I've Become a Human Roto-Tiller!

I know that it's late in the season to be doing this, but I'm giving it a shot anyway. Earl's tiller broke and he hasn't been able to fix it. We both really wanted a garden this year since we have actually have a place to put one so I decided to till the ground myself. Here is a spot I did for the strawberry and basil plants that Earl's had sitting in the bed of his truck for almost 2 months now. I think they are much happier now! This weekend we're going to go down to the nursery and see if they have any veggie plants left and hopefully since it's so late in the season they'll be on clearance!



Here is another spot I'm working on towards the front of the house. There was some sort of bush here that I didn't like so Earl chopped it down for me and I'm digging up a bigger flower bed for next year. I want to spread my lilacs out come fall. I also replaced the ugly bush with a raspberry and lilac bush. My plan is to dig all the way down. I'm going to have Earl cut down the other bush that you see way down there.

All of the clumps you see on the side are waiting to dry out a little so I can shake all of the good soil off of the grass and weed roots. We aren't suppose to have any rain today or tomorrow so that is probably what I'm going to be doing. I'm having fun digging and can't wait to get some planting done. The kids are going to make me some concrete garden stones so we can have something to help decorate the area for now. I'm so excited and I figure this is a good way to get some exercise in!

Trying to Catch Up on My Sewing

Over the weekend I finally finished up some projects that I have had sitting in my sewing room. I just thought I 'd share with you all what I have been doing.

A Tinkerbell pillow and apron for my grand daughter Sabrina

A unicorn apron for her mom, Nikki

and a floral apron for my son's girlfriend, Amanda

I also made Mallory this little gathered skirt and a matching dress for her hairless Annie doll. I'm going to work on the hair this week.

and finally I finished sewing the squares together for the afghan I was making so now I've just got to sew in the hundreds of loose ends on the back.

Today I'm going to do some yard work until it starts to storm and then finish up a couple of other sewing projects.

Have a great day!

New Things I Discovered About Myself this Week

Val from Yarni Gras gave me this award last week and I'm suppose to list 7 things about myself that you don't know. I decided to put down 7 things I learned about myself in the last week.

1. Water and Peeing: I really don't like the taste of water so drinking 6 glasses a day was a challenge for the first 5-6 days. I'm doing better now by adding tons of ice to my water. I love ice! I do have to remind myself to drink though. I've never been one to drink a lot of fluids during the day. Peeing: I hate to stop what I'm doing to go pee........another reason I don't like to drink a lot of water and I've been doing a lot of peeing lately! I've carried 8 children and my bladder just isn't what it used to be. To much info, I know, but it's true!


2. Boobs: I love being a woman so don't get me wrong, but boobs can definitely be an annoyance! I was jump roping with the kids and bounce, bounce, bounce. When you run what happens? Bounce, bounce, bounce. Maybe I need a better bra? I don't know, maybe as I loose weight and the boobs start to disappear I'll like them better!


3. Walking: I hate the idea of stopping what I'm doing to take a walk, but once I start I'm really glad I did and feel much better afterwards. I also realized that if your taking a serious walk don't wear flip-flops! I also realized that taking walks provides some great quality time with the kids.


4. Cravings: I realize that I don't really crave things unless I tell myself I can't have something and then I can't quit thinking about the forbidden item. So I guess I won't tell myself I can't have something, I'll just have less of that something!


5. Bloggers: Bloggers are great friends and very supportive! What a lucky world we live in that we can have friends all over the world to help us in our trials and share our joys with us! Thanks everyone for your support and Thank you Val for your daily notes to me to keep me going!


6. Neti Pot: I think that using the Neti Pot has not only helped my sinus problem but it is helping the area around my eyes not to be so puffy and I'm not nearly as tired. The water and walking could be helping with the fatigue too, but I think getting the pressure off of my face helps a lot! I really noticed it when I skipped a day of using the Neti Pot.


7. Hope: I am feeling better about myself this week and hope this continues. My sister Cathy has been wonderful about keeping me laughing with her encouraging comments and Jeremy did take a picture of me jump roping last night Cathy.......but I'm not quite ready to show the world that photo yet!


8. Bonus Item: Even though I'm overweight, 47 years old and a Nana to 9 grand kids I can still "jump in and jump out" on the jump rope and get through the Cinderella song and 25 jumps after that. I surprised my kids and grand daughter with that one (and my poor heart)!!
   

Okay, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to think of 7 things about myself to tell all of you. Whew! Now to put 7 other bloggers on the spot, I mean pass this award on to 7 other bloggers:

1. Valerie from Life's Little Garden


2. Twyla from Two Crazy Crafter's


3. Denise from Polka Dot Moon


4. Gillian from I Heart Crafts


5. Valerie from Queens Chocolate


6. Lindsay from The Cross Stitch House


7. Cathy from The Life and Adventures of Cateepoo

I'm off to do some yard work before it starts storming and then to do some more sewing. I love not babysitting because I can actually go into my sewing room now and get some sewing done! Yay! Tomorrow I'm going to post the projects I finished up over the weekend.

Have a great day!

I Just Love My Kids!

We live about 5 minutes from Albany where they have a huge fireworks display every year, but since we only have the pickup truck and we can't all fit in it, we couldn't go to see the fireworks. Mallory was really disappointed at first..........and then we all decided to make the best of what we had. We stood on the sidewalk and watched a few of the fireworks from the distance but that wasn't to much fun. So then we got out the 2 packages of glow sticks I had bought at Michael's a couple of months ago and the kids had a blast with them. There was about 20 glow sticks in a variety of colors and all 3 kids got a handful and they would throw them up in the air at the same time and pretend they were fireworks. We made circles out of the glow sticks and rolled them across the driveway. We had more fun with those stupid glow sticks!

Mallory jumped roped and even got me in on the act.

I made it threw the poem and then up to 19.

My heart was definitely beating after that!

Jace used his imagination and his glow sticks were a steering wheel, a guitar, a sword and I can't remember what else.

Ezie got pretty silly with his glow sticks!

and even Daddy joined in on the fun!

We sat in the backyard and ate, looked at the full moon with the black sky and clouds surrounding it, jumped rope, played a little basketball, chased each other with glow sticks and just had so much fun spending time together and playing around. Then when the neighbors came home Mallory showed them how we made fireworks with the glow sticks and they joined in too. The kids rode bikes and then the kids jumped rope while us adults twirled the rope. They said they had more fun with us then they did at the actual fireworks. Finally at 11:00 we came in.

I love how adaptable my kids are and how they can make the most out of a situation. I hope everyone had as great of 4th as we did!!!

Happy Independence Day!

In September of 2004 my Mom came to visit and took me and 3 of the kids to New York City for the day. I never had really thought that much about seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island until I saw it that day. Suddenly I was filled with pride and a sense of patriotism. It's weird how just visiting a landmark can make you feel so different.

Happy 4th of July!!

2 New Things That Make Me Happy!

Earl and I have only gone out to eat like 2 times in the last 2 years. Last Saturday though after Lexie's graduation we had no kids and so Earl decided we were going to go somewhere. I am very easy to please and don't require anything fancy so we went down the street to Hot Harry's Fresh Burritos. Hot Harry's is kind of like a Subway in that there is an assembly line type of cooking and you watch them make your food. I love Mexican food and Hot Harry's has got the best, freshest, restaurant quality food that I have ever tasted! Everything is super fresh and really good!!! If you've never been to a Hot Harry's I think it is definitely a great find!!


My next new thing that makes me so happy is a Neti Pot. I have had sinus problems for years now and have lived on generic Sudafed. I got chewed out at the Dr.'s office a couple of weeks ago for taking Sudafed for so long. A friend of mine from when I was 12, that I recently reconnected with on Facebook, told me to try a Neti Pot. Honestly at first I wasn't sure if he was talking about a kind of pot or a kind of pot (I was a little wild back then!) so I had to do a Google search to see what he was talking about. I started using this clever little device last Sunday and I love it. Although it is kind of a weird thing to put water in one nostril and watch it drain out the other it is a nice feeling to have your sinus cavities cleaned out. So far so good with this Neti Pot and my sinus problem. I bought this one at Wal-mart for $14.50 and it came with 100 packets of the salt mixture. Not a bad price.....it's like paying for 2 1/2 boxes of generic Sudafed.

So Thank You Earl for taking me out to eat and having some really yummy Mexican food and a big Thank You to Kevin for helping me out with my sinus problem!!

Twenty minute Simple Skirt Tutorial AND GIVEAWAY!!!!

Twenty minute Simple Skirt Tutorial AND GIVEAWAY!!!!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

An Annie Giveaway

Cyndi at http://cyndisdistinctivecreations.blogspot.com/ is giving away a super cute Annie doll. She has 2 different ones and the winner gets to pick which one they want. Make sure you go over and enter for your chance to win.

Nothing much Going on Here

I've been finishing up a couple of swaps........that I would have had done on time if I hadn't gotten sick. Darn it! (I've been fluish the last 2 days too which really sucks!) Anyway, I should have them done and in the mail today and then the afghan I've been working on is coming along pretty well. I have all the squares hooked together and the edging almost done and then it's just sewing in those stupid end threads. I'm going to be working on cleaning out my craft room and then I am going to be doing lots of sewing.

That's about all I've been up to. Thanks everyone for all of your support and encouragement on my weight loss journey. I appreciate it!!

I Learned the Hard Way

I got to thinking after I did my post yesterday about Lexie's attempted suicide. Lexie was a freshman in HS and so I let her keep a bottle of Tylenol in her room so when she needed it she could use it. Lexie knew how many to take and usually told me if she was going to take some. I really wasn't concerned about it. Then I found out the dangers of taking to much Tylenol.

Lexie took like 20 or so Tylenol one night. The next morning I got a call from the school that she wasn't feeling to good and that she admitted to taking a lot of Tylenol. She was rushed to the ER in an ambulance and the hospital was very concerned. Dumbie me, I still wasn't aware of the damage the Tylenol was doing. I figured most of it was probably out of her system by now. I didn't realize that Tylenol overdoses may not affect you for the first day or even two days, but by day three you can drop dead or have irreversible liver damage. Lexie was lucky that her friend told the teacher what she had done and that her school acted immediately. She had to take some really nasty medicine for about 3 days to absorb the Tylenol that was in her system. We were very fortunate that she lived and that her liver wasn't affected.

Acetaminophen affects the liver, which processes Acetaminophen and removes it from the bloodstream. When too much Acetaminophen is taken, it overloads the liver's ability to handle the drug. In the process, it creates a toxin that kills the liver, and a person can die several days later.

What makes Acetaminophen so horribly dangerous, for children, is the difference between a "dose" and a fatal "overdose" is so small. According to some medical reports, twice the normal dose will result in liver damage. Some estimates say as many as 56,000 people end up in the emergency room every year due to overdose.

If you think your child or someone else may have taken a Tylenol overdose, call your poison control center or emergency room immediately.


I just want everyone to be aware that a drug that most of us consider safe and that we use so often on ourselves and our children can be a silent killer. Please always check the dosage chart before giving medications to your children and don't increase the dosage amount. It is for your own safety!
I don't know.......maybe everyone else knew about the dangers of Tylenol, but I didn't. Please use over the counter drugs as directed!!!

Also, many teens take over the counter cough medicines to get high. I found this out when Lexie was in the hospital.

Lexie's HS Graduation and More on My Weight Loss Journey

Yesterday afternoon my beautiful daughter, Alexis, graduated from High School. Lexie's graduating is especially special to me for a couple of reasons. Four years ago in September, Lexie's first year in HS, she tried to commit suicide. Thank God her attempt failed! Secondly, Lexie has finish HS while becoming a mother. Anthony will be 2 yrs old in a month so she completed a year of HS while being pregnant and the last 2 years while being a mom. Lexie could have so easily quit, but she didn't. Instead she strived to get her education and to live her life. She has even been awarded a partial scholarship to a local college. I am so proud of my baby girl and of all of her accomplishments and I'm so glad to have her as my daughter! Okay, I'm bawling my head off now so I have to quit writing about this.

Anthony and the Graduation Cap

A Flip Book in the Making

Congratulations Lexie!!!!

I'm so proud of you!



After I did my embarrassing post yesterday I received several very supportive messages. Thank you Kana, Dianne, my wonderful sisters Cathy & Robyn. My blogger friend Valerie has even volunteered to by my buddy in this. We decided that we would work together on loosing weight and that we would be accountable to each other. We are starting off today with a plan of drinking 6 glasses of water a day and walking 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Next week we'll add something else to our plan. Thanks Val for doing this with me!!! I'm going to be posting my progress on my sidebar so I can make myself be more accountable for actions. Wish me luck and if anyone else would like to join in feel free!

Here is a picture of me with my grandson, Chad,Jr. taken yesterday at Lexie's graduation. Isn't he a cutie?!?!? I decided as part of my new journey I wasn't going to hide from the camera anymore. I actually asked to have pictures taken of me yesterday, which if you know me at all is very unlike me. I'm trying to come out of my shell. So who knows, everyone may be getting sick of seeing so much of me in the future. A newer skinnier me!!

I also wanted to share a something that the Keynote speaker, Coach Pete Citrolo, said at Lexie's graduation yesterday. "It's not about how many times you fall in life....it's about how many times you get up". He also told the kids it's "all in the attitude". I think these will not only be encouraging words to the graduates, but to me on my new weight loss journey.

Have a great day!!!

My Confession and New Beginning

Last night Earl and I had to go buy me an outfit to wear to my daughters High School Graduation today. The last several years I absolutely dread shopping for myself. Growing up I always felt fat and even though I was a chubby in my 4-7 years of school I thinned out after that and was always petite. I weighed about 85 lbs and wore a size 0 wedding gown when I was 17. I never weighed over 100 lbs until I had my 4th baby. I got up to 110 then. After my 5th baby was born I got back down to 95 lbs. When I moved to New York 12 years ago I had gotten back up to almost 120 lbs. Progressively over the last few years I have gotten fatter and fatter. I very seldom leave the house and in my little world I feel fine, but when I do leave the house I am very ashamed of myself. Last night was it though!! I am so embarrassed to go to my daughters graduation looking the way I do. I am up to almost 190 lbs. I can't believe I admitted this to everyone. I'm tired of being embarrassed by my own body though, I'm tired of the way I look and the way I feel. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike overweight people......just myself. I'm so tired of trying to find clothes and nothing fits. I'm only 4'9" so any extra weight definitely shows on me and quite frankly I look like a rolly polly now. So as of today I am going to really get serious about exercising and eating right. I know a couple of you of heard this from me before, but I'm really ready now and I have no excuses.

My fat progression

I remember feeling so fat on this day,

now I only wish I was this fat!

2001

I only have 1 chin in this picture

2005

Now I have 2 chins

Me now. See all of the chins......on working on chin #3.

I'm going to be posting my progress over the next few months in the hopes that now that I've publicly humiliated myself I might actually be motivated to loose some weight. Wish me luck and any support and encouragement will be gladly accepted!!!!

Bunnies and What I've Been Working On

Earl rescued these little bunnies when he was at work one day about 3 weeks ago. A hawk came down and took a couple of their siblings, but Earl managed to save these two. My camera has been being fickle so I missed getting pictures of Ezie feeding the bunnies formula with a syringe the first 2 weeks. Now they are eating a plastic grocery bag full of dandelion greens and stuff every day. They are growing quick and as much as the kids don't want to we'll probably be releasing them in the next week or so. Jace keeps putting his hands in the praying position and saying, "Please, please can we keep them". He's so darn cute!!!


This is a preview of a small afghan I'm making for a friend of mine. I'll be done connecting the rows tonight and then I just have to sew in all of my threads. I HATE sewing in the threads and always put it off until the last. I'll have it done in a week or so though. I can't wait to see it finished and have it on it's way to it's new home!


Have a great day! It's raining here in New York.....again. It's suppose to be super humid too.
Oh well, at least it's not winter!!
Have a great day!

Nice Surprises in the Mail

Yesterday I received 2 unexpected surprises in the mail. I received this candle from Jean of QuiltingRanny. It smells SO good!!! I think it needs to find a place next to my computer so I can breathe in the wonderful aroma while I'm sitting here at my desk. Also, Jean is having a contest to rename her blog so be sure and check it out.

Than I received a package from my niece Emily. I guess my sweet Mom ordered me some MarkKay makeup from Emily. I got some mascara, eye shadow and lip gloss. Thanks Momma! I haven't worn makeup in so long and it felt nice to put some on. Mallory did a little make over on me and I felt so pretty!! I have always loved MaryKay cosmetics and it is nice to have some again. If you want to have some fun and do a virtual makeover go to Emily's site and have some fun!!

Catchin' Up

I am all better now and I feel great! I took all of my antibiotics and hopefully that nasty bacteria I had is gone forever!

Happy Father's Day to Earl!

Earl is such a great dad and I am so glad I picked him

out to be the father to my kids.

Thanks hon!!

and now for some more news I learned the other day. I found out last week that Grandbaby #10 was on it's way and then on Friday, much to everyone's surprise I found out that #11 is coming too! Jeremy and Amanda are having twins in January. They already have Sabrina who is 11 1/2 and Austin who is only 7 months. Bless you guys! You are going to be SO busy!!

Grandbaby #10 & #11

I'm Sick of Being Sick!

I haven't been ignoring anyone or their comments I've just been sick since last Wed. night and haven't had the energy to get out of bed and only a few minutes last night and now to check my emails. I thought I was just having one of my stupid sinus infections so I went Wed. night to Friday pretty much treating it that way. Then came the weekend (I refuse to spend hours in the ER) so I stayed home and progressively got worse. Spells of teeth chattering freezing to sweating with the fan blowing on me, sleeping nonstop and my back killing me. Finally on Tuesday morning I got into the Dr.'s and I had a temp of 103 and a severe UTI. I never had the usual UTI symptoms. I have been on antibiotics for a couple of days now and am very slowly recovering. Anyway, thats where I've been.

A Fairy House

At our old house we had a fairy house across the street and when it got nice enough to go outside here at the new house the kids and I found 2 fairy houses. We have one in the backyard and one out front. I planted some miniature pansies outside of the door of the fairy houses. Earl thinks I'm nuts......but you never know......making these little fairies happy may bring us some good luck!

Or at least some wonderful fireflies this summer!

You never know!!!

A Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend. Earl and I watched our grand daughters from Thursday night until yesterday afternoon. All of the kids were so good! Here are some pictures I thought I'd share of our weekend.

My son Jeremy and his girlfriend Amanda took me to the hospital to see little Jesse. This is a picture of Jesse and his momma, Fatima.

Here is me with Jesse
(You won't see many pictures of me on my blog, don't laugh!)

My two grand daughters and my three having fun in the sprinkler.

Papa being sneaky with the hose

He's so onrey!

Little Austin had fun in the little pool.

and finally the toads that the kids played with all weekend.

They finally did set them free yesterday afternoon.

We had a busy, but fun weekend! It was nice to have the grand daughters, but just as nice when they left! It seems like I had dirty cups and freeze pop wrappers everywhere. After the girls left Mallory was back over the neighbors house, Ezie had a friend over, Earl had to work and I did some weeding in my flower gardens.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Annie Dolls and a Picture of Our New Little Doll

I've never made a doll before, but I have always wanted to, so when I saw Aunt Pitty Pat's Sugar and Spice Annie Doll Swap I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm so glad I did! I found out that Marcel (Aunt Pitty Pat) is from my home town, Wichita, Kansas and I met a wonderful new friend through this swap, my partner, Valerie. Valerie had never made a doll before either so this was a tense but exciting swap for both of us!

This is the cute little doll that Valerie made for me. She is so cute!!! Her dress has beehives on it and then the little apron has a dragonfly button sewn on. Her red hair is pulled back on the top and tied with a ribbon. She is so cute!! I love her big eyes too!



Val also sent me a kit to make a different doll and a pincushion out of my all time favorite cowboy fabric. Val's 14 year old grand daughter has caught the Annie bug and is making her own doll. I can't wait to see it when she's done!

This is the doll that I made for Val. I wasn't to sure about the hair so I decided to put it up in rag curls and then made a nightie and a robe for her. I tea stained her and decided she was to dark so I put her in the washing machine (not really the best idea on retrospect!) and then I had to redo some of the paint on her face and all of her rag curls. Her neck got a little crease in it from washing her, but all in all I was happy with her.

Then my Ezie was home sick one day and I was working on Val's doll. He wanted me to make him a doll and I told him later after I finished this one I would try to make a boy doll. Then Ezie comes out of my craft room with some WWE fabric that I had bought to make him a pillowcase and had an idea for me to make a boy doll for him. He said he would stuff it if I would sew it for him. How could I resist?? So this is not the cutest doll, but Ezie loves it and who am I to discourage creativity?!?!?

I hope Triple H doesn't mind being made into a rag doll!

This is the newest Grand baby, Jesse II with my son, Jesse

I've had my grand daughters since Thursday night. Last night at 9:00 my two, the neighbor girl and my grand daughters had a picnic in the driveway. They were outside or on the computer playing all day yesterday and we only had one or two little spats. Not to bad!

Thanks Marcel for hosting the Annie Swap and encouraging me to join and thanks Val for the cutest little Annie doll!! I really love her!