I'm Day 30

I'm the final day 30 of giveaways over at Ni Hao Y'all




{ I'm spending the day as a weather geek following model runs for an impending storm that none of the local TV guys are calling...yet. My fav. private forecaster who called much of last year's storms correctly is saying we are in for a possible doozy- like a snow hurricane and feet of snow! His site is down with 80,000 hits yesterday! TV guys are saying a possible dusting. I'm not buying it. Did my grocery shopping yesterday. Now I'm spending my time in weather forums looking at models and trying to understand isobars and ridges and lows stalled off the coast. The Euro model has us trending for the "perfect storm" and the more unreliable GFS model is starting to mirror the Euro. Last Euro run had us in for over 2" of precipitation and you multiply that by 12 or 14 to get inches of snow! I'm guessing Christmas travel to my family won't be in the plans. Hopeful not to lose power if this all comes about~ }

What a busy time of year!

So much to post about! Pictures and full details will have to wait.

We had the end of the week off of school due to the weather. That allowed me to get some more stuff done at home and all my orders to that point shipped out. Whew! Then Saturday we went down to Williamsburg to meet my parents and have our traditional breakfast with Santa at the William & Mary Alumni House. We were the last to get to talk with this amazing Santa. They went in order of when reservations were made, and my mom was sure she was in early. Teagan was having a hard time waiting. Santa takes as long as each child wants, and some took 20 minutes. They have a craft room, and a movie room to pass the time, and we had already had about 30 minutes of Santa telling all the kids stories (did I mention that he is amazing!!) and breakfast, but it was a long wait for our turn. All worth it though. When we were saying goodbye, the director of Alumni programs mentioned to Santa how patient the girlies had been. He said: "You know what- you have been incredibly patient to wait your turn while I visited with all of my other friends. I want to give something special to you." He then took off his hat and removed a very special necklace from around his neck- a Santa face carved from reindeer antler. He presented it to the girls whose eyes were as wide as I have ever seen. It's carved EE 10 on the back. The girls have decided that stands for Edward Elf #10. Santa told them he has 29 elves and one elf has the job of doing all the carving. So magical!!

Then that night we went to Busch Gardens for Christmas Town. SO cool. Really, I mean cool... I was in the 20's and snowing. The light displays were awesome. We had a blast walking around the park watching shows, sipping hot cocoa and looking at lights. We were frozen when we left, but what a great family evening to cap off a great day.

Monday was our 12th anniversary. Our babysitter had to go out of town to a funeral, so the girlies came with Paul and I to dinner at a Japanese Steak House. They got all dressed up on their own and were very excited to be going out with us.

Today we are preparing for snow. I was worried my brother wouldn't make it home from London because of the snow there (he got back a few hours ago w/o a problem, but many are still stranded in Heathrow). Now it looks like we might be the ones unable to make it to my folks. Our impending white Christmas could be feet of snow- a full blizzard. Watching the weather model runs with great interest.

What a fun time of year!!

Snow Day!!

There is a whoping 2 inches on the ground- we are expecting 4-6 with a layer of ice. So they closed schools for today, last night, in anticipation of the snow that began about 9am. Darn. Really, darn! I'm all for a good snow day, but not now!!

Teagan was quite depressed this morning and Piper wasn't too thrilled also. You see, they had their big holiday parties at school today and now they are cancelled. That's a big bummer to a 1st and 2nd grader.

They have been outside playing with frineds for the past several hours, so I hope they return in better spirits. Teagan especially is very grumpy when she is sad.

My fingers are crossed that we'll be able to go tomorrow. It's the last day before break and the girls need to deliver their bus driver and teacher gifts.

And is it too selfish to admit that I was really looking forward to receiving my Christmas presents from the kids in my class??

Seventeen

Degrees, that is.

Our expected high temp today- 17 degrees. It's twelve degrees out right now. Crazy for my neck of the woods!

And obviously too cold for the heat pump at my school. It was struggling yesterday to maintain the balmy 61 degrees I arrived to in my classroom. So I wasn't all that surprised to get a phone call from my director saying that the heat was broken and would be completely shut down for repair and there would be no school today. My assistant and I broke up the phone list and set to calling parents yesterday evening. Lots of families were not home, so I hope that messages were checked (I'm awful about checking mine!) and too many kiddos don't show up this morning to a locked building.

I plan on getting some wrapping done and more bow and key fob orders completed and shipped in my 4 hours of found time this morning. That and trying to stay warm!!

We are expecting snow on Thursday. Who know what that might do to school?

She's up late

For the past few nights the girlies have been staying up after they have been tucked in bed. Lights have been dimly turned back on and they think that I have been unaware.

Piper has been so involved in reading as many chapter books as she can so she can take a comprehension quiz in the library and get points and earn a necklace and book charms. She took a quiz today and her point total has earned her the ball chain necklace and her first charm. She's very proud. So are we.

Teagan, on the other hand, has been staying up writing "secret notes" that have appeared on my keyboard when I get ready to shut the computer down for the night.

Her notes have melted my heart.



"You make me love you mour"

"I want to be like you"

"I love you"

"You are nice to me"


These are all keepers!!



I'm not minding the after hours activities so much!

I'm here

So much for my goal of more regular posting.

Piper fully recuperated and we have managed to avoid the really yucky tummy bug that has ravaged my preschool and been known to be present at the girlie's elementary school too. After eating a huge dinner last night, Piper told me her tummy ached, and I freaked out! "Do you think you are going to throw up?" Thankfully she assured me that she just ate too much chicken. I really want all to be healthy around here for the rest of the month!

I have one last craft show this Saturday. That will make 16 events for this season. It has been exhausting, but well worth all the work and ridiculously late nights.

Now I'm knee deep in on-line orders. Bow stuff and key fobs. Yes, the fundraiser sales have picked up. I have been greatly blessed to have had some publicity. I received a sweet email from a new friend, Karen, that the Lord led her to my site when she was looking for fundraising families to feature. How cool is that!

I'll have some goodies given away as part of Stefanie's 30 days of giveaways over at Ni Hao Y'all in the coming days.



And I have been blessed to have my fobs as a co-op deal for a group buying discount forum, The Spavin Mavens. I've already had six new orders in the first 24 hours of having the buy go live!

It's hard to sew when I can't feel my fingers, but that's just life now that the high is a lovely 36 degrees and I'm always freezing anyway. Ugh.

One very sick kid

We have one very sick girlie here.

Poor baby has been fighting whatever it is for 9+ days. The doctors are not sure exactly what it is we are fighting, but it has been antibiotic resistant so far. After a full blood pannel draw was taken on Tuesday and then not sent off because the CBC appeared to give them the info they needed, she was put on another antibiotic, a "big gun." She still had a 105 fever this morning, 4 doses in. So back we went today for more talk, observation, and another 3 vial blood draw to be sent to a technician view (won't just be computer scanned) work up. And another "big gun" was called out. The pharmacist was amazed to see us back, 4th prescription between two kids in 6 days. We'll have some results back tomorrow, the others not until Monday. Would you please keep Piper in your prayers?

It's here

And I hope it goes away soon.

The nasty virus that's going around has struck the girlies.

Piper first and it settled in her lymph nodes. She saw the doctor yesterday.

Teagan was fine.

Until 3 AM when her temp was 104.

She is on her way home with Daddy from the doctor and has strep throat.

What a fun way to start your Halloween weekend.

Daddy gets girlie duty today. I'm at a craft show from 12-5.

Praying the adults at home stay well!

Another week

Nothing new to really post about, but I am trying my best to write at least one post a week.

The girlies have been enjoying favorable temperatures and play outside most afternoons once home from school. There are three 'regulars' over at out yard, or the girlies venture to their friend's yards across the cul de sac. It's so nice for them to have such great friends just a shout away.

I have a craft show every weekend, and sometimes more than one a weekend for the forseeable future. I'm exhausted already after just three weekends of shows. This week I'll be set up at our former preschool Thursday and Friday mornings for parents to shop while waiting for the costume parade. It has always been a good event for me. I'll get there early and set everything up and Paul will actually be there to sell for the hour each day since I'll be teaching at my own preschool. Then on Friday, I'll return after my school lets out to take my setup down and pack the car and drive over to another church to set up for their Ocktoberfest Friday night and all day Saturday. Whew! At least Monday and Tuesday are teacher workdays so I can catch up on inventory since my largest shows of the season are back to back weekends at the start of November. I may not want to see another bow or headband for a while after Christmas!

Memorial Box Monday- the festival

I'm in full blown craft show season with at least one show every weekend, sometimes two shows for the next three months with the exception of holidays. My second show was this past Saturday at a local elementary school Fall Festival. My friends are on the PTA and helped arrange for me to be part of the vendor fair. It was going to be small, only for three hours, but the booth cost was low and I was open so I signed up.

I average about $300 a full show (5-6 hours) with my all time high being just over $500. I was gearing up Friday and was checking orders in my message box on a parenting forum I belong to. I decided to post in the prayer request section asking for prayers for financial blessings for my show. Right away many online friends responded that they would pray for me.

Several hours later, after dinner of my favorite pizza from a restaurant we have purchased from for years, I began to itch and had a rash on my torso. I took some benadryl and went to bed planning on getting the rest of my stuff in order in the morning. We had to arrive between 10:30 and 11 to set up. Plenty of time to pack the car in the morning.

The girlies woke me up and told me I had polka dots all over my forehead. The rash was all over my body and scalp and forehead. I immediately called the doctor. My regular office was closed, but another office was open for a few hours and accepting walk ins. Only catch- it was about 25 minutes away and the road it was on was going to be closed at 9am for a local parade. I knew I was under attack. The enemy didn't want me at that festival! I threw on some clothes and prayed as I drove across town and made it about 2 minutes before the road was bocked off. The police car was there and the officer was standing with the cones in his hands, ready to close off the intersection that would have prevented me from getting to the doctor.

Once in the office I was quickly seen. The doctor told me I was having an allergic reaction, likely to something I ate, but it could be environmental as well. We'd likely never know. I could last hours or days, get better, or get substantially worse. A lot of unknowns, but my breathing was fine and my throat was not swollen. He gave me a prescription and told me to take it in conjunction with an over the counter antihistamine and said I could do the festival, I'd just look funny.

I wondered how I'd leave, but the parade had passed the doctor's office and that part of the road was open again. I drove to the pharmacy praying that I could get home quickly and make it to the festival on time. The attack continued. At the pharmacy they were confused. They had not seen a prescription for that particular mg in over 20 years. He needed to call the doctor. Only the office wasn't answering. It took 30 minutes for the issues to get resolved (the Dr. had noted the wrong dose). By that time, I was supposed to have been leaving for the festival.

Once home, I threw on some nicer clothes and a cute hat to hide my forehead. We packed the cars and all headed off. Once there the wind picked up and I was not able to set up my usual display. Everything kept blowing over. This was just all too much! We made my display pretty sparse- no table cloths and everything flat which meant that I couldn't set up 1/3 of my items. I was finally set up when I noticed Paul talking to someone... my regular doctor! He and his wife (who I had done a Bible study with a few years ago) were representing their church to advertise their upcoming festival at the booth right next to me! I talked to him about my reaction and he concurred. How strange though that I have never had any allergic reactions before and ate nothing new.

Once the show started I was super busy. I wasn't even able to keep a tally sheet or receipt book like I usually do. The three hours flew by. The girlies had a great time running around with friends they knew who attend the school. It was a beautiful day (save for the wind!). When I got home I was expecting that I might have done $300-$400. As I started to sort the cash I was amazed. I had made just over $800 in three hours. My best show ever! The enemy really didn't want me at that festival, but my faithful God saw me through every road block and blessed me with tremendous sales.



My best seller were magnetic bottle cap necklaces. In my memorial box I'll put one of the caps I made with the school name and mascot.



I'm still fighting this allergic reaction. I've had a lot of new orders pour in from my website and forums and all day today my hands have been twice their normal size, painfully swollen so I can't sew. It's painful to even type this. The rash is all over my face, but thankfully much better than it was early Sunday morning when I woke up. Would you please pray that I recover quickly.

Updated Monday afternoon: I'm 95% rash free!!

Praising Him!!


Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

A blessing

My heart needed to be reminded that no matter how s l o w l y we are having to take the paper chase, it will all happen in His perfect timing. I received a blessing today, and it spoke to my heart.

I have ordered my key fob supplies for a few years from a company I first found on etsy. I've tried several suppliers, but this one has good prices, some special colors I really like using and can't get anywhere else, and always has fast shipping. After I ordered on Monday I received a reply that it was processing. I noticed that it was from a personal email address and not the generic company address. I wrote a quick note saying that I had been a customer for a while and wanted to let her know that I appreciated her customer service and great products. I also wrote that I thought she might be interested in what I was creating with her materials and shared my fundraising blog link.

Today I received a box. My actual order is still on it's way. This box contained 30 yards of webbing (that will make 90 fobs!)and 50 hardware sets and a $10 gift voucher to use towards my next purchase. Wow! There was a sweet note thanking me for sharing my blog and it continued to say that they supported worthy causes and wanted to support our adoption fundraising efforts with a donation of some raw materials. She also offered to post a link to the blog on their site when it is revamped next month.

Thank you Susan and All Island Webbing! What a blessing!

Six

Yesterday my baby turned six. SO hard to believe!

Teagan is an absolute sweetheart. She has such a tender heart and genuinely cares about the feelings and well being of her family, friends, and strangers. I just love my girlie's heart!

Teaggie had a wonderful day. She was bouncing off the walls and jumping on the bed the moment she woke up. We gave her a holographic birthday card with a dancing hamster that plays "Hamster Dance" and she went wild! At school, her entire 1st grade class made her cards, her name was called on the announcements, she got to visit the treasure box in her class and meet the principal for a ribbon. The bus driver had all the kids sing to her on the way home (helps that she wore a "Birthday Girl" shirt!), we took lollipops to dance and asked the teacher if she could pass them out at the end and the teacher made a big to do and had the class all sing for her too. We went to her favorite restaurant for dinner so she could get her favorite meal of steak and Cheetos and ran into the girlies' former kindergarten teacher (LOVE her!!) in the parking lot with her just as fab hubby. That was a big highlight of the evening. On the way home, just as we pulled in our street what should come on the radio... Hamster Dance! We turned it up and all danced in the car and driveway. So silly, but hopefully a great memory. Yummy cake rounded out the day.



New baby Teagan


first birthday


two


three


four


five


six
Happy Birthday!!

Exhausted

Just keeping it real.

I know. Not the best post after I have neglected posting in quite some time.

The girlies have gone back to school and are doing GREAT!

I have gone back to school (teaching) and have a wonderful class of 16 this year and dear colleagues I love working with everyday.

I've been blessed with many bow orders. Small orders that keep me very busy. But small orders add up and cover a few bills and groceries. I've booked 6 craft shows. I think I have 2 a month for Oct/Nov/Dec. I hope to fit in a few more. But that means that I need to be working on inventory and I'm not sure when I'll fit that in since I'm already making the most of the 17 hours a day I'm awake. Good thing I still have lots left from last fall.

I'm up early to get the girls off to school, I head off to teach, run home and get them off the bus and then head to dance 3 days a week and stay up until midnight each night working on bows. Much of the same on the weekends.

I have much I could blog about. But I don't seem to be able to carve out any time. Like I titled this post... I'm exhausted. My brother upgraded his laptop and I asked what was to become of the old model. He offered it to me. I'm thrilled since I have never had one and I have to come upstairs to the desktop to get online. He moved to London for 2 years a few weeks ago and the computer is at my parent's house. I look forward to being able to go pick it up. It will help me out on many levels.

I have hundreds of pictures to dump off my cameras and happy pictures to share. Soon, I hope.

Off to get some girlies in bed and I have at least 2 hours of bow work to complete tonight to get in the mail tomorrow. There are birthday's in our house the next two days and I need to be as freed up as possible!

Hair cut day!

When you are a gilry girl with long flowing hair, haircuts are not a necessity. With so many clips, and bows and flowers and headbands at your disposal, every hair-do Mommy comes up with is a winner.

Even if your hair hasn't been cut in, well, 12 months < yikes! >

Has it really been a full year since I took the girlies for haircuts? Yep.

So with school just a few short weeks away I figured it was time for some shaping up and styling and I made an appointment with my stylist, whom I see every 6 months. We're low maintainance here.

We go in in an hour and I'll be back with pictures. I'm thinking a few inches need to be trimmed, maybe a bit of layering. We'll see!!

My new "home"

I first started blogging in 2007...

with a single post in all of a year's time.

And I set it up as a promotional blog for my website, Girly Girl Bowtique.

Blogging for self promotion never caught on with me. I'm not that type.

When I first began researching adoption and discovered the world of adoption blogs in 2008 and started to post and needed a blog of my own I just used what I had already set up.

Now it's feeling a little funny to tell people who ask about how our adoption is going that they can follow us on, well, a blog with a bowtique url.

So I have spent the past hour or so exporting and importing my blog contents to a new address. Unfortunately I have to move over all the elements one at a time. I've done most of them, but switching over the blogs I like to follow will take time. That will have to come later.

I have very few followers at this addy anyway, but if you are one of them...

change me out!!

You can now find me at www.GrowingGirlyGirls.blogspot.com
(corrected, Thanks Valerie!!)

In the past week...

I've managed to be extremely productive.

That feels good.

I stumbled upon a new forum where I can market my bows and have gotten many orders. I've been actively posting to gain credibility amongst the membership and have sewn over 250 bows and sent out about 18 packages. Whew!

I'm actually ahead of the game for the local consignment sale this year. Usually I am hanging the clothes and entering the info online to print the bar code tags at the last minute. This time I already have 56 items all ready for drop off and I have photographed about 100 other items I am going to try sell on e bay first (it's all top notch name brand stuff and will typically go for much more there than I can ask as consignment). Whatever doesn't sell online in the next two weeks I can tag to take to the consignment sale at the end of the month. Feels good to have a plan. Especially a plan that generates income!

The girlies are at their 3rd Vacation Bible School of the summer. My friend and I are trading driving and child care duties so we each get some free time to work. I sent them off at 8:20 yesterday and they didn't come home until almost 6!!! I'm meeting them at the movie theater this afternoon to all see the new Ramona movie together. The girlies earned $5 each cat sitting for a neighbor and this is what they want to spend it on.

Also about 90% completed with back to school supply shopping, and many of the items I already had, or my mom or my friend had in their stashes. Not too bad! They are long lists!

I have two more hours of no kid time. Got to make the most of it!

One in a million (or maybe make that seventeen)

I'm always inspired, motivated, challenged and a whole other host of stuff when I visit Linny's blog. After being away from any computer access for 8 days, I was catching up Saturday afternoon when I read her post that her blog was about to have it's 1,000,000 viewer. It was about 400 away when I visited. I went about my business and kept checking back in every 15 minutes or so. Around 2 PM EST it was really close and I decided I had a chance to be the millionth viewer. I got my camera ready, Linny requested a photograph and a screen shot. I also figured that there was no way I'd be it.

Guess what....

I was one of 17 folks who somehow saw 1,000,000 on the site meter!

I took a pic and a screen shot and sent them along with a requested pic of me to Linny.

He he he (that's me feeling giddy)


Look!!

Home

Back from vacation. I'll have lots of pictures to post, but they are still on my camera.

My mom took the girlies and I on a "Girl's Getaway." We used a trade in from their time share. My dad put in for the trade only a few months ago, so there wasn't a lot to select from, especially since the big parameter was that it was in driving distance for me since I'd be the one to do all the driving.

So where did we go??

We went from VA, through West Va, Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Followed 81 North up and down some mountains and go off on 80 East into the Pocono Mountains to a little resort. It was OK. The time together was great. And so were the temperatures.

It was only in the 80's and most of the time there was a breeze. I also really liked that there were not mosquitos, as I get bit all the time at home. We took many day trips to girlie places like grocery stores and outlet malls and small unique ribbon stores and a quaint small town. We rode a 1920's train through a river valley, toured a turn of the century mansion, hiked (OK, so that's a bit of a stretch) in a State Park on a boulder field, swam in two lakes, went to the Crayola Factory (SO cool!!) and a bunch of other adventures.

It took 14 hours to get home to Nana's house Thursday, just before midnight. We made several brief shopping pit stops and two meals. It was an exhausting drive and it took me most of Friday to recover before I could make the final hour drive back from Nana's to our home.

Pics to follow!!

Play Ball!

The girlies have not ever played a team sport. Dance has been their only activity. So when we got the call that a friend was forming an all girls T-ball team and they were in need of players to make it a go, we signed the girlies up. It's a very realaxed summer league. No score is kept. Everybody bats every inning. The last batter clears the bases (home run!) so everybody will get a turn to bat last.

They have been having fun at the practices, especially since they end with Popsicles and a play date. Our first game Saturday morning was rained out and rescheduled for Sunday at 6:30. The lighting was beautiful and the evening comfortable.

I think they had a good time!!







We'll be gone (the girlies and I are taking a trip with my mom) and will be back next week.

Silly Band lesson

I really can't stand those silly band things. The girlies have been given a few here and there- birthday party favors, end of the school year party trinkets. They have about two dozen each and enjoy trading them with the neighborhood girlies.

A few nights ago we were headed up to get the girls ready for bed when Piper "freaked out" (her terminology). Her favorite tie dye band was not on her wrist. It was a bit looser than the others so she surmised that it must have fallen off.

She panicked.

And wailed.

And cried.

She had been all over playing in the past few hours. It was about 9pm and what little daylight that was left was quickly fading. I sent her outside to check the backyard while I looked over the sidewalk.

Admittedly, I was not so nice about it at first. She had already come close to losing it earlier that afternoon. She "accidentally" traded it at T-ball practice and the girl she traded it to then traded it on. She wanted to get it back. Thankfully the coach organized the complex trade back. I told her as we drove home, that if it was so special, she should put it in her room and keep it safe. She didn't agree.

So here she was completely hysterical and I was in a "told you so" mood. I was not doing well with all the screaming over a piece of rubber, but I helped her search the street and three neighbors lawns, all to no avail. We looked around the house and then got ready for bed. I hated seeing my girly so upset and hated the impatience I was feeling in myself.

As I tucked her in we prayed that God would help her to find her band in the morning. That He would make it obvious where it was. We talked about how God cares about even the little things, and that this was a little thing, but that it was meaningful to her and that made it meaningful to God.

I had completely forgotten about the darn thing as I stumbled downstairs for coffee in the morning. Piper hadn't asked about it yet. I paused at the bottom of the stairs in the family room and there in plain sight on the floor was, you guessed it- the tie dye band!

I yelled, "Piper look by the rocking horse!"

Her smile was ear to ear!

I can't imagine how we had missed that brightly colored thing right there on the floor. God had answered that specific prayer and made it obvious. How cool to be able to talk to my daughter about God hearing our prayers and answering them on a level she could completely understand and take to heart.

If I could, I'd place that band in my Memorial box (safely stored, not be be lost again) but I know that won't happen. Maybe a picture?

Celebrating

Nice lazy day at home with the family.
Another year older...

Fairy Friends

Piper had her fairy friends come over to play last week to celebrate her birthday. She turned 7 last month, but it was so hectic with the end of school that we postponed her party. That and the tutus we needed to order for her fairy friends were on back order. She had decided that she wanted to have a fairy themed party so we ordered tutus, wings and halo streamers from the wholesale company I get some of my supplies from for my craft shows. Everything is priced perfectly and we ended up spending about $4 per guest and they each got to take home their dress-up ensemble.



We needed to do her party on the cheap and it was just as perfect as could be. We made a homemade cake and cupcakes, hid some $1 store shiny star stones around the yard (fairy stones) for the girls to seek and find, and offered markers and gems to decorate the wings. I also glued some foam hearts to skewers with a bit of $1 store bag filler tinsel to make wands for each fairy to decorate.


They played in the backyard and danced to music.


To take a break from the heat we strung beads inside and made bracelets.


It was so much fun! I've already had three moms call to tell me that their fairies have loved their tutus and not wanted to take them off.

It's "live"

I've officially announced that my fundraising blog is up and running. I do still have about ten more fabric fobs photographed that I need to edit and get up on the site, but I have a busy next few days and not sure when I can get free hours so I figured the 75 options I already have up were a good start!

I have posted about it on my yahoo groups and my co-op ribbon buying group. I know I have very limited readership here and thank you all for your offers to post my button. I'm trusting God to do great things!

Making progress

I have put in about six hours of photo editing and copy writing and blogger uploading today and have made tremendous progress on my fundraising website. I have about ten more pictures to edit and add to the site and then I'll be ready to begin my advertising. I just want to get the final fobs up so I can relax and spread the word. Wish I could just punt I another hour and be done, but I have to go get ready. I have an outing tonight. It's the first meeting of my Summer Sisters women's group from church. I don' know most of the women in my group and I'd make an awful first impression in my present state of attire.

Thanks to Valerie and Tara for their extra pairs of eyes and fine tuning suggestions!!

It's been a lot of work to get this going and I'm hopeful that I'll sell a few. I know I can't live without mine.


Click the picture below to visit and let me know what you think!

Tomorrow's it

The last day of school, that is.

I've had this week off work, so a few days to be at home without kids. I'd like to think that I made the most of my valuable 'free' time. Can't really say that I did though. I was up at the school 5 times in two days for various end of year activities. Visited the doctor twice for my physical and back again the next morning for my fasting blood draw. Filled 6 bow orders and got completely caught up. I worked on building my fundraising blog site this morning and it's looking good (if I do say so myself). Not nearly enough time. Today was early release, so they got home at noon.

Tomorrow I'll be picking the girlies up from school. There is a tradition I thankfully learned about just in the nick of time last year where our neighborhood parents attack the kids as they get off the bus with water hoses, water balloons, water guns (you get the idea). Not such a fun thing for my girlies. I intercepted Piper last year as I knew she'd freak out, and oh my... when she witnessed the ambush from the safety of our car let's just say it was a good thing I ran and got her from school. A few weeks ago she stared asking if I was going to be able to come get her this year. The all out ring leader parents aren't there this year, so it might be more tame, but I'll still be driving them home to be on the safe side.
Then both girlies are off to a birthday party at a kids salon where they'll get all glammed up. Lookin' pretty in their up do's, glitter hairspray, sparkle nail polish and the like, we'll head out to our Sunday school class picnic and red neck theater.
Quite the day. I'm tired already just thinking about it.

Isn't summer supposed to be relaxing?

Whew, that's hot!

Heat index of 110 degrees.

Yeah, I think that counts for HOT!

We ventured down to Williamsburg for the weekend. The girlies and I have had season passes for Busch G@rdens for several years thanks to my folks. Back in March they sent us a post card advertising the Christian music artists who'd be playing in the summer at Glory at the G@rdens. We were thrilled to see Steven Curtis Ch@pman listed. The concerts are free with park admission. So we marked it on our calendar, got Daddy a pass too and headed off to the gardens.





Saturday was nice. We did a few hours in the late afternoon. It was hot, but we had the water park in Elmo land and an hour of a/c at the Irish dancing show. Spent the night at Nana and Grandpa's house and headed back Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was a completely different story. By 4pm it was 97 degrees with a heat index of 110. And that's good old Virginia humidity heat!

The music venues is out in a field. An open field. Man, was it hot!!



We first saw Francesca Batiste!li and then Bui!ding 429. About 10 minutes before SCC was to take the stage they tracked a fast moving thunderstorm headed right our way. So the entire field of thousands of people had to be cleared. We took refuge in the FestHause in Germany and got dinner while we waited. Then back out with the masses to the soggy field for an amazing concert.

The girlies had a great time at their first concert. They were excited to recognize a lot of the songs and the highlight of their evening was hearing Cinderella live. So cool!!

The concert ended about an hour later than anticipated due to the storm delay. That had us leaving the park right before 9 and after a pit stop home just before midnight. Gave the girlies a quick bath 'cause oh my, were they stinky! Amazed that they got up and out the door for school by 8 this morning.