Don't Forget

to check the quilt blog (link is in the side-bar). I've put several new squares up in the past few days. I've started recieving my Culture Swap squares. The "wish" with those is an article about a specific topic on Chinese culture. Those are too long to re-type in the post, so I've just included the picture and the title of the topic.

Random thought: I just saw a pregnant woman on the news who is "selling" the space on her pregnant belly for advertising. WHAT???!!! That poor baby. Will she sell the space on his/her bald head when they are born??

I better go now. It's getting late and who knows what else I'll see on TV that has no business making into this blog.

Good Night.

Getting Gussied Up

It's laundry day. What that means is that this morning I had to finally fold and put away the clean clothes from the basket that has been sitting on my dresser for a week so I can use the basket to do dirty clothes. And that also means that now those same baskets are filled with clean, unfolded clothes. At least they're clean. I can fold tomorrow. Yes, I'm up for the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval this week! HA!

Now on to the real point of this post. I know you were getting a little worried...

Aunt Rachel came over yesterday for a little visit. We were passing on some socks and tights to Aria that Abby has grown out of. Anyway, Aunt Rachel read Fancy Nancy to Abby. That got me to thinking that it was time to decorate Abby's room. Remember, we painted back in November and bought the big-girl bed. That's about as far as it had gotten. Bare purple walls and furniture. Except for the cute little stool.

I have been looking for some time for a nice comforter set for her room. I wanted something that did not have a character on it (like Disney or Dora) and good quality. Last night, I ordered this from JCPenney... on sale... with FREE shipping. So now, we will finally have a bed skirt on that bed. It's been indecent for far too long. Abby wanted the pink flowers (instead of purple) and I wanted gingham - and we both got what we wanted - it's reversible. And it will match the pink gingham curtains that my sister no longer needed when she rearranged her entire household.

Today, I got out all of my miscellaneous (it feels weird to spell out that word) craft supplies and my trusty hot glue gun and got down to some serious fancy-ing up. I sewed ribbons on a curtain over the closet door and glued on some pretty buttons. I glued a ribbon of beads over her mirror. Hung more ribbon and silk flowers on the door frame. Lots of fun stuff!! But mostly on one side of her room as this ART work takes time.

Tonight, as we were tucking her in, Abby says, "I want my whole room to be fancy." I knew I was saving all this stuff for a reason. But we might have to take a trip to a craft store after all because she also wants FEATHERS. Oh, my.

You'll just have to wait for the pictures.

Here's What You Really Tune In For

Pictures of Abby!!

Here she is with my glasses on. Doesn't she look cute? And so studious.

This is in front of her cute Dollhouse Bookcase. I found it at Target. For A LOT cheaper than at Pottery Barn. Yeah Target!

She has cute red cheeks after playing out in the snow.

Abby made this little broom in Rainbows tonight. "Rainbows are Helpers!!"


I FINALLY mailed out our New Year cards today. Whew. So glad that is done. I had wanted to send one out at Christmas time, but it just didn't happen. We didn't even have a recent snapshot of the three of us. So, a couple Sundays ago, I had someone take a few of us at church (at least I know that we're all looking good at the same time at church). I got cards made at the Kodak Gallery and now they're in the mail. It's still the New Year, right?? At least it's before the Chinese New Year.

That's all for now.

Where Is LOM* When You Need Her?

As you previously read, I'm doing a new quilt sqare swap and my topic is porcelain. This is the fabric I found. I LOVE it! It is almost exactly what I had envisioned when I picked my topic. In my mind, I thought they should be plates, but vases work just as well. Yeah!

Now to whittle the TEN PAGES of notes down to something a bit more, um, concise. And interesting.

I'm guessing that the temperatures used during the firing process would not be of much interest. One half of a page out, 8 and 1/2 more to go.

When I do get the write-up complete, I'll be sure to post it so that you can all learn the wonders of the Chinese culture. Won't that be grand?

*the initials of my HS English teacher.

FW: Fw: fw: (You get the idea)

I am not one who likes to forward funny email stories. However, I read a blog tonight, or rather watched a YouTube video on Big Mama's blog. I laughed so hard that Billy and Abby came in from the other room to see what it was all about. And they laughed too. Ok, just Billy laughed, cause Abby didn't really understand it.

Anyway, go watch it. It is TOO FUNNY!

Gotta love those southern women.

Wordless Wednesday - I Spy

Random Thoughts

1. It FINALLY snowed here last night. We have not had snow since before Christmas. And even then, it didn't really cover all the grass. Last night's snow didn't cover much more, but it's better than nothing. It's supposed to keep snowing for the next couple days, so maybe we'll get more accumulation.

Abby's loving it! She played outside for a while this afternoon. Sorry, no pictures.

2. I got three squishes in the mail today. How exciting! I'll put the pictures up on the other blog. I've got 21 so far. There are 46 in my first swap with the "September DTC" group so I'm expecting 25 more in the next few weeks.

I recently joined another swap on the "One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt" group. That swap has to do with Chinese culture. We're supposed to write a page about our topic and pick a fabric that goes along with it. The topic I chose is "porcelain." I love all things blue and white and that's why I decided on that topic. I'm learning lots about the history and process. It will be hard to whittle it all down to something concise and interesting to read. I feel like I'm back in school.

3. I did my exercise video this morning. I actually got up before Abby, but it turned out I only beat her up by about 5 minutes. So much for my "alone" time. It was OK, though, cause she sat on the couch reading books while I "walked away the pounds."

4. I baked a fresh loaf of wheat-free bread today in my sister's bread machine. Guess I need to do that video twice a day. :)

5. I read somewhere that cauliflower is good mashed - like potatoes. So I made potato soup only with cauliflower and I turned out really good. I did put a couple of potatoes in it but mostly the cauliflower... and broccoli. Billy loved it- he had 3 bowls. Wow. And Abby said, "delicious!" Guess I'll be making that again.

I leave you with this picture from Sunday. I got this dress on clearance for $7. Abby LOVES it! So do I.

Anyone Have A Thesaurus I Could Borrow?

I've been busy working on the other blog trying to get caught up with all the quilt sqares I've gotten. So far, I have 6 on the blog with 13 more to go.

And then yesterday, I had a newspaper reporter from our hometown paper call. He had seen a quilt square on another blog that I had sent to a lady in our swap. She put the name of our town as the title of the post with a picture of the fabric and wish. He looked us up in the phonebook and started asking questions about the quilt swap.

I'm hoping that he "gets" the idea and that the bigger story is about adoption and not the quilt.

We'll see. Sometimes, it is hard to articulate our reasons for adoption and specifically Chinese adoption. There is so much in my heart but it doesn't always come out of my mouth in such a way to be understood. I pray God gives me the right words to say. (Even this paragraph was hard to type and I erased and re-wrote it 5 times.)

Any advice?

My Man Is Now Old Enough To Be President

Happy Birthday, Billy!

You all know how wonderful I think my husband is. Let's just say that I'm super proud of him as a husband and a father. And as a leader in our local church. He is a mighty man of God!

I love you!


Vote For Billy!!

I've Started On A New Project

And a new blog to showcase it.

Please hop on over to Shagga's Baby Quilt to check it out!!

Let me know what you think.

Wake Up Call

It is a struggle for me to wake up early in the morning. I set my alarm but "snooze" it until it goes off. I have really been wanting to get up earlier than Abby, but most, if not all, mornings that just doesn't happen.

This morning was no exeption.

I set my alarm early so I could get in the shower before Abby woke up. I wanted to go to MOPS to hear my sister speak. The meeting starts at 9:15... A.M. Usually, I can't get us out the door before 10.

Anyway, once again, I "snoozed" the alarm thinking, I'll get up in a minute.

Yeah, right.

Next thing I know, I hear shouts coming from Abby's room.

"HEY!! HEY!!"

I wake up a little confused as to why she's yelling. She usually just comes and gets in bed with me.

I run in there expecting all sorts of misfortunes.

I find her standing in her windowsill next to her bed with the blind pulled back.

"HEY!! HEY!! LOOK AT THE MOON!!" (She always has been fascinated with it.)

"Yes," I respond, "that is a pretty moon." It's just starting to get light outside and the moon was still bright.

After a minute or two of me still trying to collect myself, she adds, "Is it wake-up time?"

It is now!!



P.S. We made it to MOPS on time.

P.P.S. We'll try the alarm thing again tomorrow.

We're Moving Into Uncharted Territory

Abby is a bit of a "Fancy Nancy." She loves to put on her play dresses and jewelry. She received this pair of pink high-heeled sandals for her birthday from Aunt Melissa and Uncle Michael. She calls them her "new Mary Poppins shoes." (I'm sure Miss Poppins will be pleased with the upgrade.)

Abby also likes to put on her "make-up." I've given her some of my older brushes and almost-empty powder case and Abby applies her make-up when I'm doing mine. Her cousin gave her a bunch of lip gloss for Christmas and Abby is pretty good at putting it on. It really is scary to think what she'll be like at 13. :)

She also loves to have her nails painted. I usually limit her to just the toes but sometimes we do her fingernails as well. In the past, I've just done the nail painting in the summer (when my toes aren't covered in layers of socks, slippers or shoes). However, Abby insists that we paint toes year-round now. So this past Friday, she picked out the color and I painted her toenails. And then she wanted me to paint mine as well. She's starting to turn me into a girly-girl, too.

When I was younger, I wasn't much for make-up or dressing up. I could do it for special occasions but it wasn't my usual look. On my wedding day, I wore lipstick and it was an actual "event" cause I never wore lipstick at that point in my life. Now that I've been married a few years, I've started wearing lipstick more often and dressing up (not too often).

And now, painted toenails... in the winter! I must admit, though, that when I see them after taking off my slippers, it makes me smile. Something a little bright when everything else is so grey. I guess my little Princess is rubbing off on me.

She's Destined To Have A Job In Marketing

As we were taking down the Christmas tree and decorations the other day...

Abby: Mommy, is Christmas over?

Me: Yes, it's over.

Abby: Can we color Easter eggs now?

And you thought Hallmark was bad for displaying Valentine's cards during Christmas.

Part III (Hopefully I Can Come To The End Of The Christmasy Details)

Christmas morning... thankfully Abby didn't wake up too early.

Here she is coming down the stairs.

Abby with the Christmas tree "stuffed" with presents (most of them for her).

Here she is with her new stroller. She had seen it a couple of days before in the office closet and had been asking for it every day. I told her she had to wait for Christmas.

The first present she opened was a new set of paints and brushes with a couple new canvases. I had got them as a last minute item on the Saturday before while shopping with a friend. I was glad I did.

Abby immediately wanted to paint. I had to really convince her to open another present. She opened some books and wanted me to read them to her.

She still wanted to paint. So we let her. While the rest of the presents waited under the tree. Might as well let her enjoy Christmas.

After painting, we had breakfast and then got back to the important stuff of opening the rest of the presents.

That afternoon, we went to my mom's for Christmas dinner. She and my Aunt Linda made french onion soup, prime rib, potatoes, green beans, cheesy garlic rolls, and lots of other stuff. Wow! It was good. My sisters and I provided the desserts. I made Raspberry Trifle. Yummy.

Billy had the entire week off. It was such a relaxing time being together as a family. Billy and I actually got to go out by ourselves a couple different times. And we spent the evenings watching the fourth season of The West Wing.

It was a good Christmas season for us. It gave Billy and I a chance to renew our relationship and connect. And I think I changed a total of two diapers the whole time. Not that I tried to avoid them, but Billy was always doing it. ;)

Now I'm back to trying to find a routine again of laundry, cleaning, and all that other "Mommy" stuff.

Oh yeah, and blogging, too.

Wordless Wednesday - Sisters!

For more Wordless Wednesday, go to Wordless Wednesday and Five Minutes For Mom.

Part II

of the Christmasy details...

On Christmas Eve, after the candlelight communion service at church, we gathered at my sister's house for snacks and a gift exchange among the adult family members. It's always a fun time with good food and lots of laughs. We missed two members of the family, Michael and Melissa, but for a portion of it, we had them on the cell phone.

Here's a collage of our time together.

Nathan was demonstrating our tradition of holding the present on your head to try to guess what was in it (from an old Johnny Carson sketch). And MamaLily got the "Prettiest Present" award.

I'm BAAAAAAAACK!

So as not to overload you with all the Christmasy details at once, I'll be doling them out one at a time.

First up, the Youth Christmas Party...

A pictoral overview of the party hosted by moi. (Did I spell that right, Krista?)

The party was a blast. The kids had a lot of fun and so did we. We played games, had a gift exchange (if you want to call them "gifts"), ate pizza, watched movies, caught Andrew on fire... A good time was had by all.

More pictures are on the Youth Blog (or will be shortly).

Disclaimer: No one was actually hurt (or burned) during the events of the Christmas party.