It's check up time

With everything that has been going on I completely forgot to get the kids check ups. I'm normally pretty good about these things but with the two moves in two years and packing, unpacking, the sun was in my eyes, blah blah blah... In other words, I goofed. Fortunately the staff at the pediatricians office is very good and gave me a reminder call so I got them scheduled and in. Both are doing really well. Julianne is still in the 10th percentile and Nathaniel is in the 40th percentile. In english that means they are the same size or bigger than 10 and 40 percent of their peers. Both are healthy and both had to get shots!
Julianne had to get a chicken pox vaccine
While Nate had to get the chicken pox vaccine, a tetanus shot and a meningitis vaccine. The latter two he would have to get before middle school so we went ahead and got them out of the way. They got two nurses in and gave him two shots at once and then the third. He took it like a champ as did his sister.
Now to get them to the dentist!!!!

I'm Famous

Well, not really but my picture is... well, not really "my" picture as in a picture of me... but I picture I took made it on to Cake Wrecks
It happens to be one of my favorite low maintenance blogs. Mostly she shows cakes that never should have been made and is usually good for a laugh. Sometimes she shows some amazing cakes with a real "wow" factor.
Anyway, I was in Publix the other morning getting snacks for the wet soccer game when I saw this in their bakery. I knew I had to get a picture to submit to Cake Wrecks. I did ask permission but I didn't tell them the real reason. Made up something about having to get a cake for a halloween party and could I take a picture to see if the hostess liked it. Liar Liar pants on fire and all that but I really wanted to get a shot. Long story short, I made it on to Cake Wrecks and now all is right with the world!

Ice Cream Sunday

And no, that's not a misspelling.... Apparently one of our neighbors won a ton (quite literally) of Eddy's ice cream. Something to do with his job from what I understand. So, what did he do with all that ice cream? He threw an Ice Cream Party for the entire neighborhood! How cool is that? This is Dennis & his wife dishing out the ice cream to the neighbors They had a bunch of chairs set up in the drive way and had lots of people stopping in and chatting with them and each other. I got to meet a couple of new neighbors and make some new friends... so
THANKS DENNIS ~ you are a great neighbor!

Etsy update

I've added this new item to my Etsy shop here.
I hope you'll stop by and take a look. I'm hoping to get some adult screen bags added this week along with a few other goodies to go with them. Stay tuned!

Playing in the rain

Well Saturday's game started out fairly well. The edges of the field were a bit wet from the previous night's rain But the sun was shining ~ so much so that I went and got my umbrella to shield myself. Here was Julianne's solution to the blazing sun
I completely underestimated the other team. They looked kinda whimpy and while we did score the first goal they would have totally kicked out butts if it wasn't for the fact that we have an exceptional goalie.
Next thing we knew the sky started to get a bit dark and then came the last half of the game... and the skies opened up for real The last half of the game was played in the pouring rain. Richard and Julianne went and sat in the car where they could still see the game. Me, I stayed in my chair under the umbrella and stayed fairly dry.
We did end up winning 3 to 2 and I'm telling you the boys had more fun playing in the rain than any other time I've seen. There was much falling and slipping and diving thru mud and it stayed pouring right up through the end of the game. Here are a few more "wet & dirty" pictures. and the end of the game where the boys greet each other with a high five and "good game"
On a more important note ~ my favorite comfy shoes took a beating as well. Here they are after walking across the "dry" field and then after crossing the "wet" field But all's well that ends well and they came thru the washer very well and are as good as new.
Here's Richard bringing the cooler back to the car ~ It was our day to bring snack ~ of course!
And then this little guy was having the time of his life after the game.
And finally ~ two last pictures. This is the Catholic school where we played. I thought these two structures were pretty interesting.

Friday Fun

Today I got a chance to quilt on the Handi Quilter at the shop here. I was able to completely quilt this (without having to pre baste it) in just 3 hours and a lot of that was getting it all set up and pinned on. I figure this isn't bad especially since it's my first time. I think the quilt turned out pretty well. And here's a closer look for you showing the fabric on the back
We did have a bit of drama while I was there. A (newly) former employee was apparently waiting in the parking lot until the owner left at which point she and 3 of her friends showed up at the shop knowing full well that there was only 1 employee in the store at the time, and proceeded to pull what she claimed to be her projects off the wall and make a clean get~away. Fortunately for the shop there were two "off duty" employees there as well. Long story short, the police had to be called and there was much screaming and threatening all by the former employee. Now, I don't doubt that most, if not all of these pieces may have belonged to her, this was the absolute wrong way to go about this. I know I have a few pieces that I did hanging up in the shop but some of them actually belong to the shop. There is a list that is kept of what actually belongs to you and what belongs to the shop. Anyway...it was messy and I felt bad for the shop owner who was really upset by the whole thing and embarrassed that I, as a new employee, had to witness it.
After that drama was done, I headed for home where I picked up the kids so we could go see "High School Musical 3" on opening day. Nathaniel really didn't want to go but I didn't want to leave him home alone and when I pointed out that Julianne has been giving up 2 hrs 2 days a week to go to his soccer practices as well as 3 hrs every Saturday to go to his games, he saw the error of his way and decided to stop giving me a hard time. He actually ended up having a good time because 3 girls from school last year were there and they were all macking on him big time. He sat in between them while Julianne and I sat in the row in front of them. At one point I heard one of the girls say "I'm not sure what happened over the summer but you are much cooler now!" It was all I could do to stifle a chuckle or two. Needless to say, he was in heaven. Julianne was also in heaven and managed to stiffle "most" of her screams upon seeing Zak on the big screen. Me, I'm more of a Corbin Bleu fan and I did actually enjoy the movie for what it was. I don't see an oscar in it's future but the music was catchy, the dancing enjoyable and the plot very predictable. There was, of course, the separation of Troy and Gabrielle but all's well that ends well in HSM world and they ended up "all in this together" at the end.

The Cost of Scouting

Julianne has decided she wants to be a girl scout. I'm okay with that. I always wanted to be a girl scout when I was in elementary school. My best friend was a girl scout and wore her uniform to school every Wednesday. It was "da bomb." My sister Terry and I went to a girl scout meeting once. I got to look through the book at all the cool badges I could earn. I wanted them all. Back then you had to have the whole uniform and I guess it was more than my parents could afford at the time so it was our one and only girl scout meeting.
I went to the parents meeting for our girl scout troop last night. It's a brand new troop based from our elementary school except we can't meet at our school until the paperwork goes through. Our school has approved us but the paperwork is stuck in district. Apparently it takes months for them to approve it. The other factor in being a brand new troop is we have no "start up" money so they have asked for 6 months of dues up front which is $20. per child and then there is the $10 fee that the council charges per child. They also charge $10 per parent to have a background check done. Now this is completely voluntary but if you want to attend a meeting or stand at a table where they are selling cookies, etc. you must be approved. Okay, so that's another $20. They no longer require a uniform. It's khaki pants or shorts and a white shirt but they do require the girls either wear a vest or a sash. Our troop has decided on a sash which I believe costs $6.50. Then there are all the pins, badges, troop number, american flag etc which actually brings the cost of the sash up to $20. Oh and they also wanted $5.00 for the official t shirt for the girls to wear to march in the parade coming up next month. If you are keeping count, that's $65.00 I handed over last night. Not really terrible BUT not everyone can do that these days. We had one mom there last night who had 2 girls that wanted to join and she was a single mom. It would have cost her $120. and she just couldn't do it. I felt really bad for her and to the troop leaders credit she really tried to help. She told her that really all she HAD TO have last night was the $20. for the girl scout council which is something she had no control over. She told the mom she could pay the fees on a meeting by meeting basis and would have also have been happy to front her the money for the sashes but I think it was all very overwhelming for her. I felt really bad until I heard her say something about her really having looked forward to "getting rid of the girls for the weekends when they went camping." HUH? We found out that the girls also didn't go to our school, but to another school who already has a troop. Not sure why she didn't join there, or maybe she did and there was a problem there too.
Me, I'm looking forward to doing this with Julianne and I also got to look through the badge book again ~ and again I want them all. I guess some things never change.

Halloween is going to the dogs!

On Sunday we all drove up to Jacksonville to see Jen & Jeremy and the puppers. We also got to see our friend Sue and her daughter, Delaney. We all met up at Buffalo's Wild Wings and had a yummy lunch. Jen & I had our usual. We split an order of wings cause she likes the drum stick part the best while I prefer the wing ~ it all works out so well. Went back to Jen's apt for a bit and then off to the dog park for their annual doggy halloween contest. In my opinion there were no pups cuter than my own grandpups in their costumes but there were a few that came close.
Here's Jen (with Julz & Delaney) trying to get the pups dressed.
Here's Nacho as a pumpkin. Doncha love the one brown eye and one blue?
Here's a couple who dressed up the baby & the dog in matching bee outfits.
And didn't I tell you all that those darn skulls are everywhere now?
Some people really got into the spirit of the day by dressing themselves to match the dog
Here's Jen with Oscar the bumble bee And while we didn't win I think both of my grandpups are weiners...errr.. winners.
All in all it was a really fun day with beautiful cool fall weather

Soccer Saturday is back

Soccer resumed again today and we kicked butt! I think we won 6 to 1. While Nate didn't actually score he did assist in a goal or two and played really well. He also took a ball to his nether regions and went down but was back up fairly quickly. He also took one in the chest but shook it off as well. Today's action shots were taken by Julianne and I think she got some good ones.
This is my favorite

He got a really good shot off his head with this one And here the ball had just left his foot

And here's the photographer herself after eating a blue bubblegum snow cone!

Oh and the boy got a new bike today. We've owed him a new bike for his birthday but it took this long for him to decide which bike he actually wanted.
And last but not least, I finally finished this purse. I got it 99% done and then got busy with other stuff. Decided to get it done tonight. It turned out okay but not sure how practical it is.

This week just flew by

I can't believe how fast this week went. I'm grateful it's the weekend again but man, that was fast. Not too much to report on this week.. we finally got the missing hamburgers and boy, they are good and they are huge! Big thanks to "The Ginkster" (aka my MIL) for those.
I worked at the quilt shop again this week and it was slammin' busy. I had barely walked in the door when our first customer came in, fell in love with the new line of fabrics and next thing I know I'm cutting 26 yards of them for her and it only got crazier from there. I did enjoy it though. Oh, here's the display for the new fabrics And here's the quilt top I made for the shop Next week I'll go in and quilt it on the handi quilter which should be fun. I did make one boo boo here Got the whole thing together before I realized this piece was in with the wrong side up. I thought about ignoring it but just couldn't so I managed to unsew around it and turned it over and sewed it back in correctly. That would have made me crazy, knowing it was in there wrong.
I did see this on the way to the shop.. The blimp is a fairly common site around these parts but I still feel like a kid when I see it.
And did you see the moon this week? It was so big and beautiful and just lit up everything.
Oh and the big news is we finally got Bakugan for Nate. Have you seen or heard of these things?
They are apparently all the rage with pre teen boys. They are ping pong ball size and when they touch metal, they pop open to reveal whatever kind of creature they are. There is, of course, a show that corresponds to them and you battle them like pokemon. Nate has been wanting them forever but they are always sold out. Got a call from a friend that some had just come in at Walmart so we got him a pack of 6 and are doling them out one at a time as a reward but the boy couldn't be happy with that, he had to try to sneak a new one out and then LIED about it, which I caught immediately and gave him a couple of chances to come clean. When he didn't he got them all taken away. Some day he'll learn!
Okay well I guess it was a busier week than I first thought ~ no wonder it flew! Hope your weekend is all you hope for.