I've got REALLY BIG plans!

well... Blogger is NOT cooperating with uploading all the pictures I took at the zoo!! So I shall have to give you a glimpse into my getaway night plans instead. Look for zoo pictures on Friday. Cuz I'm gonna be OFFLINE tomorrow!!





On Sunday, my husband drowned our shared cell phone.


So I decided that we needed to go ahead and get separate cell phones. It's also about time I started sharing the ipod with him too....therefore.....I bought myself an iPhone! and I LIKES IT.

the only thing I don't like is that I can't do Farmville on it. sigh. something about Adobe Flash not being compatible with ipod/iphone/ipad. :-*( sniff.

if someone knows a way to get around this please. TELL ME!!

Tonight I have finished piecing my challenge quilt, marked the quilting pattern and am about to finish basting it so it'll be ready for quilting.


I caught a sale at Bath and Body Works, buy 3 get 2 free. Oh yes, it's true! I double checked my receipt.

Then I found an Agatha Christie paperback at Half Price Books that I've never read! (seeing as how I own 87 of her books I really didn't think that was possible.) It was < $4.

And I found out that my employer gets a 20% discount at the AT&T store where I got our new phones which also applies to my monthly bill!

SCORE BABY SCORE!

So, my plans for tomorrow are, in no particular order:
eat, take a long bubble bath, read a book, quilt, embroider.

and no, sleep isn't on the list as I have to work Friday and Saturday nights.



Y'all hold the fort while I'm gone ya hear?

goals!

Last week's goals were....

1) work on my Spring to Finish quilt ooooo yeah! top is almost finished, then it's on to quilting!

2) take a zillion pictures of Sonshine's Kindergarten field trip to the Frank Buck Zoo (no, I don't know if he's more excited, or if I am.) Follow the link, this is gonna be such an AWESOME FIELD TRIP! I'm most looking forward to hand feeding the giraffes!! oh boy it was a fantastic field trip! I'm sooooo glad that I got to go! Thanks a zillion to the 2 co-workers who switched shifts with me at the last minute so I could make it. Pictures will be coming shortly...and YES! I HAVE VIDEO OF FEEDING THE GIRAFFES!

3) get to the gym! at least once well I only made it once. But, even though it'd been 10 days since the last time I went I made my 9 miles in just 32 seconds more than my best time. :-)

4) lift my weights twice I honestly don't remember how many times I did this.

5) snuggle my hooligans....whether they like it or not! tee hee hee hee. you know I did!

So I'm calling this week a win!

now, for next week. On Thursday I'm going to spend the night here. ALONE. Since I have to work Fri and Sat nights I'll probably stay up all night enjoying the luxury of the claw foot tub and quiet solitude (without internet). So my goal is to get the top finished tonight (wed) and basted so that I can

1) quilt the spring to finish quilt during my night away.
2) take a long hot bubble bath
3) read a new book (which means I need to go to either the library or the store and GET a new book)
4) get to the gym twice.
5) buy a new cell phone. (I'm seriously considering getting an iphone -~-the AT&T version-~-...any input?)

Me and My Muse

Susan Werner has a song called "Courting the Muse".

This song's been playing in my head a lot lately. By the way, if you don't know Susan Werner, check her out. I saw her in a one lady show 10 years ago and was most impressed!

Stephen King has said many times in his author's notes that he likens getting a story idea to his "muse has shat on his head".

I've been thinking about my muse a lot lately. I think she must be similar to Fawkes the Phoenix and has spent the last 6 months as a pile of ashes. I've been hoping that means that she'll arise with a whole bunch of new ideas for me.

Well, over the last couple months she's started circling my head again....pooping here and there, I'd occasionally get hit with an idea, only to have it roll off my back where it'd be lost before I could grab it. I'd come to the conclusion that the poor muse was constipated! I kept offering her prune flavored crackers....and waited, and waited, and waited for results. Finally, last week, I filled her water bowl with a warm prune juice and Sprite mixture. After all, it's my NEVER FAIL Constipation rememdy.

And as of today, I now have 5 new quilts in my mind and 3 blog posts (counting this one).

So, for the next few days I'll be easy to find. Just look for the girl covered in wet gooey muse shit.

:-) and loving it!

This week I'm thankful for an unplugged muse.

explanation

yeah, I've been staying away from Politickin. Frankly, my hubby does a better job of it anyways.
But this is so simple, so funny, and so EXACTLY how I see things, that I just couldn't resist.



Thanks Harry for finding this.

July can't get here fast enough!

And if you wanna know why.....just read this!

our new obsession.

I love love love OshKosh. There's an outlet about 2 towns over that is perfect. one of the many reason I love this store is because the girl's clothing is MODEST!

I mean, check out her skirt here...with it's built in pantycover! Oh yeah, and our little Mimic too!







Apparently the sandals I bought Sugars last weekend were a big hit! As a matter of fact she wants to wear them ALL THE TIME. She can't understand why Mean ol Mommie says no shoes in bed! But she's not allowed to wear sandals to school due to the mulch on the playground. So, This is what I see everyday, 30 seconds after walking in the door!




can't get between a girl and her SHOES!!

sneak peek

got all the strips sewn and pressed for my Spring to Finish quilt.

:-)

goals!

Now, I've tested my theory and it's accepted as a proven fact.

I do not do well without stated, written goals!!

The last two weekends I did not put up any goals....and the last two weekends I got NOTHING accomplished!

So.

This weekend is going to be a 3 day-er with a trip to the zoo in the middle. Shall be a whirlwind weekend for sure. However, my goals are as follows...

1) work on my Spring to Finish quilt
2) take a zillion pictures of Sonshine's Kindergarten field trip to the Frank Buck Zoo (no, I don't know if he's more excited, or if I am.) Follow the link, this is gonna be such an AWESOME FIELD TRIP! I'm most looking forward to hand feeding the giraffes!!
3) get to the gym! at least once
4) lift my weights twice
5) snuggle my hooligans....whether they like it or not!

Spring to Finish!

brought to us by Jacquie of TallGrass Prairie Studio Spring to Finish starts today and ends May 31st. Care to join us and see how many projects you can complete in 6 weeks? She says a project can be ANYTHING you decide.

As for me, well, my muse shat a new quilt idea on my head last Friday. It's a surprise quilt for a friend so you won't get any details till it's in my friend's hands. My goal is to see if I can make an entire quilt in 6 weeks. It's a feat never before tried so we'll see. And this quilt in particular will have both hand embroidery and hand quilting.... But my friend's need requires this to be done quickly anyway, so Jacquie's challenge is well timed.

I'll keep you posted of my progress. First step is going to the quilt store Monday (uh, I guess that would be today...) and getting the fabrics to fill out what I dug out of my stash Friday.

And for a little glimpse of Spring I present to you....da da ta da! My Flowerbed!




my irises are in full bloom and look better than I've EVER seen them! Lilies are growing nicely in front of the irises, my Grandma's 2 amaryllis are peeking up and the cannas are growing down to the fence.

:-)

message from Nona

Hi this is Nona, I want to thank everyone for the prayers. Tomorrow will be hard and Saturday even more so. Thank you from the deepest parts of my heart. Love to all of you.


for those of you not on facebook, Nona and her husband have gone to NM to get her daughter,they will be returning home late Saturday night. It's a 12 hour drive each way. Please contine to remember then in prayer this weekend.

thanks
Sarah

prayer request

My dear friend Nona's 27 year old daughter Melissa died suddenly last night. Please remember this family in your prayers.

goals?

well, I've been having a hard time coming up with goals this week....

So I'm gonna steal Nunly's goal instead.

Here's to achieving inner peace....

a little explanation

guess I failed to mention that the kids were all sick on Easter and so they stayed home. I went to 10am service and hubby went to 2pm service. Their allergies have been terrible this week and it was these allergies that instigated Gator's pneumonia. Fortunately we all seem a little bit better except for Gator's cough. He'll see the MD again this week for a followup.

obligatory weekly cuteness

the Easter dress she didn't wear....

before you ask....

pictures to go with my previous post.

I'm about to declare war.

first the neighbor's guinea hen pooped on my front porch (repeatedly), then today the neighbor's cat peed in MY GARAGE..... you know, the one where ALL MY SEWING/QUILTING FABRIC IS STORED. lord how it reeks in there.


We Are Not Amused.

Fortunately, this morning I had a "the works" pedicure complete with foot-leg massage and got my hair cut and styled.

So, all I need's a new outfit and I'm ready to take on the world.

Friday Frags,....the playing catch up edition...

Created by Mrs 4444, Friday Fragments are bits and pieces of your week that are usually brief; too short for a stand-alone post, but too good to discard. Collect humorous observations, "Heard" items, and other small gems and put them together in a Friday Fragments post.



you may remember that I decorated cupcakes for Sugars' birthday at school....

well, I did the same thing for Gator's birthday




Everyone loves Daddy's homemade banana pudding....matter of fact..there's not much left when they're done,

Sugars' bowl



Gator's bowl



Sonshine's bowl

but they might want Daddy to leave out the bananas next time haha!



well, I guess they didn't want the gate to be left open......



for the record. I hate Easter grass! I can think of nothing that makes more of a mess for less of a reason.

been a rough week around here. Gator's still sick, now it's vomiting to go with the pneumonia. FUN!

Rough night at work.

but I must say....there isn't much can go wrong in life which cannot be bettered by this:




one of my FAVORITE smells!

that and hubby made banana pudding...just for ME. ain't he sweet??


"say goodnight Gracie"

I got some splainin to do....

So, in our last blog post, I said I was gonna get off the computer and go work on Sugars' quiltblock.

However, about 15 min later Gator came down the hall....vomited water all over the floor and himself, and proceeded to register a 102.5 temp. Which prompted yet another 4am trip to the ER, only to learn the boy has pneumonia.

"His lungs look fluffy" said the doc.

yipee-skip says I.

we came home with some antibiotics and instructions to follow up with our Pediatrician. Which we (or rather he and Dad as I was sleeping) did yesterday. She gave us more antibiotics and now we're waiting for her to tell us when to go get another chest xray to track the progress of the pneumonia.

here's to hoping his lungs have been de-fluffed.


in the "Oh what a difference a day makes" department.

as I was signing him into the ER Tues morning Gator, my wild child, sat on the floor at my feet. When I asked if he wanted to look at the fish while we waited he went and sat on the chairs near the tank.

Wed morning I kept him while Dad took Sugars to school. He ended up getting a spanking because he wouldn't stop doing headstands on the sofa.

and no, I don't think gravity will help clear his lungs faster......

I'll let you know what the next xray shows.

One thing about my life, it's NEVER boring!

newsiness

first off. my google reader hadn't been touched since before Wednesday. I came, I saw, I counted, I deleted.

If you wrote something you'd like me to see, leave a link.


next....let's do goals.

1) Gonna try to beat that time (8.5 miles in 53 min) this weekend, we'll see.
made it to the gym twice this weekend. the second time I made 9 miles in 55 min 20 sec. :-)

2) I also need to finish Gator boy's footprint block
done! on to Sugars'...

3) put together Easter baskets,
oh yeah, I communed with my inner bunny and did the hop around the room...

4) get a referral for a MD appointment I have on Monday
got the referral in time...then had to cancel the apt. go figure.

5) replace my beloved trowel,
I was able to do this whilst bunny-hopping through Target.


So I won the game this week! I'll think of some goals to post in a day or two for next weekend, I'm working Tues, Wed, Thurs this week.


In the meantime.....I'm busy squirreling away ideas for this summer.

In addition to my vacation from July 5-22 during which I'm hoping to spend a weekend in Lafayette visiting my family, I'd like to:

work on reading and handwriting with the kids
get Gator (and maybe Sugars too) out of pullups and into underwear/panties
begin teaching Sonshine (and maybe the other two too) to play the piano
go on family field trips every 2-3 weeks. ideas for places to go are: Sharkarosa, Ft Worth Zoo, Dallas Arboretum, Planetarium, The Heard Museum, Family Theater Series, the Dallas Aquarium, ride the Tarantula and see the cattle drive at the Ft Worth Stockyards.

Of course, I have some bills I need to pay off before we can do all of this....but maybe we'll get some of them in this summer :-)


My goal for tonight is to get some work done on Sugars' footprint quilt block...which, oddly enough, ISN'T getting done while I type on this computer.
So I'll leave you with this clip of cuteness from Sugars' Easter "basket" from school today......I'm sorry to say that despite all of my practice, my moviemaking camera skills still suck, so please take your dramamine and bear with me....

a Pictureless Perfect Easter...

We had a great time yesterday morning. The kids found all the eggs, ate a ton of chocolate and played with all the goodies in their baskets. Their favorite things were the $1 squishy rubber balls with "hair" all over.

ayup, I'm more and more convinced that cheaper is better haha.


My 2 favorite quotes of the day

1) Gator decides to go TT in the potty....runs into the bathroom that his brother is already using and hollers out "Move over [Sonshine]! [Gator] a turn!" .... can't you just see them sitting side by side on the toilet??


Sonshine, "On Good Friday Jesus died on the cross....then the Easter Bunny comes!"

in other news I made it to the gym Saturday night, made 8.7 miles in 53 minutes. :-) and I finished Gator's foot prints. so far it's been a good weekend for goal-getting!

Excuse me....

while I don my tophat and tail....





I got some bunny-work to do around here tonight....


HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
God Bless each of you.

Well Said

from Sarah Palin's facebook page.



A Celebration of Hope
Today at 10:29pm

For many of us, the arrival of Easter means the arrival of a new season of joy – of Easter parades, Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, and sweet Peeps topping off a family meal. Some may wonder why we merrily celebrate at a time when we’re remembering Christ’s crucifixion on the cross. And there is something to that. Good Friday is, after all, about God who became Man, dying on the cross for our sins. And yet we celebrate Easter Sunday, and we are right to do so.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This one verse sums up the miracle that is the Easter season and helps explain the celebration. Yes, Christ died for us, but in the end Easter isn’t a season of sadness. Ultimately, the story of Christ’s rising from the dead three days after the crucifixion is the story of the triumph of hope over despair.

Hope is one of America’s unique virtues. Hope makes us dream and achieve the seemingly impossible. It’s who we are, and it’s why we’re able to always believe that our best days are yet to come, both for our families and for our country. Easter time reminds us that we have every right to believe that this hope is based on time-tested truths and a solid foundation.

On behalf of the Palin family, I wish you all a peaceful and reflective Good Friday and a blessed and happy Easter Sunday.

- Sarah Palin

you know work is busy when.....

shift starts at 6:45pm...you run without stopping till... It's 2:30am and you're trying to decide which is a more pressing need....eating or peeing.....then your beeper goes off....by 3:30am you're considering eating WHILE peeing....then your beeper goes off....at 4am you finally pee.....and seriously consider flushing the beeping beeper down the toilet.

yeah, it's REALLY tempting!


another way to tell it's been busy....when you see that the peanut M&Ms are in the SECOND slot in the vending machine, leaving the 1st slot empty....and seriously consider spending $2 just to get to that last bag.....only to be saved from such exorbitant spending and Lent sacrifice breaking by....wait for it.....your beeper going off.

should have flushed that damn thing when I had the chance.

I can't really complain...my co-worker had Golytely projectile vomited all down her scrubs and shoes.



after work this morning I've got the annual skills lab testing, then I'm off for 5 nights! yippeeeee!!
Tonight it's Easter Bunny shopping!
I'm hoping that there's still a good selection of goodies, wish me luck.