sick-day

Caden is sick...Grandma-lini is recovering from a hip replacement, and Grandpa California is visiting us for two weeks. Last night was Grandpa's birthday, Sunday is mine. Caden's head hurts, he must have a sinus headache or allergies, but my very active child is reduced to a mopey child laying on the couch with his head on my lap. Oh, how I wish I could "fix" him. It is sad to see your kids get sick.

Good Mail!

I was the lucky winner over at Maize's blog! I am so lucky. This has been my first ever piece of "crafty" mail..cannot wait for more. Thanks Maize!


the loot!


Me wearing my new lariat necklace from Maize Hutton!

Horsing Around...

Caden found his Halloween costume...a horse. He wanted to be a magician, so I was dreaming up a whole bunch of cute ideas like a rabbit in a hat etc....but he fell in love with this horse costume. Isn't he cute? He insisted we blog this immediately! Ironically, this costume matches his rocking horse in his room, I need to get a picture of them together!




stirrups?


the "kids"


horse down!

Can't wait for Halloween...

Some pictures...

from our garden

another garden beauty

the sun hitting our woven trunk...

musings...

Here are some of the ceramic 'embossing stamps' that I have been working on...









Just some of my doodles, to come to life in this...
my new tiny kiln, delayed by Katrina..but safely home now!

Self-portrait Tuesdays...Wounded

see more SPT here.


This is an image of my injured right hand, my dominant hand. I was gardening to the point of blisters. (Well, actually "ungardening"-getting my bulbs up to bring to our new house!) A good reminder that we all need to listen to our physical cues.


On another note...the reason why this post is late is that I went in for my quarterly SI nerve blocks. This was with my new neuro, and these blocks really knocked me out. Apparently this will be a lifetime routine, unless they come up with some sort of cure for a fusion that fused in the nerve canal. Oh well, that is life, err at least mine anyways. I really do not like to write about it, but it is a big part of our lives in that it has majorly altered our way of life and choices.

Ok, enough of that...

Caden has been the sweetest little guy lately. When I got my blister, he went inside and got warm water running to rinse it out and then brought two ice packs. One for his bruises (he is so active he is like one big bruise on his legs) and one for my blister. He was such a good little helper. He is really empathetic to everyone and tries to soothe anyone that is upset or hurt. So sweet.

Today, Grandma picked him up from preschool because she was helping us out (it was during my nerve blocks). (Thanks Grandma) Caden very seriously said, "oh no grandma, I forgot my lawnmower". You see, we always tell him that when he gets older he can cut grandma's grass. Well, he is older, by a couple of days at least! Hey that is a long time in a child's eyes! How blessed are we!

house update...looking good, paperwork to the mortgage company and rate locked in...we will see, we still are in disbelief, we have been leasing for so long!

Dare to Dream

Dare to dream...

That is what my motto is today...we have made an offer on a house, we will see how it works out. If it does, we will be in November 1st. I never, ever believed we could get a house of our very own. Wow... Caden would have so much space to run and other little boys to play with in the neighborhood. Wonderful neighborhood and location...And as Grandma always said, the least expensive house in the best neighborhood you can afford.

Trust me, we have looked and looked. We looked in a very low price range and decided that we really could not find the right neighborhood or enough space. One house we looked at was purple and green and yellow and teal and that was the least of its problems...

Dare to dream.

It finally rained here!

It finally drizzled here this week, which means....


and then...

frumpy frog.."mom, no more pictures please!" :)

We

♥
Caden

self portrait tuesday

This is my self portrait tuesday entry. You can click the above link to see others!

label

Imaginary friends...

Well, Caden has entered the realm of imaginary friends, although, his "friend" is quite unique. Apparently Caden has a truck which happens to be black, blue and red that follows us wherever we go. It backs up when we back up, parks when we parks. But this truck is very special, it carries any item you have ever desired. Caden says, "my truck has that, in my truck there is a saw-chain (chainsaw in cadenese) for daddy" Well, Paul has never mentioned he needed said chainsaw, nor do we need one, but Caden believes there is a great need for one and his "truck" has it in the back. His truck has toys, food, lots of engines, always has its lights on. It is very unique and so cute.

If only this truck could find us the right home to buy, we seem to fall in love quick and out of love in a couple of days. Our conservative budget makes competition in the market. We found a beautiful small bungalow, and we completely remodeled it in our head without much thought that, yes Paul works ninety hours a week, and he would be the one to do much of the work. Hmmm, we have never been patient people and living in a complete mess is too much for my neat-freak tendencies. While we have found perfectly adequate houses, the price has either been too high or the school system is wrong. There is hope, we just need to practice patience. Ah, patience, not my best quality.


a little kiwi cuteness, still cute, still learning the rules...

house hunting

I haven't been posting much around here much because the house hunting has reached a fevered pitch. Last night we viewed five. One we would only dream to have, but is at the top end of our budget. We need to be conservative, so that one is out, although I so so love it. One was ok. Another was a no way. And one was just right, same lay out as the one we liked, closer to town. It was just right, but we are not sure that our financing is completely done and we need 20% down. So, Paul has tons of equipment up on ebay to raise some more money. Still thay won't be enough. We were planning on 10% down, but our financing rate would would beome so much better with 20% down. So hopefully the soft housing market will keep that one available and give us more time. It had a big fenced in back yard, it was really nice. We did look at one that you could see the lake at the end of the driveway, but it needed a total rehaul in the inside and with Paul working 90+ hours at work, there would be no way because of my disability. This has been quite a trial for us.

Kiwi is slowly becoming potty trained, but she is a pug and only 8 weeks old, so not so easy on that front. She has turned out to be a nice calm dog who can just as happily lay on my lap or play with Caden. She has started this cute thing where she runs as fast as she can, dips her head down, and do a sommersault. So cute.



Caden started his second year of preschool and loving it! The first day he had to sit in the "green chair", which is the naughty chair and he was not too happy about that. It has seemed to straighten out the problem. He is a full head taller than any one else in his class. Whew, cannot keep shoes and clothes on that kid! He is growing like a weed! I like summer because shorts are supposed to be short and he fits in them a lot longer because he is long and lean.


kiwi licking her chops!

new design

i have been practicing with Adobe Illustrator, this is what I have come up with so far....






I like the last one, more simple.

I am working on one similar to a pendant I designed with a flying bird...it is looking like this so far....

I can tell, however that the pixels need to be adjusted for a larger size to increase clarity.

Catastrophic Katrina

Like everyone out there, we are so horrified by the devastation down south. My husband has worked with The American Red Cross as a disaster relief manager, and with FEMA. Now, with this new business, it is taking him everything to not go down and help. He has been asked by the Red Cross, but there is no possibility of him leaving us because without him, there is no business and his family and his employee's family couldn't make it. So, like most everyone, we sit up late at night watching the devastation and praying for as quick and painless of recovery as possible. So, from very personal experience, I know that The American Red Cross is a wonderful institution to have in place, they are planning on serving over 500,000 meals a day, they have care packages, grief counselors, and they know how to work their way through the government for assistance. So if you feel so inclined, they would be a wonderful place to donate time and money.
Donate to the American Red Cross
There is also a wonderful conglomeration of crafters who have donated their crafts so all proceeds can go to the relief efforts check out Crafters United for hurricane Katrina Relief