El Dio de la Fence

Yesterday we bean the process of putting in our fence. This process started with Scott waking up at 5:15 (God knows why) to make sure he was at Home Depot at 6:00 to rent the big machine in the picture below. He and his brother started drilling holes in the yard at about 6:15...sorry neighbors! it sounded like a lawn mower, but that still sucks when you're sleeping.

Allyson decided to help. She picked up the extra dirt and moved it to random spots in the yard.

We started using her as a measuring stick. If you could see more than her head, then the hole wasn't deep enough.

The next step was mixing the concrete to pour in the holes. Notice Nola in the picture below. I think she's sad because she couldn't put her big gloved hands in the concrete.

Then they put up the fence posts and that's where it stoped. Apparantly you have to let the concrete set up for a day or two. So now I just have fence posts in my yard (no picture yet). Hopefully by the end of this week we will have a completed fence... our gates are on order so those might have to wait till next week.

I'll post more pics as the process continues!

Whole lotta nothin'

Well, it's been ages since I wrote on here and frankly I think it's because Molly chewed on the cord that connects my camera to the computer so it's a lot harder to transfer my pictures. Scott just went to Lowes today and got all then fence pieces for our fence that we will be putting in this weekend! So excited! Except that they no longer sell the gates that go with the fence we got, so either we will have straight gates with our scallped fence or we will have scalloped gates that don't exactly match our fence...either way, who cares, New fence!
(anybody who wants to help feel free to come over and do so)

Hello out there

So it's been a really long time since I wrote anything. Here's whats going on in my life (by topic):

Scott: Scott's last day of work is a in 10 days. Hopefully since he will be home more I can get some stuff done in the yard and on the sewing machine. He starts UMSL classes next week, though. Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 - 8. I think I'll be able to deal with that since he will not be working.

Molly: She's getting a bottom tooth. She cries a lot about it. She's also moving around the living room like she's crawling through war trenches.

Allyson: Well, you know...three year olds; whatever. I did call the Parkway preschool lady on friday and she wasn't in the office. I hope she will call back next week so I know if she is going to go to parkway or ritenour...that will be in August or September if all works the way I've planned.

Yard: I can't do anything to the yard because it all needs to be done to the street side and I don't trust Allyson not to run into traffic while I'm digging in the dirt. Hopefully this will change soon. Also, I'm determined to get a fence around our yard by the end of June...I don't even care if Scott calls it my Birthday present. We have crazy ants in the yard...suckville.

Health: i've been trying to eat better and I think I'm doing alright. I've started making menus for about 4-5 days and going to the store for just those things (instead of buying tomatos and letting them get rotten before I use them). My food isn't necessarily "healthy," it's just good-tasting food. Also, I've been trying to go on walks more. There is a park that is kinda close and kinda far away so that's good incentive for Allyson to go on walks. ...I think I have arthritis in my hands...that's a bummer.

Sewing Room: I'm currently quilting Aaron's t-shirt quilt on the sewing machine. It's a slow go since the girls don't like to hang out in there and the sewing wakes them up during their naps. ...it's the first time I've quilted on a machine; I'm kinda nervous about how it's going to turn out. Also, I started "fusing" shopping bags and I started making a reusable tote out of the fused bags. I've stopped in the middle to focus on the quilt though. My next quilting project will either be one for Ashley's (my cousin) baby or one for Nola made out of her baby clothes.

TV: Everything is ending and I'm actually cool with that (I didn't think I would be). Maybe it has something to do with the fact that So You Think You Can Dance is starting soon and I'm SO excited for that.

The End

Recycling is FUN!!!

We made crayons from crayons! I know, it doesn't sound very exciting, but it totally is.

First we dug through the crayon bucket and got out all the broken pieces.

Then we ripped on the paper off of them.

Then we sprayed muffin tins with Pam and put the pieces in like this

Then we cooked them in the oven at 300 degrees till they were all melty (about 15 minutes). Here's what it looks like midprocess.

Take them out of the oven and they are really cool looking, but they are not cool... I put mine in the freezer.


Wait till they're cool and solid and pop them out.

Then COLOR with your new CRAYONS!!!

April Flowers

One of this month's themes: Flowers.



These were in Scott's grandmother's garden (where we hunted for Easter eggs). I know it's not the best picture, but I had to crop a larger picture... actually, here is the larger picture; I think it's kinda cute:




Allyson couldn't stop running.

My Monday

Here's what I did today:

I was woken up at 4:30 by Allyson who had wet the bed. I got her out of her wet jammies and put her in my bed. By that time she had woken up Molly so I had to make a bottle and try to get her back to sleep. It worked so i got back into bed by 5:15 and woke up at 6:00 with Allyson and Molly. I barely spoke to Scott before he left for work. Not a good start to my day.
After breakfast, Allyson and i made Easter eggs out of construction paper (I know Easter is over but she doesn't). Then Janae called and we went over to her house. The girls decided to dress up in some of Nola's fairy dresses and litterally run around the house for about 10 minutes. We took them outside and they chased bubbles in their fairy dresses and it was really cute. That is untill Allyson decided she didn't want to be outside anymore and threw a horrible tantrum.
After calming down and eating lunch we left Janae's and came home. Allyson and Molly took short naps while I did nothing. It was a nice hour.
I started dinner around 3:30 (Baked chicken and stuffing and roasted broccoli). Scott gets off work around 2:45. He HAS to work out (at work) so he doesn't get home till 4:30 or 4:45. We ate dinner around 5:00 then Scott fell asleep on the recliner. At 5:45 he got ready for class and left at 6:00. I will be asleep when he gets home.
Since I started writing this I had to stop at least three times: One to calm down Molly because Allyson knocked her over. One to let Allyson play computer games. One to make a bottle and get Molly to sleep. It's taken me over an hour to write this and now that I'm looking at it I'm wondering why I'm writing it.
In general today wasn't too bad; it was actually pretty good. But I really hate that Scott spends no time at home on Mondays. At least I got to spend the first half of the day at Janae's house. The second half was full of me being tired and Allyson and Molly being needy. Oh well, that's life.

Eggs & Etsy

We dyed eggs the other day. Here are some pictures. Oh, and I put another item in my Etsy store. It's a slow go with that these days, but I'm going to try to put at least one thing up there a week. If nothing sells, then I get to keep it all or have free birthday and Christmas presents for Everyone!

April Themes

I'm going to do like Janae did last month and give a few options for April themes. Since it is Spring and starting to be nicer and nicer outside I'm that's going to be general theme for my ...themes:
1. Flowers
2. Sunshine
3. Bunnies
4. Pink

these are pretty easy themes, so you should try to get creative with them.
(on a different note, Allyson has started using the word "bummer" and it's pretty funny)

GREEN

The photo theme for this month was Green. I took a picture of a green glass medalion in my bathroom and messed with it on photoshop. The first picture is the original with no tampering. The rest are just from me messing with stuff on photoshop till I liked what I saw.


The original



I believe I messed with the "Curves" on this one



I think I just messed with the "Levels" on this one




I think this might have been changing the colors and saturation??




I don't know what I did here



With this one I overlayed a photo of a rock or something (not my photo) over a copy where I changed the levels.

I like the one where I messed with the curves (whatever that means). It looks irridescent.

Pictures from the zoo

I liked these pics...I will be working on my theme pics tomorrow...Do I have April or is it Lucy?

10 Things I'll never say...

I was inspired by a list in a parenting magazine. I thought I'd write my own...

1. Oh! You went poop? Can I please wipe your butt?
2. Let's give her Mountain Dew instead of milk before bedtime to see how long it keeps her up.
3. I want to play "cooking" all day; it's SO fun
4. Oh, you don't want to go to bed now? Cool, lets just hang out instead.
5. I Love having macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets everyday for lunch, LOVE IT
6. I hate it when I have to leave my house without the kids.
7. Could you please scream in the baby's face, I think she's been sleeping too long.
8. Three-year-olds are really good conversationalists
9. I could listen to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" all year long and never get tired of it
10. Hey! Let's watch the Wiggles!

Imagination

So, I was going to post a picture of Allyson playing with her toys and call that imagination, but I figured I try to do something different. I started walking around my house with my camera in hand and decided to take some up close pictures of stuff and make "you" use your imagination to guess what they were...lame, I know. Then I came upon this painting in my bedroom that my sister did in college. She made a collage of things cut from a magazine and then painted her collage. She used her IMAGINATION to make things into something they weren't originally supposed to represent. So I took my lame pictures of the stuff in my house and made my own landscape: The night sky is my pin cushion; the water is a blanket, the earth is teddy bear fur and the bamboo trees are on my shower curtain. (It's the best I could do during naptime!)

Etsy

I just opened up shop at Etsy.com. Right now I only have one item listed, but there's more to come. Go buy it! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5690255

Love,,,

Well, i wanted to make sure that I posted a picture this week, since I've been slacking. The theme is love. I went through my most recent pictures and posted this one because it's all the people I love the most and I think it's funny that Allyson is making some kind of mean or angry face and Scott is smiling at her... he was probably making fun of her and laughing as she got angry at him....that's how Scott loves. Haha. If I have time (and can find my camera) I will try to post a better picture dealing with LOVE before the end of the week.

Weekly Photo Theme

So it's been a while so I'll try to make it a good theme and post a good picture... This week's theme, in honor of Valentine's Day, is LOVE. We haven't done this before have we? If so, I'll pick something else. But anyway, LOVE.

Fourth Picture in Fourth folder

I like this idea. I was tagged to post the fourth picture in the fourth folder where I keep my pictures. i actually had to go into the fourth folder in the fourth folder becuase they were subcatagorized. So this is the fourth picture from my August folder in my 2007 folder. It's Allyson playing with some of the toys from her 2nd birthday.

I now tag Janae and Lucy...Aaron/Gabe, you may do this as well if you are reading this.

Granny Candy

Weekly Theme: Candy:

These are some glass candies that Scott bought in Italy somewhere. They remind me of something in a grandma's house; but they are pretty, I think.

We're so pretty

That's what happens when you let a three year old do your makeup and then her own. It might not be too pretty, but it's fun!

Weekly theme

Electricity:

I opened up my sewing machine and voila! the magic of electricity. i've decided that I chose a bat theme. Sorry.

Weekly Theme (for next week)

Since the holidays threw us all off, I forgot to post a theme for this week and its already Thursday, so I'm posting early for next week. Lucy, that means that you have till the end of this week to post last week's picture (it was EYES, in case you forgot).
So next week's theme is ...ELECTRICITY! Good luck everybody.

Book Recomendations for Janae

Following are some books I have that I think you (Janae) might want to read. Feel free to research them on your own and pick one to borrow.

1. Brick Lane by Monica Ali: Kinda Oprah book clubish. About an Indian family living in America (or london)... its been a while since I read it
2. The great and Secret Show by clive barker: I haven't read it but I know you like some clive barker
3. The Florabama Ladies Auxiliary & Sewing Circle by Lois Battle: About women in the south.. kinda oprahish again...It's been a while but I remember liking it.
4. The Alienist by Caleb Carr: Murder mystery set at the turn of the century. Kinda long, I really liked it.
5. Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell by susanna Clark: Like Harry Potter for Adults. Longish but good

Weekly theme: Eyes

I've been a bit busy these past few days and Allyson is sick with a cold and cough. So, my picture is of her pathetic sick eyes. I would have done better, but I've been busy with lots of other stuff.