Update

Last night we had a little excitement/drama in our house. All I can say is that it's a good thing the boys don't get injured very often because Chris and I do not agree on how to handle something when it does happen. Chris and I were cleaning up from supper when we heard a loud "bang" from downstairs. The boys were supposed to be cleaning up their rooms. . .

Chris went to check on things because we didn't hear anything after that ~ no yelling, crying, etc. Next thing they come rushing up the stairs, the boys are crying and Chris is swearing, asking them what the hell happened. Taite's head was bleeding. Now in situations like this, I like to remain calm. Chris, on the other hand, thought it was best to scare the boys even more than they were already. . . He said there was blood all over Brayton's room, Taite was worried he had to get stitches, started crying more when we said he might, Brayton cried harder because his brother was injured, so I didn't believe that an "unglued" adult was necessary in this situation :) I was ordered to clean up the "blood all over Brayton's carpet" because Chris knew how to handle boys as he once was one. . . I had to search a little bit to find the blood all over the floor and NO, I had not had too much to drink, my husband had just exaggerated a smidgen! Thankfully Norwex rags helped clean up the blood with just a little water and I headed back upstairs. The boys were calmed down and things seemed okay. Chris assured me that the same type of thing happened to him and his brother and it was his mother freaking out that reminded him they shouldn't screw around. I, on the other hand, thought the boys had punished themselves enough which was evident in their continuous crying! We have all survived and Taite slept on the floor in the living room next to the dog last night so he would be worry free (he thought he'd lost a pint of blood, then maybe a cup if not a pint!) He was wrong on both guesses.

Today we had nothing planned until Chris' friend Joe called to see if we'd mind looking at some cattle near here for him (it's a 7 hour drive to the cattle for Joe, so if we could preview them he wouldn't waste his time in case they were bad). We were game so we jumped in the truck, enjoyed lunch at the Pizza Ranch and messed around this afternoon. Kind of nice not to be in a hurry for anything!

Yesterday I took my sewing machine in and it's all better now!! No cost ~ even better!!! Today, I got an email to make a camera bag (someone had seen one I'd made at school), so, even better! Now that my machine is fixed, I need to finish some other projects first before I make the camera bag though!

I ordered a new refrigerator yesterday! No, there was nothing wrong with our current one, which is what made the purchase so time consuming ~ trying to decide if we should and knowing we had to make a decision by today. See, Sears had their Energy Efficient appliances 30% off and the one we were looking at fell into that category and had ice and water in the door. We have to do a little modification to the kitchen cabinets, but we already have the bigger above the fridge cabinet, so nothing too dramatic needs to be done. Our goal is to turn off the fridge in the garage and with the "old" van money, we decided to get the fridge. The boys and I are super excited to have water and ice so easily accessible ~ I'm hoping to drink more water because of it!! We also have the option to sell a fridge on CL and get a little money that way. Speaking of selling things on CL, Chris has been in the shed for awhile getting his tractor cab ready to sell and I haven't heard from him, so I better go check!!

Oh, that's life!

We've been enjoying the great outdoors lately and looked at getting a new umbrella for the deck. I think we might have finally found one for just $110 at Sam's Club ~ it's 10' wide and tilts so it should work perfectly for our deck, even if it's raining!

Brayton's poor face is all dry and scaly kind of because of his allergies! Sometimes if he's played in the grass, his face will get bumpy and not really welty because it's not red and raised, but around his eyes and nose it will be "different". Well now, that must've gone on for too long because now it's really dried out and looks scaly. I put lotion on this morning to help him out a little.

Taite casually mentioned to Chris tonight that today at school he was playing football, got hit in the nose and blacked out for a little bit! He went to the nurse and got ice, but didn't bother to tell her that he'd blacked out. . . Tonight, I think a combination of getting hit in the nose and allergies made him sound like he was holding his nose closed when he would talk. When he asked if he could soak in the tub after his shower of course we agreed!

Well, I have to take my machine in tomorrow for service. It's been squeaking lately and tonight after I cleaned it all up and blew out the lint, it didn't sew for crap! Chris came and looked at it, took it apart, put it back together (multiply this process by 3-5 times ~ I left to do other things) and finally figured out there is a part that grabs the bobbin thread to complete the stitch that doesn't move. The wheel it's on functions okay, but there are wires going to it so that must be the problem. Hopefully I'll know tomorrow for sure!

I got a credit card!!!

I received my very own Lisa & Stitch credit card today!!! It's a business one from Chase and it looks so cool! :D

Today Brayton brought his report card home. They were supposed to come home on Friday, but due to the unplanned, false fire alarm at the end of the school day, he did not. Taite's came home on Friday and he did very well. Brayton's came home and he did excellent. This made our oldest son a little mad ~ as if he has no control over his grades. . . I tried to explain that in most cases, Taite is thinking ahead and maybe not giving as much thought to what he is doing as he should. He completely disagrees, but we'll see if he can't work at improving his grades (not that they are bad to begin with!). I've tried many times to tell him to "pay attention" so maybe this will turn into a good learning tool.

Speaking of learning tools, both of the boys brought home a sign-up sheet for an extra, week's long of classes they can go to this summer. The classes sound like they would be similar to what the boys got to do when they went to the Engineering thing at the Science museum. The only thing is that it costs $200 for each boy to go ~ the classes are from 9 - 3:30, so the cost isn't so bad. I'm thinking that we should be able to write that amount off next year, shouldn't we? This is a week that is through the school and stuff, so I would think it qualifies, but we'll have to look into that.

Today the boys' had a couple of "firsts". I picked them up from school so they could go with me and the dog to Baby's "spring" vet appt. At this one we get the heart worm testing done and the flea/tick stuff. They had never been to one and thought it was rather boring. :D The only excitement was they had an x-ray up for people to guess how many bladder stones were in the bladder on the x-ray. If you guessed correctly, you could win a bag of dog food. When Bray was filling out his guess (we all 3 filled one out, each with different guesses) the "house" cat, sat right in front of him and laid down her tail ~ right in Bray's face (think higher counter top like at a vets office ~ perfect height for Bray's face)! We laughed and the lady working commented that she must feel comfortable with him to turn her back on him ~ hadn't thought of that!

The second "first" was "lunch in the field". After the vet appt., we went to the office and the boys wanted to walk to mom & dad's through the field drive. Of course I said they could and almost right after they left, Chris and I decided to go look at a couple of landscaping pieces we might need for our yard projects. I went to pick the boys up from Grandma & Grandpa's and of course they weren't ready to go~ they'd JUST got there! Mom said they could stay for supper and since dad is planting, they had a picnic in the car eating supper with Grandpa! They thought that was great fun and asked Chris if he'd ever got to do that ~ of course, many times! :~)

Next time I'll remember. . .
when Taite is giving the dog a bath, I'll tell him the bright pink and grass green towels on the floor are for drying the dog off with ~ NOT my bath towels hanging up on the towel bar! (I'm just glad I noticed before I'd used that towel again!)

Changes. . .

Things are just changing around here, but I guess that's life!

Last week received this email from Taite's teacher:
Sweat Awareness! Parents, it is that time of year when the kids really start to sweat again and smell badly. They were all fairly stinky when they cam in from lunch today. Just a friendly reminder (I have told the kids too) to shower or take a bath each night and wear deodorant every day. . reapply deodorant in the morning if they put it on at night after they shower/clean-up. For some of the kids who sweat a lot, it might be a good idea to throw an extra shirt in their backpack that they can change into after recess if they get real wet. I know. . probably not the "cool" thing, but it cannot be fun to sit in a wet shirt! The kids were just dripping wet today and read in the face-almost all day long. They did the pacer in gym (30 minutes after I picked them up, they were still red in the face) and then we outside for extra recess. . .they really should be TIRED tonight! Thanks for your help and attention to this situation!

She doesn't mince words, but I'm okay with that! Taite has been showering every night and wearing shorts to school because he's one of the "dripping" wet ones! :D Yes, he's changing!

Last week was a changing week for me! Lisa & Stitch has a bank account, credit card, tax ID # and I'm working on a very simplified website to just put on my business cards. I just have to get used to giving every receipt, slip, etc. to Chris so he can enter it into the accounting software so taxes will be easy next year! :D

Hopefully our yard will be changing soon! We mowed today for the first time this year and the whole time I was thinking about Chris' wish to get a box blade and something else (I hear blah, blah, blah, smoother yard and no holes, etc. . . ) so mowing will be less jarring on my spine :D I'm having trouble remaining patient though! I would like to start ripping up this, removing that, etc. before we have a real complete plan! My main goal is to create a fire pit area and Chris wants grass (nice grass) growing everywhere it should be. . . ahhh, and so we wait!

Brayton is maturing into quite the basketball player! At school during recess, they play BB and yesterday he went to a birthday party that had a hoop out front. The boys were all playing and Bray immediately paired up with his friend Andy ~ Andy had the ball and Bray looked very professional in his guarding of Andy!!! I was impressed, but was more concerned about him darting into the street for a run-away basketball like another boy had done when we pulled up!

I just don't feel like blogging much these days as my time is spent sewing! I apologize, but last week, I received money for 3 purses and 3 kids shirts! Yay me! hehe Which makes me feel like I need to go downstairs now. . . See ya!

My baby is officially 8!

We've survived the celebrations (one, just barely) and froze the extra food and just have the memories now. . . well, that and the left over Long Island Iced Tea mix ~ mmmm!

Last weekend there was a little celebrating at Grandpa Ken's house with cake and gifts and stuff.

This Friday, Brayton's actual birthday, the boys had the day off from school and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! We all enjoyed Brayton's new pitching machine and he didn't even want to go out to eat for his birthday, so we grilled hot dogs. Here are a couple baseball pics (not sure why I don't have one of the birthday boy! We all took turns and even had a batting competition)

Swing and a miss (dang that machine is good!)

And another swing and a miss! Yes, some do actually get hit!

Brayton was as happy as he could be ~ commenting on his best year of his life (not calendar year because last Christmas was included)!

Bray got the new Wimpy Kid book (about how the movie was made).

Brayton also got a human body simulator with organs and everything that comes apart and shows him how to put it back together, with facts and interesting things in the book about the body. When we weren't outside on Friday, he was performing surgery on his "guy". We now joke about how he does brain surgery (yes, the skull comes apart and inside is a small pink mass in the shape of a brain) ~ first you take the head off. . . not sure how that works ;D He can joke about his surgeon skills, but gets very upset if you can't put the "guy" back together just perfectly!!! My advice: DON'T TOUCH IT! :D

I survived another kid birthday party (Chris even had to participate and he learned why I HATE these. . . but endure them) and we had the family birthday party on Saturday night. The pitching machine was brought out and a lot of fun was had by all! We had batters, catchers, outfielders, even cheerleaders! Our boys especially liked that their uncle Jeremy joined in and was smiling!!! Neither of them could remember a time that they'd ever seen Jeremy smile that much :~) Guess we'll have to go to their house to try out the twins' new pitching machine ~ it's the smaller version for 3+ year olds!

This year, I got some trick candles and here is the video. I apologize for the shakiness of it ~ I was laughing quite hard!!!

The tired boys after all that blowing! Jeremy had just asked them if they needed to go take a nap:

Taite and Landen hanging out on the couch. I have a picture where Taite's eyes are open, but the picture is all fuzzy, of course!

The boys watching a little TV, hanging out under the quilt that Great Grandma made Brayton for his birthday!

Tonight we had a "moment". Chris and I had a dinner to attend put on by our financial planner and that's not so out of the ordinary, but my mom and dad were going too. We figured the boys would think nothing of it because they would rather stay home on say, a Saturday, than go with us, but for some reason, they were not comfortable staying home tonight. Our solution was simple. My aunt Sandy lives just down the road from us and I gave the boys her phone number in case they needed something ASAP and we would be on our way if anything happened as well. Needless to say, nothing happened and Brayton even went to bed as directed ~ at 7:30 and took his allergy pill! He didn't go to school today because when he woke up, his nose was visibly swollen from his allergies, eyes were blood shot and he had a sore throat. Thankfully, we have not had to use any inhaled medications so we are grateful for that!!! Our on-call babysitter worked perfectly and no incident transpired! I am now going to bed and will dress a little warmer as Chris has started sleeping with the window open and last night was just a little bit chilly, so I was very tired today. . . GOOD NIGHT!!!

Is yesterday over yet?

Do you ever have those parent moments where you see what everyone else has done for their kids and you didn't? Yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking I was a failure. Why, you ask? My boys didn't have an Easter Egg Hunt, nor did they even get to color Easter Eggs! It was a beautiful day for an Easter Egg Hunt, but I didn't buy colorful plastic eggs, nor did I buy anything to put in these wonderfully springy plastic eggs. You see my whole focus was on getting the laundry done before we left, remembering the candy, cap guns & ammo, ear phones for the DS lites, gift bags (needed something flat for packing reasons) and tissue paper for prettiness. I was side-tracked when on the way over to SD, I looked back and Taite had ear phones in while playing his DS. . . Yes, Santa apparently brought those for Christmas! CRAP! Now, what to get. . . So, part of my Saturday shopping trip was spent trying to "replace" the ear things! I found boxers, small cans of pop and small cans of Pringles as replacements. They were never the wiser, however, while I was out, I could've easily picked up eggs. The boys were thrilled with their cap guns and almost as excited about their boxers, but still, they could've had a "perfect Easter" if I'd have done my part. Why do we, as parents, feel that everything has to be perfect? I mean, I know how to make sure they have clothes to wear, food to eat and such, so why do the "extras" have to be perfect for me to feel like a good parent?

Well, I'm all caught up on my work after having been gone 1/2 of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. It helps that I can send emails and get some things done while I'm gone! Oh, and I got the laundry all caught up again too ~ yea me!

I'm a little tired today as I didn't get to bed until 1. For some reason it's harder to recover from that when my time was spent sewing verses when we are having fun with friends ~ hmmm, sounds like it should be government study to me. LOL! The MIL purse (as it's been lovingly called at our house and blog) is finally complete! It took me some time (sewing, taking apart, more sewing and taking apart) but the monogram was my idea and I needed it to stand out, I was just having trouble getting it to "work" with the little squares I had used on the rest of the bag. I like the finished product, it just took some time to get there.

I had 3 projects to do in my sewing room last night and I completed 2 1/2. It did not look good to start however. I needed to take my machine apart (again!) and clean it out because it was acting up. I found a piece that has oil on it and after I had cleaned off all the lint, thought it could use more oil. Finding the oil lead to cleaning and organizing my "stuff" in the sewing room. I rearranged, put away, organized and never did find the oil. So, I went to sewing and THEN found the oil in a basket I'd pulled out. That didn't really do the trick on my machine, so I guess I'll just have to take it in. I did sew part of my Thangles squares (block of the month) and I sewed the edges on all the pieces of fabric that Bray's teacher sent home so that was alllll good! Oh, and I forgot to mention that I needed to come up with a tag or some type of label that said I made this purse (request of the customer) and that took me a little time too, to figure out. I think the end result is pretty good considering the whole thing of ribbon cost me $2 and on custom tag websites, they want $2 per tag! Add a little learning time and voila ~

Oh, and speaking of my purses. . . while we were gone, the affidavit came that says I can "officially" call my business 'Lisa & Stitch' ~ YEAH!!! We ran the ad in the Post Bulletin (yes, we paid up) and no one contested the use of the name (I still would really like to know how long that one has been on the books. . . ), so it's mine for 6 years or 8 years or 10 years, I can't remember :~D

I gotta go get more coffee. . .

Busy weekend!

We went back to Wessington for Easter since the boys didn't have school Thurs, Fri, and Monday. We came back Monday for many reasons, but picked up the boys early on Wednesday so we could make it there before 10 pm!

Wednesday:
We weren't on the road an hour, I don't think, when we heard the first "Are we almost there?" from the back seat. We picked up groceries in Huron (it's difficult to drop in on one person and not have groceries to contribute) and met Carmen at her house in Wolsey (she was out for a walk). We met Tyson and he had a few smiles for us (he kind of keeps them to himself) and when he smiles, he has these cute ~ not really dimples, but indents ~ that make his smile "super" cute! We dropped in on Rick and Hiddy (they said they were just sitting around, but their pizza was still on the table. . .) and had a quick "hi/bye" because we had NOT eaten yet and it was around 7:30! We were all starving! :~) Ken made it home about 8 or 8:30, so we had the house to ourselves for a little while.

Thursday:
I watched Tyson and Chris and the boys went with Ken to the "Farm" (Ken's mom and his brother live on the farm and his other brother and nephew and brother that live there all run the farm). They were raising a pole shed and at a critical point so Chris helped with that and I'm not quite sure what the boys did, but they were dirty when they came home! Dirt sitting inside their ears, dirty!! Chris and I cleaned the boys up and after supper went to visit Chris' high school friend, Joe and his wife Lisa (the boys didn't come because it was 8 when we left and they were in their PJ's ~ they watched the Blind Side with Grandpa). Before we knew it, it was 1 am (this tends to happen with us when we get together with Joe & Lisa!) and the 5 hours at their house went much faster than the 5 hours in the van the day before!

Friday:
Family picture day! We were excited to have a chance to get a picture that we could replace the "family" picture we have on the shelf at my mom & dad's because that was taken when I was pregnant with Brayton. . . Check out the sneak peek from the photo shoot here: parmelyphotography.com/blog I can't wait to see the rest of them! After the photo shoot, we all got together at Ken's house for supper. A good time was had by all!

Saturday:
Chris and Ken went to work on the shed again and Carmen picked up the boys after she'd gone to a funeral, so I was all alone. I decided to shop in Miller. It's closer than Huron and a bit smaller, but I enjoyed it! Lisa had said there is a cute coffee shop in town and I happened to come upon it and was thrilled I did! I cost me some money, but I figure in this economy, we have to spread our wealth ~ LOL!!! (I'm not sure what excuse I'll use when the economy is better. . .)

Sunday:
The Easter Bunny brought the boys candy, cap guns and boxers. They were thrilled as they had never seen a cap gun before! Taite was concerned that it looked plugged at the end of the gun, but I finally got it through his head that they didn't shoot anything! For dinner/lunch, we were invited to Chris' uncle's house and we left there about 4, so it was kind of a late night when we got home.

Monday:
Our nephew's daycare is closed all this week, so my mom watched the twins yesterday. I stopped over in the morning to pick up my work files and the boys came with to get their Easter gifts from Grandma. Needless to say, she was keeping them so all 4 boys could play together. I don't remember how many times she told me later that day about how they all played so well together. . . It was neat how that all worked out because normally our boys would be in school and they wouldn't get to spend the time together with L&M. The twins had been asking about T&B on Easter :~)