oh my goodness, it's tomorrow

Please forgive my absence the last few days. My mom arrived on Wednesday and yesterday we were consumed with, well, consuming. :) I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving filled with people & food you love.

If you're in Madison, please come and see me (and LOTS of other artists & crafters) at the Craftacular tomorrow. It's from 10am-5pm at the Masonic Center at 301 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Madison. Please introduce yourself if you stop by...I'd love to meet you. :)

My palms are a little sweaty now just thinking about it. Luckily I am just about all packed up and tonight I get to have a date with my husband.

Wish me luck! :)

xoxoxooxoxo

do you ever

have this much laundry?

Patrick was out of town most of last week and we did really well without our 4th wheel. I got and kept the house clean (which it hadn't been in a while) because that really helps me feel calm in the midst of daily chaos...especially at the end of the day. We did some fun stuff, had some friends over...it was all really good. The only thing I didn't do? Laundry. Not a bit. So, if you're a mother you know what 4 days of no laundry looks like. The photo above is just the tip of the cotton iceberg in our basement.

Ruby and I are home from doing some errands. A friend returned some baby gear I had forgotten I even gave her (exersaucer & bouncy seat) and added a few things of hers to the pile for us to use...a mini swing and bumbo seat. All of a sudden there is all this baby stuff around again! crazy. I don't really think we'll need anything else before the little one arrives. Oh yeah...a car seat. hehe. And a pack and play at some point, mainly to protect him from his siblings at certain times.

I'm not sure what is going on with me. Perhaps the pregnancy hormones are calming me way down? I feel like there's lots of stuff that I should be bothered about but am not. Like, where will this child sleep? Will James & Ruby share a room, or Ruby and the baby or James and the baby? I guess I know that at first he will sleep in our room so we'll have some time to figure it all out. I also think the nesting instinct might kick in during that last trimester, which is conveniently after the holidays. (if I turn into a psycho list maker/whip cracker, please remind me of this post)

Speaking of the holidays...Patrick will be off for 12 days. Ahhhhh. Love that. We'll be in Duluth for a couple of them (hahahahahahha!) but will have some time at home, too, which is always nice.

This reminds me of how James likes to stay home a good chunk of Saturdays now...he calls it Stay at Home Saturday. (how very clever of him, no?) ;) I did persuade him to venture out with me late last Saturday afternoon and we had a really nice time walking around on State Street a little and eating at Ian's Pizza. yum! I had the chicken alfredo slice. Don't be a hater if you've never tried it.

I know this is so random. I am still tired and trying to decide if I want to meet Patrick and hand off the kids this afternoon or if I just need to go to bed at 8pm. James is home with us tomorrow and we had talked about doing a little Christmas decorating. I'd like to start our long festive weekend out well rested, so I should just stay home.

(shakes head to clear the fog)

I will sign off now. I hope you are all sufficiently bored and have a good source of caffeine nearby to counteract the effects of this post. You're welcome.

xoxo

filler

I don't have any new pictures and am not really in the mood to write right now. I have the urge to go sit on the couch and drink coffee and make my grocery list.

I was up late last night (11pm) and I'm feeling it. How sad is that? :)

xoxo

overheard this weekend

Ruby and I have been reading 101 Dalmatians over and over and over lately and this little rhyme has been stuck in our head...

S&R: With a yip and a yap and a yelp yelp yelp! Fifteen puppies need your help!
(it's catchy...try it!)

*********************************

J: OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!
R: (immediately) It was an accident!
J: Ruby, you just say that so you don't get in trouble.
R: I know, JAMES. BE QUIET!
S&P: (laughing)
R: Stop laughing, Mom and Dad! Sassies!!!

*********************************

(talking about baby names in the van after church)
S: Sam? Charlie? Abe? Luke? (all declined)
J: He needs a rock star name...like Spikes or something.
P: (quietly, from the front seat) Would it be wrong to call him Yaweh?*

********************************
S&R: (for the 100th time) With a yip and a yap and a yelp yelp yelp! Fifteen puppies need
J: TO BE SHOT.

********************************

P: I brought him in a little snack tray because all he had for dinner was that plain pasta with chicken at dinner.
S: I know. He's eaten basically that same meal there for the last 4 years, and never complained. He loves Noodles.
S&P: (silent for a moment, I tear up a little)
S: He's so sweet, isn't he? Little buddy.
P: yeah.
P: (a moment later) Of course, he did say he wanted to shoot 15 puppies.**


*He was totally kidding.
**He brought home another hunting book...this time Bowhunting...so that's been on his mind. I gasped when he said, "to be shot!" and asked him if he really wanted to shoot puppies. He said no...well, maybe just in the bum with a nerf gun.

butt seriously,

have a great weekend!

I just died a little

the scene:

In the kitchen, James had just asked me if they could have salami & cream cheese sandwiches for their snack:

J: It's soy cream cheese, is that okay, Gavin?
G: Yeah, I like all kinds of cream cheese.
J: (pause) I really like you.

6 year old boys are so sweet.

clothespins R us

Today is all about clothespins. I finished the pins that will go along with a clothespin bag purchase (top picture) and am halfway through some memo holders (bottom picture). Those will go in bags for the first 50 customers at the Craftacular on the 28th and have a nifty little coupon attached. I'm tempted to stop at 25, and I may, but I may also plow through the other 25 this afternoon. I didn't do this last year so it will be fun to see how many of these get used. (I'm hoping that at least 50 20 of them do)

James is having a little buddy over after school and I am kind of excited to see how it goes. I'm pretty sure Ruby will be excluded so I have a couple ideas of things for her and I to do together. (example: she watches me glue buttons together, she watches tv while I glue buttons together) (hehehehehee)

xoxoxo and sorry about the crappy photos

wee trees

I love making these soft trees. They make me happy.

I found the pattern here last year...you should make some!

Oh...wait a minute. Scratch that. These trees are SUPER hard to make and very nerve wracking, not relaxing at all.
Never fear, though, as I have suffered through the process for you already.
You can buy some from me at the Craftacular on the 28th.

;)

xoxo

ruby's tuesday & a random story

such a big girl/little girl.

(that's how she refers to herself now. A couple weeks ago she was balking at any big girl talk so I'm happy to see she has now embraced it in her own way. She will always be my baby girl, anyways.)

*****************************

Can I just say what a luxury it is to go grocery shopping with only one child? I'm sure next fall I'll be doing my shopping while Ruby is at preschool, again bringing my total child count to one. Bliss.

I dreamt about my most sickening ex-boyfriend last night (I guess he was my only truly sickening one) and as I tried to get myself back to sleep I composed an entire post about him in my head. The best part of the whole story of (rhymes with) STAN was that after he cheated on me (this came out of (seemingly, at the time) nowhere and I had really thought I'd marry that (cough, using term loosely) man) and couldn't decide where he wanted our relationship to go, and I was a total mess because I felt like I was just hanging there, waiting, I called to talk to his mother. She wasn't home but his Dad started talking to me and gave me the best advice. He said I would continue to be miserable as long as I felt like someone else was in charge of what happened. He said I was letting him be in control and I had to decide for myself if I really wanted to try and make things work with someone who had disrespected me in that way.

Isn't that the coolest thing ever? I think that was my favorite part of my whole relationship with STAN. (His Dad happens to be a psychology professor.) Loved that. Thank you, Dennis. (his real name...nothing rhymes with that)

So anyways. Don't you just love good people? People who are there for you in ways you would never expect? I truly thank God that STAN lied to me that day and that his Dad cared enough to take the time to talk to me and share that much needed advice. (because before that phone call I really was a true break up mess, had lost 15 pounds in a week from not eating anything...sad (but boy did I look good!) and after that phone call I decided I was done with STAN forever. And, oh boy, then the fun began!! :) Jolee, care to chime in?? just kidding, we won't go there but let's just say STAN didn't like my decision at all and stalked me for a good couple of months.)

And, that is my out of the blue story for the day. Time to clean the kitchen.

xoxoox