Milestones (Updated)

Well, I am officially 40. Have to say, it doesn't feel any different than being 39... but the 30's were definitely different than the 20's. Not complaining, I know a lot of folks my age who feel their age and I'm thankful that I don't! My in laws came to visit from Illinois and brought me my cake. The kids loved the bones but weren't too sure why it was a 'Halloween' cake. Even after explaining the meaning behind it they seemed more concerned that turning 40 meant that I was dying... doesn't help when their dad is deployed and they worry about him... so I changed the subject and just told them that some people find odd cakes funny and that I am fine and not going anywhere soon!

My oldest had his eye appointment today an he definitely needs glasses. He is farsighted and has an astigmatism which messes with his nearsightedness, something he inherited either from me or his dad. Later today we'll go shopping for frames. Here he is in the office with his nifty doctor shades. He did really well for his first official appointment and didn't budge when he had to have those eye drops! I was so proud of him!Ty did really well waiting with me while his brother had his appointment. We were in the office for about 90 min. which can be a very long wait for a 4 year old. Ty kept it lively though... at one point he (in front of a waiting room filled with soldiers and other folks) looked at me and then pointed to another soldier in uniform and asked me if that guy was his daddy. I thought the soldier was going to pass out and that I would follow his lead but I quickly told Ty no and that his dad is deployed... Ty smiled and then said 'ha ha mom, I'm just kidding!'. Several guys laughed... but the one soldier still looked a little pale!

Here is the update! Cal got his glasses (they are a dark blue/metal color, hard to tell in the pic) and wanted to have his picture taken... (for his Daddy) so I got out my glasses and we took the picture. He can already tell a difference! On Monday we'll 'see' how much he likes them during school!

Give Away!

Here is an awesome give-away! Visit Green Fairy Quilts!!! Judi's adorable little guy had his first birthday and to honor this occasion and the anniversary of her business she is giving away something special!!!! Don't forget to check out her Green Fairy Quilts Charity too!

Updates

The first week of school is over and it went by super fast! Ty and I had a great time together (he doesn't start school until Sept 1) and got a lot done around the house! Here are just a few updates on us!

Lydia loves Kindergarten but has a hard time staying on her mat during 'brain rest' time... so she is quickly learning that she doesn't want her name on the chalk board and certainly doesn't want to miss the first 10 min of recess due to that! Friday she was able to stay on her mat and told me about that when I picked her up from school (that's how I found out about her name being on the chalkboard!). She is eager to learn and this next week is all about learning 'S'.

Cal seems to like his new teacher and has found that a lot of his friends are back this year. We are learning that Cal might have an eye site problem and so we'll be getting a doctors apt (hopefully this week) to find out if he needs glasses... this might help him with reading! It's his weakest area and it's something we're really working hard on!

We do have some new additions to our family! FROGS!!! We haven't named them yet... nobody can come up with an agreement! We are able to tell them apart however! The largest one belongs to Cal since he is the oldest, the other two are about the same size so the wider one belongs to Ty and the skinny long one belongs to Lydia. The kids have a lot of fun watching these frogs in their mini aquarium and get quite concerned when the little snail gets bumped upside down from the frogs. I've been doing a little sewing... I found a tutorial from Rachel Griffith at P.S. I quilt on making a friendship bag and made my own version of it! There is always something to make and it can be fun tweaking patterns and ideas!

I also found a really neat product from another blogger site! Melissa at Cornbreadandbeans introduced me to a new way of tea-staining my projects! I hate to make a pot of tea when I only need a small item stained and these new stains do the job! The item is called 'Distress It' and it comes in three different strengths. I took sample pictures to show ... the regular and Extremely distress ones have a slightly darker blotch on the square as one of my little helpers gave an extra squirt! Anyhow, the picture also shows a before square at the bottom.Dinner last night was a fun one! We picked out a purple Cauliflower (none of us had ever eaten one) and it turned out to be a hit! We steamed it and the kids let me have one chunk as they polished off the rest! Hooray! Another veggie on the like list!

Two projects done and school has started!

It has been one very busy week and this one is shaping up to be a very productive one as well! Last week I had two baby quilts to make and after three days of brainstorming and raiding all my available fabric this is what I came up with!

This first quilt is a bright pink and white friendship star quilt. I used scraps left over from Lydia's sun dress. The quilt was made for a little baby named Chloe who was born early August! Due to my hand not functioning well lately, I decided to give machine quilting a try... just the basic cross-hatch. It worked and made the quilt scrunch up a bit after washing! I love the look slight shrinkage gives to a quilt!

The second quilt was made for a baby named Nathaniel... he should arrive this week! His mom is a quilter (which makes me even more nervous to give a quilt... what if she pulls out a ruler and measures... or notices an error!) and likes similar fabric choices. I loved making this quilt and will more than likely make a larger one for our family! I used a charm pack (Moda-Glory) and created some nine patch blocks that I quartered and then took setts of three blocks and added a white block to create a new larger block (confused?) and then of course a border of white and then brown to frame it. She loved it (and made me feel proud to give it to her) and later told me that it also met approval from her husband! Yeah! School started today! The kids didn't want to sleep last night as they were too excited about going to school. I was worried I wouldn't wake up on time so I set two alarms. Wouldn't you know, I woke up 20 min before they went off! Everyone was dressed, fed and ready early and we made it on time! My youngest has two more weeks until his preschool starts... so he and I had a terrific day hanging out together. Well, I have a little more sewing to do (several projects that need to get done!) and then it's off to bed! Night!

Meet Shiloh

My blogger friend, Viv, has two sweet kittens and you have to meet them! They remind me of my cat when he was much younger!

Yes, he is a big boy! This is my 18 lb, 10 year old cat named Shiloh! We got him at a shelter when we were stationed in Washington and he has traveled the world with us! We think he is Birman and was left at the shelter because he was born with 3 ninety degree kinks in his tail. He was one of several kittens and was the only one grooming all the others. He has turned out to be a chocolate color but when he was little he was all cream with a smudge of brown on his nose and ears! He is a sweet caring cat and has stayed up at night with each kid as they were sick or not feeling good... and my guardian when I am not feeling well or just feeling depressed. Shiloh... he's the best!!!

One project down... several more to do!

I have finished one baby quilt this past weekend and have another to start and complete by this weekend. I've been wanting to work on a small project as I really don't want to work on my larger ones until it's cooler outside! I did get my little guys' Daddy quilt done and he is happy with that!

Saturday was a beautiful day, high 70's and a nice breeze... so the kids packed lunches in their new school lunch bags (have to try them out!) and we went to a local park. We were there for 3 hours, the kids played hard and went to sleep pretty well that night!

Here are some pictures... took several so we could send them to Chris overseas! Tonight is the first night for our neighborhood 5 day club so we need to get some errands taken care of... till then! Bye!