Joy, Joy..Winner, Winner! : )

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! : )
...And the winner of the monogrammed towel goes to:

Denise! : )  Congratulations, Denise!  I just need to know which design you liked better (ornament or wreath!), and the letter you want inside it! : )

We've already had a busy day, so I apologize for not posting earlier!  We saw Arthur Christmas last night (Very good!), and got to bed late. Today the kids had their first ACO (Art Center of the Ozarks) concert for Breakfast With Santa at the ACO.  They did a wonderful job, it made me cry! : )  Sweet, sweet voices singing songs of Jesus' birth and cheerful sing-a-longs.

Here are a few pictures:

Before they sang ; )

They put on Santa hats to sing carols..and they got to use song sheets!  (They have to have their concert music memorized!)

Clay

Mary Claire (you can see shy she wants songs memorized..they never look up!)

Aren't they getting big?

And the day continues..  Now we are all heading off to ride the Christmas Train!  Mary Claire is singing beforehand with her school choir.  We have to get going! : )  Merry Christmas!

Vera Bradley Winner!

And the winner is...AMY! : )  Congratulations, Amy from Three-Thirty-Three!

You have won the Vera Bradley Clip Zip ID in Imperial Toile! : )  Woohoo!

Would you like the Leaf one or the Floral one?  Your choice.  The other side is a clear pocket for ID or business card. : )  Hope you enjoy!

I don't have much to write...I'm home, tired, and stayed busy today.  I had laundry, Clay had a doctor's appointment, we restocked with groceries, the kids swam, and I got a nap.  I'm getting ready for a blog facelift (I've been on the waiting list..), so I'm excited.  I know they will do a great job! : )

Beachy Wreath

I'm Late, I'm Late, for a very important date! : ) (I had a contest end last night, and am just now posting)  SORRY!!

It got busy-I made a wreath...finally!  My front door has been wreathless since January (or February..whenever I finally took down Christmas).  So..I made a crafting trip yesterday, and got stocked up.  I have this huge roll of burlap "ribbon" I got in Joplin + starfish + hydrangeas + little flowers = New Beachy Wreath!

The starfish hanging were an afterthought-but they move around in the wind (we have storms and huge wind gusts today!)

I also got some fabric...Mary Claire wants a nightgown for herself and her American Girl doll that match.  I'm attempting to make them today.  (Ha!)  We also got fabric for a new pillowcase dress for them-soo easy for them to make! : )  Do you want to make one with us?  Let's see...get a couple yards of fabric (even 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 if you have a little girl) of thin (not decor) fabric and some matching ribbon (about 8 feet or 2 2/3 yards, at least an inch wide for the ties), and meet me back here Saturday! : )  (if you want a matching hairbow, buy more ribbon, and you should have enough fabric to make a flower for the front!)

Now, CONTEST! : )
According to random.org, the winner is....Meri!!
Meri, you've won the monogrammed and appliqued white kitchen towel! : )  I'll get with you to see what you want on it! : )  (ps-I just added you as a friend on FB...heehee (you were friends with Heidi and Leigh and Reyna and Brian and JDRF Tulsa..are you that close??)  It's a small world! :)

Thanks for playing friends! : )  It's been so fun for me!

Exhausted, but he can SEE!

Clay got his glasses, and he is sooo cute!

after boy scouts : ) (he lost his little brass thingie that goes on his handkerchief!)

I think he's still happy about them, and for that I am Thankful.  He was so tired this evening, so I put in his eye drops (moisturizing for dry eyes), and he even had me brush his teeth and wash his hands-he was exhausted.  Then he went right to sleep.  The last day of school is so tiring! ; )  All that outside play can wear a kid out (especially when it's 93 degrees outside!).


Now..on to the good stuff!  Our second towel contest! : )

We have a WiNNeR!!  On random.org, REYNA is the number one spot!!  Congratulations!!  You have to let me know what color towel, what fabric (style/color), and name you are choosing to have monogrammed! : )

Thanks to everyone who played along..and I'm trying to think of what to give away next!  If you have ideas, let me know! : )

Can I Get You a Towel?

YAY!! I've been waiting for Saturday to come all week! : )

Let me first blah, blah, blah about my family...to make you W-A-I-T for the winner!  hahaha-I know, it's not funny.

But seriously, you care...right?  We took Clay to the eye doctor (our sweet friend, Dina-she Rocks!!), and got a complete exam-his First.  Long story short, he needs glasses!  He got a cool pair (momma steered him towards plastic instead of those breakity wire ones with little metal nosepieces!).  They are super cute, and he should have them by Tuesday.


Then we saw Kung Fu Bear (According to Ethan) (I couldn't correct him yesterday, it was too cute).  I have to tell you, it was a sweet story.  A story of adoption, finding out who you are, finding inner peace, and woven in was the baby Moses story!

Can I tell you about the Moses bit without spoiling the movie?  I'll try!  Have you seen the first movie?  Po Panda was raised by a goose whose specialty is making noodles.  Po wants to see who will be chosen to be the Dragon Warrior, and come to find out...it's Him!

So, second movie...This Chinese prince peacock, Shem, was foretold that he would try to rise up, but would be destroyed by a black and white force.  He went out and killed and burned the panda (get it, black/white?) village.  Po's parents tried to flee, and his mother left him in a radish basket in an alley to save his life.  His adoptive father, the goose, found him behind his restaurant in the alley and raised him.  The mother had left him to save his life-just like baby Moses!  And just like Moses, he still rose up and fulfilled his destiny.  I'll leave it at that, but it was a great story.  : )


Ok, we can move on to YOU!! : )

Oops-that one won't work!  Flash=Fingerprinty glass.  (Think I point to things on the screen much?)

Ahhh..Much Better!

Now if you have SuperVision...you can read who the winner (number one) is!  If not...it's Heidi!!  Congratulations, Heidi from D-Tales! : )

Let me know what towel color, what fabric (specific or color/style, I have tons of fabric!) for the letter, and what name you want on it! : )  I'm ready to get started!


And since I can't limit the fun, we'll start again, and I'll give another one away on Tuesday, June 7th since it's the last day of school, and Clay's Glasses Day!  (and we need to celebrate little victories, like Hallie!)


To register for the next contest, make sure you are following this blog so I can contact you, and leave your first name in a comment between now and Tuesday at 9pm!
Thanks for playing!! : )
 

Don't Toss Your Cookies!

We were hit by the Ketone Bug last night.  I feel mostly immune, as it never strikes us...but it did.  I'd changed Mary Claire's site before bed, but she went low (66) right afterward.  I think it was all the playing around immediately before, but she was low nonetheless.  She asked to have this Bunny Pole that she'd gotten at a friend's birthday party for her low.  It looked relatively harmless (maybe under 10 grams), so I let her eat it.  I'd never heard of them, and she ooo'd and aah'd over it, offered me a bite, and I told her to just enjoy.  Now, I can see I should have tasted to see what was in it!  It was a 10 inch piece of sugary something, three colors twisted together.  Now I think it must have been dried buttercream frosting or something!  She was 186 at bedtime, and we corrected her, no big deal.

Around 3:30 this morning, she came in my room and said she felt sick.  I freaked out thinking she was low (even though I dropped her basal to 95%), and asked her daddy to get her meter and a juice box.  Then she said she thought she was going to throw up!  He ran back to get a big bowl, and lo and behold, she did indeed throw up. : (  I rubbed her back, held her hair, and prayed I wasn't getting splashed with icky virus germs.  When we got her washed off and her mouth rinsed out, we checked her.  A whopping 428!  Now, I got the problem.  We checked for ketones, and she had medium ketones (ha!  Between lo and hi ketones.  Love the specific pee strips.)  She couldn't drink, so I gave her a dissolvable Zofran for nausea and a big correction dose of insulin.  I set my alarm for one hour to check her again.

She was 282 at the next check, so I corrected again.  By 7 am, she was 182, and no nausea.  (Although the Zofran works for 8 hours).  Silly me had told her mid throwup that she could stay home today.  But after learning she was just high with ketones (causing the vomiting), I felt differently.  She'd missed enough school (for Disney), that she really needed to go.  She played the "but I'm tired" game, so I finally told her to go lay down, sleep for an hour, and then she'd go to school.  She did, and when she came out, she was all better!  I think knowing she'd missed a little school (we checked her in at 8:30) made her really happy (since Clay and Ethan were already at school!).  Nothing like free time alone at home to brighten your day.  (I kinda like it myself!)

She's been absolutely fine, bunny poles be darned.  I'll certainly think twice before using a random party candy for a low.  Or if I do, I'll check around online for some carb info!  Since I love you, and don't want you to experience Bunny Pole Ketones, I dug around, and they have a whopping THIRTY-THREE grams of carbs!!  Oops.  I totally won't use those for a low again!

Are ya'll ready for some WiNNeRS??  Drumroll please......I have some girl scout cookies to give away!

Roselady! : )

Congratulations, Roselady!!  I have a few choices for you: Do-si-dos (peanut butter sandwiches), Tagalongs (chocolate covered peanut butter cookies), Dulce de Leche (bite-sized caramel chip cookies), or Thin Mint (minty chocolate cookies)!

And since there are enough cookies to go around....let's have Two Winners! : )  Vanessa, choose your favorite too!

Ladies, just send your favorite cookies and your mailing address to my email: busymom3370@yahoo.com!

I love playing games!  So...we shall start another giveaway tomorrow!  I'm thinking a monogrammed bath towel for you or your favorite child.  ; )

Happy

We had a little Happy in our family today!  Ches was at the Inn at Carnall Hall in Fayetteville on Sunday, and finally saw Mary Claire's ad (but it was their subscription, so he didn't snag it!)..so today, I finally got my hands on the Celebrate magazine with her JDRF ad in it!

I can be a mom, but I *love* it!  heehee

She's my girl, and of course it made me cry.  How much more do we have to do to find a CURE?  Labor, raise funds, party, walk, fundraise, make calls, send letters, mail in checks, beg, plead, advocate, do photo shoots, have silent auctions, form teams...


You are in this elite club you never signed up for, and it's aggressive-it's your job to work yourself out of the club.  It's super-hard to stay in your little hole taking care of your singular child--managing the highs and lows, pump sites and blood sugar checks, supplies and reorders (which the pharmacist forgot to reorder on Friday, so today..still no insulin pens), tears and lows, hyper and highs, recalled alcohol pads and IV Prep pads, meters running low on batteries, cute pump pouches and fashionable meter purses, parties and sleepovers, beeping and alarms, breakfast to dinner--and not to associate with the Diabetes World at large.


I had no idea when she was diagnosed what it would mean to not only my day-to-day life, but also to my future, my Now.  The scar tissue that develops when your child doesn't want to rotate sites out of their comfort zone (tummy/bottom), and the scarring is insulin-resistant, and you fear nuclear reactor radiation coming across the ocean, and panic over having enough supplies to stay inside your house (juice, water, insulin, meter test strips, lancets, batteries), and forget a radio-who needs to communicate-we need to stay ALIVE!


Ok, sorry..I meant to be more joyful about finding her picture, and ended up being realistic.  Oops, sorry.

*Back to Reality!  We had a CONTEST!*  So I have made a list of entries for our journal contest at random.org/lists, and I have decided to give the top TWO people a journal since I have two journals-why keep them to myself? : )
The first winner (Number 1 on the list) is Jen!  She will have her first pick (which I think was the Jesus journal?), and the second winner (Number 2 on the list) is April!  April, you win the extra journal-the lime green and black paisley one!  I'm so happy for both of you! : )


Just send me your list of up to 16 tabs you'd like in your journal, and if you need some sections to be bigger than others! (Groceries or Meals to be bigger than Christmas List or something!)  I hope that one tiny part of your life will feel more organized! : )
Thanks for playing : )

"You should never let adversity get you down-except on your knees."

Is any one of your in trouble?  He should pray..  James 5:13

Waiting Princess

Ahh..precious days.  Makes all that crazy running around a joke! (but not really.)  Here is his newest track set up.  In my room.  I think he prefers it small and manageable.  He can reach everything.  He also likes it at my feet (and I do too-he plays better and longer!).

Mary Claire lost another tooth-this was for the Tooth Fairy to take a rest and have a snack!  (Umm..we are assuming she eats plastic food?)

And she was OvErJoYeD that we were in her room playing Barbies yesterday!

She even wanted to take my picture..but guess who didn't want their picture taken??  Hahahaha!

And we found Isabella a perfect game!  She loves princesses, her real birthday is today, and she's a big FIVE years old. I just adore her!

You are traveling to the enchanted castle, collecting gems and drawing friend cards.  Sounds fun to me!

All wrapped up, and guess what I added to the bow...

A Shrinky Dink!  I just went into Microsoft Word, typed a capital "I", made the font huge (350 pt!), printed, and traced it.  (and decorated it, of course!)

More sending love to my kids..I photocopied more of my "stationery" Mary Claire and I made, and colored them!  They are going to school in lunch boxes tomorrow.  Love those little people! : )

We worked on Ethan's thank you notes today-he gave me some words to say, picked out paper and bows, and wanted green writing, but didn't write in them!  I even told him he could scribble in green, but he's left-handed and not so good at writing.  We are working on how to spell his name, and he can get as far as "E, Cross" and knows it ends in "N".  Only two more letters to go! : )

Totally a side note.  I got frustrated at my desk today (messy is not an adequate word), so I got crafty.  I needed new pencil/marker/pen cups.  I dug through two trash bags to find three cans (yes, really) and washed and dried them really well.

I wrapped coordinating papers around them, some ribbon and jute string, then added labels with scripture and my favorite, Philippians 4:13!

I'm still working on my desk..it's a work in progress.  To make a short story long (which I'm really good at), I'm trying to clean my slate to start fresh (January and all), and I have been trying to think what I could do to take away all my twin memories and let it all go.  Forgive I guess.  I took down all my ultrasound pictures, put away my calendars, and shelved all the twin and baby books out of sight.  They've been on a shelf above my desk for almost a year, and it's time to move on.  I bought a new (pink!) Bible for me (I haven't had a new one since before Mary Claire was born, and it's all marked up-I need to start really fresh.), and we are starting a new Bible Study on February 1.
We've decided to go ahead and enter a Waiting Child application with Great Wall of China.  It means we'll get an existing child (maybe) who needs a forever home.  They won't be a newborn, and it's only after reading and choosing, but we'd still love a child.  We are thinking we could even see if there's another little girl with Type I Diabetes.  Mary Claire keeps praying for a little girl, sweet and cute just like her (her words), and maybe that's what we need.  So sweet, she needs insulin.
Pray for us as we take the road less-traveled.  The will of God won't take us where the grace of God won't protect us.  I think we'll just keep praying and listen as we go.  We won't stop trying to have our own child, but I can't keep focusing on my cycle-I'll go nuts!

James 1:13 God does not tempt men.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond

what you can bear.  1 Corinthians 10:13

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Deuteronomy 31:6

No, I didn't forget! 

Here is our Winner!!

Hallie over at theprincessandthepump.com wins a $25 CSN.com gift certificate!

Hallie, I'll send your code over via email, thanks for playing everyone!! : ) 

Sweet Friends

**Warning: This is going to be long.**  Get a drink, have a seat!  I couldn't pick any to leave out! : )

I'll start at the beginning.  Sandra was the monogrammed tumbler winner (!), and she requested her monogram, so here is her super cute pink and chocolate toile cup:

Very Hard to get all the letters on a round cup! Congratulations, Sandra!!

The first event this weekend was Ethan's Fourth Birthday Party at Boingo Bounce.

We had a Toy Story theme, so I wanted lots of toys out for the kids to play with.  (I remember when Clay was at a friend's birthday when he was three, and he was having a COW to play with the other kid's toys!) There were blocks, tinker toys, army men, potato heads, crayons, and paper, etc.  Here are a couple pictures of before the party: 

Yes, the water bottles were decoration-Ha!

Instead of just blank paper to draw on, they said, "Can you draw your favorite toy?"

Ana and Nora-both absolutely adorable!

My precious birthday boy (wish I'd gotten a better picture of his shirt!  It's three eyeballs and a necktie-so cute!)

Could Sophia BE any cuter??

I like this one of all the kids going up the "stairs" together!

In Motion.  Looks happy!

I always forget to take pictures of the background-this is Boingo Bounce.  They were wonderful! Supplied plates, napkins, spoons, cake cutters, aim-a-flame, balloon weights, fabric table cloths!  And so sweet!

This is the other side-all SLIDES!!!  WooHoo!

My precious Isabella.  My child in another life.

I know it's an awful picture, but I had so much fun on those big steep slides!  I couldn't stop laughing, good for the soul!  : )

Aren't they precious?  Doc even had a broken arm like Mary Claire!

I know it's a little blurry, but these girls were adorable.  They sat at the top for a while getting "linked", made a plan, then came down together-I loved it, off-center and all.  Love you Ana and Mary Ella!

Trevor, do it again! : )  He had an absolute ball with his daddy!  He couldn't get enough! : )

Are you in love with her hair yet?  Precious.

Don't. Laugh.  (don't turn us into Cake Wrecks!)

Ethan loved it, and that's what counts! : )

(Had to teach him about the Making Wishes part of birthday cake.

Sweet friends! and butchering the cake.

(he even had to have green ice cream-mint chocolate chip!  Mmm..we taught him well.)

Danielle took some pictures for me-she did an awesome job-thanks girl!!!

Aren't moms good sports? : )  What would we do without them?

Of course-Danielle took it! : )  So sweet!

Opening of The Presents!!  He asked for a globe, and Angie ReMeMBeReD!!!

His cuddly, soft, warm blankie with green bumpy dots!

Love this picture of them being so good.  Just checking things out.

Super Cool Toy: Tackle Box (and it's already full of toys!) (it has little organizer sections, perfect for cars, blocks, Thomas trains, and all his little people!!)

I really have to say, he had a wonderful party.  It was awesome-from amazing friends (Angie got to come down for Joplin!!) to sweet, sweet kids taking turns, to super-thoughtful gifts, I was so happy for him.  I pray he continues to have precious friends to bless all his days.

And we had one more event (which made me happy/sad-Angie left since we were going to be so long, and I really wished I'd had more time with her and Andalynn.  We just don't get enough time with them).  Our Girl Scout Cookie Kick-Off was Saturday afternoon!

 

The girls are all lined up, ready to present their cookies.  Mary Claire was introducing the Tagalong: a chocolate-covered peanut butter cookie-Yum!

And for the afternoon, I played the role of Photographer!  (yes, really!)  I took individuals of each girl, and troop group pictures.

Yeah, lots of girls took two tries.  Here she is with her legs together, un-jumpy, and still so cute!

Bless you, Troop 5807!

After the picture, all chatty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had church today, an exciting baby shower for Tiffany from church (won't tell you all the details, suffice it to say we've had one exciting, adventurous day!), and then a Girl Scout meeting and some grocery shopping.  I was so tired, I picked up a fresh (cooked!) chicken at the store, and added some fresh green beans (sauteed with garlic and olive oil), and bread.  Very Fast.
There was time for baths, and a game of Apples to Apples.  I think we've established traditions-they happen without you even planning them.  In the summer, they swim every night, and in the winter, we play a game every night.  There you have it, a Jones Tradition.  I'd like to think our friends are traditions too.