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.

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.

Quickly because I have a lot of homework due tonight:

My Degree Progress
Major: Early Childhood Education
Current GPA: 3.44 <----could be a little better but I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it for sure!
Credits Completed: 105.00
Credits Currently Scheduled: 12.00

You only have 15.00 credits to go!
Your estimated completion date is:
October 4, 2010

Hooray! The end is near! I got a phone call today from my academic advisor that says I can now consider myself in "graduate status". Which means I'm very much on the downhill stretch and I can't wait til October!

I am finally getting a short time to blog. Let's start with a couple cute pictures of the rainbow rice project we did last week.






For instructions, check out Pink and Green Mama. For the link, scroll down a few posts. It's late and I'm being lazy. Will link up again when I get a chance.

We both loved this project. I think maybe I loved it more than he did but he did like it. :) Something about those rainbow cupcakes got me all rainbow-obsessed. Nothin' wrong with that, right? :)

This is gonna be a short post because it's late and I need to get to bed.

Tomorrow I'm going to start making up some "lesson plans" for home preschool with E. He's really interested and loved going to the "preschool store" today. (Teacher supply store in Winchester). I'm planning on using some of my stuff from when I taught at Braddock Street so it should be fun and fairly easy. The hard part will be the planning and getting it all ready before hand so there's no waiting around for E during the day. He's really into counting right now so I bought him some counting bears. They're little plastic colored bears and they come with cups to help with sorting and matching, etc. He really seemed interested in them at the store and they were cheap and cute. I also got him a numbers puzzle so we'll try those out and see how it goes. We're going to start out with only a few things here and there and see how it goes. He's still really young yet but I think he'll do well. He knows all his colors, most of the uppercase letters, can recognize his numbers (mostly) from 1-9 and can count from one to "firteen" (13).

This isn't part of our official "preschool"stuff...that won't come til much later. Lots of planning yet to do. Anyway, tomorrow we're making "rainbow rice" from Pink and Green Mama

photo borrowed from Pink and Green Mama. Can't wait to see how E reacts to this! I hope it dries quickly because I can tell you he is not gonna be able to wait very long to play in it!


P.S. I want to be just like Pink and Green Mama when I grow up. She has such great ideas! And she lives relatively close to me too....Northern Virginia. Pink and green are Apple Blossom colors. OK seriously I am not a stalker but don't you just wanna meet her and hang out with her while she does all these cool projects? I'm gonna stop now before I start sounding real crazy but really I'm just so in awe of some people's creativity!

Eww, yuck! I should not leave such a "feeling sorry for myself" post up for so long without adding something new! Sorry! Some days are just like that. When I wrote that post I was exhausted. Nothing like a good night's sleep to make you see things from a new perspective. I'm feeling much better now. I'm in the last week of one of my classes and that means it's final paper time. 8-10 pages due tonight and I'm only halfway done. But I'm fine. Thanks for the emails and phone calls. Just crazy busy right now. After this paper is done, I'll be working on some projects for upcoming birthdays and starting to plan Audrey's birthday party. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! I'll have more time to blog after this paper is submitted but for now I've got to get to work!

If I could just muster up a portion of the enthusiasm for my homework as I have for shopping online, life would be good. Seriously. I know I said when I started these classes that I can do anything for 5 1/2 weeks but bleh! This ethics class I'm in just totally does not do it for me.

Sociology was just as boring and I escaped with a C+. I'm disappointed about that grade but that was one class I was just glad to be done with. Plus, I was sick as a dog for most of it and I think I just did the bare minimum just to get by. But I made up for it the next class with an A so all is good. Right now I'm taking "Philosophy of Human Conduct". Next up is "Intro to Ethics and Social Responsibility". ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz!!!!!! Come on! This is basically just a repeat of what I read about in sociology!

Can't I take some fun classes yet? Intro to Early Childhood Ed? Children's Literature? Language Devlopment? Something, ANYTHING but more sociology/ethics/philosophy classes! And in each class you have to do a minimum of one research paper per class. This class I have to do two papers. So every 2-5 weeks I'm doing a research paper. Even the times I don't wait until the last minute I still dread writing these papers about as much as I dread going to the dentist.

Oh man. I can't finish this boring stuff fast enough. I'd really much rather be doing anything other than writing an essay today but off I go. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

One class down, 14 to go. I just turned in my research project and finished up my Computer Literacy class. Today I start an Ethics clss that should prove to be interesting. Most days I'm feeling great. I've been going to see my amazing chiropractor Dr. H. I've been having a lot of low back pain if I stand too long. He says nothing is out of place and that it's just muscle spasms from carrying Easton around and probably from the growing belly from baby number two. Wondering why you haven't seen a picture of that baby belly? I try to stay as far away from cameras these days as I can. Sorry to those of you who are anxiously awaiting that picture. Some day I'm sure I'll let Jason take one or two and if they're decent they may end up here but seriously? I'm NOT a fan of showing off my belly, pregnant or otherwise. :)

Easton's keeping me busy these days. He's walking a few steps at a time but mostly prefers to crawl because it gets him where he's going faster than that scary old walking stuff does. He's talking up a storm. Mostly he just jabbers away but he's learning more recognizable words every day. His favorite thing to do is look out the dining room window. It's just the perfect height for him to see out of without standing on anything. He'll stand there for a long time just looking out at the world and jabbering away. It's pretty cute.

Baby 2 is very active. Kicking and moving a LOT more than Easton ever did. I'm tired a lot of the time. I mean REALLY tired!!! Sometimes I take 2 little naps or one very long nap while Easton sleeps. I'm taking that extra sleep wherever I can get it these days because when the new little one comes along, there will be much less time for that!

The weather is warming up a little. I'm sure winter weather will be back and just as ugly as before but I am truly enjoying the warmer days when they come along. I can't WAIT for spring! I am SO not a cold weather person at all! On Sunday it was nice outside so I got out and trimmed up our rose bushes and cut away all the dead plants in the front yard. It was nice to be out in the fresh air and get the front yard looking good but that's all I got done because I just can't do too much without getting worn out. And the bad thing about that? I was sitting down to do all that hard work! :) Just shows how out of shape I am and how easily I get tired now that I'm 6 months along. Wow! 6 months already? This baby will be here before we know it. Boy, we've got a lot of work to do to get ready before then! I'm tired just thinking about it. :)

A WHOLE DAY!!! A whole day without throwing up. Oh man, it's been nice not to start my day off with an in-depth look at the toilet. And I'm busy working on the LAST assignment for this awful sociology class I'm in. If I can just get through today without the evening queasies I normally get about 8:30, then I will be pretty happy. And if I can get the paper done, I'll be even happier. But I thought a 5 minute break and a blog about NOT puking would be a nice treat for us all.
Update: I got that paper done and submitted at 9:44 pm. Woohoo! FINALLY! Now it's off to take a hot bath and get my sleepy self to bed! And still no throwing up. Maybe just MAYBE this is the turning point. Oh happy day! (Keep your fingers crossed for me!)

Wow! What a busy week! Monday, Easton had a follow up for his flu shot and he did great! Didn't even flinch or make a peep! What a tough guy! Then we went to the library and checked out lots of books...2 for me and about 10 for Easton!
Tuesday, we took my friend Katy's mom to run some errands and have some tests at the hospital.
Wednesday, we had a free day and stayed home in our pajamas all day. It was wonderful!
Thursday, we picked up Katy's mom again for more errands and took her back to the hospital for more tests.
Today, I had a doctor's appointment. Easton went along of course. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time today. It is always amazing to see or hear a baby before you actually get to meet them in real life. Easton was great all through the appt. I think he was wondering what in the world that doctor was doing with that weird, noisy thing on mama's belly. I was only a little surprised to see that I hadn't gained any weight since my last appointment a month ago. My belly is certainly bigger than a month ago so I was guessing I'd have gained some weight in the past few weeks. I guess all the throwing up will do that to you. Speaking of throwing up, yes it is still going on. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I'm just gonna be sick every single morning before I can get on with my day. Hopefully it doesn't last too much longer, but at least it's finally tolerable most of the day.
After the doctor today, we went to Walmart and picked up some Christmas presents from Jason's mom. (Easton's Nanny) Next, it was off to Sears to pick up Easton's Christmas pictures and get a gift for Jason's gift exchange at work. By the time we got home it was time for a late lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup and a nap for both of us. I'm really taking advantage of Easton's naptimes these days. He's a pretty good napper most days so that means a well-rested mama. :)
I'm trying to finish up the last week of my Sociology class. I've just got to write a paper by Monday and I'm done. Speaking of class, I was able to talk to my advisor and get my major changed to something much more interesting...early childhood education. Now WHY didn't my original advisor put me in that program in the first place? That's what I told him I wanted to major in but he told me the way to go was Social Science. I guess he thought I'd find a job more readily by having such a less specialized degree. But Social Science bored me to tears and I couldn't imagine spending the next 18 months studying classes much like my current one that is so terrible. YUCK! No thank you! So I switched my major and now I have to get my transcripts reevaluated and see how my classes will apply to the Early Childhood Ed track. And they also have something called SmartTrack which allows me to get credits toward both my bachelor's and master's degrees in the same classes. That would be great! Maybe one day I'll finally have my degree after all these years.
Right now Easton is in bed and Jason and I are watching the Chronicles of Narnia and lounging around in our pajamas, looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend ahead. I just felt the baby move for the first time today. Seems like he/she's gonna be more active in the evenings just like big brother Easton was.
P.S. Easton can now say WOW! Too cute! He can also say what sounds like Nana or Nanny but not always on demand.

How are you feeling? The million dollar question these days. It depends on when you ask me. I still start (and usually end) almost every day throwing up. But thankfully the majority of the day I'm almost back to my normal self. I'm trying very hard to start eating better. For the longest time I could only eat starchy stuff like pasta or cheesy things like mac and cheese or quesadillas. I consider it a major victory if I manage to get in any vegetables or actual meat during the day. And yes, I feel incredibly guilty about eating junky foods but when you've been vomiting all day every day for months, you just count yourself lucky to be able to keep your food down at all.
Seriously people, I did not intend for this blog to be all about throwing up. Sorry. But so many people have asked lately and I just thought I'd let you know. Yep. Still happening. But much less so than before. Hallelujah!
Now if I could just stand to actually consume some healthy foods, we'd be alright.
In other news, I'm taking Easton to Sears to have his pictures made tomorrow. We're way behind on getting his 1 year old pictures taken.
Other Easton-related news...he took a few steps on his own yesterday! He's still mostly cruising around holding onto everything but last night he actually took some steps by himself. He was pretty proud of himself and a little freaked out by it. He still has no teeth. 3 teeny, tiny white spots on the bottom where there will eventually be teeth but the actual teeth still haven't made their appearance.
And that's about it for Easton. Jason's working a lot right now getting ready for an audit at work and I'm still working on my Sociology class. I had hoped it would be more interesting than the last class I took but I am bored to tears. Thankfully I've only got two weeks left to go til I get a small break until Jan 6th. My next class is Computer Skills and during that class, I'm going to have a serious talk with my academic advisor and see about changing my major. If this Intro to Soc class is any indication of how the rest of my classes will go, I think I am not meant to be a Social Science major. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz! BOR-ing! We shall see.
I have my next regular checkup Dec. 19th and an ultrasound on Jan. 15th. Keep your fingers crossed that the baby cooperates on the 15th and we'll get to find out the sex of our little baby question mark. :)

Hallelujah! That paper that Jason started for me (thanks, honey! Great job!) and I finished after my trip to the E.R.? I got 20 out of 20 points for it. I have NEVER done that well on a paper that I just threw together at the last minute. Comments from my instructor: Nice work on your paper. Your writing is clear and concise, and the sources you use effectively support your points. It was a pleasure to work with you in this class and I wish you the best in your academic career.

Woohoo! Looks like I'll get a good grade in that class after all. Man, it was a struggle from day one but thank goodness it's OVER! Now I'm taking a sociology course and it's already proven to be pretty tough.

I think I'll celebrate my hard work with some Rolaids to try to put out this raging inferno in my chest (heartburn so bad it feels like I could breathe fire), a bubble bath and a chapter or two of a good book. SIGH! (Big sigh of relief!)

I made it through my first week of online classes with no problem. Man, it is hard to get back in the swing of things with homework! I could not concentrate at all on my assignment as I was reading it. I'm struggling with a difficult decision I have to make. My grandpa is really sick and I'm trying to decide if I should make a trip out to OK to see him. On one hand, I feel I need to see him to be able to tell him myself just how much he means to us and how much we love him. On the other hand, we really cannot afford a plane ticket and I am totally dreading travelling with Easton. Not so much the flight part but the being away from home and off his routine. These days, even just running errands in town messes his schedule up for at least a day or two. But if I don't go, will I be able to not feel guilty? So you can see why concentrating on theories of adult development might have been a little tough. I just keep praying and waiting to see how he's doing. But I'm afraid if I wait too long, I'll miss my chance. I love you, PawPaw!

We had a great 4th of July. We did pretty much what I thought we would do. We stayed home and watched the neighborhood fireworks from our deck. We made burgers and roasted potatoes for dinner and ate smores for dessert. It was a fun night. It was a nice night, so we had all the windows open. I think Easton must have known it was a special night because he didn't want to go to sleep. Normally, we would have just kept trying until he nodded off but since we were out there on the deck having fun we decided to make an exception just this once and let him watch a few minutes of fireworks. Sure enough after about 20 minutes he was rubbing his eyes and yawning so we put him back to bed and he went to sleep without another peep. He LOVED the fireworks! We were far enough away from them so that it wasn't loud but close enough to really see them well. It was a fun night.

Fast forward to yesterday. My birthday. It started out just like any other day. I went to run some errands and go to the library. While I was at the library looking for a certain book, I came across one called "It's my F#$*ing Birthday". I cracked up at the title but didn't check it out. After our errands, I came home and fed Easton and put him down for a nap and then read a few blogs and caught up on my emails. Thank you to everyone who called, emailed or a comment to say Happy Birthday!

When Jason came home from work, he brought dinner. Steamed Chesapeake Bay crabs! He also brought wine and a really yummy chocolate-peanut butter cake. We had a great dinner. Easton was taking a late nap while we ate, so it was a pretty relaxing, fun dinner. Just a note though...if you are easily grossed out or the least bit squeamish DON'T get whole crabs! I'd much rather just eat crab legs! At least that way you don't have to look at the whole crab and tear it apart piece by piece. Let me say though that they were delicious! Once I got over the yuck factor, dinner was REALLY good! And the cake was great! Who knew peanut butter flavored icing was so delicious? Then again, how could it not be...it's peanut butter!

After dinner, Jason and Easton brought me some gifts. I got a really sweet card that Jason and Easton both signed. Jason put Easton's hand on the pen when he signed his name. It is too cute! I also got 3 cds I've been wanting and some Amazing Grace perfume and body wash. It was a really nice night.

Tonight, I'm going over to my friend's to scrapbook. Easton's coming with me so I might not get too much scrapping done but it will be fun anyway. Jason's going out to dinner w/a vendor from work so we'll all be busy.

Oh yeah! And what did I decide to do for myself to celebrate turning the big 3-0? I enrolled in Ashford University's online bachelor's program. I start classes
July 15th and once I take that first class, then I'll find out how many of my credits from previous schools will transfer. It sounds like they're pretty liberal about transferring credits so I should be more than half way to my degree. Finally! And with an online school, I can do it anywhere so I won't be interrupted when/if we move again. Like I said recently, no moving plans that we know of but you never know.Hmmm...now if I could just get a new computer to do homework on. This one I'm on is constantly locking up despite everything we've done to clean it up. We'd better start saving for a new one.

Anyway, wish me luck! Going to school and doing homework again should be interesting with the little man around. But it feels good to finally be working (again) toward the degree I've wanted for so long. The actual degree from Ashford is a Bachelor's of Arts in Social Science with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. Finally! And the good news is I think all those classes I did working toward my CDA will transfer and count as college credit. YAY!