A week

It's been a week since I posted last. So much for 3 times a week. Oh well!

We had a good, busy week. Audrey got to perform prior to the Mizzou Pink Out gymnastics meet. She was so excited. A bit nervous, but very excited!

Hard to see her and a bit blurry, but she's there ready to go!

Saturday was another busy day, planned and unexpected stuff. Audrey had a make up class in the morning and then an eye appointment after. She will be wearing glasses for reading. She picked out pink glittery frames, for anyone that knows Audrey, I'm sure you are not surprised by that. She decided that after her appointment we should hit Baskin Robbins for a little bit of ice cream. Who was I to argue with her. Afterwards we headed to Micheal's to look at the new Project Life stuff and see what bands they had for her loom band since she's making bands for her classmates for Valentine's Day. While there my best friend called to see if we wanted to meet her and her son for a late lunch at the mall. Audrey is always up for a trip to the mall, so we went home, grabbed Dart and headed to the mall. A trip to Barnes and Noble always occurs when we are at the mall. My kids know I'm a sucker for books.

Sunday was a day of rest and screaming at the tv during the football games. I woke up feeling a bit crummy and decided later it was my body's way of revolting since I was actually cheering for the broncos. Only because my like for Peyton far outweighs my dislike for pretty boy Brady. I am not a fan of either team, but I do like Peyton, just wish he didn't play for the broncos. Was very happy the Seahawks pulled out the win. I am cheering for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl!! I think we might have to stock up on Skittles for the game in hopes of Lynch scoring several times.

Enjoyed an extra day to my weekend! Audrey had gymnastics, but other than that we didn't do much today. Another busy week ahead. Have a site monitor visit for one the studies and several meetings this week. Not looking forward to either really, but oh well. Wednesday Dart and I are going to the Harlem Globetrotters game! I cannot wait. He gets to sit on the bench during pre-game warm ups! This is our date for the month.

Today came with some sad news though. My brother in law's brother passed away today. He was 27 and had 2 young kids. His daughter is Audrey's age and his son is 5 or 6. Audrey and Emma always had fun together, my sister had them over to help her decorate her tree for Christmas and the girls were scheming how to get together again. Tonight when I told Audrey she said she was going to say extra prayers for Emma and send Dakota to watch over her. Aaron wasn't wearing his seat belt and was thrown from the truck. PLEASE always wear your seat belt. His accident was in the same area that my step dad rolled his concrete truck. Thankfully he was wearing his seat belt and managed to come away from the accident fairly unharmed. Had to get 7 stitches in his ear, but that was all.

New Year, New Attempt

I don't think I touched this blog at all in 2013! I'm hoping to change that in 2014! I'm going to blog for me! It will of course have posts about the crazy monsters that live here, Dart, Audrey, and probably our sweet kitty Blue! I hope to post about things we cook, the things I make, the things we do, probably some about work, and ME!!

Speaking of me, that is my word for the year! Taking better care of me, doing more of the things I enjoy, learning new things, challenging myself, and doing what I need to be a better and happier me!!


Like most of the rest of the world I did set some goals for 2014! I tried to set goals of things I really want to do and things I think I can do.

Read 24 books
Be more creative, make more things
Do more with the kids
Blog for me!
Take more pictures
Improve my health
Send and give more handmade cards
Get rid of clutter
Challenge myself daily
Project Life

With the BIG goals I know I need to set smaller goals, so I'm setting goals for each month. My goals for January are:

• Read 2 books
• Make at least 10 things
• Game or movie time once a week. One game time will be tech free!
• Blog at least 3 times a week
• Take 5 pics a week
• Take stairs every morning at work and 1 afternoon a week (I usually park on the 4th floor of the parking garage) Drink at least 3 glasses of water daily Some kind of stretching or strength training 3 times a week
• Send /give 4 handmade cards Make 5 cards
• Make organizing list Get rid of 20 things Make daily/weekly cleaning list
• Sudoku or other type of puzzle nightly
• Cover page Plan weekly Complete at least 3 weeks from 2013

I'm making pretty good progress on all of them, well except blog 3 times, since I just started, but I have plenty of weeks left this month! 

Currently...

watching...Big Bang Theory. Love DVR.

reading...U is for Undertow. Up next book 2 in the 50 Shades triology.

wishing for...rain and cooler temps. Seriously need both!!

wearing...Royals PJ pants and a t-shirt. Came home from work and got ready for bed.

thinking about...getting crafty again. After reading a friends blog and seeing her post her cross stitch projects, I'm itching to get back at crafting.

remembering...the weekend. Wedding, First Birthday party and good times with cousins. More on the wedding later.

enjoying...the quiet that is a house minus 2 kids, that I miss like crazy.

pinning...lots of holiday ideas and photo ideas.

looking forward to...August 4th when Dart and I go to the Royals/Rangers game. He is a HUGE Rangers fan and is beyond excited to see the Rangers in person. He's hoping for a few autographs.

dreaming about...sleep! The weekend did not bring much in the way of sleep and I didn't sleep good last night either so I'm hoping for a better nights sleep tonight.

Audrey had a blast dancing with her Charles at the wedding. Lots more pictures to share soon.

A Hero's Welcome Home

only the hero will never see it. This past week Columbia lost 2 hero's. One young man died on US soil and we haven't heard what happened with him, but it doesn't change the fact that a young man is gone too soon.

The other, while I don't know him, I know his grandma and it is hitting home. Army SPC Sterling Wyatt was killed when his vehicle was struck by an IED in Afghanistan. His grandma is a loyal volunteer at my children's school. She was in my daughter's class almost daily last year. Sterling attended the same elementary school when he was that age. The teachers have been hit hard by this loss because of both Sterling and Grandma Barbara as we all know her. Doesn't matter that she isn't a grandma to any of those kids, that's what they all call her. 


The family lives in the neighborhood of the elementary school and the school wanted to make sure the family knew they were in our thoughts and prayers. On Friday as a rare rain fell 100's of volunteers placed over 1,000 small flags around the neighborhood. Sterling's parents flew to Dover, DE for the ceremony of the transfer of the body, and were supposed to return home on Saturday. When they return home they will see these flags placed throughout the route home and then when they reach their house they will see several large flags and yellow ribbons in the yard. I drove by Friday after I got off work and had tears in my eyes the entire way. Saturday I took the kids to see it and again was full of tears. Several of the area businesses donated flags and others greatly reduced the cost and there were even a few managers of stores who chipped in a few dollars when they found out what was going on. I'm pretty sure there isn't a flag to be bought in Columbia right now. I love the community we live in and how we band together when someone needs it. 

The family home full of flags.

35 before 36 update

Because of changes in my life a lot of this list is not either going to happen or really important to me anymore. I'm trying to decide if I continue with what is left or make some changes in how I go about goals. I'm thinking more monthly type goals, but I wanted to update this list at least one last time.

1. Get rid of 60lbs. I don't want to lose it because you usually want to find things you lose. I have got rid of 10 lbs. Not all in one month, but over time. Working has helped, less likely to snack(especially working in a diabetes clinic and drinking LOTS more water.)
2. Menu plan, will save time, money and help with 1. This is one area I really want to work harder on, especially since I'm working 8-5 everyday.
3. Eat breakfast everyday. I'm horrible about eating breakfast. Another one that working is helping. I eat breakfast at least 4 days a week.
4. Get all recipes on cards. I might use them more if I don't have to dig through a box. Still working on, but it's getting there.
5. Get the kids in the kitchen to help cook more. They both usually enjoy it. Haven't been cooking much, so hopefully when we are on a more routine schedule it will happen.
6. Read "Little Women". My name came from the book and yet I've never read it. Still on the list.
7. Get my first mani and pedi. Nope never had one! I'm hoping soon!
8. Start going to church again. I haven't gone consistently in several years. Haven't done.
9. Watch "The Wizard of Oz" This movie scares me to death. NOPE
10. Get to and maintain at least 65 items in my store. Put the shop on vacation and don't know that I will reopen it for a while.
11. Add digital cards to my shop. See 10
12. Hold a couple of sales in my shop. See 10
13. Find ways to cut shipping and supply costs. See 10
14. Add wedding invites, programs and guest books to my shop. See 10
15. Add American Girl clothes to my shop. See 10, but Audrey got her American Girl doll, so I will be making clothes for her.
16. Get my vision of "Colorful Minimalist" into my products and shop. Will blog more about this later. See 10
17. Learn calligraphy. Maybe not the "traditional" style, but I want to explore more with handwriting. No, but I still think it would be fun to do.
18. Learn more about graphic design. Can't afford to go back to school now so I will teach myself some. Still high on my to do list.
19. Teach Audrey to sew. I wish I would have learned when I was younger! Going to cut out a blanket for her doll this weekend I hope.
20. Make mini books for me and to sell. For me it will be happening, to sell, probably not.
21. Do more DIY items. YES YES YES, still on the list.
22. Do something creative everyday. Even just something small. I've been trying, even with work to do something, I know it is good for ME to do something creative everyday.
23. Do 12 on 12 every month. Take 12 pictures on the 12th every month. Missed July.
24. Give more handmade items. Even if I'm not the one to make them. Hoping with not trying to get stuff done for the shop I can do this more.
25. Send/give cards every month to someone just for fun. Another I'd like to try harder on.
26. Project 365. There are several sites for this, but I found a site that will email me a prompt everyday. Did good for a while and haven't done any in a long time.
27. Clean up external hard drive completely. Started good last year and then went downhill. I miss pictures! Hoping to get on this again, it makes me happy to look at pictures.
28. Blog at least 5 times a week. HAHA! Hoping to get back on blogging a little more.
29. Be less crazy about things like how the kids pick up their room and put away their clothes. This one is going great with me working, just too tired to care, but I have to say, they are both doing great with it too.
30. Be more patient. I am so not a patient person. I'm still learning.
31. Declutter. 40 bags in 40 days! You can find lots of info on the web about it. Not doing the 40 days thing, but still working on 40 bags. I got rid of 3 bags of random stuff this month and a bag of clothes Audrey had outgrown to a friend at work with little girls.
32. Stop biting my nails. I don't want them really long, but I want them to have a little nail to them. Hit a spot where I clipped them all way down, but working on growing them out again. Still not biting them though.
33. Play more games with Dart and Audrey. We have a ton of board games and a ton of Wii games. Really want to get better at this, but they've been gone and I'm tired.
34. Keep inbox and google reader cleaned out. They got out of control several times this year. I'm much better at this. Unsubscribed from a lot of blogs I really didn't read and from emails too. Didn't check my google reader at all this week and was only at 400 unread. Went through and ubsubscribed from a few more I hadn't been reading most of the time.
35. Enjoy life more!! YES!! I enjoy my job and the people I work with. Learning to really enjoy things. 

After doing this update I really think it will be my last. I really think I will be going with monthly goals instead. The things left on this list that I'm still wanting to do will show up on my monthly lists, and some I am happy where I'm at with and so they are going to be more maintaining items. 

Happy Half Birthday to Me!!

It's really going to feel like a new year with the changes going on in my life too.

Monday I start full time at work! I'm excited, but also know it's going to be a big change. Because of this change I'm putting my Etsy shop on vacation for a while. I'm hoping after school starts to open it back up. I know that it's going to be an adjustment and then once school starts again, that will require adjusting again. My plan is to get started again the middle of September in time for the holidays. My shop will at that time have mostly holiday cards and tags and things like that, I don't know that I will be doing custom orders at that time.

I will be updating my 35 before 36 on Monday. Because of the change in my schedule there are changes in my goals and I'm okay with it. Hard to believe we are half way through 2012!

In other news, MIZZOU is officially a member of the SEC! Excited to see what the new conference will bring. I imagine the weekend Alabama is in town for the football game this city is going to be INSANE!

Hope everyone is staying cool. Our temps have been CRAZY HOT! A few more days of 100+ temps and then we get a relief at 93 degrees. But then we are back up in the 100+.

401...

This is my 401st post. I meant to do a post for 400, but missed it. This one also comes with some news...I have decided to close my Etsy shop for a while. I go full time at work the first of July and just need some time to adjust to new hours. I am also really looking forward to creating for myself again. I can't remember the last time I created just for me.

I hope to keep blogging, hopefully since I won't be putting pressure on myself to keep my Etsy shop fresh and new I will feel more like blogging. I will be posting things I make and more about family. I have been struggling with this decision for a while and based on some things that have happened recently I decided I needed the break and now I feel much more at peace.

She turned 7 on Saturday and FINALLY got her McKenna doll! She was so excited she jumped for joy!