If anybody still "follows" this blog, I've started a new blog over at

http://studio456.blogspot.com/

Come check it out. It's still really new so there's not much content ... yet.

Today I made 2 matching games for the kids. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. I printed these images out onto Avery 8293 1.5 inch round labels and stuck them onto milk jug lids I've been saving up for just such a project. I am considering using about half of the Christmas ones to decorate a small tree that the kids can play with. Hopefully this will keep them from playing with the one in the living room! I can't take credit for the images. They all are from Microsoft Office. I hope to get a picture of the kids playing with these but right now the camera is out of batteries...again!

Boy oh boy. Just reread that last post and sometimes I get a teensy bit cranky. :) I'm better now and have scanned some of the Wordles I made and am going to post them now. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a real, live, honest-to-goodness post. (Once again, if you're on Facebook you've already seen these.)

Thanksgiving Word Art

Audrey's Word Art

Edgar Family Rules

Easton's Word Art

Just found a fun site called Wordle. It is super easy to use to create cool art. Just type in any text you want and it will randomly generate a "word cloud" for you. I made 5 different ones tonight. One for my kitchen with spices/herb names, one for my living room as a decoration for Thanksgiving (words like turkey, stuffing, family, gobble, thankful), one for each of my kids with their nicknames and date of birth and one for "family rules" (eat your vegetables, use your manners, count your blessings, use nice words). It is SO addicting!
Here's a link to my most boring one (the spices one). Didn't realize you could save them and link to them until I was doing the last one!
Have fun with it and be sure to let me know if you do one of these. Seriously, I played with this for hours after the kids were in bed!



P.S. GRRR!! NOTHING HAS GONE RIGHT TODAY! The first time I try to blog in forever and I can't get the stupid link to work. I am going to bed and hoping I have more patience to fix this soon. I am so mad! Whatever. I'll try to fix it soon.

Since finishing up with my last class, the Crafty Lil Devil is back in full swing. I've finished so many craft projects in the past week! Two paintings, party favors for E's big 3rd birthday party, two Halloween costumes (a ghost for Easton and a bat for Audrey) and a Halloween wreath. It's been really fun finally getting to do something I want to do for a change! These pics are from my phone. My camera has eally and truly bit the dust. Now my camera phone takes pretty good pictures for a camera phone but it can't really do justice to my two little sweeties or capture the colors in a painting, etc. But they'll have to do until we get a new camera. Maybe at Christmas. I don't even know what kind of camera to buy if we do get a new one. I'd like a big, fancy schmancy DSLR but that is REALLY not in our budget...even at Christmas time! Jason says his Canon at work is really good so we might look at those. There are so many choices! All I know is my little Kodak is history. I used it a lot and loved it (Thanks mom!) but now it's all beat up and the lens is stuck all wonky and can't be fixed.

wonky old camera

Here are some pictures I took with my Blackberry. It is SUCH a pain to get pictures from my phone to my computer and then to Blogger!

If you're on Facebook you have probably seen these already:

Oh happy day!

Painting for my mom (sorry to ruin the surprise Mom! I'm no good at secrets!)

Audrey's bat girl costume

Spooky, spidery Halloween wreath

My precious little ghost boy.

Easton and Audrey like to go around the house saying "GHOST!" in their creepiest voice. It cracks them up and they laugh so hard they almost choke. Too funny!

That's what I've been up to. Craft projects and dishes and laundry and all that good fun stuff. So happy to have more time for me now that I'm finished with school!

P.S. Guess who got an A on that last final paper? Me! And that means I got an A for my overall grade in the class. And that means I have truly and properly earned the words "graduates with distinction". Oh yeah! SO glad to be done with homework for good! Or until I am crazy enough to go back to school to get my Master's degree when the kids are old enough to go to school. But until then, Crafty Lil Devil is back at it again!

Man, I really needed that break! Things just got a little chaotic there for a while but have calmed down to a dull roar now so maybe I can manage this blog a little better. Too much has happened in the time off to completely catch everyone up to speed but let me just tell you the most important:

I graduated from college! Finally, after all these years... I can proudly say that I am a college graduate. No more checking "some college" on surveys. Sorry to brag but holy cow I am proud! I made an A on my final paper, which earned me a grade of a 96% in the class. That means I graduated with distinction and will be on the dean's list. I am so proud! Two friends are planning a small graduation party for me and I am so happy.

I've only been finished with school and homework for four days but I've already finished four craft projects. I will attempt to upload pics soon. They'll be kinda crummy camera phone pics because my regular camera is all but unusable. I have no idea what we'll do at Easton's birthday. Maybe I can borrow one from a friend. Katy? Amanda? Jessica? I'd really appreciate if I could borrow a camera from someone. Even if it's just for the day. Thanks!

That's all for now. It's late and I've got a lot of crafting to do tomorrow. Hooray! Crafty Lil Devil is BACK! Pictures and how-to's coming up.

Blog closed until further notice. Too much going on right now! I can be reached by email (sometimes not very speedily), on Facebook or on my cell or home phones. Thanks!

Oh man am I ever sunburnt! We went to an air show here called "Thunder Over the Blue Ridge." It was so fun! Too bad my camera is on its very last leg or I'd post pictures. It does take pictures but they are so bad! The lens of my good ole point and shoot Kodak is really scratched up and crooked (won't retract back into the camera or straighten out either). It's bad. I definitely cannot do without a camera! My Blackberry takes alright pictures but my babies are far too cute not to have a real camera! I wonder if maybe I can get a fancy digital SLR as graduation present to myself? Ha! Yeah right. Those babies cost a fortune! But I can dream, can't I? Sigh. Maybe someday.

I last updated this blog 5 weeks ago. FIVE WEEKS! Holy cow, has it ever been a long five weeks. This is gonna be a long rambling post.

We were in Oklahoma for 34 days and it seemed like it passed in a blur. We had such a good time getting to visit with family and friends and not feel like we had to rush to get to see everyone in a short time. Even though we were there for so long we STILL didn't get to see everyone. (Sorry if we missed you!)

The kids were good but it was hard on them to be away from home for so long. Plus my grandma's house, while a wonderful place to visit, is not exactly babyproofed. When the kids got bored or tired they knew just where to go to get into trouble. I lost count of how many times Audrey cleaned off Grandma's table beside her chair and rearranged the candle holders in front of the fireplace. It was a fun but exhausting trip.

Now we've been home for almost 2 weeks and are just settling back into our routine nicely. I was sad to leave Oklahoma but happy to get back to my own bed, my cat and West Virginia's cooler temperatures. Oh and Jason too! I did kind of miss him too. :)

We came home to a burnt up garden. Oklahoma wasn't the only one having some hot temperatures during that time. All the hard work we put into our garden, plants and flowers and now they are almost all dead. I could have cried when I saw my herbs on the deck just dried up and way past saving! Oh well...there's always next year! Hopefully I'll get started earlier next year and we'll actually get some veggies from our garden.

Last weekend we took the kids to Marker-Miller Orchard for their Peach Festival. It was nice weather for it. Warm but not too hot, cloudy with a cool breeze every once in a while. We picked a peck of peaches and both kids really enjoyed picking a peach right off the tree. They both came home covered in peach juice. I don't think I've ever tasted a better peach! We also got some zucchini, some amazing Ginger Gold apples, and some of their famous "apple cider doughnuts". Now let me tell you about these doughnuts. I lived here about 5 or 6 years and kept hearing about how good these doughnuts were. Even the 2 year olds at the daycare I worked for knew about apple doughnuts. Everyone here raves about them like they're the best thing you've ever put in your mouth. And they were mighty good, don't get me wrong. But with a name like Apple Cider Doughnuts, I was expecting them to taste...well, APPLE-y. Nope. For those of you who haven't tried an apple cider doughnut, think cake doughnut rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Now those of you who are locals reading this blog, don't get me wrong...they ARE delicious. But I think they need to change the name a little. When apple cider is the next to last ingredient on the list I don't think that is a very fitting name.

Anyway, enough ranting about weather and wrongly named doughnuts. I can't believe it is August 20th today. Where did the summer go?! Now it's apple season and back to school time. And I cannot even believe it is time for me to start planning Easton's birthday party. He's turning THREE! Holy cow! I am excited about another Fall here and making apple butter but feel like summer sure did pass me by. How about you?

We survived the plane trip! I can't believe how great the kids were on the plane. Of course it helped that I had a diaper bag packed with every distraction I could possibly think of and that I had a sweet lady sitting next to me who was a grandma and great grandma many times over. I think God put her on that plane just so she could help me. It turns out she lives in Grandfield and her daughter (in-law?) knows my mom. It's definitely a small world!

Anyway, the kids did great and after only a short rain delay we arrived in OKC around 7:30. My mom picked us up at the airport and helped us get our baggage to the car. And boy what a lot of it we had! I tried to bring as little as possible but when you're gone from home for almost 6 weeks with two little ones you kinda have to take everything but the kitchen sink! We had 2 carseats, 3 suitcases, E's backpack, the diaper bag and my purse. Plus Audrey in her stroller and Easton. It was quite a scene. (If you're friends with me on Facebook, I posted pictures there. I'll add them here if I get a chance after I get back home.)

We left the airport and stopped at Zio's on the way home for dinner. OH MY GOODNESS it was amazing! We had some hot, fresh bread and garlic/herb olive oil for dipping. I could make a meal on that stuff! I also had some awesome roasted vegetable lasagna which immediately made me close my eyes and groan with happiness and think of the "When Harry Met Sally" diner scene. Oh yeah. It was that good! :)

We got to my grandma's house around 11pm that night and the kids had slept from OKC to Lawton and gone without a nap all day so they were WIRED when we got there. I think they finally fell asleep around 2:30am.

Saturday and Sunday went by in a sleep-deprived blur. I do seem to remember some really good food and visiting with lots of my family which was exactly what I needed. I will definitely have to quit staying up so late talking and remember that I'll be here for a MONTH so there's plenty of time to visit during the day.

I imagine the rest of the month will fly by in a blur of busy-ness (is that a word?), cooking, cleaning, visiting and running around town. And lots of trips to Wayne's for vanilla Cokes. If you're in Lawton I hope to see you while I'm here!

I have a mountain of stuff to do before our trip tomorrow. So what do I do? Of course I get on the computer. Ha ha! So this will have to be short so I can get busy but I wanted to update and post about my RAOK things I've done lately.

I've found that people seem to be doing the nice things for me instead of the other way around. :) People see that I have 2 little kids and go out of their way to be nice to me which is SO appreciated! An older gentleman saw that I was pushing Audrey in the stroller and attempting to hold Easton's hand and carry 4 boxes to be mailed and my purse and kindly offered to carry my boxes for me. He opened the door for us, carried the boxes all the way inside and talked to each of my kids for a minute. SO nice! And what a life saver that was!

So since people seem to be doing the nice things for me my list of things I've done isn't all that impressive. Or maybe it just feels weird talking about it. Like "Hey, look at this nice thing I did!" and I'm definitely not doing it for that. Just because it makes me feel good to do nice things.

Other things I've done lately:

• gave out sparklers, glow worms, poppers and glow sticks at our neighborhood 4th of July get together.
• mailed some goodies to 3 different places. (Can't tell more about that yet...not everyone has received their stuff yet.)
• bought my kids "surprise ice cream" for my birthday. (Does this count if it's for my own kids and I got ice cream too? It WAS before dinner and not something I let them have very often.)
• emailed case studies to several fellow classmates (which I'm not too sure is all that ethical now that I think of it. They were supposed to buy the cd and didn't. Oops!)
• handed out Kohl's coupons and Kohl's cash to people waiting in line to check out at Kohl's. I won't be near a Kohl's to use them and why not help other people save money. I've been THRILLED when people do this for me! (50% off coupon when I left mine at home!)
• held the door for people or let them into a long line of traffic at every chance I get.

And that's all for now. I find myself thinking of things I'd like to do for people but am on a limited budget so I just do small stuff that doesn't cost much. But boy if I had more money I'd be sure to share the wealth! :)

Are you joining me? I'd love to hear about it!

Oh, I almost forgot! Today I started my Random Acts of Kindness celebration for my birthday! I was so crazy busy that I didn't get as many things done as I would have liked but I definitely enjoyed what I did get to do!

Today I:
*Used my change ($6) at Subway to buy a gift card for someone who needed it
*Dropped off a ginormous garbage bag full of stuffed animals to Healthy Families
*Way overtipped the guy who served us dinner tonight

OK, so these things aren't gonna bring about world peace or anything like that but they were unexpected things and they made people feel good. Tomorrow should be less hectic here and I'm hoping to think of some better and more fun things to do.

Are you joining me? I'm doing 32 random (or sorta random) acts of kindness to celebrate my 32nd birthday on July 7th. If you decide to join me, I'd love to hear about it!
P.S. I am totally bummed out that Jason will be out of town for my birthday. This is totally selfish of me I know but now who's gonna bring me my cake?! Ha ha Only kidding. Well, sorta.

P.S.S. OK, I am aware that that last comment about how bummed I am that J won't be here for my birthday at the end of a post about doing good things for others seems a bit shallow and selfish. Don't judge.

Whew! I am wiped out! I got more done today than I did all weekend long. Jason had to work on his truck Saturday and Sunday so I mostly stayed inside with the kids. It was so darned hot here! I am going to roast when we go to Oklahoma! I'm praying for some cool weather while I'm there so the kids and I can get outside a little but I'm not thinking it's really gonna happen.

For anyone who doesn't know yet, YES we are FINALLY coming to Oklahoma! I'm going to miss Jason an awful lot and I know the kids will too but am very happy to have an extended time with my grandma. I've already got my recipes ready to go. She used to be the one cooking for me so now it's my time to return the favor. I sure hope she hasn't gotten rid of that exercise bike she used to have because I'm definitely gonna need it!

Today the kids and I spent all day running errands. We took the cat to the vet for her yearly shots, dropped her back off at home to relax after her stressful car ride to the vet (she throws up EVERY time! Do they make kitty Valium?!) Then we loaded back up in the car and headed to Winchester for a day of checking things off my to-do list. We took my friend Liesl her birthday present, dropped off a huge bag full of stuffed animals to be given to little ones in a local Healthy Families program, met Jason for lunch, returned something at Walmart, dropped off a birthday present to our friend T and let the kids play for a while while I visited with T's mama Amanda. (Hi, Amanda!) Then we hopped back in the car and drove home. Wouldn't ya know it...Audrey fell asleep the minute we turned into our neighborhood. The kids and I waited in the car with it running and the air turned on to keep us cool til Jason got home. He joined us for some more errands. We returned a part to the parts store and then headed to Hagerstown to exchange some clothes Audrey got as a birthday gift. We got to the outlet mall just in time for dinner, ate some junky Chinese food, returned the clothes and then hit up Kohl's because both J and I needed new shorts. Holy cow I must have tried on every single pair of shorts in that store and only found ONE pair I liked. I bought them (in a much too big to be named size) and we headed home. FINALLY! By this time the kids were WAAAYYY cranky and deliriously tired. We got the kids in bed at ELEVEN o'clock tonight! BAD, bad, bad. I am dreading tomorrow. While Jason put the kids to bed (thank you, honey!), I finished up a short and sweet homework assignment and am finally done for the day. Why do I try to make up for days when I don't get much done by cramming as many things as I can possibly do into one day's worth of running around? Man, my kids are gonna be CRANKY tomorrow! I'm hoping I am very wrong about this.

Wowee I am glad that is over! I don't know what the kids had but it was some awful stuff! Vomiting and diarrhea for DAYS! First Audrey had it for about five days, then we had a day or so break and then Easton got it. He actually went to the ER late one night because he couldn't keep any liquids down and I was afraid he was getting dehydrated. That virus was awful! After it was over I was so worn out I just honestly did not have anything nice to say for a while. It was bad! But now I'm back and hope to be blogging more over the next few days. I'm planning a trip to OK for a month to help out at my Grandma's house for a while. We probably will be there from the 1st part of July until some time in August. Hope to see you while we're there!

Poop-a-thon still not over. I am still cranky. Less so than before but yes, still cranky. I miss blogging. I'm burnt out on school work. I still {heart} coffee. Sorry for no real post yet again. There is much laundry to be done. And yes, I hate this kind of non-post as much as you do. Sorry!

It's been a poop-a-palooza at our house these last few days and it seems there is no end in sight. Audrey has some kind of a bug that I am PRAYING the people who came to her party this weekend do not get! Easton is potty traning. And not very successfully, I might add. Yes, he realizes the difference between wet and dry (which is a huge step in the right direction) but we have to physically put him on the potty every 30 minutes and he screams and cries and carries on until it sounds like we are torturing him. He usually manages to pee but I think this is more luck than anything. It's not been a good few days. I have a long post about our NY trip to see Katy about halfway done, a paper to write, several projects unfinished and zero pictures of Audrey's birthday party. Needless to say, I am very cranky. I think I should stay away until I have something nice to say. That would not be today.

I just noticed that when I put in this fancy new photo header I accidentally erased my nav bar I worked so hard to create. It will be back just as soon as I find time to create it again. I also need to tweak the birthday banners for the kids so all of their info shows up. {sigh} One of these days I'll get this blog looking the way I want it.

Audrey,
How in the world is it possible that you are almost a year old? You are pulling up on everything (but mostly only to your knees), talking up a storm, pointing at things you're interested in and can crawl faster than I've ever seen a baby crawl in my life. You are my sweet, quirky, loud little sunshine girl and I'm really enjoying getting to see who you'll turn out to be.
I love you!
Love,
Mama
P.S. What's with the only one nap per day thing? Can't you give your tired mama a break for a little while longer? I know it's loud with your brother and me up playing while you're trying to rest but I sure would appreciate it if you'd take a 2nd nap every once in a while!

Easton,
Wow, we had a rough evening tonight! Everyone was a little fussy all day today but tonight was especially bad for some reason. Just now I went in to kiss you goodnight and cover you up and looking at your sweet face just broke my heart. I'm sorry for the way I lost my temper and yelled tonight. I apologized to you before you went to bed but I still feel bad. I'll try harder to remember that you're still little and that no naps make you a little wired sometimes but it's not really your fault. I'll also try to work on getting more sleep so I am less cranky with you and hopefully have more patience. I love you, my little sweetie. Thanks for loving me back "4, 5, 6" even on the tough days.
Love,
Mama

Taking a break from homework and housework to blog for a bit. I've been trying to be more "green" lately. We recycle just about everything we can possibly recycle and I've been making a conscious effort to use less harsh chemicals to clean. Today while I was putting off doing my homework I cleaned my bathroom with a mix of vinegar and water. That's it. A bottle of half vinegar and half water and a bunch of paper towels. OK, so the paper towels are not very "green" of me but at least I'm trying! :)

Ew! Our bathroom was NAS-TY! I'd say when you can't remember the last time it was cleaned it has been way too long! I will NOT go that long between times again. Blech! But you know, the vinegar cleaned better than my usual cleaner. I didn't get to the tub and shower yet but did wipe down the counters, walls and floor with it. Now it's all sparkling clean but smells like sauerkraut. EWW! Oh well. It looks pretty anyway. Hopefully it will air out overnight and will just look pretty and not be stinky. Tomorrow I'll have to finish the rest.

Now I've got a week's worth of homework to do in 2 days. Not from procrastinating, just poor planning on my part. I planned a mini-vacation to New York to see my friend Katy right during the busiest time of my class. Final paper week! So I've got to hustle to get it done early so I don't have to mess with it while we're away from home.

I'm really looking forward to going to NY though. Katy lives in Brooklyn and we haven't seen her in way too long so we're going to drive about 4 hours (or 6 or 8 depending on how well the kids do in the car) to see her. We'll leave Saturday morning and come home on Tuesday. I've got a TON of stuff to do in the meantime so I'd better get busy! I hope to post about our trip when we get back. Check Facebook for pics and status updates from NYC.