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August 31, 2006
Location, Location, Location
I have been on the search lately for a place to take outdoor pictures of my kids and have been unsuccessful thus far. I'm finishing up smocking a jumper for Lizzie and when its done I'd like to take pictures of both girls somewhere outside. (suggestions welcome!)
We were playing at the Meadows (park across from Ridgedale Baptist Church) and I loved their fields and old fences, but when I went back to take some practice shots after playing I didn't really think it was the perfect fit I was looking for.
Here are some shots
The interstate is in the background and it just wasn't as good as I expected. But we did have fun playing and Val was there and that makes everything more fun!
LOL!
This weekend I'm heading off to help with a wedding at my friend's lake house. It should be very fun and I love to be able to help out and do some decorating. I wish Lizzie was a few years older because it would be fun to have her with me and easier on Andy, but I'm afraid at 3, it would be more difficult. So I'll be staying by myself in a hotel for 2 nights (kind of looking forward to it, shhhhhh).
Tomorrow is the play date with NCF and we're going back to the Passage and then after that we're meeting my friend Liz for lunch. I'm really excited because she just got some books from Amazon with reading lists for your children.
Let me preface this by saying I am incredibly uptight about what my kids are exposed to; we checked out an Angelina Ballerina book form the library and in the book she threw a fit because she had a new sister and no one was giving her attention and she threw her stuff all over her room. While I realize that I can use these opporunities to say, "we don't do things like that do we," I would rather my children (at this young age) have positive influences. Even the Toad and Frog book we got from McKays this weekend has the word "shut up" harmless to most people but I would rather my kids not be exposed to. So I'm excited to learn more about good reading lists and great ways to teach your children as you read together.
I'm sure I'll be posting more about this later.
Kids are melting down, time to set up a little people town and get them engaged in something other than climbing on my lap.
Posted by JennR at 10:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 22, 2006
New crafted projects
I just printed out some new placemats for the girls and I am really excited about them. I know its silly but I have visions of Lizzie very compliantly and happily taking the initiative to set the table each night with her new placemats.
I got the idea from placemats at the discovery museum in the Little Yellow House. Lizzie was pretending to set the table and I thought it was a great idea. So I took a picture of them and brought that image into quark and revamped them.
New mats
I also finished a necklace that I started last week. I found the design at a store and duplicated it. The necklace sells for $112 and I got all my supplies for about $25. The tear drop crystals are pretty expensive ranging from $2-6 each. I think the amethyst one which isn't showing up well in the photo was $6, so lovely. They had ones that cost much more and were beautiful but I was working within a budget (which began at $10 and quickly climbed to $25).
Andy keeps asking me when I'm going to start selling stuff like this but I would have to charge about $50 to even really make it worth my while (there's a lot of wire wrapping), and since I wouldn't spend $50 on a necklace I guess I have a hard time expecting others to.
It's such a pretty necklace though and if you see my often, then you might be seeing a lot of this favorite new accessory.
Here's the chair shot for this month, Julia is cracking me up.
When Lizzie woke up from her nap today I was watching a show on spotted leopard cubs on animal planet and she watched a bit with me. After watching them climb the tree in their cage she looked at me and said, "Mom, we should get one of those."
Posted by JennR at 4:31 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 17, 2006
Playing at the Passage
Last Saturday we took our girls to the passage next to the aquarium and it was so fun. They were falling asleep by 7:15 that evening- that was also very fun!
We're heading back there tomorrow with a play group from NCF at about 10:30 or 11. Come join us if you want!
Posted by JennR at 2:43 PM | TrackBack
New fun widgets
I recently started looking through widgets and adding a few to my dashboard. I actually went in search for one that would help me keep track of the time that I spent on projects and I found this really cool color scheme widget. While I feel like I'm sort of selling out as a designer by using this widget, its fun to browse through and has some great ideas.
The widget that I'm using as a timer is called The Daily Grind and the color scheme widget is The Color Schemer Galleria.
Enjoy!
Posted by JennR at 12:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Landscaper and Carpenter NEEDED
We are in need of a landscaper to help us dig our way out of the ivy in our back yard and to do some general beautifying. If anyone has any recommendations please post them. We're looking for someone who is very affordable and I find that those companies that have the nice white trucks with their logos on the side are out of our price range. So I'm looking for someone with an old beat up truck and weed eater in the back. : ) Just kidding, but you get the picture.
We are also looking for a carpenter to do some work.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Posted by JennR at 10:24 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 16, 2006
Grandpa Bob
My posts lately have been few and far between and probably not that interesting. Hopefully we're getting back into the swing of things.
My step grandfather passed away last week and we were at the service on Monday night in Maryville and it was a very sweet time with family. My uncle Tommy gave a great message and my cousins Christy and Lee led the worship. Christy sang Come to Jesus at the end and it was amazing. I really want that song at my funeral (for those of you who are still around). On the day that Bob passed away, we were supposed to go and visit and my mom called and told us not to come because he was having a hard time. I told Lizzie that we couldn't go visit because grandpa Bob was sick, so she talked about that the next few days and even suggested that maybe they should give him some medicine. On Saturday she was still talking about him being sick so I took the opportunity to tell her that grandpa Bob had died and gone to heaven. I had asked my sisters advice before talking to her to kind of prepare myself for her responses and she said just to be honest and if I didn't know an answer to say I don't know and then if it got really complicated to say, "hey look Lizzie, a butterfly." (that's a joke of course)
"I just wanted to tell you that yesterday Grandpa Bob died and is in Heaven."
Lizzie- "Oh, (thinking) did he see God and Jesus?"
"Yes, he did."
"Did he say hi to them?"
"Yes."
"Is he wearing his shoes?"
"I don't know, that's a really good question. Do you have any other good questions?"
"Yes, I have a question mommy. If when you are swimming in a pool and you open your eyes in the water then it will hurt your eyes, right?"
"Umm, yes sometimes. Do you have any other questions?" (related to the topic)
"Yes, if daddy dies with grandpa Bob then it will just be us girls, me, you and Julia?"
(uh, can we go back to the pool questions)
"Yes, daddy will go to heaven when he dies, but he is not dying right now and will be here with us for a while."
(now I can tell she's processing all the information and I'm about to pull out my distracting butterfly comment)
"So, grandpa Bob dies and um (she gets excited right here and jumps off her chair) its going to be for 3 days like in this book . . . (runs to get Easter book) this is the heaven book mommy, if you die you should read this book."
(oh man)
Then she starts to tell a story showing the front of the book,
"This is Jesus and he's a doctor."
"Why do you say that Lizzie?" (I'm hoping here that she's made some connection with the stories she knows about his miracles and acts of healing)
"Well, he has a white robe on."
Ok, so no such luck. That was pretty much the extent of our conversation. She talked about it the rest of the night and then pretty much dropped the topic. I do know that kids can grasp so much more then we give them credit for and their thinking is so simple. Each question she had was the same intensity, from the shoes, to the pool, to her dad dying.
I am thankful that in this instance I didn't have to explain that grandpa Bob would not be raised from the dead in 3 days, but I wouldn't be surprised if it came up again. . .
"Hey look Lizzie, a butterfly!"
Posted by JennR at 1:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 10, 2006
Life's little irritations
It seems like lately we're experiencing some of life's little irritations. When we came out of church on Sunday, this is the site that greeted us.
Someone totally scraped the front right bumper of our car and transferred their white paint onto our red honda. I'm pretty sure this happened in our church parking lot because we certainly would have noticed it before. But I guess we can never be to sure. I haven't really tried to scrape it off, I just shake my head each time I see it. Such a shame. Surely they knew that they did something. I might be eyeing the white cars in our parking lot next Sunday to see if our red transferred onto the guilty party. Course I probably wouldn't do anything, hmmm how irritating.
Also, last night while doing the dishes a puddle started to form at my feet so I looked under the sink and it was completely dry. I almost wish it had been soaked because the alternative is it leaking back against the wall and down under the cabinet and into our floor. I went down stairs and Andy was messing with the sink trying to find a leak as well and I saw watering pouring into our crawl space. This is unnerving. Although I must say that this house has been pretty good to us and hasn't had much wrong with it. It's hard not to get stressed and assume the worst. The plumber is coming in the morning and until then the sink is shut down and I am washing out the dishes and pots and pans in the bath tub. It kind of grosses me out to wash our dishes in the bathroom, not that its totally dirty- there's just a certain association there. At least we have water at all. How irritating!!
Posted by JennR at 4:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 7, 2006
Pull between anxiety and faith
For about the last month my mom has been going through some testing on a mass in her abdomen which ended last week with major surgery. Praise the Lord all the tests came back benign and we are now on the upswing. I spent all of last week with her in the hospital and getting her settled at home and when I left she was really doing well. The first part of the week though was pretty aweful. She struggled a lot with nausea and getting sick and it was a bit of a surprise to her how difficult the recovery was.
This whole process to me was very telling of my own struggles. So often I would ask others to pray and I would have thoughts of praying and reading scripture without actually following through with it. What a control freak! I kept asking myself if I really believed that God would take care of her and sometimes the answer was no. It was hard for me to let go of the anxiety but I tried to continue to turn it over to Him.
The week got a little more complicated when my step-grandfather was admitted the same day as my Mom's surgery due to difficulty breathing. He has cancer in his chest and in his throat. So he was on the 4th floor and my Mom was on the 2nd floor- it certainly was an exciting time in Oak Ridge. He is now home as well after a week in the hospital and has hospice care.
The week was so draining physically and emotionally and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else (well maybe on the beach laying out with my Mom). It's during those intense times that we get to see different sides of ourselves. Sometimes it isn't what we want to see but its all a process of purification and not perfection.
We have so much to be thankful for and I am so glad for my Mom's health and for God's continued faithfulness. And so glad last week is now behind us.
Posted by JennR at 9:52 AM | TrackBack