No envy for single parents...

...but a lot of respect.
I am often reminded just how lucky I really am. Last week, Steve went on a mission trip with our Middle School Youth Group. He really enjoyed it. Beca and I stayed here but my mom had her just as much as I did. It was a good week but I can't imagine what single parents have to do to get their kids to someone who can take care of them during the day, then get to work, then get the kids, get dinner, get everyone to bed and finally get themselves some rest. I still managed to get to pilates, finish my ottoman cover, visit with Beca's old class (she went too and was very happy), frame and hang some pictures, keep the dishes cleaned up (note that I despise doing dishes), do laundry, take Zoe to daycare and grooming, and have dinner with my parents and Beca several times. Beca and I even got to make a few more cards before Daddy came home - she stamped lots of fruit shapes (red for cherries, green for apples, hot pink for Strawberries, yellow for lemons, and orange oranges!). It was a busy week but I was glad there was an end in sight. lucky me...
Friday night when Steve got home, we celebrated Beca's baptism birthday - this was something we had talked about in Sunday School and on the last week they sang the baptism song to her and some of the other summer baptism birthdays. So I had promised that we would celebrate but Steve was gone over the 16th so we went to Cold Stone for blue ice cream with chocolate chips! She loved it. Still can't believe that was 3 years ago and she was so tiny and woke up just as Pastor Dave poured water on her head.
Saturday was a lot of fun. I had taken on the challenge for TEC to make pizzas for lunch during a team meeting with other board members Robin and Andrew. They brought their little Isabel with them and we made 12 pizzas using all Trader Joe's ingredients. There were some leftovers but it went pretty well. By the time I got home, it was time to clean up the mess Beca had spread all over the place and get ready for a playdate with Payton! I had just as much fun watching the girls. They had tea parties, played outside on the playset (beca fell going down the steps and scraped her nose) and with bubbles and then came in when the sky turned almost black and it started pouring - for a while. I got out Beca's dress-up dresses and we soon had a tea party with Belle and Snow White! Payton loved the Moravian Spice cookies (a girl after my own heart!).
They had mac'n'cheese for dinner and then "mook-schakes" as Beca calls them. Yes, I know, sugar. But it meant a great crash later. They ran around the house squealing as little girls do and alternating chasing Steve and running from him. Delightful. Both were sad to go but they were both pretty tired so there wasn't too much of a fight! It was wonderful to see both so smiling and happy - they have spent more of their waking hours together than apart in their short little lives. And since that is something I was never able to have, I hope the Cottle-Chapman-Sullivan (Kate's family) girls club continues for a long, long time!
So again, all the single parents or those who have to be single for extended periods of time, I wish you all the blessings in the world. And please let us know when you need help!

Crafty me

So I've been told over and over again that engineers aren't supposed to be that creative. But the thing is, a good engineer has to be creative. Just not necessarily crafty. But I consider myself an engineer and a crafter, though sometimes it is hard to let go that handmade things are 100% perfect. So I decided to show off some of my crafty projects.

I am most proud of the one I finished today. About 4 or 5 years ago I read an idea for recycling (well, reusing if you ask me) jeans to make a jean blanket and started saving jeans that were worth keeping (boys can make clothes really icky over time). And every time I started hunting through my craft and fabric piles, I would find this stack. So, when the trim on our ottoman finally started coming apart (and I had gotten tired of the color), I got the idea to expand the blanket idea to an ottoman cover. It didn't quite turn out exactly like I wanted with the bottom but it covers the ottoman, which no longer matches my living room colors (you can see it in the first 2 pictures), and shouldn't fall apart any time soon. Plus, it provides a great place to store remotes! We're pretty sure we'll have to clean it out regularly once Beca figures out all the pockets can hold her necklaces, bracelets, rings, and all of the shoes that she has taken off her baby dolls the second she gets them. My next favorite craft has been making cards. I use mostly Stampin' Up stuff for the same reason I use Creative Memories mostly for my scrapbooking. Because in either case, if I go to a general crafting store and just start buying stuff, I end up doing more collecting of products than actually using! Beca now loves to help me stamp and make cards. I can't wait for our craft area to get set up (many more things to do before that happens). What I will say about stamping cards is that you honestly don't have to be creative at all as long as you can copy what some other creative person did. And, most importantly to me, your own personal stamp shop is open at 10 pm when you realize that you forgot to send a card to someone for something, which I realize almost weekly and still never get a card out. It still saves me when I really, really want a cute card though. Anyway, here are some of the cards I made without any assistance (i.e. ideas from Christi, my Stampin' Up consultant because I'm too lazy to go hunting online to figure it out):

A Virginia Tech theme for my cousin Sara for her graduation present - I even had orange wrapping paper! and I put glitter on the flower! A birthday card for Steve's grandmother using Creative Memories cutters.
A birthday card for Steve's nephew Corey who turn 16 in April - so I put 16 presents on the inside! Various cards - some I used for Mother's Day, but not the birthday ones below.

So, lastly, my "craft" project has been getting some photography hung up in the house. I spent a bunch of time hunting through Michael's and finding frames for some photos I have taken. I am very excited they are on the walls and hopefully, I can get some of those posted at some point.

July 4th & the "sprinklers" and "ear pads"

We had a fun July 4th! I just keep not having time to write this down (I have a severe problem with needing to be too chronological in my thought processing so I get farther behind!). But, way back on July 4th, we had a blast of a day. For lunch, we went to Oma and Pop-pop's house for some fun time with friends - Beca met 15 month old Riley who liked to hug and knocked Beca over a few times - all in good fun! Oma's Dana (that's really what Beca calls her) and Dana's Wendy went out and got Beca giggling on the swings for a while even though it was muggy out! It was so sweet!
Beca asked Oma if she could stay at her house for the afternoon and since Mommy and Daddy both needed naps, we said sure! Well, after Oma said it was ok!
We all met up at the Long's house - an old scouting family that are great friends and tons of fun! All 3 boys went through Dad's troop and Dad and Jim are just big kids together. And the one day of the year they definitely don't think straight is July 4th. Since it is light out for a while, we have several hours of mixing chemicals and making plastic bottles blow up. While most of us think it is cool (dude - it's chemicals exploding plastic!), Beca hates it - well, the noise it makes. She would panic and run inside. Until she found "ear pads" - then she didn't want to be without them! We finally convinced her that they had stopped with the noise for a while and that she could do sparklers. She had fun and got singed a couple of times when she didn't hold it out quite right. Whenever somebody said "hold your arm out straight", Beca would thrust both arms straight out. She had so much fun, she even did 2 sparklers at once! Thanks to Maddie and Liz (the Longs granddaughters) for helping Beca light her sparklers!
The rest of the night was interesting - Beca sprinted inside when the guys started lighting off the real fireworks - yes, in a neighborhood and they even had stands to angle and fire the rockets. Good thing the neighbors were out. It was fun to watch until the lightning started answering back. The big fireworks got put away before they even were lit. And then the sky fell out. Poor Maddie and Liz had never really been in a thunderstorm since they are from Washington State and the thunder was so loud, it even scared some of the adults. We attempted to wait it out and watch the Capital Fourth program from Washington DC but Beca was getting very tired. The first three in the car were Beca, my Mom and my Dad. Beca told them that they were going to drop Mommy and Daddy off at their house and then she would get to go with them to sleep at their house. My Dad made her repeat it for Mom again and this time she said it and added "right, Oma?" at the end. She ended up there the next night after playing at Kate's house with Kate and Payton. It was a really fun weekend and I really wish all weekends were 3 day.

Beca's new chucks!

Sooo freakin' cute! My brother bought Beca one of his favorite things in the whole world - he's gotten her several pair throughout her life. This time, they are BRIGHT RED Converse All-Star high tops. He sent them via my mom and she has gotten soooo many comments on them. Generally because she is wearing them with a dress and they just look cool. Beca loves her Uncle Kyle! And one day, she will be big enough to wear the elusive Dr. Pepper Chucks (the only shoes Kyle wears).