by the numbers

• amount of money Shutterfly wanted me to shell out for my cute Christmas card--$160
• amount of money I spent making a knock-off of the very same card--$17 for 100 envelopes, $2.50 each for a pack of 8 1/2x11 kraft & white cardstock pack, $20 for prints from Walgreens, and the remaining cardstock I used my stash.
• 1000=number of miles on Mike's brand new car already (he insists I've put on the most miles listening to XM radio in the driveway late at night)
• 5=the number of people I have left to buy some Christmas presents for
• 4 equals the number of people in this household that have been sick this week (flu-sick. Yuck) Kaycey and I have been spared for the most part.
• 15+=the number of baths poor Sadie had in three days
• 12+=the loads of laundry since Monday I've been attempting to do
• 7=the number of gals I know expecting a baby (or two!) between February and May (and two of them are expecting twin boys!!!!)
• 2=the number of bedsheets I rolled in a ball and threw in the garbage, not being able to handle the grossness
• 2 pairs of pants in the garbage (see end of last bullet point)
• 2 out of 3 kids back at school today
• 2=the number of shutterfly books ordered this week (I spent way too much time with their new customize feature! Just like a scrapbook!)
• countless hours of sleep lost this week
• Here's hoping for a healthy and better week ahead!!

irresistable!

I've been on a major cleaning spree through the house. I even dusted the cabinet shelves. I cleaned the glass front cabinet glass (pretty sure I haven't done that since we moved in...) I think I've been motivated and inspired by surfing the world wide web. I'm ready for an extreme makeover! Look at the fun things I've stumbled upon while looking for Christmas ideas.

I am not quite sure where I saw this one...

I pretty much love almost everything on this next site.

http://www.sugarboodesigns.com/index.html

and then there's this one...

http://signsofvintage.com/

and this adorable plate--totally customizable!! There's tons to choose from. So cute! Might get one for Sadie : )

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DishableDesigns

All this web window shopping....it's times like this I am totally missing the cash from bartending. Sigh. I *think* these could be made with relative ease (?) Maybe I'll give it a try.

belated birthday post

Our baby is TWO years old. And so sweet!!!

I think we lit the candles three times. She loved everyone singing "happy birthday", just like last year. She "read" each of her cards. She appreciated her presents with lots of, "Awwwwww!!! Chute!!!" (chute=cute) and "WOW!" She fell asleep right after opening gifts, but got a second wind somehow. She ended the night with a big dance performance for all of our guests.

funny

My Dad sent me this article from the newspaper. The funniest part is a bit of an "inside" joke I suppose. Cal has always called Sadie, Abe. So we all got a kick out of it.

GO PACK, 10-0

a couple easy projects

I am serving as a leader of a Girl's group at church for the second year in a row. I am in charge of the first graders (this includes my own little Maddie : ) We meet monthly and each month I struggle and stress about what project/topic to do for the month. It seems most other groups do some sort of craft or cooking activity, which is fun for them. But I'd like to have a theme for each month. I mostly did that last year. Then I left time at each meeting for them to complete a page or two for a book I bound and gave them at the end of the year. I also try to incorporate faith in each meeting/project. For our book last year, pages started with, for example, "God provides us with food. Some of my favorite foods are..." While I'd love to do some sort of book again, I have the same girls this year. So I'll have to come up with something different than last year's. I feel like they need to learn something-- about a new technique (sewing, baking, etc.) or more about a topic they maybe didn't know about. I don't want it to be something silly that will get thrown away a week later!!

In October, we created a mini book about trees. I must say, it turned out so cute : ) We used brown paper lunch bags to create a mini book. I then printed facts about trees which they glued into their books. The pockets were then to be filled with different leaves/needles from trees!

In November, we created a "thankful" frame. Here it is in the making...

I really love the way this turned out. The only problem is six year olds are easily influenced by each other, so they very much copied each other's "what I'm thankful for" list : ) Turned out cute, nonetheless. We started out by painting a bare wood frame ($1 at Michael's) and then made a list on paper of what they were thankful for. We adhered the little letters "so very thankful 2011" (I used my quickutz fonts and numbers) onto a 4x4 piece of brown cardstock to go into the middle of the frame. Once the frame dried, they added flowers and pearl bling, and I tied tulle around it. Then each gal used brown markers to rewrite her thankful list onto her frame. This could make a great gift or project for your Thanksgiving host/hostess! Or have everyone sign something they are thankful for from your gathering, and have a keepsake from Thanksgiving.

Here is Maddie's frame.