i have been holding my breath all day long...

...someone made an offer on our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we now have to beg the bank to accept the offer as a short sale and hope that it all goes through. short sales are apparently notoriously long, so we are praying for a quick approval and a quick close.

but also saying a very thankful prayer that we have gotten this far.

happy birthday to our favorite minnesota grandma!

the cards are in the mail, the sewing machine is working hard, but grandma jan wasn't home. so we left her a message and made a video for her.

We are thankful and blessed to have such a loving grandma all the way in Minnesota! We can't wait for you to visit in a month!!!!

easter

W says I'm in trouble for not posting Easter pictures yet.

ummmm.... this is the best i've got, folks!

i told him we'd do a re-enactment, put them back in their easter dresses some other time, actually do their hair and take great pictures. he said to change the names and dates to protect the innocent.

so that is what we'll do. but i must say, the baskets were a smash hit! they loved the puzzles and the "tipsy tumbelinas" and chocolate carrots and couldn't have cared less about the cuter than cute chocolate bugs which is fine by me!

Good idea? Bad idea?

-Not sure who thought it was a good idea for me to buy Nutella. I'd had it before, but never easy-access, in my own home! Goodness me! This stuff went on sandwiches, strawberries, bananas, you name it and was gone in less than a week!

-W is off to Fayetteville because of lots of recent hail there. I'm not excited about it, but he can't say no. He just can't. So, it's back to single motherhood for a few days. ....another not so good idea, in my opinion!

-I got invited to join Pinterest! Oh, my picture fun! But really? Do I need another way to spend time on my computer???? I am going to give myself an allowance, I think, of time I can spend there!

-I now have a daily regimen to get rid of the last of this awful sinus infection and and stuffy ears! I still can't hear, but the steroids are creating a bit of "roid rage" in me. I have mouthed off a few times and now feel like I need an official disclaimer that my filter is temporarily gone, all in the name of being able to breathe easier!!!

-I feel like I was sick the whole month of April and now I have to pack up to move in a month!!!

-It's stormy outside and all I want to do is read our book club book!!!

Happy Happy Easter!

I know that my Redeemer Lives!

What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

on its way to MN!

no, not us, unfortunately! W is still low man on the totem pole at work and so holidays are very hard to get time off! But we're looking forward to family visiting from MN this June!!!!!

My former coworker, Megan, just had her third baby. She requested a nursing cover. She didn't know what she was having. I bought this fabric a while ago. I loooooove the green flowers! But I figured the cover is really for Mom anyway so I figured it would work.

I threw in a matching diaper caddy as well!

This is my second nursing cover to make EVER! It is very flawed but very full of love for my friend and her little one! (aka, don't look too close!)
I added a cute ruffle at the top to incorporate the polka dots!

And Megan had a baby GIRL earlier this week, so it is hurrying its way out the door for them to enjoy!!

nostalgia

My sweet old room mate posted some pictures from college on facebook.

Ia may or may not have hijacked them to share with you.

Jenny, Julie, me, Jen, Christa, and Melissa

This was my best year. This was the only year where I picked my room mates, picked the apartment (or rather got convinced into moving into a crappy h*ll hole just for the cheap rent and so I could live with my favorite people), and honestly had so much fun!!!

We made it our home-duct taped stairs, sinking floor spots, leaking sewer pipes, built-in sofas and all. These girls were my best friends. It was my first year after my parents moved back to Arkansas and they were honestly the best support I could ask for. Of course, we also drove each other quite nuts on a regular basis.

I remember one day, having an awful day at school, getting a speeding ticket, consoling myself with Carl's Jr. and going home only to trip on the stairs, bust open my knee and storm in crying and threw my meal away uneaten. My room mate Christa dug my beloved fried zucchini out of the trash, put it on a plate and came upstairs to find out what had happened. I love that girl!

us in the "passionless passion pit" right before Christmas break

Another "guilt" project done!

April is my official catch-up month this year! I'm catching up on baby presents, projects and other such sewing tasks that are creating guilt! :)

My girlfriend at work LOVES sock monkeys and had a baby, oh, EIGHT months ago! Last night I finally finished her son's sock monkey shirt.

I used Angela Yosten's tutorial, found here. I love how it turned out!

Maybe not a quilt, but I definitely put my recently-acquired applique skills to work!

The Creative Process

Spring has sprung at story time and lulu is relishing it!

I swear these last two weeks have been her all time favorites! Here she is decorating her butterfly!

The Hungry Caterpillar is her very favorite book right now and she was thrilled that it was the centerpiece for the storytime!
This week it was ladybugs and she insisted on wearing her "crown" for days after!
I love how these girls think and create!
I have always been antsy with scissors and my kids, luckily she's learning at school. She cut out her coloring book sheet and turned it into a real necklace. She was so proud of herself.
my beautiful big girl!

sinus

I remember the first time I got REALLY sick at college. It was my sophomore year, I loved my suitemates but couldn't stand my room mate. She only ate apples (imagine what that does to your system!) she saved up her stinky laundry for WEEKS (imagine what that does to your room!) and she was a pathological liar (imagine...well, she obviously imagined lots of things!)

It was the first time in my life where life where life didn't shut down when I was sick. I still had to go to class, I still had to feed myself and my Mom was three hours away. I remember coming out to the kitchen, opening the fridge, realizing that I'd just used all my strength getting that far, and leaning on the door of the fridge, staring at the food I was too sick to cook and sobbing for my Mom.

Pitiful. Luckily, my other suitemates I'm pretty sure took care of me.

With Will gone this week, my lingering cold has decided to explode into a raging sinus infection. Miss M still has to go to school. Lulu still needs to be fed, and the house is a disaster zone. And I feel like if you pricked my head with a pin, I would either blow around the room like a balloon or well, honestly, thick green snot would slowly pour out. But I swear, right now I really feel like it would relieve the pressure and I might be able to hear out of my left ear again!! However, we'll stick with the balloon analogy-much more fun!

Life must go on. Tomorrow I WILL find a way to do laundry! And the day after that, my W will come home!

March 12squared

Here's my square for the quilting bee for March.

Jennie provided the fabric and we did twisted nine patch. Easy peasy, and I love the fabrics she chose!
The hardest part was that we were supposed to embroider our names somewhere on our square. I ran out of room and was "done" by the time I started my last name. Hope that works!

Arkansas Children's Theater

When we lived here when I was a kid, my mom got tickets to the children's theater for she and I. It was our special thing. I still remember "The Miracle Worker" and "The Jungle Book" and how wonderful they were!

Miss M's class got to go to a recent production and I was lucky enough to help chaperone it! It was "If you Give a Pig a Pancake" and it was darling! The kids laughed and clapped the whole time, it was fun and silly and perfect for these five year olds!

but apparently, I have no skill in self portraits with the iPhone! :)
I am so thankful for Miss M's talented and wonderful teachers and the opportunities she's had this year!

Snippets from the iPhone: c/o Grandpa

Last Saturday, I was playing on my Dad's iPhone at dinner. I found a bunch of pictures I had asked him to email me..... hmm.....

I emailed them to myself! :)

So, let's go back to Christmas, shall we?

Remember when we went to Garvan Gardens to look at the light display? We took a group picture. We don't get many pictures with all of us (minus "Grason")

Remember how we had TONS of snow right after New Years? So Dad came and rescued us in the Tahoe so we could get out of the house and be fed!
Then in February, my parents went to Florida to pass of their SCUBA dives. So we went to say goodbye to them and Dad snapped a picture!
And this was right after my last haircut and Dad was taking pictures of everyone to send to Grandma Betty on her mission. And it's not bad.

Stay tuned for Snippets from the iPhone: M's toys

Monday Monday

I've got the feeling it's going to be another long week.

*hubby is in "nawlins" working this week...nuff said

*M has yet to wake up without her eyes swollen and covered in green gunk

*Lulu has yet to have a day where she has NOT watched Tangled twice!

*M has a renewed interest in markers-on her feet, my sheets, markers scattered all over the house...until this afternoon when all markers went to time out!

*M stayed home from school today and our babysitter canceled both of her days-scramble time!

*I still have the headache I woke up with!

The plus side of today is that I cleaned out our closet and the goodwill pile is HUGE! Next stop, front hall closet!!

baby gifts

I can't remember if I posted these or not.

A girlfriend is having her third child...and first girl!

It called for new duds, a cover for her boy boppy and a snuggly blanket!

This snuggler was tricky to figure out (I had the pattern pieces but not directions!:) but I was thrilled with how it turned out!

and my sweet friend even already had some of the fabric picked out!
I love making things for little girls! Betcha didn't know that, did ya?

Pockets of Love

The Suzuki sold at auction yesterday.

We set the low bid at 500.

We got much more than that.

In fact, it's almost the exact amount of the return deposit we owe our renters that just moved out plus the deposit on our bigger apartment. Two things that we weren't sure how we would swing.

I'm so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who reminds us to continue to endure and have faith. Things WILL happen!

Book Review: Moon Over Manifest

I highly recommend reading this year's Newberry Award winner, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool.!

It is a charming story, that reminded me of the Secret Life of Bees a bit.

A girl, trying to figure out how she fits into her own past with only a few clues to go on.

It did take me a little bit to get into it but solely because this month was so

busy and distracting!

You fall in love with the characters, you want to solve the mystery, and you want to see this

town overcome its own hardships!

One of my favorite parts of the book:

"The line between truth and myth is sometimes difficult to see. " As her voice got heavier, and her rocking more rhythmic, I could feel her heading into a story. "As much as we wanted it to be true, it was nothing but a myth."

What was she talking about? What had been a myth? My insides got tight. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

But she went on. "Who would dare think the outcast and abandoned can find a home? Who would dream that one can love without being crushed under the weight of it? A miracle cure to heal the sick? Pah. What makes us think any of this could be true? And yet all of us, we participate in this myth, we create it, perpetuate it."

Miss Sadie's voice grew deep under the weight of the story.

"But what is worse-we believe it. And in the end, we are crushed by it..."

It is a charming story. Enjoy!

When we're in our new apartment, I will...

1. have an office-study-guest-hopefully someday baby-room!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am for a third bedroom! A third bedroom closet! A third room to decorate! A place for my fabric (behind the kitchen table is just NOT acceptable!) Can I just have this one???

2. buy new pillows for our bed! They are a lumpy mess and we deserve better! And not from WalMart! They were our last mistake! Back to Bed, Bath and Beyond we go!

3. have a kitchen that is part of the general living area, not off in the corner where the air can't circulate. Maybe I'll be able to cook fully clothed!!!

4. make throw pillows for the couches! Yes, they came with giraffe pillows! And well, I'm not into giraffes. So they must go!

5. hang curtains! I'm not sure why I thought I couldn't here but I'm gonna next time!

6. no longer have a filing cabinet and work table in my bedroom! Refer to glorious number one again! :)

7. have TWO, yes TWO sinks in my bathroom! (not these lovely ones, but they will be just as lovely to me!) That means more counter space, more storage space, and less grumpy spouses...hopefully! :)

8. take fewer things! I'm going back to January's clean out goal and I'm going to purge for April! This week, my closet! I hang on to WAY too many clothes that aren't worn anymore! Let's face it, if I can fit into it again, I'll be so stinkin' excited that I'll get something new!

9. bake a cake for the downstairs neighbors and brown nose with my cute kids like never before! Yes, more downstairs neighbors but when we toured the apartment, they assured us that these newer buildings were better insulated and therefore hardly ever get noise complaints. Plus, since we'll be over another 3-bedroom, they assume kids are there!

10. enjoy it!!!!!!

One down...

I made a bag for my nephew when he turned eight. He was baptized and got his own set of scriptures so he needed a carrying case for them. He wanted a Harry Potter lightning bolt. If I were a good blogger, there would be a link to the post about it here, but trust me, it was March 2009.

So my second nephew turned eight last November and he requested a Pokemon ball design for his bag. I was very intimidated by the applique for that one but thanks to my recent quilting activities, the applique was much easier!

My brother said he was impressed because he knew it was a pokemon ball without being told! :) Hooray, one long-standing, guilt-ridden project off my list!
And this is a pretty cake to show off my fancy flower bundt cake pan!
M saw me pouring the cake batter in the pan and she said, "we're going to have to fix that cake. It has a hole in it!" I think a watching of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is in order with this girl!! :)

Out like a lamb?

I am soooo glad March is done! March was hard on me!

Let's just leave it at that, not revisit goals and feel guilty, and just move on, okay?

This month, I plan to:

1. Find peace.

2. Smile more. That was a good goal. I need that one back.

3. Read my scripture every day and pray every morning and night.

4. Read at least two books.

5. Clean out, throw out, toss out, weed out the STUFF that doesn't deserve the glory that is a THREE bedroom apartment!

6. Catch up on three craft projects to decrease my guilt level: the monkey shirt, the nursing cover and Grace's bag WILL get done. I'm writing it here so it WILL happen!

7. Have faith.

8. Cry less.

9. Find peace.

10. Find peace.