2 years???

No, it's not been QUITE two years since my last post.

It has been two years since my first post, though!

I still read blogs that I follow in google reader daily. I think about blogging myself. And just haven't done it. I miss it. I want to do it again.

I hope to be back sooner rather than later.

Word that stuck with me.....

May you live all the days of your life. - Jonathan Swift

(My grandmother ~ GiGi ~she knows how to live!~ age: almost 90 but she'll never tell for reals)

Words that stuck with me

"I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." Marilyn Monroe

Words that stuck with me.....

Change the way you see; not the way you look.

My word for 2010

is......



Patience.


I need it. I don't have it. I lose it almost daily. I'm going to work on keeping it. Deep breaths.


Patience.


Ahhhh, better already.


It's my birthday today and it's about time I've learned to be patient.

Words that stuck with me......

Pleas'd look forward,
pleas'd to look behind,
And count each birthday
with a grateful mind.

- Alexander Pope

Words that stuck with me.....

I saw this on another blog and saved it ~ it moved me so! I wish I could give credit, but I don't remember quite where it came from as I was blog surfing.

Best Reads of 2009

Though I read a lot, I do have dry spells. 2009 seemed to have more dry reading spells than I can remember having in years. My books read list this year is the shortest since I started keeping track.

My top 10 list is in no particular order, because to choose a order would prove too difficult (or I'm just too lazy). hese are books that when I look over the list at the end of the year, their titles jump back out at me.

The reasons for making an impact on me greatly vary. It COULD have been a masterfully written story, or maybe it just was just the fluff I needed at that time.

As I look over this list it seems that this year was the year of Young Adult novels for me. I guess my older two kids' recommendations are pretty good :)

Another thing I feel I must point out is some of the titles I just chose the first title I read, when I really enjoyed several from the same author, like Jen Lancaster and Suzanne Collins and Sandra Dallas.

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Ahser
2. The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra King
3. Boy in Stripped Pajamas by John Boyne
4. Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
5. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
7. Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas
8. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
9. The Help by Kathryn Stockatt
10. Sugar Queen by Sarah Anderson Allen

What were your favorite reads of 2009?

Words that stuck with me.....

"Here's to the bright New Year, and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.” Anonymous

Words that stuck with me......

An eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

Merry Christmas

What could she have asked for...........

Seriously, I gotta know.

Seriously, how hard CAN it be?

Last year, I shared our family's self diagnosed disability. The holiday season of 2009 has not brought relief; in fact we may be exhibiting more extreme behaviors.

Case in point: this year's Christmas Card.

I am a lifelong learner. I try to learn from every lesson life gives me. I've heard that doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. So I re-evaluated the sitch-u-a-tion.

I tried to be reasonable and limited the number of people in the shot by removing the adults. Everyone only wants to see the children, anyway.


But I'm pretty sure they wanna see them with their eyes open.

And some of us choose to close our eyes on purpose.

You are NOT asleep. Stop the fake snoring and smile!

Wait! I'm a learner. Let's try to re-evaluate. Maybe a change of scenery?

Let's head downtown and try to get a good one while waiting for Santa to arrive for lap pictures.



Can you feel the love?

Back to the drawing board. Hmmm, last year the individuals seem to work a bit better. Let's go with that.
See? Learning. Re-evaluating.

Or maybe not.


Shut it and smile!



In all fairness, I'm gonna have to call user error on this one.


Looky here........*whistle*. Oh well.



How will you ever be a supermodel if you don't have a decent fake smile?

And the 2009 poster picture for sufferer's of photographically challenged?

And there you have it. Apparently, it is exactly this hard.

I miss you.......

Dear Blog,

The Mama misses you. I know life has led me to ignore you, but it's only fair seeing how you made me ignore life at times. Maybe we can reunite?? I promise to try to not let my perfectionism interfere if you promise to not pressure me. Deal?

Love always,
The Mama

I've made the first step......

outside of my comfort zone today.

I'm not sure why I am agonizing so much over this, but I am.

I want to sell some of the things I've made. But my personality needs to take baby steps. I want to do some craft fairs, etc. but am unsure of the best way to do it all.

I've sold a few things I've made to friends. But today, I gave a few of my things to a friend to add to her beach booth to sell.


I did take pictures of the items I've cranked out the last few days and I'm posting them here to share them with my friends who have been my constant cheerleaders.


WARNING: MANY PICS TO FOLLOW!



Here's what I put out:

(the pictures fail to pick up many of the details making the dress :)

Babygirl sized pink tutu

Little girl sized Purple/White/Lt.Pink Fairy Tutu

Three crayon roll ups




Babygirl sized pillowcase dress




Babygirl sized pillowcase dress




big girl sized pillowcase dress (bad picture: blue pinstriped dress)

little girl sized pillowcase dress

big girl sized pillowcase dress

baby girl pillowcase dress

little girl sized pillowcase dress

little girl sized pillowcase dress

little girl sized pillowcase dress

Thanks to all who are so encouraging and I promise my neurotic tendencies will lessen over time.........(*at least until the next obsession)

To Represent or NOT

It's the first day of school and my kids are representin' the SHORES~~~~

Bugaboo is gonna dominate 8th grade.

Chickiepoo is gonna rock 6th grade.

Boobear is gonna rule 4th grade.

And bunnyboo is trying to figure out her allegiance.

Forget it.........she'll just stay home with me.

It's over.........

Summer is over.

We've just returned from a family beach vacation and the kids start school next week.

I'm hoping my bloggy mojo comes back then too.

Don't you?

Wait, don't answer that.

PS: does anyone else think feet are ugly?

Capturing Time

Time.

It goes too fast.

Look how long it's been since I've last posted? See what I mean.

I've been feeling those warm feelings of completely loving someone.

Bunnyboo's vocabulary has exploded the last 6 months. I love how she says certain words and how she phrases things so they make sense in her world.

Lately, whenever she hears a noise, she'll turn to me with one hand over an ear and ask......


"What's that noise about?"

I swear I could eat her up at these moments.

Which reminded me of my other kids most memorable phrases.

Boobear used to get the word structure mixed up. When he meant although or wanted to use the word but ~ he would INSTEAD tack but/though on the end. As one word.



Like: " I really wanted to ride my bike, but/though."

And chickiepoo would say "hairpoo" instead of shampoo. I loved hearing her little girl voice say it and would try to get her to say it as many times as I could.


But my oldest, bugaboo? I can't remember ONE specific example.


And I'm heartbroken over it.

I've been racking my memories for days. Nothing.

Was it because he had some severe speech issues and being a first time mom I couldn't relax enough to separate what was normal from problematic? I'm not sure.

It took me more than a day to remember EXACTLY what boobear said. So maybe it's just the old mommy mind at play.

I am returning to my blog long enough to record these memories and hope to add more.

I refuse to not capture those words that fill me with love, but/though.

(All pictures capture each child around 2 years old)

Face Of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl.......My review

This is the first review I've posted about a book I read. I heard about a publisher willing to send a book to be reviewed to anyone with a blog who was willing to write a short review. It was a WFMW tip over at We Are THAT Family. Free book??? Sign me up!


Face of Betrayal is the first book in what seems to be the start of a series as the cover indicates it's a triple threat novel. As in one of one? So it seems.
Lis Wiehl is a former prosecutor and a current legal analyst and commenter on Fox News. Which explains why I've never heard of her. She does seem to bring "inside" language and protocol, but not more than a well researched author would. April Henry must have helped write this since her name is both on the cover and the spine ~ award winning author Lis Wiehl With April Henry. After reading the jacket, I surmise that Ms. Henry is actually the award winning author.

The plot summary itself is what made me choose this book to review from the list Thomas Nelson Publishing provided.


A high school student home for Christmas break from her senate page position, goes missing. Three women, each with a reason to be personally involved in the case ~ a reporter, a prosecutor, and a FBI agent ~ comprise the Triple Threat Club. They uncover a secret blog authored by the page. Theories abound as to what could have happened. Could the blog contain the answer?

I really wanted to LOVE this book. And it started off as a page turner. I loved seeing the friendship and respect the Triple Threat Club had for one another. Strong, smart, human women dealing with life while working a case was highly entertaining. I liked the suspense of the added twists and turns to create more possibilities for ~ Who Done It?

Which leads me to what I didn't enjoy. The transparency. I figured the WHOLE thing out before I was even halfway through the book. I traveled a few paths while reading this book that I hadn't seen coming. But in the end? I was left feeling disappointed. Maybe I've been spoiled by the likes of Jodi Picoult, but I now expect my legal thrillers to have HEART and SURPRISE endings.


If indeed this book is the first in a series, I'd consider reading the next if only to see where the Triple Threat Club members are in their lives. But my mystery expectations will be lower.


I highly recommend to each and every book lover who has a blog to check out the Thomas Nelson Book Review program. I love to read and read daily. This did feel like a school assignment and it's been many years since I've been in THAT situation, but I'm looking forward to giving it the old college try again ~ pun intended.

Inspiration or Copycat?

Shabby Nest is hosting another party and I really want to go but don't have anything to wear.

Actually, it's more that I haven't taken many pictures of anything I've done.
Yet again.

However, I have this one thing I could pull together......
But will it be viewed as having inspiration or being a copycat?
(I'm crossing my fingers for your vote of inspiration!)

I have this built in. The shelves are slightly less deep the higher you go. I've piled on the obligatory family pictures over the years but have never been happy with the way it looked.

What's a girl to do? I was stuck.

With no extra money in the budget to buy extras like the good toilet paper, I was surely not able to redecorate anything.

And then as I was paging through a magazine (sorry, probably Cottage living, but I don't remember which one) I saw a bookshelf with all white dishes.


Wait a minute.


I have white dishes. Lots of them.


So I quickly pulled all those pictures down, and started real *frugal* like, shopping my house for what I already had.


Not great quality picture.......but I'm still in my pj's.
I told you I didn't have anything to wear to the party.

Meanwhile head over to the party. Go as you are. I'm sure you'll find real inspiration and then you can ask yourself if you are a copycat or not.