I actually made some stuff I pinned!!!! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

My little niece, Ellie, got married and was never given a wedding shower. So my SIL, Sherri and I decided to throw her one. I really wanted to do those cute fancy things you see on Pinterest. Thanks to my SIL and all of her hard work, I think we pulled off a really pretty table....

I was thrilled over it.

I made these little rings in boxes party favors. I saw them on Pinterest. They were by Martha Stewart. hers looked a little better but she has "people" and I just have me. So mine were less fancy but I thought they were adorable.

I saw a cute banner on Pinterest and decided I could make one! I messed up. The paper was supposed to alternate every other one but oh well! I couldn't bear to print off another one. Whatcha think? Cute?

And I really wanted to make some of those tissue pom poms. I heard a million times how easy they were. So imagine how stupid I felt when I thought they were hard. Mine didn't come out that great. But still cute.

And we can't forget cake balls. The newest trend. Where you make eating cake four times the amount of work.

So....my friend Amy came over and taught me how. And I loved our visit and I loved the finished product, but the whole time I kept thinking....why not just slice a piece of cake? It doesn't take four hours to make?

So....you bake a cake. Then you pour a tub of frosting into it and stir it all around so it is all mushy. ARoll the mush into balls. Then you melt chocolate, roll the balls in it, and put on sprinkles.

The finished product were SO CUTE!!!!! They were a huge hit. And a tiny bit of a waste of time. Except that I had a good friend to hang with during the making process.

And they looked so fancy and cute on the cupcake stands on the white papers....

but this.....

tasted to die for!

It was a fun shower with lots of "cousin" time.

My nieces....Aubrie, Ellie, Ally, Macie

Gerolyn, Sherri, Myrna, Carolyn

Cousins- Tori, Ellie, Justine, Aubrie

If you get on my Pinterest....I decided to make a "board" on my "Pinterest" of all the things off of there that I have actually done. I decided I had no business pinning if I wasn't going to try some of the ideas. I think everyone should make a board of ideas they have tried. It would be fun.

Next up? Justine's 16th birthday! Aaaannnnnddddd.....She wants cake balls. And a photo booth. Thank Heavens for Pinterest.

I guess mercy is the answer.

I am so touched. I KNOW some very loving people. A few days ago our neighbor brought Rhett a cute little blue pencil box chuck full of mechanical pencils. Rhett had been begging me to take him to the dollar store for a pencil box! And you probably remember his desperation from the other day for mechanical pencils. Isn't that so terribly kind? Thank you, friend.

Then today at church Rhett was given another nice mechanical pencil from my friend. He was so excited. Thank you, other friend!

He just beamed from both encounters. I just think it is so wonderful to be able to be on the earth with our heavenly siblings and to be able to be each other's earthly angels. I totally hope I can be peoples angels even in little ways. All those little things mean so very much.



Now...on to the topic of Corey being such a goofball. What else is new, right?

He has been covetous of my five gallon buckets, with their snazzy screw top lids, ever since I brought them home. I make my home made laundry detergent in them. It is working out well except for the fact that the laundry detergent is gelatinous and very liquidy. So it is messy and sloppy. And I haven't had a decent scoop. So I just grabbed a canning jar that was laying around. And yes, I have made a huge mess trying to get the soap in the washer. And the buckets are sitting right next to each other and often (I do probably three loads a day every day, sometimes more) I slosh on the lid of the bucket sitting next to the other bucket. Big deal!

Well, I brought my buckets upstairs to make new soap but they have been sitting in the kitchen for a few days because I haven't gotten around to it.

So the other day Corey looks at my buckets all disgusted and totally serious, gets annoyed and says, "Susan! Respect your buckets!!!!"

BAAHAAAAaa! I laughed a ton over that.

Eating deodorant isn't advisable and saving drowning bull dogs.... is! It just is!

Tonight Rhett encourage Kate to eat a bit of his broken deodorant. He let her believe it was a marshmallow.

Therefore...what kind of a parent would I be if I didn't "encourage" Rhett to do the same? He was good natured about it. He tried a little nibble.

The two of them spent quite a bit of time drinking milk hoping to get the taste off their tongue. They shared a cup and took turns drinking..

Ahhh...life is funny.

One of the reason Kate so easily believed it was a marshmallow is because Corey made all three boys marshmallow guns for Christmas. They turned out great and the boys really enjoyed them. The rest of us? Not so much. Those little things kinds of hurt and now I keep finding dried marshmallows everywhere. But I was impressed at his efforts to make the guns.

My cute friend, who gave me the owl from the other day, blogged that she wanted an English Bull dog.

It sent me back into time remembering when I worked for a veterinarian. I was maybe 17. I so loved that job. Had LOTS of fascinating experience.

One included watching a lady, grief stricken over the death of her ferret. She literally spent all day in the faculty lounge mourning the loss of her little pet. Just holding its lifeless little body. For HOURS and HOURS. It was so sad. Makes me thankful for my religious beliefs. I hope that lady is okay.

I also really grew fond of Grey Hounds. There might not be a more loving, sweet breed of dog. There were two dogs that lived at the veterinarian's office. They were blood donor dogs. They were used for transfusions. If I remember correctly, dogs all have the same blood type. The Grey Hound and the other blood donor dog, which was a sweet mutt of some type, were walked twice a day and given treats. Some people were critical of their lives being used just for that purpose but at least they were living and taken good care of when so many other dogs are put to sleep. I would love to get a Grey Hound dog now.

One day I went into work and I told a dog, "You're a fat dog". The technician I worked with was highly offended and truly, truly believed it could understand the gravity of the words I spoke. What? I had said it in a nice voice. Jokes on me, I guess. Ha, Ha!

At the clinic, once a month, an animal orthodontist would come and take care of dogs teeth. Mostly English Bull Dogs! That Dr. made a fortune!!!

Once we treated a fawn. As in a deer.

I was bit by a dog. I was fine until the fat dog defender found out and was so kind and compassionate towards me that I started to cry over it. That dog actually sort of hurt my feelings.

I worked the night shift for a week. I was in OVER my head but they hired me because they needed a night person while the main lady went on vacation. I was to give shots, read confusing charts, give fluids, and all sorts of things I had NEVER done. I remember every time I had a question (in the middle of the night of course) I would call a different Dr. instead of the one on call. I was too nervous to call the same one each time. So I spread it around the different Dr's. because I was COMPLETELY inexperienced, there were a lot of calls some nights! They didn't love that so much. They told me to only call the Dr. on call. Ha ha. That makes me laugh.

I worked for a very intelligent and well known reptile Dr. I was so grateful to get to work with him. I learned so very much. I loved reptiles. His name was Dr. B. I called him that FAITHFULLY. He told me EVERY time to call him Tom. I just never could get it through my head. Looking back I bet he wasn't even thirty. Lol. There was a room in the basement where the sick reptiles would go. Because I loved them so much I would always go in that room and clean bowls and care for the room and check out the sick little reptiles. He once told me how much he appreciated that. And that out of all the kids who'd ever worked there, I was the only one whom ever had taken care of that room. Me, being a words of affirmation girl...I still remember that. And feel good about it. And still take pride in it.

And to top my stories off.....I saved an English bull dog from drowning. He was waking up from anesthetic and someone had given him a water bowl. He was so drugged he had his face in it and couldn't figure out how to get out. I mentioned to the Dr. "Hey, is that dog drowning?" We all stared. Indeed it was! In my memory they had to do CPR. Later the Dr. thanked me for being observant and noticing it. The owners LOVED their dog and that would have been a HUGE deal, of course. I always loved that breed of dog as well. Strange though they are.

Now that I have been a house mom (house elf, ha ha) for almost 18 years...I wonder who that brave girl was! I would be so chicken now to have all those experience. It is so good to be youthful and without fear.

Night!

The new Cherry M&M's are super yummy.

Also I wrote once I thought typing lol was stupid. I changed my mind. GAL (Giggle a little)

When do you teach a lesson and when do you show mercy?

I don't know.

But Rhett really struggled today. He was SUPER tired. And a bit sad. I think we are hard on him sometimes. He is pretty loud and wild and the family is often on his case. But he gets emotional sometimes. Angry and sad. I don't know what it is quite about although I suspect he is frustrated about stuff.

He told me when his teacher reads chapter books he doesn't ever really understand what she is talking about. I wonder if he just can't listen long enough to comprehend before his mind is drifting.

Then he got upset and said he wished he never told me because I would tell his teacher. The last time he told me something I went and talked to his teacher about it and now he doesn't trust me. Sad. Makes me really sad. :(

The reason he told me about not understanding the books is because I asked him if he'd like me to read a chapter book to him. He brightened when he said.." I don't have to read?" I said no. He could just listen. It broke my heart a little that he seemed pleased about reading together. I thought he'd fight it. I should be doing it all along with him (I have tried in the past, he didn't enjoy it)but it is so hard with the chaos that is going on constantly. So we read one chapter of a book about a modern day Peter Pan. We talked about it along the way. It went okay. I explained a lot. I think it will be good.

So later I caught him sneaking mechanical pencils out of Kassidy's room.

Mechanical pencils are a huge deal to him. He loves them. I made him put them back and gave him a mini lecture about it.

That night Kassidy was looking for her favorite pencils. I told her to look in Rhett's back pack.

She showed me when she found them in there. Ugh.

Then it was so sweet. She wasn't even mad or anything. She just said she had some other ones he could have. She just said it so sweet and compassionately to a little brother who just wanted some pencils, by golly!

Love moments like that. When your daughter is gentle instead of lashing out when you could see why she would have reacted otherwise.




Rhett's has a few smiling issues for the camera. He cannot give a natural smile to save his life. Funny.

I don't know how this happened!

>How did we go from this....

To this!!!! In only a FEW MONTHS!!!!! Honest! CRAZY!

Changes his entire look! Still a darlin' though!

Near Years Goals? I'll pass, thanks.

Last night...Coolest new years ever! (Minus the ones I spent with my family as a kid. Can't beat some of those child hood memories.) I'll show some pictures later(of our homemade oyster stew! Yummy! And a tiny bit yucky. What is up with oysters anyhow! I love them so much but they are kind of ewwy little creatures...We are too busy right now...having our Lord of The rings marathon and I keep getting trouble for being on the laptop. I am down loading pictures...honest. Trying to get some projects finished.

Shmeegal is the creepiest little thing ever. Except for that one part where he bawled like a baby after they caught him. That was just down right cute. I might have had a kid who sounds like that before. "Wahhhhhh!" I think I blogged about this last year but Eomer is my fav. Also...hello Sam the brave! Not much more noble than he!

Anyway, I just dropped by to tell you that last year I set five new years goals which I blogged about here...

Didn't get any of them done. Not one.

I started a pea patch instead of a strawberry patch. But never finished it.

Didn't fix up my house.

Didn't get healthier.

Didn't bear my testimony more than twice...


I was given a free fish tank (WAHOO, Thanks "Blue" and Sandy)but wanted to redo the stand and don't have it set up yet...I'm close tough.

I only taught my kids two verses of one hymn instead of...FIVE HYMNS....

Didn't finish BOM or do better on Family Prayer. Ugh.

And what is up with me setting SEVEN goals! That was ambitious of me!


So....I think I wont set any goals. I am just going to try to do better everyday. Reading the Scriptures and Exercising. Being nicer to my kids. Not shushing them when I get tired of talking. Same old same old. But super important.

Oh...P.S.....Baby new Year brought me my Glenn Beck book. Yay. It was inevitable since I am baby new year. LOL. Bo asked Justine "I wonder what all the other kids got to day from baby New year?" Cute. Cause I don't know anyone else who does it. Since my grandparents invented it. You could if you want.

Sorry for bad editing. I am getting stink eye from Corey for lap op usage. it is dark so I can't see him but I can feel his stare down. *shudder*

Home Depot Santa and Christmas day!

Here is Home Depot Santa I was telling you about. He is seriously like 7 feet tall! The first item we saw him he looked just like this and gave Kate a candy cane. The next time we went to home depot Kate wanted to go find Santa. I was thinking the chances of this guy working again on the exact time we were there was slim so I decided not to go looking for him. Surprise! Somehow he found us! He is Santa! Bo didn't buy it. But Kate sure did. She loved him.

Why am I at Home Depot so much you wonder? I decided to make the girls fabulous wood projects. I was going to do it at my dads because he is quite talented at all things "building" and...he has a cleaner garage. And the better tools. And himself for advice.

I have been accused several times (much to my extreme annoyance) that I like to drag everyone else into my projects. I sure did this time. I took the projects to my dads, worked a bit on them, basically freaked out because of lack of time, and left my dad to finish them. Without even really asking.

He did a great job. He is a very loving Grandpa and I hope the girls will cherish these gifts and know the love that was put into them....

First...

A rabbit stand. All the cool kids have them. Justine will use this at rabbit shows to groom her rabbits and get them ready for judging. Up until now we have just borrowed our friends, but it will be so nice for her to have her own!!! And with that green color... watch out....the judges will see her coming.

Second.... I saw this great jewelry case made out of a crib here...http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/2011/08/jewelry-organizerroadkill-rescue.html. LOVED IT. Got an old crib and....my dad had to finish the entire thing. I was in over my head. But it turned out great. It still needs the quote on the front but Kassidy spent three hours Christmas morning stocking it full of her jewels. My dad worked on it clear up until Christmas evening. Yea...It's huge. And AWESOME!

Kassidy doesn't look super happy because her brother had shot a Nerf arrow in her eye. She doesn't recover quickly from these kinds of things.

Thanks, Dad. Love you tons.

My mom spent hours making these darling crochet clothes for these little babies for Kate. They are the cutest. My mom has such talent. Dying art I say!

Our new ornaments...Lol.

Bo really wanted them.

Us hanging out...

Dad and Corey

Sherri and Carolyn

My mother in law had us over for a WONDERFUL meal and we basically had a great day. Even on only three hours of sleep. Ugh. Exhausted.

The kids loved all their presents and I think I am finally learning that less is more. Too many presents and they are just lost in the shuffle.

Loved that our sweet girls got Corey and I presents to make up for us not getting any for each other.

Added another reptilian collectible to my collection this year. Last year Justine got me a frog and this year I got a lizard. I just love them. Really. A ton.

Someone very dear to me got me this little ceramic owl. I am NUTS over it.

Also received a few AWESOME salt and pepper shakers to add to my collection.

(These are from Justine)

GREAT CHRISTMAS.

Bo got his Beyblades. He kept singing "oh yeah, oh yeah, I got bey blades!" Great reaction.

Kassidy bought herself this stylin' new coat with the Christmas bonus she received from work (nicest employer EVER).

She pretty much admitted she thinks she is hot stuff now. She is a crack up.

Corey always teases Justine that her real parents were big foots and we found her in the forest. It's there little game and it can get quite funny. Well, now we have proof! Crazy new boots!

Flying their helicopters.

Kate and her Christmas morning yawn. We had to wake her up. Then she was so cold we had to put on a coat and Nathan's snuggie. Yes. We own a real life snuggie. It is hysterical.

It's always fun until someone gets hurt. See the helicopter in her hair?

Wait...No new Glenny Beck book. Hmmm...Corey?...

Oh well, There is always Little Baby New Year. He brings one gift per person in with the new year. It's a long lived tradition from my father's childhood. Don't let me down Little Mr. Baby New year!

Oh yeah....coolest present of the year....LORD OF THE RINGS PEZ DISPENSERS!!!! I mean come on, you know they rock! We each got one last night while we started out LOTR marathon. Corey can do a most incredible impression of Gimly. "My axe!"

I noticed once again that my comma ussage is awful. Sorry. Also I could not get this post to cooperate so excuse it's craziness.

Merry Christmas peoples! I havden't forgotten about Freak Flag Santa. I hope it is still up so I can get a picture tommorow. My SIL taught me the term Freak Flag. Cracks me up.