day 11: Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  So far, my day has been full of generous gifts from my hubby and children, a delicious breakfast, and LOTS of snuggles on the sofa.  The only bad part is that the sky is gray and it’s raining now.  Well that, and J starts two weeks of a rough schedule tonight working in the ICU with super sick patients.  

day 10: sorry

Sorry I missed out on Saturday.  The WordPress server was apparently having issues.  All it said was “WordPress will be back in a minute”.  Oh well.

 

I spent the day packing our china, crystal, and serving dishes.  What fun!

day 9: it worked!

Thanks ever so much to my smarty pants sister-in-law (technically I guess she J’s SIL since she’s married to his brother, but I still call her my SIL) for the help with the button.  I just knew somebody out there could figure it out!

 

Belle is back at school today.  The phantom tummy ache is gone.  I call it phantom not because I don’t believe that it hurt, I could tell that it really hurt, but because there didn’t seem to be any other real symptoms with it and it seemed to disappear as quickly as it came.  

 

I’m looking forward to tomorrow with J home.  His schedule has been so terrible this week, he hasn’t even seen Little Lamb except to kiss her goodbye in the morning in several days.  The only reason he saw Belle and Little Bear yesterday was because we were all huddled in the bathroom together during a Tornado warning.  (Yes, LL was there too but I had to wake her up and she just sat in my lap in a sleepy haze so I don’t really count it.)  There were, indeed, no tornadoes but we decided rather safe than sorry.  I was really missing our TX meteorologists who show you exactly where the cited rotations are, which cells are likely to cause trouble, exactly who needs to duck and cover, etc.  The neighbor’s tree looks like it might have some damage-the limbs are hanging pretty low to the ground.  It’s not a big tree, but the limbs are covered with many, many leaves making them quite heavy.

day 8: more fun!

I ran across a link I had to share.  I love making stationary for people as gifts and these button cards are a fun idea that would be so easy to do with the kids.  One note, however.  I would use that same Terrifically Tacky glue I linked in my last post or those glue dots instead of the hot glue gun for the aforementioned reasons.  Also, I hate all those annoying stringy things the glue gun leaves behind.

 

I have one more gift idea to share but Little Lamb just woke from her nap.  I’ll try to get back to it tonight.

 

 

day 8: UGH!

I spent the last half hour trying to load the “A Post a Day in May” button and it’s making me crazy.  Here’s what I’ve tried and perhaps one of you more intelligent folks can help me out!  

Here’s the code I’m trying to enter: 

<a href=”http://tinyurl.com/5a7hre”><img src=”http://tinyurl.com/6j9eze”/></a>

 

I go to Design, Widgets, and add a Text thing over on the right.  I click on Edit and then input the code in the box.  I’ve tried typing it in myself as well as copying and pasting from Jenny’s site.  I then click Change which closes the box.  Then, I click Save Changes.  At this point, if I click the Edit button it has taken out part of the code which leads to no image on my blog.  Basically it removes the section from src through 6j9eze/  I’ve tried using a different button (she has several different sizes on her site and I was trying to load the smallest) but it does the exact same thing.  I’d just love it if one of you could solve this issue for me.  I did the same things when I added those ticker things, but they worked just fine.

 

Another ugh, Belle is home from school with a stomach ache.  She says she’s not nauseous, she’s had a tiny bit of “other stomach issues”, but she’s not acting like herself.  I’m beginning to think bubble suits need to be my next creative endeavor.

day 7: Ask and you shall receive…

Jennifer ever so sweetly asked for my ideas on Mother’s Day and teacher’s gifts so here’s my thoughts…

 

Little Lamb and I headed to Michael’s yesterday armed with two, yes two!, coupons.  If you missed this week’s add, there was the standard 40% off coupon as well as a 50% off any Martha Stewart item.  As I was looking in the Martha section, I stumbled upon a book titled, Scrapbooks on the Go…NEW Projects to Make When You’re in a Hurry…  I thought to myself-perfect!!  This book is loaded with fun ideas.  

 

I chose to make the glass bottle project on the front cover.  Partly because I only needed the bottles and adhesive, and also because it has so much flexibility.  You can put whatever you want in there!  I’m not exactly certain what’s going in mine, but I think it will be definitions of words that Belle gives me that describe her Grandma and Mimi.  Obviously these won’t be making to them by Sunday, but I don’t think either of them will mind…much!

As I was searching the house for supplies for the bottles, I came across some little magnets which gave me the idea for the teacher’s gifts.  You see, the bottles I purchased came filled with paper flowers.  So I came up with the idea of making the teachers magnets with the paper flowers.  I used the same adhesive as with the bottles (Terrifically Tacky Tape by Provo Craft) as it can hold anything and it doesn’t have the safety issues of a glue gun.  It’s also a fairly stress free project for Belle to help with.

 

Another teacher gift we’ll put together is cookie mixes in a jar.  While these are typically more of a Christmas gift, I have a reason for this idea.  Some time ago, Belle drew a plate of cookies and decided she wanted to give each of her teachers a similar drawing as well as a real plate of cookies.  I had to break the news to her this week that I doubt we’ll get a plate of cookies made, seeing as our kitchen ware will be all boxed up waiting to get into the new house.  This afternoon I had the idea of the cookie mixes and her eyes lit up.  I haven’t searched out the perfect mix yet (suggestions anyone?), but the plan is that I will type up the directions on paper and she will draw the picture on the other side of the paper.

 

One last thought on the teacher gift front (as well as children’s birthday gifts).  If you don’t read Mir’s Want Not site, well you silly people you really should!  She searches out all kinds of great deals and puts them up on her blog.  Today, she listed a sweet deal on hardback books with accompanying audio cd’s through Weekly Reader.  Just scroll down a bit for the post titled “Lotta book, little price”.

day 6: feelin’ crafty

I figure I only have a couple more weeks that I can get away with spending time being crafty.  I’ve got Mother’s Day gifts to finish, a birthday present that needs some finishing stitching, and then I have to figure out what we’re going to do for all the teacher’s at the end of the year.  I’ve got to finish it all soon, I’m just hoping there are enough hours in the day…

day 5: you scream, i scream, we all scream…

for ice cream!

 

Mmmmm, I made some delicious ice cream tonight.  We’ve made several recipes from this book (The Perfect Scoop) and have yet to be disappointed.  The writer, David Lebovitz, has a blog listed over there in my sidebar.  Tonight I made cinnamon ice cream and fudge ripple sauce.  There are tons of ice cream recipes as well as sorbets, sauces, mix-ins, etc.  I’m hoping to try the fresh mint soon.

 

Our application for our favorite house was accepted today.  To clear up any confusion-we are staying in the same area, just moving to save some money.  J has two more years in his program before we enter the “real” world of anesthesia.  It’s a lovely ranch style home with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a full walk-out basement.  It’s on 10 acres, though most of that is wooded, and has a fantastic deck.  Also, the owners live next door (you can’t actually see their house from ours because it’s on the other side of the woods) and they take care of the lawn.  There are several dogwood trees, bradford pear trees, azaleas, rhododendrons…the list goes on.  Can you tell I’m just a bit excited about this place??  

 

I’ve got more to say about it, but it’s getting late.  And what with the post a day stuff, I don’t want to give away everything at once!

Day 4: The house hunt coninues

At multiple points through the day I find myself at the computer searching craigslist and the MLS for new additions.  We viewed one home yesterday that was, well, a dump.  It was promising from the outside.  The current tenants have two dogs, and clearly they have had free reign over the house.  The smell hit us so strongly when we opened the door, it nearly knocked me over.  The people living there spent, it seemed, little to no time cleaning for our viewing.   I can’t imagine not even making my bed for complete stranger to come in.  One of the guys is a Marine…wouldn’t know it from the looks of his room!  Anyway, the bedrooms were way too small and the stink was way too bad.   Also, the washer and dryer were in the kitchen, but at opposite ends of the “L” shape.  Strange!

 

There is another prospect-immaculate from the outside, but we don’t have any interior pics-that we’re hoping to view this week.  I’ll keep you updated!

day 3: Must See!

We watched Dan in Real Life last night.  I laughed, I cried, I squeezed my husband tightly.  It was a great was to end a rough week.  I don’t want to give too many details, so I’ll say this: There are certainly parts of this story that are hard to believe, but if you like Steve Carell, it’s all worth it to see him play the role of Dan so well.