Card Organizer

We had another card club night last Thursday. Only this time we made something. Angie showed us all how to make these super cute card organizers.
Every page is for a different month and there is a pocket to put the cards in for that month. I am terrible at remembering birthdays. Hopefully this will help!

Haircut Opinions, Please

Oh, I'm so excited! For Mother's Day, Dale booked me an appointment to get my hair cut on Saturday. You may think that this is not such a big deal but for me it is! Regular hair cuts haven't been a part of my life since before I had Ella and she's almost 3. They were just one of the things that fell by the wayside when there was no money. I'm so sick of wearing a pony tail to hide my nasty locks/dreads. I like the long hair look but what I've got going right now is out of control! Let's just say that my overgrown hair could totally get me into a place like Colorado City or an Amish community somewhere. I don't want to chop it all of but if I could just get a good cute style going so I don't feel like a frumpy house frau anymore, I would be elated.

So anyhow, I need opinions. Here are some pics of styles that I like. Lemmie know what you think. If you find other cute ones, send those my way too.

The bottom is a bit scraggly (ease up on the hair product) but I like the top:
I never thought I'd be cool with the way Avril did her hair:
So which one do you think is best? BTW, I'm keeping my hair dark brown (wish I could be blonde again though. Too much $$$ to keep that up.) I just need something to bring me out of feeling like a total hagmire. It's hard to feel sexy while wearing your husband's t-shirts, sweatpants and a permanent pony tail on top of your head. Can't wait to not be all huge and prego anymore. Meanwhile, a cute hairstyle will help!

Miss Independence

I have been wanting to potty train Ella for quite some time now. They say there is a "window" where the child shows an interest in potty training and that's when all good moms should drop everything and show the kid how to use the can. Ella did show this interest long ago and believe me, I WANTED to have her potty trained. The only problem is, I work in my office 4 hours a day and I was worried about training her because I wouldn't be there a lot of times to make sure she got to the toilet in time. Hence, the procrastination.

Well 2 days ago she came to me in a pair of Tabby's undies and said to me, "I potty train myself!" She then proceeded to walk to the bathroom where she displayed her proficiency in using the restroom properly. Bum wiping and all.

I don't recommend this "hands off" approach to potty training. In fact, with Rex and Tabby, I used this book and it worked quite well. But that's back when I had a few more moments to spare than these days.

She's had a few accidents but for the most part she's been doing quite well. I don't know if I should be embarrassed because my child took it upon themselves to learn one of the most important things a mom should teach their child during toddler-hood or if I should be proud because I raised a child who's so independent she doesn't need her mama to show her how to go on the potty. She will do it herself, thank you very much.

Goodbye Old Friend!

After 10 years of faithful service, our one and only T.V. bit the dust last Friday. It just shut itself off right in the middle of Wow Wow Wubbzy. After giving so much, it just couldn't give anymore. The really awful part was it decided to die right before I went on an overnight trip leaving Dale and the kids with out their precious shows. We don't really have the $$$ for another one so I thought maybe it's a blessing in disguise. We will spend more time together! Yeah, that worked for about a day. Luckily our nice neighbor heard of our plight and loaned us their extra T.V. It's great, we can watch all our shows now, we just need binoculars to see them.
And forget about reading the words on the guide or the show info. And sadly, no place to hook up the DVD player. But it works and the kids don't seem to mind. So I'm not complaining. Okay, maybe I am. Just a little. Our old TV was a dinosaur but at least you could see what you were watching without squinting.

Picture Wall

Yay! I got my picture wall done. This was another project I put off because I was intimidated by how much work it would take. The effort wasn't too bad and it meant several more unpacked boxes. So glad it's done. I want all moving boxes out of my life! I'm so tired of them being in my way and even just looking at them makes me frustrated.

So on to the project. I had two picture walls at the old house and I decided to combine them as I really am trying to group things together to avoid a cluttery-house feel. You know those houses (not yours, of course) that you go in to and you feel like they are decorated within an inch of their lives? Yeah, I don't want that.

I started by laying everything out on the floor until it looked like I wanted. Then I took a picture of it so I could refer to it to see where I placed things as I was hanging them.
All done!
Yes that wall is blue. Not my fave color but this isn't my house so I don't get to change it. It's not so bad with all that black up there now. It's sorta growing on me.

How sad that all those kid pics are of just Tabby who is my oldest! You know how it goes. A million pics get taken of the first one and you frame just about every one of them and all the subsequent kids are lucky to even get a random snapshot taken now and then. I will have to change some of those pics out before Rex and Ella notice anything. =)

Moving Boxes Are Very Versatile

I know you want to read a post about my curtain problem

I'm basking in the glow of another completed project. This one was particularly intimidating to me because it involved sewing. I'm a terrible sewist (is that a word??? No, it's not.) I kept putting it off till I made myself do it. And I'm so glad I did!

Here is the reason for the project:
Ella is helping me demonstrate that my curtains are too short! The owner left these lovely curtain rods over all the windows downstairs but she hung them extra high. For me, the higher the curtains the better so I decided to roll with it instead of lowering all the rods. These panels are from Target and I love them so keeping them and adding a matching panel across the top was the best option, I think.

Oh, they look so much better. I'm way fired up about them now!
I got this super expensive ($30.00/yard!) sold to me as a remnant from JoAnn's for like $10 or something.
Some fringe was in order to hide my scary seams.
Actually, all the measuring was harder than the sewing. I had to get it just right. I personally like the "puddle" effect on curtains but that wouldn't work for these as they cover the sliding back door. I had that before with some different ones and they just kept getting caught in the track of the door.

Problem solved!

Old Skool Field Trip

By old skool, I mean that Tabby got to go on a field trip with her old school.

Before we moved, her kindergarten had been planning and talking about this trip to a farm forever and when she brought home the permission slip, I had the horrible job of delivering the news to her that the date for the field trip would be after we moved. Poor thing was devastated. I mentioned how sad she was about it to her teacher and he said that he had actually talked to the school and everyone was happy to have her come along anyway.

It really helped with the whole moving away process because every time she was sad about missing her friends, I could remind her that she would get to see them again soon.

So the fun field trip day finally came on Friday. Tabby and I got there before the buses did so we passed the time by watching the hens and roosters run around. Tabby saw a big fluffy chicken with weird puff balls on it's head and named it Poodle Chicken.

When the buses pulled up and her class got off, Tabby ran to her friends and teacher and hugs were given all around. Later she told me that she got "tiny tears of joy" in her eyes but she was "able to hold them in." Maybe she gets that from her mom, because that same thing happened to her too. =)

I'm surprised that Tabby actually held this chicken. She can be a bit skittish about these sort of things. Moments later, when it was time to feed the horse a carrot, she bailed at the last second by dropping it on the ground and running away. Don't even ask about petting the sting rays at the zoo last month.
The dude made me hold a chicken too. I totally didn't want to. For some reason, in my mind, all critters have some sort of disease. Needless to say, I hand-sanitized it up after I held it.

Some sassy tractor riding.
Look! I feel so special! I got a note with my lunch!
Stacy a.k.a. Tawny's mommy put it in with Tawny's lunch to give to me. Dale packed my lunch and he thought it appropriate to call me Mrs. Morris.

Tabby and some of her friends from her old class.
Obviously, for Tabby, eating ice cream was more important than anything else at the moment.

Tabby and her super fun teacher who we super miss!

Adjusting

I've decided that I actually do like this new place better than our old one. Like it functions better. No unusable dining/living room. Instead, there is a loft upstairs. It's currently filled with boxes but I imagine a fun space there when I finally get everything put away. I also love that the entire downstairs is tile. Tabby proved my point when she barfed up a tangerine in the family room the first night we were here. The clean up would have been a lot worse had it been carpet. Besides all of our friends, one thing I do really miss is our big front and back yard. I recently came across these pictures from about a month ago and it's sad to say that this probably won't be happening this summer:
Good times.

Tabby Said It

So this morning, I took all the kiddos to the park. This little boy comes along and wants to play with Tabby. They play happily for a while then they start to get in to an argument about how something should be done. They both think their way is best. The boy says "Well, I'm one year older than you!" Tabby replies, "So what, I have a GREAT brain!!!"

Tabby: 1 and Little boy: 0

More Girly Bling

I'm so over the un-packing. I'll get to it when I get to it. On to more fun things like making necklaces! Again, I got most of the beads and both pendants for cheap at Tilly's. Some of the beads I used were even on clearance. Score. Other beads I used were left over from other de-constructed necklaces. Not a huge fan of the giant pink sparkly heart on the second one but Tabby really loved it (what 5 year old girl wouldn't) so I caved and used it. Let the creative differences between us begin...

Easter

There are only two times a year I let my kids stuff candy in to their mouths like crazed freaks. Halloween being one and Easter the other. So let's just say that yesterday was a pretty good day for the Morris kids. Things started off with a bang when the kids woke up to find awesome loot that the 'ol EB left for them. The EB is smart and knows of the One Spot at Target and got many awesome el-cheapo toys at the last minute. Too bad I have been so tired in the mornings that I chose to sleep in instead of witness my children's joy as they discovered their baskets. So no pics of that. Do I feel bad about it? Not at all. Dale says they were happy though, and I believe him.

So on to the super-fun take a million pictures in 5 minutes before you head off to church tradition. I did manage to wake up in time to make my children look presentable.

We have a big green grassy park a few doors down from the house that makes a great spot for pics so you will be seeing this background again in posts to come, I'm sure.
The girls' outfits look familiar you say? That's because they were also their Christmas outfits. Yes, I purposely bought dresses that would work for both holidays to save money and I'm gonna do it again every year. Such a money/time saver and does anybody really remember what other people's kids wore at Christmas? Not to mention that I bought them right before Christmas and they were totally on sale.
Oh, those lady killer eyes!I wish I had glittery pink shoesies like these!

After church we went to grandma and grandpa's for our egg hunt. We totally blew the EB facade when all of the kids saw Dale and I walking around hiding eggs in the backyard. Oh well, they are gonna find out sometime right? The EB story is so far-fetched anyways. Tabby and Rex both were beginning to be skeptical. The story of Santa on the other hand is WAY more believable.

The hunt is on!
And there you have it, the day was ended with another unrepentant face stuffing candy session.

We're Here

We're here! We made it to our new home all safe and sound. Well maybe not sound. The house is beautiful and there's plenty of space and we like the neighborhood, we just can't stop sneezing. Well for some of us, it's more than sneezing. It's more like a throat closing, eyes running, booger-snot fiesta sort of thing.

I'll explain. After all the boxes got moved in and all Dale's brothers went home, Dale's allergies started getting totally berserk. His allergies going crazy isn't too out of the ordinary and it was a really windy day on Friday so I just attributed it to that. But then I notice Ella's eyes are watery and her nose is running like a sieve. Tabby has sneezing that sounds all stuffy and so does Rex. It continues all day Saturday and on Saturday night, my sister's in law came over to help unpack and their allergies go bonkers too. Then on Sunday everyone is worse. Dale can't hardly breathe and his nose is running so bad he has to carry a roll of toilet paper around with him. Poor Ella can't even deal with all the gunk that is coming out of her nose and I have to constantly monitor Tabby to make sure her asthma isn't acting up.

Then on Sunday night, Dale and I are sitting on the floor of the loft putting together Tabby's bed and I happen to get a good look at the carpet up close and I see CAT HAIR!!!! It's EVERYWHERE! So nasty. Soooooo nasty. And me being the money saver I am told the land lord that I would clean the house myself if she would waive the cleaning deposit. She agreed and I cleaned up the place Friday night before the big move but I didn't feel it necessary to clean the carpets before everybody got it all dirty on Saturday. I thought it would be better to wait. Now I realize the error of my ways. I'm so looking forward to vacuuming 800 times and moving every box and piece of furniture till the disgusting stuff is all gone. Who knows if I will ever even get it all out. Good times.

OTHER THAN THAT, we are very excited to be here. We did have to wait until today to get hot water and cable which made for a long weekend. But now that those things are all on, it's starting to feel like home.

I still miss the old place like crazy but I think we're going to be happy here. A HUGE thanks to all the family that helped us this weekend. I'm sorry to all of the brothers for making you carry those huge landscaping boulders. They were expensive, okay? And I think they're really pretty. So they just had to come along. Sorry, I owe ya one.

Goodbye House

Goodbye house
Goodbye yard
Goodbye sky that was always starred

Goodbye ward
Goodbye friends
Goodbye kindness that never ends

Goodbye street
Goodbye park
Goodbye neighbor's dog that would always bark

Goodbye home
Goodbye here
Goodbye all that I hold so dear

April Fools Day Joke

I totally bombed St. Patrick's Day this year. I didn't even remember to dress the kids in green let alone make them an all green breakfast like nice mommies do. Poor things got pinched by leprechauns all day long. I felt I had to make up for it by doing something fun for them this morning.

Let it be said that I hate playing mean tricks on people. Call me lame/boring but I just don't think that mean jokes are very funny. So when I saw this on this persons blog, I thought it would be a perfect trick to play on the kids. It's not mean at all.

After I got the kids dressed, I told them to wait in their rooms while I made them a special breakfast. They got all exited wondering what delicious creation I was preparing for them. The look on their faces when they came out and saw this was hilarious:

Ostrich eggs!
They were all very unsure:
But after they got brave and had a little taste, they realized that I was playing a trick on them. Then they happily ate their peaches and cream.

They then tried to pull over the old "there's a spider on your shoulder" trick on me. Sorry kids, I didn't fall for it when I was 5 and I'm not gonna fall for it now.