Why I Hate Posting On Vacation

Let's be honest.  Most people don't want to read a non photo blog post.  Photos help keep people's attention and entertain.  Well, I have no photos.  At least not on this computer. So, NO PICTURES FOR YOU!
We have done some fun stuff though.  We did manage out goal of getting to NC in one day.  It was brutal at times but we have become real road warriors.  One of the first things we did when we got here was celebrate my 32nd birthday.  I feel like I'm 60.  My body is continuing to fall apart.  I wanted to come up with something fun and out of the ordinary to do so I could use the P and R quote "In my defense, it was my birthday and I really wanted to do it"  but being the special brand of lame that I seem to be lately, I couldn't come up with anything.  Well, nothing that I wouldn't have to hide from my kids for 11 years or so.  I did come VERY close to confronting my fear of non pool water be doing a polar bear plunge in a lake at 10pm but that didn't pan out.  AT least I did 2 things I have always wanted to do this year.  I did a food challenge, and I took a ballet class.  I guess that makes it a success?  I'll go with that.
Next we went to see Uncle Quentin and Aunt Lauren.  It was a TON of fun.  we did lots of baking and went to see Christmas lights.
When I got back to Boone it has been baking and assembling gingerbread houses.  I am VERY tired and we haven't even gotten to Christmas Eve yet!
Becca and Joe got in today and Abby and Tadd get here tomorrow!  It's going to be a full house.  Let's see if we can all play nice ;)

One Child's Trash...

The girls had SO much fin in Arizona playing with their cousin Charlotte.  I'll do a post about that later but for now I had to share this little bit of cuteness.  Charlotte has a plastic slide thing.  Emmeline called it her "castle".  She would sneak outside to play on it whenever she got the chance.  

She really loved the slide. 

See

So when I went to take out our trash this morning and found this little gem being thrown away because it was dirty, I was all too happy to give it a home.  So like many mothers would, I dove for it.  Literally.  Banged/cut up my shin in the process but it was totally worth it for  the excitement on her little face :)  It isn't quite as cool as Charlotte's but she could barely wait for me to clean it.  She stood right next to the door waiting and when I told her it was ready she ran past me and climbed up.

Then she invited her sister. 

 It took a lot of begging to get her to look up for this picture.

2 Good Years

Well, we made it a good 2 years without pneumonia.  I was hoping we were past that stage but when Emmeline came stumbling into our room at 5am on Sunday morning with a fever I just had a gut feeling.
Emmeline doesn't usual get fevers.  Unless she has pneumonia.  We were thinking of waiting a bit before we headed to the ER, but when she threw up the Advil we gave her for her fever I packed the bag and headed to the ER while stayed at home with the still sleeping Isa.
Thankfully they listened to me when I told them that she has a history of pneumonia and that was the likely culprit.  That way we were able to bypass the yucky throat scrapping strep test and go straight for the chest X-ray.
The doctor seemed pretty surprised that I thought she had pneumonia though since her lungs sounded clear.  Sure enough though, there was a spot on her lower left lung.  I think he was trying to appease me with the X-ray in retrospect and wasn't expecting to see anything on it. Don't question me OK?!

Here we are waiting with Donald for radiology.

 Not my best planning but when we ran out of pulse ox sensors about a month ago I didn't re order.  She has been doing so well that I was trying to wean myself from my addiction to having the sensor on her at night.  Anyway,  I sure wish we had some now,  especially last night.  There was no way I was going to put her in her room alone without it so we just pulled her mattress into the living room and then I slept on the couch.   It was also convenient since she needed Advil, antibiotic and breathing treatments during the night.

She is doing better today but since she is also getting over likely strep throat it is taking a bit longer then usual.  They just didn't run the actual test because it's so awful and it would have called for the same antibiotic as the pneumonia.  

Good times...

I Made My Money The Old Fashioned Way

This guy is SOOOO funny!  Definitely one of my favorite side characters on TV.

These are the best ones I could find on youtube but you should really just watch EVERY episode he is in.  Over and over.

Mud

Because I think she would like this as much as her gifts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRA!!!!!

And for a touch of Megan.  I am pretty sure this is the camping trip when I spotted Big Foot.  For Real.

Do Trees Poop?

Last Monday evening I got one of the best surprises EVER!  Josh had been telling me for weeks that he wanted me to clear out our schedule for a few days around Halloween to do some family stuff.  It was a little weird since it was a Monday-Wed that he wanted but since he had been gone for 2 weekends I assumed he was just trying to get in some make up quality time.
I however, could not reschedule Emmeline's assessment wither new PT so our fun times were supposed to start when we got home around 3:00pm.  When I got home I found the COOLEST thing in my living room!  My sister Katie!!!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love a surprise pop in.  Well...from people I like.  It was a GREAT surprise since Katie and I don't get to spend a lot of time together.   I screamed like a little sorority girl at a reunion, which was a little embarrassing.

Shortly after she got here we had to take Isa to dance.  There is a park across the street so we headed over there to play and Katie got some really cute shots of Emmeline.  She also came with gifts for the girls including this shirt for Emmeline that saying "Don't need a permit for these guns".  She really liked it.

 I believe this is right before we went to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens the next day.  Katie also got Emmeline that adorable penguin hat.

 We found out that Isa is finally tall enough to no need a booster anymore so we tried having her sit in the middle so Katie could have more room.  She and Emmeline fought like crazy so we had to move Katie back to the middle.  This of course enabled her to capture this gem.

 Katie brought this hat for Isa.  It took quite a while to convince her not to take it to Girl Scout camp this weekend.

 Aunt Katie with the girlies.

Emmeline ended up getting really tired and just kind of latched onto Katie's leg.

Until she picked her up for some cuddles.

We went trick or treating on Wednesday night.  I was not planning on dressing up which is why my costume isn't great but after seeing Katie's costume I did my best to make one to kind of go with it.  

In case you can't tell what we are.

 It occurs to me now that we should have done my loud face with them off and then me doing a thumbs up or something when the mittens were on, so I could show how quiet they are.  Oh, well.

I also think I ended up looking more like a manager at McDonald's then Charlie but Josh doesn't own any short sleeved dress shirts.  Either way, we are pretty awesome!

 It isn't really Halloween without some yummy treats like Haystacks.

 Also some ghosts.

 One last cuddle.

It was SO fun having her visit.  Just the pick me up I needed.

DIY Costume Props

I got too much stuff when I was thinking of how to make Dobby's ears.  I ended up not needing the dark brown at all.    

 I basically folded the felt around the headband and lined up the two opposite corners.  I glued that part first so I could keep everything lined up.  I will also say here that I ended up not keeping it on this hard headband.  Once the felt was glued it wouldn't lay flat so I switched it to a stretchy headband.  

 I just glued around the edge and trimmed off any excess fabric so get the ear shape I wanted.  Then bunched up and glued like CRAZY

 Here is the elf "posing"

 "Are you still here?"

 Next we did the wands.  I found a very cool tutorial for these wands here.  It calls for wooden chopsticks, hot glue, beads of varying sizes, and several shades of brown paint.

First cover the area you want to be the handle in hot glue.  I did not get a picture of the next step but when the glue is warm but not hot you roll it between your palms to shape it.  You can add several layers, which is what we did to build up a bigger handle.  Then add what ever texture you want on your wand.  We rolled some in beads and some we just made textures with more hot glue.

Here are a few finished but unpainted. 

 Then paint them in whatever shade of brown you would like.

 If you're lucky you'll get to have a big mess like me.  I had already cleaned up twice by now.

 Our pile of painted wands.

For Hermione's scarf I have not tips.  Other then get a sister who knits and crochets to make it for you ;)

What Do You Do When Texas Has A Cold Front On Halloween? Free An Elf!!

Isa has wanted to be Hermione for Halloween for years.  Due to some promises she made about wearing a certain costume if I bought it for her, she hasn't been able to do it.  This year I wanted to make sure she got to.  Then someone made the suggestion that we dress Emmeline up as Dobby.  It was genius!  It's always too hot here on Halloween to wear your traditional fall costumes so I thought Dobby would be perfect since he only wears a shabby pillowcase.  

Texas tried to screw me again.  A nice cold front was set to move in the weekend of our Trunk or Treat.  Costume ruined.  You can't overdress a house elf!  It messes up the whole attitude of the costume!  Then, two days ago I got a great idea!  I'll free Dobby!!  After he gets freed he collects clothes!  Socks and hats mostly but that was all I really needed to trap in body heat.  Thus Dobby was freed.

Hermione and Dobby together.  This shoot was done on the second day after I eliminated some of the heavier hats.  Emmeline was a lot happier about it then.  What a cute little activist Isa makes :)

 Emmeline wasn't thrilled when I asked her to put her thumbs down so people could see the sign.

 Isa jinxing me.  She was very cute and was walking around the house with her wand saying "stupidity!  stupidity!"  Being the purist that I am I eventually let her know it was "stupify".

 A happy free elf.

 The back of the sign.

Join the movement!

We did the library spooky story time this morning   If there is one place that could really appreciate this costume it was the library.  All the librarians LOVED it!!  I'm a little worried about trunk or treat tonight as no one there is as hard core as I am about HP.  Either way they are darn adorable.  My favorite costumes EVER!  

We had a slight costume malfunction when we got to storytime.  I had to remove Emmeline's sign to buckle her into her car seat and when we got there I couldn't find the other string anywhere   I ended up using a straw.  It stated on but was a little too short.  She wouldn't take it off when she sat down.

 Story time Hermione

Isa and I had a blast making the Dobby ears and the wands.  I'll post about those soon.  I also did not realize how badly Isa's book shelf needs to be repainted.  Yikes!

I Thought You Might Call

I have watched/read MANY villains.  I like them you see.  I like to figure out why they do what they do.  How they got to be so evil.  It had to be something traumatic right?  Something horrible happened to them to twist them into what they have become.  I think if I could figure out why, then I could more accurately place blame for their evil ways.  Someone has to be to blame.  Someone other than them.  They have obviously lost control, snapped.
I guess I don't want to believe people can inherently be bad.  That bad is naturally where they lean.  I want to believe that people are born neutral and that something influences them one way or the other.  Maybe I secretly want them to be bad but then change their ways, making the hero invalid.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker for a good Snape story.  I find myself holding out to see what the villain will do.  Maybe they will turn out to be the hero.
But, maybe not.  Maybe they will be such a kick a#$ villain that you think about switching sides and laugh as they kill everyone.  I had this experience while watching this guy (Andrew Scott) in the new Sherlock series.

He doesn't look so scary right?  Well, I will just tell you, he is AMAZING!  I have been watching BBC stuff, until the characters annoy me and then switching shows to kill time lately, because I don't have any good shows since Netflix stopped streaming Stargate :(  Sherlock was next on the 'you might be interested in' list on Netflix so I gave it a try.  I have really mixed feelings about it but overall I like all the supporting characters better the Holmes himself.  It's a pity too since he is one of the more interesting characters you might come across.  Plus he is SUPER weird looking but that is a whole other blog post.  

Back to Andrew.  This guy totally blew me away!  From the second he came on screen I couldn't look away.  It was totally captivating.  I even watched just his introductory evil scene over again tonight just for fun.  Twice.  The pure grit and emotion in his portrayal of Holmes' nemesis is astounding.  I really haven't seen many actors like him and none I can name directly right now.  He totally had me on his side.  Insanely brilliant.  

...I gave you my number...

No Extra Layers!

I ordered this shirt from Forever21 in early October in the hopes that the slight cap sleeve would be long enough to not have to wear a shirt under it.  It wasn't.  I was kind of bummed because I also thought it kind of ruined the style of the shirt to put the "classic" Mormon T-shirt under it.  I rarely like how that looks on myself.  So I decided to add some ruffle sleeves.  Easy enough right?  Well, it was harder then it should have been but not as bad as it could have been.  I had to add 2 ruffles in the end but I think it ended up pretty cute.  

I am the worlds worst at remembering to take before pictures, so this will have to do.  You can see the original sleeve on the right and one ruffle attached on the left.  Also sorry it's so wrinkly. 

Here it is finished.  I think it looks pretty good.  Plus I don't have to roast in a Texas October

A close up.

The Wednesday Weepies

I have been meaning to post some of the pictures from our summer trip but have been putting it off because it makes me SERIOUSLY home sick.  I tried it today.  I cried, but I might as well see it through so I don't have to cry again later.  Here goes.

Emmeline's first time holding a baby.  She isn't really crazy about babies but my super cute friend Mindy Jo brought over her newest Jett and Emmeline LOVED him!

So proud of herself.

In TN we got to spend lots of time with Aunt Abby and Uncle Tadd.  Emmeline really loved being with them. 

A little hike to Clingmans Dome

Abby had these adorable lip gloss holders that were shaped like tiny owls.  Emmeline loved and kept chucking them from the stroller just to see us chase them.  Lucky for her Abby and Tadd like her so much.

My awesome cousin Justin and his wife Angie!

 Aunt Terra and Isa posing with the Appalachian Trail sign

Rock climbing with Uncle Tadd 

Way up high. 

When I saw the thumbnail for this photo I thought they were protectively holding her to keep her safe.  Then I made it bigger and realized they were trying to throw her off. :) 

Aunt Abby and the Dumple 

When we hiked to Grotto Falls Emmeline fell asleep within about .25 miles.  I ended up carrying her very heavy bum up there and then she napped on me the whole time we were up there.

Isa under the waterfall. 

Aunt Terra is trying to convince her to sit under the waterfall for a picture. "Right there".

"I'll even go first, in my clothes" 

"yeah, I don't think so Terra" 

That is as close as she got. 

She really enjoyed climbing up and down the boulders. 

My mountain girl. 

A little feat of strength. 

There, I did it.  I might find more later but those were the hard ones for me.   It's just so beautiful there!