My Happy Place

Emmys tube surgery went well yesterday!  I stayed home with her all day and she took 3 wonderful naps.  She went to bed around 8 and woke around 6...not as much as she usually sleeps, but understandable since she doesn't usually take 3 "wonderful" naps either (wonderful = one 45 minute nap, one 3 hour nap, and one 2 hour nap).

After she went to bed I went to Michaels and Jo Ann Fabrics for a "quick" errand.  At 8:55 pm Chris and I text messaged simultaneously....he wanted to know where I was, and I was telling him that I was heading home.  I didn't expect, and he didn't expect that I'd be out that long.  I just couldn't help it....I was in my happy place.

I picked up SO much fun stuff...so many crafts to do.  I found the fabric for the pillowcase dresses and will post them when I'm done. I found some everlasting bubbles, canvas tote bags, iron on adhesive, brown silky polka dot material, yada yada yada and some a vinyl tablecloth on sale.  Actually, everything was on sale- I rarely buy full price.

So I returned home excited about my purchases and decided to whip out the sewing machine and do a little project before bedtime...so here it is.

WET BAG.  I'm going to keep this in Emmy's cubby at school (and probably make another one just for the diaper bag.  We can put poopy clothes, dirty clothes, swimsuits, etc in here and it will stay contained.

SNACK BAG:  I am not a fancy enough seamstress to have no exposed seams...but hey, I got close.  The nice thing about the vinyl is that we can throw it in the wash, use dish soap or just clorox wipe it!  The velcro goes edge to edge to keep all the snackies inside!

There was sooo much material leftover.  With 1/4 of it, I can make a splat mat to put under Emmy's high chair.  And with the rest???  Well, I guess I can make gifts for other baby girls as they arrive.  So what do you say friends?  You need to get with it and have a little baby girl so I can make you a wet bag and snack bag!

I'm Random, Therefore It Is

Quick update on our little butterball:  Emmy has fluid in her ears (I talk as though this is something new, we've actually been dealing with this since February).  Tube surgery this Friday @ 7am.  She has to fast after midnight, so I'm not sure what we'll do during the 4am wake up call.

This past weekend was so much fun, we were up at TFL (my parents house is AKA Turkey Foot Lodge).  Saw some Indiana family, so that is always special.  It was so hot, but the slip 'n slide pulled us through.

emmy and gracie enjoying their pop-ices, like how it matches their outfits?

said slip and slide.  please note grants love affair with his belly button.

swimming in the froggy pool.  swimming diapers, or under-roos in general not required.

grace's production of "the nutcracker" and the boyd and mable park rock.

To Do List

...And believe me, I'm not talking about the never-ending, I-really-would-rather-be-doing-something-else, can't-I-just-pay-someone-else-to-do-this, I-would-rather-sit-outside-for-2-days-in-Oklahoma-during-July type of list...you get the point, right?

I'm talking about my craft list!!!

I need to do some serious crafting!  I would say I was at my crafting apex during college.  For any Cowboys out there, or anyone who came to watch---remember Freshman Follies?  Well I participated my freshman year and loved it so much I directed the next year.  We were paired with the SAE's that year and our theme was "Opening Night at the Stillwater Dog Pound".  Seriously, our group was awesome!  We had some great female vocals and did the most amazing 4 part harmony to "How Much is that Doggy in the Window".  I wish I had this on tape.  oh my, how I digress.  Anyhow, the point of this story is that a girl in the show and I made allll the doggy costumes for the boys!  How fun!  I must have been at Hobby Lobby at least 3 times a month.

Flash foward to NOW....much different story!  I MUST reclaim my crafting life.

So, here's what I'd like to get done for the summer (in no particular order)

PILLOWCASE DRESSES FOR ALL THE GIRLS TO WEAR OUT IN COLORADO FOR THE ENSLEY FAMILY VACATION.

MONOGRAMMED CUTE THINGS FOR EMMY, THIS WOULD FIRST REQUIRE AN EMBROIDERY MACHINE...ANY SUGGESTIONS?

CROCHETED NEWSBOY CAP.  I PROMISED ONE TO A FRIEND FOR HER LITTLE GIRL AND I HAVE NOT FINISHED IT YET...SO SORRY MY FRIEND!  I THINK I MIGHT BREAKDOWN AND ACUTALLY, BUY, gasp, A PATTERN. 

AND...I think I will stop myself here.  The list doesn't seem that long, but it's definitely long enough.  There are TOO many other things I'd like to accomplish but I want to actually be able to complete my list.

So check back in with me at the end of the summer.  If I'm successful with my list, I'll write a "post-job" report.  If not, then we'll just forget that this partciular post ever existed and I'll add all these items to my exponentially increasing "things I have started but not finished" list.

Goodnight!

USEFUL ADVICE FOR TELEMARKETERS AND JUNK MAIL

Tips for Handling Telemarketers Three Little Words That Work !!
(1)The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...'

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.  These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.


(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!

(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents. The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again You get the idea !

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

10 months = 304 days old

I've been battling a sinus infection for 2 weeks and I just feel....ugh.  So since this is the fun, monthly update post- I will try to make it fun.  But to be honest, I'm sitting alone in my house while Emmy is sleeping and my husband is at work late for the 2nd night in a row- and I just don't feel fun.

OK, my pity party is over.

This past month has been so fun with some really cool milestones accomplished.  I hope Emmy really enjoys reading these updates someday.

• You are clapping, it's too cute!
• You stare and wave at people until they look back at you with full attention.
• You can crawl!!!!  You can go from room to room, but you never stray too far.  On May 23rd you crawled your first steps for Aunt Kim.  You never did the army crawl, scoot, etc.  You just went from nothing...to crawling!  I wonder if that's a reflection of your personality, are you going to be an all or nothing kind of girl?
• You are into a size 5 diaper and 12-18 month clothes and a size 2 shoe.  You really don't like to keep your shoes on though, we'll have to work on that one.
• You can wave, and you can actually do it when we say "Emmy, can you wave?" (well, you do it about 75% of the time.  I think you understand but sometimes you just don't feel like doing it)
• You like to hold your toys and rock them, and sway to music.
• We are working on simple signing: please, more, thank you and all done.  You are starting to use all done.  We don't allow you out of your high chair until you sign all done (even if that means doing it with assistance).  It's much more enjoyable than listening/watching you scream and stiffen your body in your high chair just because you can.
• You can go from all fours to crawling, back to all fours.
• You are pulling up to your knees and I think you are very close to pulling to a standing position.
• Listening to your own voice might be your favorite activity as of late.  You also make what we call pterodactyl sounds.  Some other popular sounds: growling, dada, mama (but not really used in context), ahh-duh (you make this sound as you are throwing things), and bah (for ball).
• Woo Pig Sooie!  You took your first trip to Fayetteville to watch a baseball game.  It was soooo hot that day, but you were such a perfect baby. 
• You start winding down for bed around 630 and are almost always asleep by 715.  It was a little rough there for a week when you learned to crawl.  You just wanted to explore inside your crib instead of taking naps and going to sleep.
• Ever since you had pneumonia you have been waking somewhere between 330-430 at night.  There are nights here and there when you sleep the whole way through, I am REALLY read for you to return to the wonderful sleeper that you are....maybe it's just a 2 month long growth spurt?
• You steal the hearts of everyone around you.  One 2-toothed grin and you have them! 
• You are a sweet little girl and I keep falling more and more in love with you.  You love going to school, and I am so happy for that.  But there are definitely days when I wish we could just stay home all day in PJ's and snuggle (although you aren't really big on snuggling right now since you are becoming so mobile).  Your daddy and I don't know what we did before you, and we don't know what we would do without you.  You have filled a huge void in our lives that we didn't even know existed.  We love you Emmy Christine Sanders.

So blog readers, if you've made it through all this rambling- you definitely deserve a picture.