County Fair

Been busy getting my entries ready for the county fair. They are due Thursday.
The two pictures are 'macro' in 8x10. The scrapbook layout is 12x12 and is from Relay For Life. The frame is Artificial/Dried wall arrangement.

Bored, bored, bored

I am finishing day 3 of being totally alone with a non-verbal child. I'm miserable!! He has his good moments, but 90% of the time, I'm being yelled at, snotted on, poop cleaning, and sweeping/mopping/picking up/vacuuming after the rest of the time. By the time back up shows, I'll be doing this gig for 87 hours. Paul thought I'd enjoy the alone time. Not quite. I'm stressed.

BTW... Chris, don't read this.

My Boy and His Food

By now you've noticed my boy loves to eat. I think he got that from his Daddy. He loves chocolate, too. Just like his Momma.

it's a potato, in case you can't tell.

Bath time

I know these are out of order. I posted them in order, which should have been reverse order. ... Dinner, Dessert, Bath. oh well.

dirt for dessert

Kissy face!

Dinner!!!

More Food Please!!!

This boy loves to eat!!! Here are pictures of him finishing the green beans and the noodles from 2 separate dinners.

Zoom Zoom!

See what was in front of my house??

I would consider this to be my Sexy Momma car. Too bad it's not mine.

Bobby pins

I spoke with my Mom today. She had hoped I'd call on Sunday, Paul and my anniversary, so she could wish us a happy day, but we got home too late (2:00 our time, 9:00pm her time). So I called this morning, which is my brother's birthday. I mentioned using a bobby pin and she was surprised I had those. I buy a 'box' of pins every couple of years since I use them so often and lose them half as often. I'm not the only one who uses them, am I? I think they are great.

GoOfY

One of the many reasons I love being a mom: goofy grins.

Yard Sale

Today I had my first yard sale since being in M-F. I had 2 in CP and we lived there only 2 years. We've been in M-F for 5!

We had a great day, beautiful weather, and as you can see, lots of shade. I have 3 tables of girls clothes, 1 of boys, 1 adult, 1 kitchen, 1 LR/bath, and 2 misc. Five dressers/book shelves, 4 tables, 5 lamps, picnic table, 2 racks of clothes, maternity, and various other items. I'm pleased with today's progress and hope we clear out more tomorrow.

Time for the looney bin!

Curtis is driving me insane today! He's taking short naps. Crying when he's not in my arms or sleeping. or eating. I'm just on my last nerve with him.

I've been working on our huge yard sale since Friday. A couple hours a day. We have a LOT of stuff. We got several dressers, an entertainment center, headboards and several boxes of kitchen things. I went through 6 boxes of Karen's clothes and only saved 2 boxes that we can use for foster kids. We should be able to do $800 with our stuff. The church is bringing over 5 antique tables, so hopefully we can get anotehr $800 from that.

What's that feeling?

Oh, it's fresh air rushing through BOTH my nostrils! I love it! I praise God because I have gone 3 days without a bit of pain! I took some oxycodone thinking I would need it, but because of the narcotics, I puked it all up... and lost 2 pounds in the process. I got the packing removed today and it feels like an air tunnel in there!! It's wonderful. I didn't bruise like I thought I would.

So thank you to anyone who prayed for me. God guided Dr. C's hands and anyone else involved (I slept through it all and have no idea who was in there). I'm so grateful for my wonderful hubby who has been a saint and servant to me through this. He's taking a much-deserved nap right now.

Thank You Jesus!!

My Little Buddy

Curtis is now the big 18 months.







big change, eh?

**yawn**

I'm so bored I could slip into a coma.

It's 110 lovely degrees here. We spent an hour at the pool right after I got off work, then home for Curtis' afternoon nap. We'll eat a quick dinner and go back. Paul is in San Diego, so we don't have to wait dinner. And since I can't take them Wed-Fri due to surgery, I'm storing up my points.

I wish I had $500. I'd fly to Louisiana to meet my niece. I'd only stay a day...or two. I hear I have good visitor manners. I also make a mean baked mac-n-cheese.

Cousins...

Karen with Sabina, who just turned 3.

Curtis with Addison, who is 15 months.


They are up from Texas for the week while my brother is in Malaysia. We drove to Hermiston to visit and play. Lots of fun. :oD

Seattle Part II

Part of the trek and the park. It's so weird to be in a city big enough that more than one other family is at the park at the same time. Usually our parks are so barren, but there were 20+ families here. Here are our hosts, Coby and Kori. Karen adores Coby.

Seattle

Not too far from our friends' home is Carkeek Trail and Park, just off the Sound. It is quite a trek, especially with little ones. But the weather was lovely.

sTuFf

1) My parents are in Africa. For 3 loong months. I'm very proud of them. I'm anxiously awaiting pictures of them with the local wildlife.

2) Curtis is getting so stinkin' cute! He has very silly faces and a hilarious personality. He is now giving me my vaccinations with the kiddy doctor's kit. All in the elbow, no less! And boy can he scream!!! yeeoww!!

3) I am finally having nose surgery. Not rhinoplasty... I like the shape of my nose. I'm having septoplasty, which means I'm having my deviated septum fixed. I'm really looking forward to being able to breathe and not have sinus headaches as often. That is next Wednesday.

Seattle.... Dulles... Africa

This last Friday, my family took my parents to the SeaTac airport to start their journey to Africa. Botswana to be exact. The ride up was very good. It's about 5 hours and we stopped twice. Any more than that and Curtis starts to revolt because 'you are making me get into this carseat AGAIN?' We dropped them off at Kiss and Fly Zone so the kisses and hugs were brief. I told my parents I was proud of them. They took off that night at 11:30ish, hit Dulles for a couple hours, then Johannesburg and then Botswana. They landed 8:00 a.m. our time on Sunday. LOOONG day they had!

They will be gone for 3 months and we'll make the journey to get them in October. Dad will be doing carpentry and Mom will work in their library. I'm looking forward to seeing some of their pictures.

Scrap happy!

Yesterday I made about 25 trips up and down the stairs, moving my scrapbooking supplies up to the room formerly known as Foster Kid Room. This past weekend, we painted the floor a shiny light blue. I moved the bed back in JIC we need it, the desk, shelving cubes, and STUFF! I have boxes and totes and Sterilite units full of supplies. I worked on sorting it all out, taking it out of Curtis' hands, back into the drawers, and in some semblence of order. I hope it's good enough I can actually scrap today. I'm so excited!!

Is it nap time yet??

We have had some mega-late nights lately. Friday night we had our 2nd Walk-In Theater. We have a large sheet on 2x4s we put on the garage wall, bring the projector out, and watch a movie. So fun!! Then on Saturday we were up kind of late, then Sunday night.... ugh!! Since Karen refused to nap Sunday afternoon, we told her she HAD to be in bed at 8:00. She went to her room then about 8:15, she came down the stairs asking if I would come up and pray with her. I headed up about 8:30... and she was tearing down the wallpaper in her bedroom!!! (just a border, but still it was a lot of work and money). I was livid! She is supposed to be in bed, not redecorating!! Long story short: since she can't take care of what we've given her, we'll take everything away. We filled 6 totes with toys from her room, took out her table and chairs, shelves, pictures off her wall, blankets, EVERYTHING. The only thing left is bed and dresser, sheet and pillow. She will lose 50% of her toys when we go through them, plus will have to earn her things back by chores. This has been very hard on Paul and I as we feel like failures in the parenting department. Does it ever get easier???

More pictures

I'm not going to C&P pictures of Emily, but you are welcome to look at www.steelehere.blogspot.com to see more of her. She's precious!!!

She's here!!

Emily Grace was born at 12:15ish Louisiana time. 6#13oz and 18" long.

Karen the invigorated

Karen lost a magnet under the refrigerator. She pulled the fridge out as long as the cord would go. We mopped up the dirt then pushed the fridge back into place. Then I found the magnet... stuck under the door in front.

my pretty flowers

Self portrait

Here we are on the morning of July 4, before I head to the fireworks booth. You can't tell, but we have our Old Navy Flag shirts on. I have blue shorts and Curtis has red ones.

Recycle Queen!!

So where is my reward?? I took 4 boxes of smaller fireworks boxes from the booth so we would recycle them instead of into the garbage. There are 2 boxes of empty water bottles from the booth. Then the blue box is our recycling.

I want my tiara!!!