Walk to Cure is THIS Saturday!

Illness struck.  It came in like lightning, but stayed like a flood. : (  It has been no bueno with our family this week.  Ethan had the tummy bug last weekend, Carter started Sunday, Mary Claire and Clay on Monday..and Momma on Tuesday.  Blech!  Praying for strength to keep going.

We are getting sooo close to our Walk to Cure Type 1 Diabetes this weekend!  Our shirts got printed today, so we'll pick them up in the morning, sort and deliver!  Here is the front:

And I always order banners for the tent from Vistaprint..and sometimes pay a HUGE super-fast delivery charge to get them here quickly.  But I checked into Staples, and they print them the SAME Day in-house! : ) They are the same (and the website you order the banners from is even IDENTICAL!!).  Happy!  Skipping the $30 delivery fee! : )

I sent an email out to walkers today with all the details (where to park and where to go, when to arrive, when to register, when to show up for pictures! ..what to wear, a map, and all of the fun things to do there, etc.)!

We did get team bows made again, Sequoia is awesome!!  I tell her every year, and she needs to be in big business..but she's all, "It's a side job, I am a teacher!"  Don't let her fool you, she's awesome, and her prices are awesome-r! ; )

:wish I'd bothered to take a picture of all the red/white chevron bows to show you:

:adding it to Things to Do:

We are so thankful for the friends and families who are supporting our family this year!  From scouts to church and school friends, old friends and new friends..we are blessed.  I'm so thankful Clay will have at least a couple friends walking with him.  He felt left out last year right after diagnosis.  In a hot pink shirt.  

We let him make some major shirt decisions this year..from the color to style, etc.  I think he wanted Super Mario Bros. fonts, but Mary Claire just flat out rejected that..so hopefully we met in the middle.  This is definitely making things harder! : )

If you are walking with us, THANK YOU!!  We are so excited!  The high is only 70 degrees, so it may not be so warm on Saturday morning..we are hoping to get some hot chocolate for you!

If you aren't walking with us, please say a prayer for us!  For everyone's safety as we walk (on the UA campus streets!), for a CURE for our kids, and for all the teams to have fun and cheer each other on..no competition. ; ) I love all our JDRF kids, and I can't compete.  

If you'd still like to join our Walk to Cure team this year, here is the link.  If you are feeling generous, you can always donate to JDRF with the same link!! : )

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Philippians 2: 3-4

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Friends!  It is Christmas Day, but I wanted to take a minute to wish you a wonderful giving season, AND give you something!  I'm in a giving mood, got new Gingher scissors for appliqueing (thanks, Ches!), and I'll do a random drawing for a new acrylic monogrammed tumbler.  Just leave your comment/name below with what color/words you'd like, and I'll announce the winner on December 31st (I can't exactly monogram it today!) heehee

In the meantime, you can enjoy another goofy post with us! : )

This is the man who came to see us today!  He left great joy in our house : )

Ethan helping sift confectioners sugar for frosting.

Loves turning that crank!

We let them open one more gift on Christmas Eve-pajamas!

He got Woody (he's wearing out Buzz!)

I didn't know if he'd be too old, but he ran upstairs to put on the shirt I made him.  Think the design is a little small?  We all have a learning curve. : )

And then he wanted to look in the mirror, and get his double-barrel shotgun (I told him Woody has a small gun!)

Daddy got her Justice jammy pants, and I added a peace sign and her name. : )

Among other things I did yesterday..I made Sissy a bow to match her dress!  I started with these.

Made a star-she says she needs her bows to be smaller. : (

And..it's finished!  She did take it off once in church, but then put it back on.  My little girl is getting big.

I'll add a couple more of the kids at church last night later.  I must get my groove on and get ready to go to my mom's house!  Love you, Merry Christmas!

Dip us in turqoise, and paint us zebra!

What a day!  I finished 18 bows today! : )  Yay!

Ok, briefly-yesterday we were supposed to have the kids' teeth cleaned at the dentist, but we went to the Rogers office (they have two), and the doors were locked.  I called, and our appointment was at the Springdale office.  Bummer.  I didn't want to reschedule yesterday since I had so much to do, so we rescheduled for today.  I checked the kids out of school and took them in today.  Get this.  We got there, and there was a UPS note on the door.  I was having serious déjà vu!  Clay checked the door, and LOCKED!  I got out my phone, the kids got back in the car, and lo and behold-Marilyn opened the door!  I just yelled!  "Oh my gosh-I SO thought we'd messed up again!  So you're open?  We're in the right place??"  She was just laughing at me!  Apparently we were *shock*....early.  They take lunch late, so they were just returning.  It was crazy.  At least we were in the right place at the right time. : )

Then we ran by Krispy Kreme to see if they were hot.  No..but they still have yummy stuff!  We picked out an assortment, and sat to eat.  Clay asked if he could borrow money, pay me back, and get another one.  I said he could, and the guy gave him a free one!  Then Ethan wanted a strawberry milk, then we went back for a water (didn't like the pink milk), then we were finally done.  He grabbed a hat off the table-it's absolutely his favorite thing!

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 (Yes, we were the only ones in there at 2:50pm!)

Then, we headed back toward home-our tshirt order was ready!  We ran by there, and picked up our 75 shirts.  Every year, we grow just a little bit-so exciting!  Just looking at the shirts all over the hearth room filled my heart-all those little shirts represent people who really care about our family.  I know you have to get up early, I know you have other things to do on a Saturday, I know.  I do too!  We have two baseball games, our church's huge International Dinner and Silent Auction, Mary Claire is missing a cheer clinic that she really wanted to go to, and I still have all kinds of emotions.  I am busy living for the sweet kids I have, so no need to slow down now.

Just know that all those shirts represent sweet souls caring about ours, and we are so thankful.  Full of thanks.  We can't tell you how much it means for you to spend a couple hours with us both in search of a cure, and bearing our burdens with us.  Diabetes sucks, but this is the one time a year (the one day) when Mary Claire is excited it's her-she still thinks it's a party for her.  May God bless your families for caring, and keep praying-we can only get closer to a CURE!

Tomorrow: t-shirt delivery!  If you got an email or FB message, the T-Shirt Fairy will be coming to a house near you..!  And some of you with little girls are getting BoWs!  Yay!  I won't be all third grade and coordinate our pants and hairstyle-but don't think it doesn't occur to me! (ps-MC is wearing white cut-off shorts from Justice, and I got new tennis shoes with turquoise!)  I *heart* coordinating!

Warm Sheets

Oh my gosh-my baby is hilarious!  We just ate lunch (his Cars chicken noodle soup), and he got it on the front of his jammies (yes, it's a rainy day!), so I had him take them off to finally get dressed for the day.  He RAN from me, and didn't want to get dressed, then after a while, I started wondering where on Earth he was!  I looked all over, and found him in the dryer-with his warm sheets! He was rolling around in the sheets saying, "warm.."

I admit I like to put on my clean sheets at night (or is it because I leave them in there all day, then have to warm them up to get out the wrinkles?), so I can crawl into a cozy, warm bed.  I never thought of just getting in the dryer with them (half naked)!  hahahaha!

I'm finishing bows today!  I've made 17 so far! : )  I'm almost there.  I am anxiously awaiting the call from Jet Custom that my shirts are ready-I can't wait to go get them!  I'll have to bring them home, sort and label them by family, and get them ready for delivery.  Mary Claire asked to go with me to pick them up-she can't wait either!  Clay and Mary Claire have a dentist appointment today (remind me to tell you that story!) at 2pm, so I've gotta get going.  Just wanted to share our funny lives with you! : ) heehee
 

D'oh!

I have to admit, I'm a little sad today.  I would have been 36 weeks today, and it would have been okay to have the twins now.  My doctor told if I could make it that far, it would be awesome. (Yeah, it would have been awesome)  I feel like I'm back at zero-for the umpteenth time in the last year.  I see friends who were thwarted, like me, but now they have babies in their arms.  I just don't have a commonality with them now-it's kinda hard.  Well, it's really hard.

I have three great kids, and people never stop "reminding" me that.  But when you want another of those great joyous little people, it does not help one bit.  Please don't say that to me (or anyone else-it is no comfort).  Of course we are thankful for the children we have-that's why we are so eager to have another little one-so we share that joy again, and so their brothers and sisters can share that joy.  My kids love kids-they want more, we want more...I'm sure it's just a logistical problem. : )  We're working on it.

Maybe that's part of my writer's block.  That, and having fourteen things I want to say, that I can't.  What does Homer Simpson say?  D'oh!

Here's the link to 32 D'ohs!  Yeah, that's how I feel!

Maybe my day will be more fun-I'll look for fun things to do...like finish bows! : )

Hem Your Day in Prayer

Another Crafty Day! : )
I started this morning, making more thank you cards.  I stamped, and punched, and made tags with ribbons:

Next, I mounted them on the cards:

Then, I had to fill a couple in-we are so blessed that our friends are giving to our team, Mary Claire's Friends Who Care-even online! : )  They get super-expensive, and I'd much rather make them-so cute!
This morning, I made copies at the school, didn't even get to see my kiddos : ( then went by the church to get started on the books/envelopes.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear...but my long-lost friends!  They were up front getting ready to say the rosary together.  Sweet Becky came back to invite me to pray with them-I couldn't even tell who they were up there.  The church is dark in the afternoons, but I don't need much light-there's plenty coming through the stained glass.  ..Anyway!  I went up, and they had already gone through their prayer intentions, and they made me laugh (if that's not wrong?)!  They had prayed for everything-so they said I was covered!  Then (since there were five of us), we gave thanks between each decade-and they pray FAST!  Whew-I thought I was fast, but they were tongue-twisting me!  It was good to pray together-there is always strength in numbers. : )


So, then I finished the books, got some lunch, and went back to Hobby Lobby today after seeing how amazingly sewing occupied my kids-they LoVeD it!  I got a few more colors of embroidery thread, more needles (with bigger eyes!), and a sewing kit for Mary Claire-I was planning to buy the little things, but it was just easier (and cheaper!) to get a little sewing kit (and it came in PiNk!).  So..we used it all again today!  I was most surprised how Clay got into it.  We just all sat in my bedroom floor, listened to music, and sewed.  Even Ethan sewed stitches!

Here is Ethan and his "pillow".  He did the green stitches on the white felt, then asked me to sew on pom-poms: The green is him, the orange is Clay, and Mary Claire is blue (so sweet!), then he wanted me to make a pillow so he could stuff it!  He plans to use it for his beanie baby Elephant to sleep on (yes, he decided this on his own!):

(This was later, he was over in the corner, cutting up fabric with Mary Claire's new scissors)

This is Clay's pillow he made for Mary Claire's Polly Pockets-so sweet of him, and he made the pillow, stuffed it, closed it, made the blue lines, then wove the green in-so detailed!  I only helped him thread his needle once, and helped him tie a couple knots.  (This tells me Mary Claire will be so advanced in a year!):

(Don't you love how you get all these close-up looks at my carpet??) heehee
So, then we had dinner, Ches took Clay to baseball practice (first game tomorrow!), and I watched Ethan swim, while I closed up Mary Claire's next cupcake.  She's decided to give the Practice Cupcake to her teacher, so she wanted to get hers done. She did everything else, but asked me to close up the brown cakey top to the cupcake wrapper:

I forgot to tell you that Clay lost a tooth today-a Big Boy tooth!  He told me it was loose last night, but since he's my oldest, I wasn't sure it was a tooth that was supposed to come out.  I told him to leave it alone!  Well, he pulled it at school.  He learned at GT yesterday all about stock, and told me he wants to save his money and buy Wal-Mart stock!  That is an expense I can get behind. : )  So, all this evening was about the Tooth Fairy. (!)  We've totally covered this, but he figures he'll get more this way (I think).  He made her a new wand, magnets to carry metal teeth (!), a string with handle (to slide down from lamps), and wrote her a letter:

Then, he stayed up (since it was Friday), and made her a pillow, bed, and blanket, and sewed them all together:

Can you see the tiny bed?  He said she's only the size of a nickel, and Mary Claire argued she's Polly Pocket size, then they argued over how she carries money. Clay says she uses her magic wand to shrink things down.  He had this pile of stuff to put under his pillow (what a job for me!), so I had him put the "kit" in a Ziploc, just so she doesn't "forget" anything!  And since our tooth fairy is Super Forgetful, I have a huge document on my computer that *hopefully* will remind me!


So, then the kids went to bed, and I continued my next project: the matching hairbows!  I think I told you I ordered the ribbon last week, and now it's time to get down to business.  The JDRF Walk to Cure is next Saturday, so Chop-Chop!  We picked turquoise with zebra, so here's our bow:

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I usually make them bigger, but I've had a few girls register to walk since I ordered ribbon, so I've had to shorten them each a tiny bit so there's enough matching ribbon!  My goal is 20 bows, so let's see where I am in a week..  I think I've made three turquoise, and one zebra = that's a lot left to do!