Weekend Off!

For the first time in 2 months I have this weekend off! Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the Richmond folk festival, one of my absolutely FAVORITE festivals in the RVA. I will be going to the mountains and going to a college tour with my oldest son. I am looking forward to seeing the beautiful blue ridge mountains and their fall colors that are starting.

(not my picture but it does look like that)

This will be my first college tour with my son and I can't wait to see what it's like. I did go to college, but only one year and I really don't remember much about it. My husband opted for the military instead of college. So for the two of us, it's a new experience. My son is excited but nervous. There is a lot for him to do to get into college, and he's not even sure where he wants to go or what to study. He's also mentioned working in the Peace Corp for a year then going to college. So we will see what the future brings. The rest of the spawn are looking forward to hanging out with Grandad.
So what are your plans for the weekend?

So fresh and so clean!

Today my parents brought me a cool new present. No, it's not my birthday or anything they are just awesome like that. Anyway, they brought me a
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wait for it...
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A NEW DISHWASHER!!!!
Why is this such a fantastic thing to me? Well we have not had a dishwasher in three years. Our old one broke and was just sitting there, occasionally collecting some nasty water in it. But mostly I forgot about it. I became so used to washing dishes by hand that I actually spaced on how to load a dishwasher. I actually like hand washing. I am the only one who feels that way in my family though. Keeping up with dishes as a family of seven is difficult enough but it's really hard with no dishwasher.
My parents got my dishwasher at an auction. it's not top of the line but it works! We have already done one load and I am actually excited about running it again. Isn't it funny how sometimes the simple things make you so happy?

Mi Vida Loca

I miss my computer!!!!!! I miss being able to just jump on and do my thing anytime I want to. Urgh! We are seeing if our computer can be salvaged at all, so fingers crossed!
Meanwhile in mi vida loca, life goes on. My oldest is really getting serious about applying for colleges. It's a very surreal experience. I work part-time at a ;local university and work often around college kids. Needless to say I've been getting all kinds of advice for the application procedure.
My second son is swimming through his sophomore year at high school. He is most excited about the Japanese club resuming. He really has a fascination with Japan and everything about it. Luckily they teach Japanese at his school. He's in his 2nd year and loving it.
My youngest son joined the FIRST robotics team at his school. He has always been a builder and now he'll get to participate in building robots and having competitions with them.
My oldest daughter has joined the FCCLA club and is trying out for the Glee club. She tried out for the basketball team but didn't make the cut. She handled it pretty well though. Her biggest problem right now is trying to pick the perfect song to audition with for the Glee club.
My youngest daughter has asked to be a cheerleader. Even thought the though makes my stomach churn we are going to let her do it. She is thrilled. She is also doing so much better in school now that her learning disability has been diagnosed and ealt with. She gets extra help with her reading and it has made worlds of difference!
My old man is on call for the next week. This means he lives next to the on-call phone and goes out any time. I like the overtime that it comes with, but miss the hell out of seeing him.
As for myself, I am recovering from a cold. I blame my job. I am constantly going and coming. I really do feel like a taxi driver sometimes, but no tips. My depression is under control, but I am keeping an eye on it. I tend to go down a bit in the colder months so this year I am trying to stay on top of it.
I have been crafting but don't have a way to upload any pictures yet, so you'll just have to hold on a bit longer. I have missed you blog! My favorite holiday is coming up though!!!! HALLOWEEN!! Now it's almost time for us to decorate. The costumes have been discussed and even worked on a little already! So far we have: Rocketman, zombie princess, and Coraline... I love Halloween so much!

Feeling a Little Feisty

Wowsers, it's been a hell of a time lately! So much happening, but nothing terribly exciting. The biggest news would be I dyed my oldest daughter's hair and she is loving it!

The red hair looks great on her! What's weird is I have had that exact color a few times in my life. Now she wants me to dye my hair the same color so we match, awww.... I'm not sure if I want to dye my hair now though. I'm rocking the natural color now, dirty blondish. My favorite is that I am really starting to get some beautiful white hairs. I kind of want to see where it goes, but we'll see...

I am really busy as usual. My oldest is starting the COLLEGE search! Arghh! I can't believe we are there already, but we are. So SATs, college sites, and lots of talking about where he wants to go from here is all over our house. What's funny is I work at a local university, in a store on campus. So I am surrounded by college kids at work. I love it but it's freaking me out a bit to know that in a little bit MY son will be one of them. Letting go and trusting is so hard as a parent. But I know he's got a good head on his shoulders and will be successful in whatever he chooses to do. That's what's up with me and now I'm off to do more crafting!

Weekend O' Fun part 1

This past weekend I hade such a good time with my family. We went to my parent's house and went here: http://www.sweetdreamsday.com/ This was our second year going and we had a fantastic time again! This time we participated in some of the contests including:
The Little Debbie look-alike contest

The Cherry pie eating contest:

We also had fun doing arts and crafts

Playing games

Climbing the Rock wall

The Sweet Dreams festival did not disappoint us this year. The only bad thing was I forgot to put on sunscreen and got a horrible sunburn

This was the worst sunburn I've gotten in a long time, but it was worth it!

Oh Boy!

Summer is officially started in our house! Yea!!! Graduation ceremonies have been held, final exams are finished, and the kids are so excited! I always loved the beginning of summer feeling, so many possibilities await! So now for some pics!
I am going to be in so much trouble, just look how beautiful my girlies are:




On another note, I want to join some sort of blog challenge or link party but I haven't decided which one to go for. I like the idea of challenging myself daily. Are there any out there you like to do?

I also want to really stock up my etsy store. I have a tendency to give away my crafts, but I'd really like to sell some too! Maybe I should challenge myself to some sort of craft challenge. Also, what is the deal with this new t.v. show?


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How did I miss this? My BFF Dede and I MUST get on this show! I will definitely be glued to the t.v.!

End of School Again...

It is that time of year again, the end of school. With five kids in four different schools I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. The spawn have different schedules of half days and off days and field days and graduations and more. So today I am off to field day number one, the second one is Monday. I also will be dragging my second oldest along since he is off school today. As of one week from today they will all be done with school! Then starts the chaos of summer, weeee!


I am also busy trying to make some teacher appreciation gifts. So far here are a few ideas I am kicking around:



http://www.houseofhumble.com/2012/03/reclaim-plastic-bottles/



http://sadanorris.blogspot.com/2010/08/busy-busy-opps-thimble-holder-tutorial.html



http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/book-bag-craft-1109#slide-1

At least those are some ideas I want to do. This weekend will be hectic because the hubby is working, the two oldest are job hunting, and my baby girl will turn 9 on Monday! Arghh! Nothing like a bit of insanity to keep you sane right?

Argh! My Babies are getting too big!

This weekend was a busy one around here. My oldest daughter decided she wanted to raise some money so she had a bake sale at a local convience store. I left pretty much everything in her charge. She got permission from the store owner, helped me bake a shit ton of goodies, and sold her little heart out! I am so proud of my girlie!

So sweet right?
As for my oldest baby, he went to PROM!!!!!! I can't believe it! He looked so amazing and his girlfriend was stunning!

What a surreal experience it is to have your kid go to prom. The rented tux, the corsage, the fancy dinner, etc... For my own prom I went with some guy from work and had a blast with my BFF. I can't wait to hear all about it. I don't know all the details yet because at 10:30 a.m. my son is still out! He went to an after party at a friends' house and I pick him up in about an hour.

It's Oh So Quiet.....

I work at a local university. I only work during the school year so my time at work is coming to an end until August. I love not having to working but I hate not getting paychecks... So this week, after an insane weekend at work I have been home. When the spawn head off to school and my only company are my two crazy dogs I can take a few minutes to chill and catch up with life in my mind. I have been doing some much needed deep cleaning, like our fridge that should have been condemned. So now I'd like to catch you, my blog, in what's up in my life.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hEDQt1XxXWOaYV6OBXwWfap1eXnCT4lD0NZLHjbZNps851JhV19D_KvXOjU1FRS_x_WWPw1hCkFcJM7TbVSm0h96_5-WZlU4ozydUPnWVbRBAV27zTzvzXkVX2P_7-zRgswAFEvBYcg/s1600-h/womanbroom%25255B2%25255D.jpg My oldest son is going to PROM!!!! I can't believe I am old enough to have a kid going to PROM! I also can't believe how expensive the accouterments for PROM are! Luckily my son is riding with a friend, so no limo cost. However that still leaves: corsage, dinner, dance tickets, tux rental, etc. and etc. Ouch. That will hurt our pocket but will be well worth it! Now that I am no longer working during the weekdays I can finally schedule a ton of doctor's appointments I have needed to make. Plus my whole family needs to see the dentist. I have been terrified of the dentist for a while and would LOVE to see one of those sedation dentistry places if I could afford it! The Old Man found out he has sleep apnea, which I knew. So he has to go back in one more night then he will be getting a machine. I don't mean to sound sickeningly sweet but I wonder if he will still be able to snuggle with me at night? The youngest spawn was filled with joy on report card day. I could hear her calling me from the bus stop! Thanks to her hard work and her special ed reading class her reading grade went from a F to a C!!! You should have heard the house cheering! It was so adorable!!! Yes, Virginia I am still crafting! I recently finished a rooster embroidery but am not happy with the way it came out. It looks like a country chicken. I'll post pictures as soon as I can find the camera! I am also working on a Asian dragon embroidery. I like it so far! Ditto on the pictures. That should catch you up for now! Adois!

The Riva'

Our family trip to the river was awesome! We walked around and explored and played and climbed and ran and just had general fun!

Watching the river flow...

Posing in front of some ruins

Found some slate and iron scraps (don't worry we don't take anything home)

I have such a great looking bunch!

Whew! I'm tuckered!

Trying to get back into the swing of things is so tiring! I returned to work this past weekend and am adjusting to it again. My kids are all home, finally! My husband just finished a massive work week, with tons of overtime. So yeah, my body is sore, and my mind is fried. I need a vacation!
My kids return to school in two weeks. As a matter of fact they return to school on my 39th birthday! I guess it's my birthday present. Don't tell anyone but they are all excited and counting down the days. No kid ever wants to admit to wanting to go back to school but they are so bored at home. Plus they want to see all of their friends again.
I'm excited about the idea of cooling weather. I love making winter gear, hats especially. So I'm starting on some cool hats for the spawn. I'm thinking monster hats for the family. Luckily crochet calms me...

Source: ravelry.com via Christina on Pinterest

Yea! It's Back!

My camera made its' way home thanks to the mail and my Mom! So I was able to download some pictures from this past weekend. We attended the Sweet Dreams Festival and it was a blast! http://www.sweetdreamsday.com/
There are tons of fun things for everyone to do. There was also a lot of free Hershey's products everywhere! My Twizzler addicted son even got enough! The only problem is that it was SO freakin' hot!!! There were a lot of people giving out water but it was still so hot!
There were inflated play things:


There was also laser tag! It was located right next to the cornhole tournament, that name still makes me laugh.



My rugrats also went on the climbing wall. My youngest was ready:


She made it almost to the top!

My son made it to the top, but I don't have a picture of that. Here he is on the wall:

We also participated in the bubble blowing contest, but none of us won. I was blowing huge bubbles until the contest started then itty-bitty ones... We also got to look at lots of vendors. It was a great festival that I highly recommend if you are near the area at all next year. I am keeping my fingers crossed it won't be a million degrees again though! After all our fun there the fam' went to the lake and cooled off for hours. It was a super fun weekend!

How about Misc?

Since my camera is still MIA, hopefully not for too long I thought I'd take a different approach to my life. I am miore than crafts if you can believe it! I might have mentioned it before but I have Major Depressive Disorder, MDD. Basically this means I have a disorder that includes depression and anxiety. It loads of fun, NOT! I control it with meds and therapy. I am pulling out of a downspiral again, hence the reason I re-started my blog. Writing and showing off my crafts makes me happy so there you go!


As you also know from my little intro over there-----> I have five amazing offspring. They include three boys and two girls and range in age from 8 to 16 years old. They constantly keep me either laughing or wanting to drink heavily, mostly laughing though! The one thing I knew I wanted to be when I grew up was a MOM, and I think I've done pretty well. My kids are smart, beautiful, funny, courteous, and a joy to have.

Lastly, I have to talk some sort of crafting! I have been working on several projects. I am crochet animals and monsters, painting weird doll heads, and trying fabric filled embroidery hoops from here: http://scenicglory.blogspot.com/2011/07/things-im-loving-this-monday.html

(photo courtesy of scenic glory)
I hope you are having a fantastic day and having fun!