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!

My vida....

While not being able to keep up with my blog as much as I'd like I've been doing some thinking....I feel like I'm still newish to blogging and finding my voice. I decided to be more open about my life and the fun it brings along with it. Meaning I want to share more than just crafting. So here goes!
My youngest son has been sick for 2 weeks now. I think the doctor has no idea what's wrong with him. My guess is he has mono and then caught a chest cold on top of it. The latest diagnosis is bronchiolitis. So he is on some super steroids, yeah! He's 14 years old and has been coughing like crazy, minor fever, and massive FATIGUE. Normally he's non-stop so this is a major change for him. I'm hoping the steroids will "pump him up!"

Baby girl number 1 is getting psyched up for camp. It will be her first time going to an overnight camp and she is so excited! She has made a list of all of the supplies she'll need and carries it around the house with her. Any suggestions on some really protective yet easy to insert ear plugs? She gets swimmer's ear very easily and will be swimming 2 to 4 times a day. I know she is going to have such a blast!

As for me? I'm trying to make it through life one minute at a time. I have been super stressed out lately and this makes my depression rear it's ugly head. My anxiety is growing and am having to fight my monster. Urgh! Why is it when I need my depression symptoms the least they show up strong?I like to think of my major depressive disorder as a separate entity in me. My monster likes to make my mind think things that aren't true. My monster likes to make my brain think things are only going to get worse and worse. My monster can go fuck itself. I am too busy and stressed right now to deal with my monster!

On a more positive note, I got to spend some time with my BFFs last night. Just the three of us, coffee, and some chocolate cake... I love those ladies so much!

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.

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!

Spawn Attack!

Ahh spring break.... A lovely time when all the spawn are home and I neglect my blog. My kids are keeping me on my toes and to add to the fun my husband has a MAN COLD!!!! Oh no, not that! Yes my dears, 'tis true my husband needs to be babied as well this week. So far I have dragged the kids out to the park for a walk that took way too long because we got lost in the woods, fun! I am still massaging my sore calf muscles from that one! I also have kicked them out of the house to play with neighbors the majority of the time. Today we are going down to the river to play on the rocks and hopefully not get lost again! I also have to stop by the post office because I am the lamest swap partner EVER! I still have not sent off my Wild Olive swap yet. I have no excuse other than I am eternally busy and I feel awful about it. What's so ridiculous is that I finished my embroidery for the swap ages ago but just haven't gotten to the frickin' post office. I suck.

So sweet blog, until next time!

Hoppy Easter!

I hope the Easter bunny was good to you all! My rugrats are out of town with my hubby at my parents' house, but I am told the Easter Bunny visited there and left lots of goodies! I wonder if they'll have any candy left-over by the time they come home later today? I doubt it! I hope between my husband and my parents somebody took some pictures! Well, I just popped in to wish you all a great Easter!

It's Friday all ready?

Damn. You see I work every day except Wednesdays and Thursdays. So the "beginning" of my work week starts on Fridays. Ugh, back to work I go....
Before I go though, how about a quick life update? I am working on my first tutorial but having a lot more mistakes than anticipated so hopefully it won't take me too long. My older daughter is getting glasses and is SO excited about them. I think she'll look fabulous!
I am trying to get healthier one tiny step at a time. My first step was to drink my required water every day. I took care of that by lugging around a 50 oz bottle of smart water that I refill daily. So far I've noticed my skin seems a bit more hydrated and my sinus' seem clearer, and of course I have pee a ton. I also bought a pedometer but I have to fix mine. It registers every time I move my hips as a step. I do a lot of dancing in place. So I want to see if I can fix it or if I need to get a better pedometer. Next week I am adding walking my dogs around my neighborhood once a week. My insane dogs will love that and believe me it's a workout! My husband wants to buy the P90X system but I say let's start with smaller, more realistic steps first.
As for my depression I am definitely on an upswing. I feel so normal and hopeful! It's just so great to feel normal again... I'm loving life right now!
So off to work I go, but crafts run 'round my mind the whole time! So I carry a little notebook with me to jot down or sketch any crafty ideas that pop up. Plus if I hit a blank on what to make next I just look into my ideas book and viola! Have a great weekend!


http://www.patinastores.com/catalog/home/decor/wall-art/imperfections-plaque.html

A moment to brag....

If you don't mind, I'm going to take a minute to brag about rugrats. I took this picture on the morning of school picture day:

My girls are just so damn beautiful! If you're wondering my boys are just as handsome as my girls are beautiful.
Okay brag moment over, thanks for understanding!

I'm still around, sort of

Not having my camera makes me feel like I'm missing an arm or something! I have been crafting but can't share any of it with anyone! It's very frustrating.
On a happier note, I am off work for a week and two days, yea!!! The Hubs is on call so that means I can't work. Plus I took off this weekend coming up to attend one of my FAVORITE annual events her in RVA:
http://richmondfolkfestival.org/

This is a FREE music event that I LOVE going to! The spawn and I have so much fun each year. Unfotunately I missed it last year because I didn't ask off work in time but this year I remembered! If you are anywhere close by I highly recommend you check it out!
Halloween is quickly approaching and the hunt has begun for costumes. I am a HUGE believer in making your own costume, but last year I lamented and let my daughters get made costumes. So I was sure this year they would go for the home-mad look again but I was wrong. The stupid ad for Party City did me in, why oh why do they send that to my house? My youngest wants to be a vampire and my oldest daughter wants to be a cowgirl. My 13 year old wants to be SkyBlu from LMFAO

Sure, no problem.... I do love a challenge! Ta ta my lovies!

The benefit of Hurricane Irene

We were lucky that no we had no damage or loss of power. So I am grateful for that. In addition the wind made my pear tree drop a TON of pears. So we have been picking them up and trying to use them up. I have had so much fun looking up pear recipes. Yesterday my girls had their BFF's over so we made Pear Crumble for everyone.
MMmmmm, yummy pears...


Peeling the pears

Cooking on the stovetop

Ready to go in the oven

All cooked up

It was so delicious!!!

Seriously Mother Nature?????

Okay, so I live in Virginia. Just a few short days ago we had an earthquake. It shook everything and freaked a whole lot of people out. But it was okay overall. Then Hurricane Irene had to come through this week. She did a number on a lot of people. Most of the people around me are without power. We are one of the lucky ones who kept power and cable/Internet/ phone. Whew! It's also really weird because normally if the wind blows at all my cable/ Internet/ phone go out for days and days or even weeks. So I'm not sure why we lucked out but I am grateful. We have four of my friends' kids here with us since they have no power in their house. My kids are having a blast but it is a little chaotic. However, it would be nice if we could have a little peace, at least for the next week?

Cleaning Urges, but I'm NOT pregnant!!!!

Yes, after pushing out five little miracles from my hoochie I am pretty aware when I am pregnant. Besides, after the last one we did some, um, more permanent measures to avoid pregnancy for the rest of our lives. So WTF is up with my nesting/ cleaning urges lately? I'm wondering if it's because school is coming up, THANK GOD!!!! And the mini-monsters will be headed off to learnin' and I feel a need to be organized for this? I am also going back to work tomorrow so maybe that's it?
So far in the past few days I have completely cleaned my bedroom, caught up on ALL laundry ( a miracle of it's own!), re-organized and cleaned my cleaning closet, and now I am tackling my 16 year old's bedroom. What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment! Whatever the reason I am trying to take advantage of this because who knows when it might strike again!
So on that note I leave you with one of my favorite commercials of all time:
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Wheeee! What a Crazy weekend!

I am finally not running crazy and am able to post again. This weekend was a whirlwind. Friday my family and I went to the amusement park. Saturday we tried to recover. Sunday we went to my parent's town. While there we saw my oldest son's Shakespeare performance, it was amazing! We finally brought him home after 3 weeks of camp and left my youngest son with my parents for a week. Next weekend will be the first time I will have all of my spawn together since the begining of summer! Summers are always insane around here. But let me show you how much fun we had!
We went on lots of rides! My youngest rode her first big roller coaster and loved it! Of course she still loves the easier going rides too!

I'm not sure why, but NASA was there. They had several tents where kids could do activities and learn about NASA. It was really fun! We even got an autograph of a real astronaut! Here's my son looking at one of the telescopes they had:

We rode on lots of rides:



We walked way too much. We drank our weight in water because of the heat. And we had a fantastic time!

Showing Off My Spawn

My girls had their BFFs over for a sleepover. They did their usual things; playing, giggling, running, screaming, and in general having a blast. They also gave my husband and I lots of performances. Here's one such performance, I love this song and think they are just too cute:
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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!

Swimming at the lake!

I took my offspring to a lake near my parent's house this weekend and we had a blast! The lake is pretty big but not too deep. It had a lovely green tinge to it, thanks to the algae. It even had a cool little island in the middle that we could swim to. Here's my youngest basking in the fun:

All of my crazy brood:

My oldest daughter:

And this was obviously not taken at the lake, but a restaurant. My boys refused to smile for a picture until I got embarrassing and loud. The they couldn't help but crack up at their crazy, no-shame Mom! I love those guys!

What a long weekend!!!

Despite being rained out of big fireworks on the 4th we had a fun weekend! I did almost nothing crafty and just hung out with my spawn. We had fun at the pool:

We let our own fireworks show at my parents house:


We watched a small town parade:

I loved the old cars:

Over all it was a blast had by all! P.S. the one crafty thing I did do was this:
http://www.makeandtakes.com/red-white-and-blue-centerpiece-for-the-4th-of-july
My Mom had a centerpiece and this was too easy to make so here's my version:


I hope you had a good weekend too!!!