized, and the randome stuff has been either trashed or rehomed. Phew!
2- You may remember the dryer and washing machine saga of several months ago . . . . our new machines are AMAZING! Unfortunately, Mrs. Landlady thinks her old, clunky pieces of junk are worth keeping (clearly, I don’t agree!), so we have them stored in DH’s office (no room in the garage). It just looked ugly, so I made some covers for the machines and they fit like a glove, and look much better, to boot!
3 – My computer desk has been a mess since we moved here, and prior to living here, our electronics area was a mess. I’d been wanting to make little pouches or boxes or something for about two years. I finally got sick of the disaster and made a bunch of boxes.

Before

After

Admittedly, this isn’t one of those “WOW! What a change!” pics. But I like that you don’t see all sorts of junk, it’s all hidden=)

4 – The getting my business started has gotten rolling. I have piles of fabric waiting to be made into things, and I have an equally long list of legal things to take care of prior to “opening shop”. Soo, I spent a good number of hours doing research on the proper clothing labeling requirements, sales tax requirements, figuring out how to make my own labels, and various other little odds and ends. Talk about a time sink! But if I do it right, I’ll only have to do this once, and then I’ll be good to hook.
5 – DS2 has been needing some trainer undies for awhile. I couldn’t justify making all new ones when I had some almost perfectly good ones in storage. So I sat down for about 15 minutes, figured out how to modify them, and then got to work, fixing up about 5-8 pairs. Not really a difficult task, I just had to find an uninterrupted hour. (Thanks mom!)
6 – I listed and sold two sewing machines. My fleet is always in a state of flux. There are several that are permastash, but the rest come and go. I think I’m close to getting the perfect stash. Of course, I thought I had the perfect stash a year ago and things have changed quite a bit since then=)

So, I feel like I’ve gotten alot done. I still have a fairly large list of things to do, but somehow, I think I’m always going to have a large list. It keeps me from getting bored=)

God Is Seen October 8, 2011

Sometimes I think one can gain more of a blessing by skipping church.

Today, I skipped church.

I was blessed.

The littlest man was sick:  sneezing, coughing, generally a germy little human being.  I thought it best to keep his germiness away from the other kiddies at Sabbath School.  Rather than stay cooped up inside all day, I loaded him up in a wrap and went out for a walk.  It couldn’t have been more perfect.   The temperture was in the high 60′s, a nice breeze was blowing, and there was wall to wall sunshine.  All of this was the perfect backdrop for the amazing fall colors.  The trees in our neighborhood haven’t really started changing colors.  But just two blocks over, the trees were on fire . . . . . reds, oranges, glowing yellows.  I was in awe.  As I crunched through the leaves and soaked in the beauty that is Fall, a song from my college choir-singing days popped into my head, and it became the soundtrack of our little walk.

Every year, the leaves change colors, and every year, I stand amazed at the beauty.  You’d think it would get old, year after year, time and again.  I mean, you know exactly what it going to happen, you know what it’s going to look like, you can even predict what color the leaves will turn.  Yet, every year, my heart is made glad, my day is made better and I stand in awe because of the beauty.

Sometimes one can gain more of a blessing by skipping church.

Today, I skipped church.

God Is Seen.

Halfway there August 24, 2011

Last week, we got tired of the foolishness with Mrs. Landlady and the junkomatic washer and dryer that are in the house, and we bought a new set. We did troll Craigslist, but it was either similar junkomatic or it was a front loader washer or we would respond too late to be able to buy it. Soo, we bought a new set. The dryer arrived on Thursday. I’ve gotta say, I’m sooo much happier having this piece-of-junk-still-a-fire-hazard-even-though-it-got-”fixed” dryer out of commission.

I found a good deal on a Whirlpool Cabrio from Lowe’s and it’s been working like a dream. No more “Holy cow the top if the dryer is INSANELY hot!” No more preposterously long dryer buzzers. No more “Hmmm, it smells like burning wires.”

Behold, the new dryer.

And now, we are halfway there.