Birthday Bandit

Sunday, February 1st -- Hunter's 2nd Birthday!! Yea! Oh, yeah, and then there's the Super Bowl too... Every year for the last 7 years or so, we have had a super bowl party, except one -- the year Hunter was born, we brought him home from the hospital on Super Bowl Sunday. So I guess that every few years his birthday will probably land on the same day as the Big Game. Oh well -- two parties in one day never killed anybody, right??

So I was baking the cake & cupcakes for the birthday party -- Veggie Tales of course -- the boy is obsessed! (If you are not familiar with Veggie Tales, get educated: www.bigidea.com) I baked the cupcakes & had them cooling on the kitchen counter. I left the room for just a minute or two, and come back to this...
Now, being a semi-intelligent mother of two boys, you would think I would realize that this was not going to be an isolated incident. However, I was trying to prepare for two rather large parties at the same time, so I told him to leave the cupcakes alone, moved the step stool to another room, and went off to do something else. When I came back, he had brought the step stool back into the kitchen and...yep... two cupcakes -- one from each pan -- slightly molested by the Birthday Bandit. Thank goodness they were the cupcakes and not the big cake! After a few pictures (that I think will make a great scrapbook page) the Birthday Bandit was ousted from the kitchen, along with his trusty step stool. Once again, Mom prevails, and the party must go on. I turned the cupcakes into French Peas, and the 9" round cake into Bob. I think they turned out pretty well!

Both parties were a success. Congratulations to the Steelers & their fans. Personally, being a Chiefs fan, I didn't care so much about the game this year. Oh well... maybe next year, or in thirty years, or something... but I'm not holding my breath.

Snow Much Fun!!!

Monday, January 26th we started getting sleet, freezing rain, etc. I was SO not looking forward to another ice storm like we have had the last 2 years. We just kept praying that the power would not go out! Tuesday, everybody stayed home from work and school. The nasty stuff was still coming down. Then Tuesday afternoon it started snowing... and actually accumulating! Wednesday James went ahead & went to work, but still no school, so the boys and I decided it was time to play! AJ had an absolute blast! Hunter on the other hand, was not quite as thrilled. He cried the whole time I was putting his snow pants on, he cried when I zipped up his coat, cried while I put his hat & gloves on... I kept telling him "Just bear with me...you are going to have so much fun!" We got outside & he was only slightly impressed with the white stuff for a very few minutes. Then he started crying again, trying to take off his snow suit & gloves. He managed to get the gloves off, threw them in the snow, and then stuck his little bare hands in it, which only prompted louder, harder crying. He did NOT like it! So I took him back inside and stripped him down to dry clothes. He was fine until he realized AJ was still outside -- then he started crying and pointing out the door saying "outside! outside!" It is not easy to explain to a not-quite-two-year-old that you can't go outside and play in the snow with no coat.

Thursday (this time while Hunter was taking his nap) AJ and I went outside to build a snowman. I realized that I have never in my life build a traditional looking 3-balls-stacked-on-top-of-each-other type snowman. I was halfheartedly shoveling the driveway, throwing all the snow & ice in a pile, and AJ was forming into a snowmound that evolved into Mr. Snowy. Mr. Snowy has green food coloring for eyes, a chocolate chip nose (we didn't have any carrots) and red hots for a mouth. AJ wanted to put clothes on him, so we settled on gloves & a scarf. I learned 2 things about my son during this adventure. #1 - AJ likes making snow angels more than he likes making snow men. #2 - AJ likes throwing snowballs at Mommy even more than he likes making snow angels. He is such a boy...

Welcome to 2009

Ugh. Resolutions. I hate the idea of new year's "resolutions". I think it is a dumb tradition where we set ourselves up for failure. "this year I resolve to do such and such every single day...blah blah blah blah." What in the world? Is this everyone's chance to be a politician for a day and fill people's ears with our empty promises? Even worse, an excuse to lie to ourselves and set standards that we know are unattainable or make promises to ourselves that we have no honest expectation of keeping? sad sad sad. On the flip side of that coin however, I do like the idea of a fresh beginning. I take it as a chance to freshen things up a bit, to re-evaluate, re-prioritize, and re-focus. In that self-evaluation we all find things that we need to work on, things we need to work at changing. However, I think that change needs to come through baby-steps, not by trying to make drastic changes all at once. You can't say "I need to lose weight, so starting Jan 1 I am going to work out for an hour every day". It doesn't happen that way. If you try it, you will burn out and quit. You have to start slow, and establish new habits that help you reach your final goal. It takes a month or so to really establish a new habit. It won't happen overnight.

I like to look at last year, see what needs to be worked on in my personal life, and use those observations to set personal goals for the new year. Instead of taking the "I will do x every day..." approach, I like to use a more-or-less approach. For example, you could say to yourself, "Last year, I did X about once a week. This year my goal is to do X more times a week." or "last year I did X 4 times a week, this year my goal is to do X fewer times a week." I am a type-A perfectionist. If I say to myself I will do x every day, and it doesn't happen on January 5th, then in my mind, the whole year is already shot. I have failed. I didn't make, so I might as well stop trying. (harsh, perhaps, and yes, my poor husband absolutely hates that about me.) Using the more-or-less approach allows me some room to miss a day or two, or "goof" without failing.

All that being said, a few personal goals for 2009 in no particular order:

• eat out less, cook at home more
• spend more time doing fun activities together as a family
• spend more time in bible study (actual study vs. simply reading)
  
• spend less money on personal hobbies (nobody ever said scrapbooking was cheap!)

So there it is, out there in the open for the whole world to see. Confession is good for the soul, they say (who are "they" anyway???). Friends with information are good for accountability, I say.

In the kitchen.....

A friend of mine posted a rather random note on his facebook page about his mother's Kitchenaid mixer. He was thinking about how silly it was that throughout his life he always remembers that mixer as being a constant, and it got me thinking.

A Kitchenaid mixer has been a part of my life since I was born. My mother had one, my grandmother had one, my aunt had one, and now, my sister and I both have one in our homes, both of which were wedding presents. It is almost like the mixer itself is a family tradition.

I remember my mom used hers so much that she burned out the first gear on it. I remember many many hours helping my mom in the kitchen as a kid, standing on a stool using that mixer. I remember several years of baking Christmas cookies where you had to be careful not to throw the flour everywhere because when you turned it on, it came on in 2nd gear! We have pictures of me using my mom's Kitchenaid mixer when I was less than 2, now I have similar pictures of both of my kids!

The heart of the home was once, and in my humble opinion, should still be, the kitchen. It was mentioned the other day that kitchens are now simply "warming stations". A generation or two ago, things were created in the kitchen. You started with flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and created a meal or a dessert or whatever. Now, you take some pre-packaged, pre-processed, pre-cooked meat substitute, and warm it. I remember when all of life's problems were solved in the kitchen. Dinners were made in the kitchen, desserts and cookies were made in the kitchen, and the kids were messy enough afterwards to prove it. Memories were made in the kitchen.

No, I have decided that there is nothing silly about the memories in a mixer. I have several stirring around in there myself. And with the holidays coming, I plan on adding a few more. :)

Babies Babies Babies!!!!

WOW -- Everybody seems to be having babies all of a sudden!! Two of my very good friends, Julie and Jenny, both had girls in the last 8 days! Congratulations to your growing families!!!


Allyson Paige



Olivia Jane (with her Grandma Jane)

Stained Glass Theatre -- Our Silver Celbration

Celebrating 25 Years of
Serving Christ through the Arts

We have just wrapped up our 25th season. It is hard to believe that what started out as a little rag-tag band of actors 25 years ago, has developed into a nearly 300-seat full service theatre, producing 7 shows every year. We truly are a jewel among theatres. The Lord has blessed us in so many ways. Here are a couple photos of our current home in Ozark, MO.Did I mention we are all volunteers?? Everyone; the actors, directors, tech crew, set crew, concession workers, house managers, ushers, dinner theatre servers, board of directors, EVERYONE you see on a performance night is a volunteer. There are only 3 paid staff members in the whole theatre. Pretty amazing, huh? We're not crazy, (well, not entirely crazy...) we do it out of love. Love for the Lord, love for the ministry, love for what Stained Glass Theatre stands for. Every year, we have an appreciation banquet and awards ceremony. It is a fun night that gives us a chance to dress up in our finest and have a fun evening celebrating another season, and showing our appreciation for all the hard work everyone does to make this ministry a success. So I wanted to post a few pictures from our 2007-2008 Banquet, to share a small taste of our fun with you.

CKC Tulsa

Wow -- I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post!!! I have been SoOoOoOo busy lately... my new mantra is "I can't... I have rehearsal." DH and I are both in the next show at Stained Glass Theatre and we rehearse 24 hours per week. That is enough for a part-time job!! It is going to be a great show, though! It is a musical called "Without Fear" - it is the story of Daniel. We will have performances every Thurs/Fri/Sat from Sept 11 - Oct 18. If you are in the area check out the SGT website for show times and ticket information!!

CKC TULSA
Wow!! CKC is a scrapbooker's dream! 4 days of cropping, shopping, classes, shopping, vendors, and more cropping! My mom and I went up on Thursday and hit a few of the Tulsa area scrapbook stores along the way. We also stayed on Sunday for a crop at one of their stores, and it was so much fun! I got a LOT done, which made me very happy!!

As for the CKC classes, I took a wonderful class from Allison Davis of Scrapbook Generation called One Two Three 4x6. It was all aout using full 4x6 photos on your layouts without cropping them first. It made for some fast and fun pages!! We completed 2 different 1-page layouts, and a 2-page layout in under an hour. I will be heading to Scrapbook Gen this week to get more paper to turn those 1-pagers into 2-page spreads, since I am totally a 2-page layout kinda girl. Another good class Allison taught was about journaling. She highlighted 8 different journaling styles, so when you are stuck in a journaling rut, you can try a different approach and see if it works better. I am anxious to get the copies of the notes from that class she is going to be mailing to us.

I also took 3 different board book classes, and loved them all!! I am really getting into making some board books now, since the boys love to look at them. NONE of these are finished, but I thought I would show you what I have done so far.

PIGGY TALES
This was a new company to me - they have been around about 3 years or so, but I had never heard of them before, and fell in love!! All of their paper lines are named after Fairy Tales. Simple, bold patterns for kids, and some more "sophisticated" styles for teens and adults. Their board books are FAR from ordinary! Lift-the-flap books, books with sliders, and more. I was definitely impressed! Here is a lift-the-flap book I made in one of their classes using their "Chicken Little" line of papers.



















LICKETY SPLIT
This was another company that was new to me. One of their designers, Shannon, taught the board book class I took. Shannon is from Carthage MO and has a company called K.I.S.S. that hosts all kinds of retreats and crops there, so I am sure I will be seeing her again, now that I know about her!! The Lickety Split Disney board book was a great class too!! I learned how to do a board book with a covered binding that doesn't get worn out from all the opening & closing. This book is still missing a lot of ribbon, tags, and white pen doodling, but I can already see it coming together in my mind, so I know it is going to be a favorite when I get it done!!



























PAPER KANDI
I also took the "A Boys Life" board book class from Tracey & Darby that was sponsored by Oriental Trading. It was pretty time-intensive with the stitching on the front cover, so the cover was all we got finished in class, but we have instructions on how to complete the rest of the book.








While shopping at the Vendor Faire I found a great sheet of robot punch outs from Cosmo Cricket that I bought for AJ. Here are his creations so far!