Anniversary Blessings

Today is my parent's 36th wedding anniversary. A few weeks ago I went over to the Hallmark to grab a few birthday cards and decided to pick up an anniversary card too. There I stood in the back of the store, tearing up as I picked up and read each beautiful card. They were all the same, "Congratulations on your anniversary...here's to many more happy years together...may this year together be
the best, etc". Ugh, this was hard. I couldn't buy them a card about wishing them many more happy years together, when that might not be. About 5 cards in, I found the one and that was it...the tears came swiftly now and I got a choke in my throat. I bought the card and high-tailed it, sniffing out the door.
I could have been crying at the thought of my own anniversary, which in two weeks would have been the 8th. But my own marriage is slowly crawling towards the end as we have finished filing all papers to divorce and now just play the waiting game. I certainly could have been crying about all that and the loss of my dream to stay married, though in all honesty I've not cried one tear in all these years about it.
No, I stood there fighting back the sobs in the Hallmark at the thought of what might be my parent's final anniversary. My dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer in May and given a year to live. Every day is like pins and needles, watching and waiting to see how he feels, how he's reacting to the medication that day, looking for any signs of irreversible deterioration. It's been a difficult summer, anticipating the unknown is painful for us all.
Mostly that day, I cried for my mom and the thought of her losing the man she's shared over 36 years with, her best friend, the person she does everything with. I cried for my mom and what might (or might not!) be her last year with Dad. I left the card on the counter for them this morning, wishing them all the happiness on their anniversary but no mentions of the years ahead, keeping those prayers in my heart but not able to talk out loud about what might (or might not!) be.

Sharing a very special special-order

I recently listed an auction for the winner to choose a custom design for a handpainted wooden tote. My customer requested a Scotty dog. She sent pics of her family's pet, told me her daughter liked the color pink and then set me on my way to create. I love that so many of my buyers trust my art enough to allow me to just CREATE and see what develops.

In any case, here is what developed:


And this is the lovely (paraphrased) email that I received from my customer:
I have needed to personally THANK YOU for the WONDERFUL
tote you made my DD!!!! She could not have been more thrilled
to see (her dog's) likeness be put on a cute tote! All the beautiful
and intricate little details... I am so impressed with your talent
and customer service! THANK YOU!!! The cute Hello Kitty Pencil,
trinkets, and bracelets were much appreciated by my girl, and I
am much impressed with your kind feedback that you left me
first, which just shows you have the highest of integrity and
servce! I am sorry I forgot to mention how quick your turn-
around was too. I plan to buy from you again, and THANK YOU
ever so much.

I put this back to all of my customers who have allowed me to CREATE special things for your family, whether it be a beautiful dress for Christmas Eve, a set for Western Wear week, outfits for your daughter's first Disney vacation or even a painting of your precious puppy. I thank all of my customers who freely trust in me to create these special moments!

"Spartanly"

When I picked up my lunch today I saw a sign advertising "new" homes. Now, this has always been a pet-peeve of mine, using "this" when there is usually a perfectly good word to describe "this" without having to us "these". The sign didn't say why these homes were "new" and not new, but there had to be a better word to describe them, don't you think? Like perhaps, refurbished, renovated or remodeled, rather than "new", which is so vague.

When I got back to work, my office mate was looking through a dictionary, trying to find the meaning of a word I'd used in an email to the entire company. I'd apparantly mistyped the word additionally and when the spell check popped up, I just said OK and it changed the word to spartanly! So I've fielded a handful of goofy emails from my coworkers teasing me about my word "choice".

Bedtime Prayers

Bedtime prayers overheard by my 4-year old:

"to make me a good listener, to put in my eye drops, for my Angel to talk to Grandma's Angel and tell her to calm down when she's angry, for the sun to shine bright and for the worms don't cry"

Obsession

I have two auctions up right now that got a lot of bids this weekend. I can't remember the last time I got even one bid on a Saturday, let alone 5! I'm official obsessed, I check my listings every few minutes, refreshing the screen, getting a drink, refreshing the screen, sewing for a few minutes, refreshing the screen... you get the idea! I'm so excited, I hope there is some last minute excitement, I can hardly stand it!

Taking care of Doughnut-Boy

My stepson stays with me on the weekends, it's been that way since he was very small. My boys' dad and I are in the middle of a divorce and now he lives in a different state, so it's important to me that the brothers see each other regularly.
This past weekend, we went to a party and afterwards, I took J back to his mom's house, forgetting that he'd brought over his hampster Doughnut-Boy. When I got home, J called with instructions on feeding and care.
The first night Doughnut-Boy was in J's room, however he pulled a Houdini and my dad discovered him in the bathroom at midnight. Since then I've kept him in his cage inside my bathtub to prevent anymore late-night jaunts. The door has to be kept closed too because the constant whirring of this running wheel would wake the dead.
It's been fun having him greet me in the morning when I'm getting ready for work. He stands and sniffs the air until I give him breakfast, usually an almond, half of a cracker, a grape cut in two and a piece of celery. I love to watch him grab the cracker with his tiny paws and to hear the itty-bitty crunch. He usually stuffs the whole almond in his mouth to save for later and then he gives him a bath.
Not sure why J has named him Doughnut-Boy though, I'll have to ask him. I'm not sure if it's because the hamster likes to eat doughnuts or because he's the caramel color of a maple bar?
Here is J with another one of his hampster, a dwarf named SuperSon (offspring of SuperMan and SuperWoman, of course!)


Updated with cutest picture of Doughnut-Boy, isn't he a sweetie?

I losed!

I went home after work yesterday and the boys were in the front yard again, this time fully dressed (thank goodness!) We went in together and played "Don't Spill the Beans". My nephew is 3 1/2 and like most kids, doesn't like to lose. During most games, he'll melt out of his chair onto the floor and cry, "I losed!" My son, who is 4 1/2 is generally okay if an adult beats him playing a game, but mad and pouty if his younger cousin wins. So it's always a challenge playing with the two of them together, they are very competative with each other. We had fun though and there weren't any tears during the game, though when it was time to clean up the beans off the floor and put everything back into the box, my son made it into a race and we picked them up in record time. When there weren't any more beans to pick up, my nephew did his melting act and cried "I losed!" So apparantly he won the game and lost at clean-up?

I only left them alone for a few minutes!

We have a lovely front yard now. Easy Turf lawn, a huge tree that provides lots of shade, a pretty white fence all around. And my brother and sister-in-law just brought over a fantastic table and chairs set so we can enjoy the outdoors. The boys love running around in the yard so I wasn't surprised to see my son and nephew playing in the front when I drove up after work yesterday. What I was surprised to see was two naked booties! They were bare-butt naked, running on the grass and jumping on the mini-trampoline (for the love of Pete!) I got out of the car and my son, throws up his arms and states the obvious, yelling "We're naked!"
"Yeah, I noticed! Does Grandma know you're naked?" I scan the yard for the kiddie pool, thinking maybe she's just grabbing them a towel or something. Then I look down the street to see if anyone has walked past, but nope, no neighbors thank goodness.
"Let's go inside and see Grandma, okay" I'm trying not to make it a big deal, they are only 3 and 4 and nakedness is no biggie to them.
The boys run in the house ahead of me and I hear my mom squeal, "Where are your CLOTHES?!" The boys explain that they threw them behind a bush. My mom puts her head in her hands and laughs and says, "I just came inside after checking on them! I've only been in a few minutes!"
So we dress them up again in fresh clothing (their abandoned clothes behind the bush were covered in fuzzy things from the tree) and send them out to play again, with instructions not to strip in the yard anymore...Oh, boys! :)

Seasonal Outfits

I do love this time of year, lots of activities, holidays and events...more reasons to dress up the kids in theme outfits! I've been a busy bee these past few months, working on holiday outfits like a crazy woman and here are a few that I've made and are on Ebay. Click the link on the left to track them down.

He shoots, he SCORES!

My little guy had his first soccer game on Saturday, which also happened to be my birthday. It was over 100 degrees of course, no shade and those poor kids had the reddest cheeks and sweatiest heads after just a few minutes in the sun. But they also had the times of their lives, at least my guy did, judging from the big smile on his face as he chased the ball around the field!
Here he is in practice:


I love how they look in their baggy uniforms, hardly any skin showing!


Could these uniforms BE any brighter? LOL

The new bike

My son got his first "big kid" bike last week, given to him by my kindhearted Uncle Tom. I think Tom gets a kick out of my little guy because he's quite personable and a funny character, so Tom promised him a bike when we went to my cousin's wedding the week before. When we showed up at my grandma's house this past weekend for her 100th birthday party, there was Tom with the bike already assembled in his car. It's a cool bike with bright flames, something my son has deemed "sporty", the ultimate compliment in his book! (And I was so proud of my older guy, who showed no jealousy whatsoever at his brother getting a gift)

Here they are, smiling behind the sporty new bike