Sep

23

2008

Twelve On Tuesday!

Pick yourself back up off the ground friends! You read that right…TWELVE on Tuesday! There for awhile I was doing great with keeping up on my “Two Little Tidbits Tuesday,” but life happens and I tend to, ummm, forget! Yes, I said it, I DO in fact forget things from time to time!! I guess that makes me human?! And DEFINITELY a mom!!

1. Chris FINALLY got his truck working this weekend!! WHOO HOO!! It has not been in commission for nearly two months now and let me just say, it is a miracle we are still on speaking terms with all of the shuffling and inconvenience endured (from both sides) over the past several weeks!
Turns out it was REALLY minor in the whole scheme of things. After a new starter and many hours spent online researching, it was just the battery and a battery cable!! Runs like new now…thank goodness!! I am not sure how many more days I could have handled of taking Huntler to school, Chris to work, picking up Huntler from school, picking up Chris from work, driving home and then letting Chris take the car BACK to work so I wouldn’t have to get out at 5:30 or whenever to go get him yet again. 
Here is one of Daddy’s biggest fans hard at work on Sunday…
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2. I have extreme OCD when it comes to the dryer being left on when we are gone and the garage door being shut. I will NOT leave the house without turning off the dryer. I guess that it really has nothing to do with the dryer itself, more about the risk of a fire starting. 
And the garage door? Well, that one is obvious. Doesn’t EVERYONE feel the need to drive BACK by their house every now and again just to make sure it is closed? Please tell me I am not the only one with garage door OCD?!!
3. Keeping in line with the whole garage door thing…ours is ALWAYS down during the day. I have seen far too many episodes of Dateline and 20/20 to know that there are some crazies out there and I certainly am not going to advertise that I am home. 
I don’t answer the door during the day either. We are not friends with any of our neighbors so the chances of them coming over are about slim to none. And our friends aren’t exactly right around the corner, so if they are coming over for some reason, there is always a phone call involved and I am expecting them!
4. That being said, our garage door is cracked right now. When I left to go pick up Huntler 
from school I saw this little lizard out sunning himself on a rock. I saw him in the same place last week too. He was still there when we got home, so I did my own little form of ”pest control” and scared him off. I am quite certain he will be back…it wasn’t his first time on the rock so he must live around there somewhere. So fine, I got him on his merry little way and was then getting Gentry out of her carseat. The garage door was already down by this point and Huntler was in the house. As I am over on her side, I hear this rustling noise. She heard it too. I looked over along the garage wall and WHAT do my eyes see?? The biggest stinkin’ lizard I have yet to see at our house (it wasn’t huge by any means, but it was definitely bigger than any of the others we have seen around here)! Some expletives may or may not have been muttered under my breath as I grabbed up Gentry and debated my next step. Do I leave the lizard in the garage? Do I try to shoo him out? Do I go in the house and pretend I never saw him and hope he doesn’t sneak in when we open the door into the house?? 
Gentry obviously picked up on my tension and was in panic mode. “I scared, I scared Mommy.” So, we do what any non-lizard loving Mommy would do, we call Daddy…he’ll know what to do. So, after a brief call to him, I get up my nerve and head back out to the garage…the lizard has moved and I have a perfect view of him. As I raised the garage door, he panics and comes further into the garage. Fabulous. After throwing a ball in his direction to no avail, I decided to call it quits and raised the door just a smidge and HOPE that he’ll find his way out and nothing else finds its way in.
5. Last weekend we took the kids to this little grassy area so I could have a mini photo shoot! I am sure that comes as no surprise to anyone!! Anyway, I spent the afternoon working on these fun little ribbon shakers I found over on Shelly’s blog. My mind was spinning with all of these amazing pictures I would be able to snap of my sweet kids running through the green grass with their ribbon shakers blowing in the breeze behind them. (I of course had to make two because I KNEW if I only made one there would be fights and tears!) To put it simply…the photo shoot did not go ANYTHING like I had envisioned, but I am learning to just go with it and not expect too much. They are just kids for pete’s sake!! So, despite the fact that I didn’t get these beautiful works of art that I had in mind, I did get some great ones!!
Here are a few…(You will notice that they are all post processed differently. Instead of using one picture and doing a dozen different things to it, I do something different on each one and try to come up with something I like!!)
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I just love this one! It is SO Huntler!!
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Here he is all stretched out on the new owl sleeping bag…something else I found from sweet Shelly! That girl loves to shop every bit as much as I do and we have the same taste in a lot of things!! (I bought Gentry the whole lot of it too as it came together, but the rest is being saved for Christmas…she’ll never know!!)
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Along with the ribbon shakers, I also thought we should haul Chris’ remote control jeep to this big grassy area too! Huntler LOVES to drive it, but here at home he crashes it into EVERYTHING!! I thought it might be fun to just let him go! Little did I know, the thing has a battery life of no more than 10 minutes on grass and was dead before the fun even began!
I just love him in this image! He is happy but you can tell he is in his normal state of deep thought!! 
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And the cute little ribbon shaker…which I did not have to buy one single roll of ribbon to complete! I could make 100 more of these things and still have ribbon left I think!! And notice Gentry’s boots?!! OH MY GOSH! They are SO darn cute!! These sassy pink boots were 90% of the reason we went out on this little adventure!! I snapped some close ups but the grass was too tall and the bottom part vanished into the green, so I’ll be trying this again soon!!
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6. I ate at El Pollo Loco for the first time in my life today! I am not sure if they have these in Kansas now, but they certainly weren’t common when we were there!! While Huntler was at school, Gentry and I ran errands and picked up all of the plates, napkins, cups, etc… for his party. Well, I also picked up a bag of sour gummy worms that about made me sick so I had to stop and get some “real” food to counteract the nasty taste they left in my mouth!! There happened to be an El Pollo Loco near that was serving more than breakfast so we drove through! I only had their popcorn chicken and a Sprite, but it was yummy!!
7. And while on the subject of meat, I read earlier that my friend Denise over at Polka Dot Moon is a vegetarian. I am most certainly a carnivore! Not that I don’t like salad, fruit and veggies, because I do, but I could eat meat every day and be fine!!
8. Although you all may THINK that Gentry is all dolled up, dressed to the nines and has perfectly even pigtails every single day…that is SO not true!! She DOES get dirty…really dirty! Need proof? And many, many days her hair is a fuzzy mess and she is running around in a diaper only!! 
This was even taken when we were OUT and in the company of others! We went to a family cookout with our playgroup Sunday evening and this is Gentry in all her beauty!! She was an orange pop-barbeque chip MESS! But she was LOVING it! I dressed her in something that I wouldn’t be upset if she trashed so I could relax and not worry about her outfit the entire time! Thank goodness!
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And here she is just being cute!! She is SUCH a big girl these days. There is NOTHING “baby” about her at all anymore!
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And here is Huntler from over the weekend too! Being serious of course!!
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9. I am going to teach myself to knit and crochet a bit!! YAY!! So, I have always thought this was an “old lady”
thing to do…I mean, my grandma crochets like nobody’s business, but I don’t know anyone else who does!! I don’t want to get all fancy-shmancy, I just want to learn how to do a few simple things…mostly how to do little flowers so I can create fabulous hair accessories for Gentry!! So, Julie…my tutorial queen…do you have any on these nifty little flowers or other simple projects?!! AND…I have even seen these cute little flowers added on to a pair of flip flops to jazz them up too! Anyway, I would LOVE to create hats, but I am pretty darn sure that is beyond me…at least at this point! So, flowers will do! 
When I called my mom last night to tell her this (I call my mom numerous times a day…she has to put up with me though because she knows I am homesick and need adult interaction!), she mentioned that she had just bought a set of knitting looms! Looms? That sounds more like my speed! She found a pattern for scarves so I think I am going to try to make a furry navy blue scarf for Gentry. I am having a hat made to match this coat, but the lady was going to charge me $27 for a kids scarf…that is as much as the coat cost! Sorry…I am sure it would be darling, but I do have some sense about me!!
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You may remember that I bought her a coat already…I did. But, in my defense, the total combined of her two coats doesn’t even equal the price of Huntler’s one coat!! And, I have also decided to start selling all of the clothes she has outgrown…so maybe I can make enough to offset some of my expenses!! When I think of it that way it doesn’t make me quite as sad!!
10. I am also going to teach myself blog design! I already have a pretty good idea of what to do as far as designing my header and such, but my dear friend Laura and my email friend Lacey both sent me some fabulous information on some of the “technical” stuff so I can install a fun background and everything! I was going to create a new winter design and then see about having the girl that installed my current blog do all of the installation and such, but she was still going to charge me way more than I thought necessary, so I am going to forge ahead on my own! I do love my blog just the way it is and have been so, so happy with both it and the designer, but I just hate to pay a small fortune for something I can do! And something I prefer to have control over since I tend to be slightly picky!! So…come November-ish I will have a fun new look! And once I learn it, I can change it whenever I want for FREE! YAY!! There are SO many super cute and fun kits out there I could go crazy!!
11. My baby will be FOUR one week from today. F*O*U*R! I can’t even believe it!! I talked to his teacher today and I am going to take in cupcakes and juice next Tuesday and I get to stay while they have snack time and celebrate!! I am so excited I get to be part of it! Once they have room moms and such, I am so going to be all over that!! My kids will probably grow to hate it, but I am excited!!
12. Wanna know a secret about that sweet picture of Gentry in the post from yesterday? It is one of the best pictures I got of her that entire day and do you know WHY she was smiling so big? The little stinker (literally) had just leaned over and tooted and it cracked her up!! It cracked us up too for that matter, but you can see the orneriness in her little face!
WOWZA!! So this turned out to be ONE long post! I was originally just doing 10 things, but I had so much to share I just kept typing!! It makes up for my short posts!!
Hope you are all having a great Tuesday!!

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5 Responses to “Twelve On Tuesday!”

  1. Julie   –  

    I love how you used a bamboo handle for the ribbon shaker. Gotta go to Joann’s!
    Get a BRC next time you go to El Pollo Loco. You can thank me later. And a churro. Crispy taco too, while you are there.
    I can knit scarves with one color and that is it. I’ve tried to crochet and it was a disaster. I also tried to make a stripy scarf and that was another disaster. Just packed up my knitting stuff and took it to Goodwill. Dang it!
    Could of sent some fun stuff your way.
    My craft ADD is bad! I am trying to phase out stuff that I am not so good at, and pay Etsy sellers who are….

  2. Polka Dot Moon   –  

    It’s so much fun to learn little tidbits about our blogging buddies ;)

    Love the pictures!!

    Have a great evening….

  3. by: Brian and Lacey McKay   –  

    So, I guess I haven’t been reading long enough to know…are Tuesdays just for random thoughts, stories, etc? Do you usually call it “Tidbit Tuesday” or something? That does sound familiar…

    Anyway, you and your critters just crack me up! I mean, are lizards even dangerous? I don’t think they bite, and even if they did, I’ve never heard of a poisonous lizard, but I could be wrong. If I lived next door to you, I totally would have come over and gotten rid of the little guy for you. Abbey would have LOVED him! That child is OBSESSED with reptiles!

    I’d also just like to say that the pic of Gentry running with the ribbon hoop and pink boots is ADORABLE! Love everything about that one. Which reminds me, I still need to get a pic of Abbey in her bloomers like that other one I loved of Gentry.

    About the whole crochet thing, I learned to crochet when I was like 16. I’ve been teased about being an old lady more times than I can count, but I don’t let it get to me. In fact, I actually find myself fantasizing about being an old lady, sitting in a rocking chair on my front porch, just stitching away without a care in the world! I’m the type of person who thinks nursing homes seem like a nice long vacation. I’m still trying to figure out the whole knitting thing though. It seems way more complicated to me than crochet, but I haven’t given up just yet!

    I wish you lived here so we could sit around and craft, knit, take pictures of our babies and just hang out! I want to be more than just “email friends”! Hee! Hee!

  4. Just me.....Shelly   –  

    Love reading little bits and pieces about my bethany—-so fun!
    Your ribbon shakers are sooooo fabulous too! I love how they turned out!
    And of course I adore that owl sleeping bag and know that gentry is gonna love that come christmastime–fun fun!

  5. Laura   –  

    What a FUN post!! I don’t have a garage door, but if I did, I’m sure I’d be the same way about it!

    I’m so glad you’re going to try to change up your blog on your own. I know you can do it and you’re way too creative to pay someone else to do it for you :)

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