Frou Frou Gypsy in Combat Boots

This is the story of a boy. (you got that from the title, right?) He is the kindest, loving, most amazing child you could ever meet; except when he's not. He has always been sweet and kind and loving, but the past few years have showed us another side to him. He gets very easily frustrated. He is down on himself often and will hit himself in the head, bite his own arm or make disparaging comments about himself. He is struggling in school. even though he makes good grades, he has to work VERY hard to get them. He is absolutely growing up. At least his body is. Mom has been shocked to find underarm hair on her "little" boy even though the sweet blonde curls are still there along with the dimpled, fat baby hands. He is eleven. This school year has been the turning point, or maybe the breaking point. He has never been a strong reader, but he has always loved learning and loved books. When History class became a problem, we realized we had to do more. That "more...

My daughter who never wants to participate in anything .....wanted to run in the Mercedes Kids' Marathon! wow. She certainly does NOT get Her athletic ability or ambition from me! The kids run all but the last mile during school over the course of a few months. They run the last mile on race day! We were so proud of her! I think she ran the entire mile!!!

With Valentine's Day only a few days away I had to share these! I set up some little mail boxes for each of us in the Living room and the kids have had so much fun leaving letters for all of us and checking their mail boxes to see if they have mail! We have a busy two days of celebrating ahead of us and then i am packing to go out of town with my girl friends for a long weekend! YIPPEE!

Today after church, the family did a little bit of SWEET family time in the kitchen. Hub and I have been haunted by a Chocolate cake with Peanut butter filling recipe for a few weeks, and today was the day! The cake is made with good old fashioned love and ingredients right from your pantry! No boxed cake mix required! The filling, is super yummy too! I added a bit more peanut butter than what the recipe called for. I wanted a bit more of a peanutty taste! No one I know has as much fun licking the spatula and beater as Lula! She gets so excited about it! I thought she might have to fight her Dad off to get it; but he played nice today! About this point James got bored with the whole cooking thing and resorted to playing online! Oh well, at least he was still in the Kitchen! I ask you, have you ever seen anything as sexy as a man doing the dishes? I think NOT! After what seemed like forever, the cake was done in all its chocolate and peanut buttery goodness! The cake and filling...

Its been a while since I have sat down to blog. Shame on me. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I realize that i need to wrap up some things here in the blog. one of the last things i talked about was the insanity that my house was going through. I wanted a computer armoire for the living room..... wellllllll not that easy. Couldn't fine anything in our price range that didn't look like office furniture. hmpf ! Then, hub had a GREAT idea....turn our TV armoire into one for the computer. Score! Now, what to do with the TV. Apparently all of America has nice flat screen TVs now...except us! I wasn't in the market for a new TV (sorry dear!). We looked and looked and finally ended up with something from the IKEA Hemnes series . perfect! Perfect that is until i brought it home from the store in ATL , about 3 hours away...and hub assembled it all, and though it fit...there was too much on that wall of the Living room. It looked like a wall of black wood!!!! sigh. crazy like...

This is my new best friend! Sta-flow liquid starch! i am in love with it. SOOOO much better than spray starch and yet so hard to find! good for many things...but especially helpful if you are making a T shirt quilt. My Cousin's hub was killed about three years ago in a car wreck leaving her with a 6month old. Well, that "baby" just turned three and I was so honored to be a part of the most amazing gift ever! My darling cousin saved a number of her late hub's T shirts in hopes of one day having a quilt made for their son! *pick me*choose me*I want to do it* PLEASE**** so, I was trusted, and got the bag of shirts back during the Summer. I started looking around online because i knew this had to be the most amazing T shirt quilt EVER! I found some really nice, and IMO not so nice, stuff out there. The most helpful was This site. I loved what she was doing and OH MY she had a book! Well i ordered that baby and then..... used a lot of her ideas with a few of mine and ende...

So my Son, always inventive, wanted a Popeye Party for his NINTH (when did he get so old?) Birthday. I am here to tell you that there is NOTHING online to help a girl out when planning a Popeye party! I had to be really creative on this one~ He, of course, wanted a costume. I was NOT going to spend $40 on a crappy store bought one! Have you noticed how poorly most of those costumes are made? ICK ! I constructed this Popeye shirt with a $4 Navy Tee and some felt i had "in stock"! Turned out pretty good i think! I was lucky enough to be selected for another house party ...this one by Capri Sun! SO, our Popeye party was "sponsored" by Capri Sun! (thank you craft!) They sent Frisbees and Terra cycle pencil pouches for all the kids, and coupons and magnetic frames for the moms! In honor or Capri sun, we played that game where you pass an orange held under your chin from person to person....this does not go over well with this age group! It was very funny thoug...

in a bout a week my family and i will be headed south to the beautiful beaches of Panama City. At least i hope they are beautiful! I hope this oil spill mess hasn't ruined it for us. We will go anyway and enjoy the pool and the fun, even if we can't enjoy the actual beach! After that, we are headed even farther south to Orlando to stay at the Nickelodeon Hotel for a few days and to go to Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventures! We are especially excited to be arriving after the Wizarding world of Harry Potter opens! Muggles that we are, we love our Harry! I am really excited about the trip, though i have to admit it feels wrong to go to Orlando and not visit the mouse. I just might have to pop over to Downtown Disney for some Magic while we are there; i don't know if i can stand it!

Do you know how hard it is to make two kids who don't want their pictures made stand still, look normal and not smack each other? I am guessing you have a clue. Here are my darling angles from Easter....DD outfit i made. I would change a few things if i could...but if i ever make it again, i'll know. Hope you had a great Easter!

those of you who know me, know that i am a little bit sad that my daughter wants to be a boy. She's five and not girly AT ALL. There are moments though when she blows me away. Not that her wanting to be a boy keeps me from loving her so much it hurts, its just that i'd love it if she'd wear a skirt now and then! or a funky dress! anyway...those moments that blow me away...every night after her daddy puts her to bed, she asks for me. she wants a song, the same one every night, and she wants me to lay with her...just for 5 minutes. She's happy with 5 minutes...that's all! she snuggles up next to me, and usually wants to hold my hand. It is the sweetest thing. She's not a snuggly girl. This is really special time for us. the other thing is that she's taken to using my camera. the little point and shoot, she's knows she's allowed to use it ... Here's evidence that she's been at it again...

Here is the month of August ...in nine little pictures. Stay tuned, I've got my foray into crock pot cooking and the President Bday party coming up!

I am a blog-a-holic. Seriously. I use to check the blogs i loved multiple times a day and get so frustrated when they hadn't been updated. WHAT were these people doing all day??? Well, I had to take a blog break. No 12-step program required thankyouverymuch. I started out with stamping blogs, and then moved into sewing blogs, and general crafts. Now my blog list is enormous. I don't hit them as often as i should to keep up. I am always finding new blog treasures out there; one blog always leads to another. The point being, i miss my blogging and i miss my blog reading. Now that the kids are in school, perhaps i can make a little blog time for myself. that being said, here is the newest blog i have found that i am loving: A Year of Slow Cooking I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but i am about to! Maybe a week in the slow cooker will get me movin' again. I have gotten where fixing dinner is very low on my list of "have to" or "love to" do things...

I have been consumed with back to school activities. Trying to get in the groove and such. Also working on my son's 8th b'day party. the theme this year is Presidents...or Americana. We have broadened the "theme" a bit. He wanted to be George Washington..... This is the front of his invite....what do you think? DD had to be Lincoln! cute, right? I will show you the George costume along with the other party details after i survive it...tomorrow night! Just wanted to toss this one in for good measure....she loves this bouncy jumpy thing at the mall...that's the 2nd level behind her...yes, she is that high in the air!