Thursday, November 24, 2011

My friends call me Lucy!

I have had to take some time off from my blog due to illness. Not the children, thank the Lord, but Mr. Handsome and myself. And, it appears, I am getting sick AGAIN! :( I always feel bad for Mr. Handsome when I get sick because he has to bare the brunt of everything!! When we were both sick, I couldn't even take care of him. And I love to take care of him when he is sick. Well, I love to take care of him when he's well, too. Monday I started feeling like I was getting a cold again but I am definitely wondering if it's all allergy related because I am sneezing like crazy and no one else seems to be getting it. We have had a great time preparing for our Thanksgiving meal. In between all that, I have been making Christmas presents and finishing up school with the gang so we could take a few days off for Thanksgiving. Mr. Handsome has had a whole week off and it's been quite a treat spending the last three days with him. We will really miss him when he goes back to work. Especially Kristinie the Great. She was telling him while we were driving to church that he needed to go back to work!! But when Monday morning comes she will be the first one (well, maybe second, I might be first!) following him to the door crying because he's leaving us!

I am looking forward to our Thanksgiving dinner this year. We are home which means it is just our little family together. We invited some friends to come eat but they had other plans. We have a three year rotation with the holidays between my parents, Mr. Handsome's parents, and our home. It works out really well. This year we are having a Snoopy Thanksgiving. All the accoutrements necessary to celebrate have been bought. The jelly beans were bought under the wire! Beatrice and I found them at Olde Tyme Pottery yesterday when we were looking for a cornucopia. I wish I could say that I was better at planning for parties and meals, but I am not very good at it. I love to have things look nice but forget a lot. If it wasn't for Beatrice reminding me about the cornucopia, I seriously doubt we would even have one today. AND God blessed us - we got it 30% off!! Can't beat that.

Here is what my Christmas present can do!! I am soooooooo very excited!! This is a polyester fabric with glitter in it, too. Mr. Handsome bought me a new die cutting machine that far exceeds the cricut. I can use my make-the-cut program with it too! It is called a craftwell e-craft machine. And it's pink. That is very important if you know me even just a little!

Here is a letter close up. Doesn't it cut great?!! 

And here is my mother-in-law's Christmas present. I cut all the poinsettias out with the e-craft, too. I will take a photo of a finished one once I get myself back to normal, if that is possible since my friends DO call me Lucy for a reason! OH, and my mil's present is a set of napkins, one of which was "accidentally" cut (about 3") by our Maddie. I was not a happy camper! Lucy is definitely my name!! :) 

Here are Beatrice and Kristinie the Great playing the wii. They are riding a tandem bike. It is hilarious to watch them play it together! They are so cute. Beatrice came in the kitchen a few weeks ago and said, "Mommy I can spell!" And I said, "That's great" and she said, "Listen! M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I!" I said, "Wow!! That is great, what does it spell?" She yelled, "PENSACOLA!!" And I said, "um, no [while trying not to laugh too hard], not Pensacola." She tried again: "Minnesota?" It was so funny!! I am glad our children have great senses of humor because I could not stop laughing about it! 
Here we are at the new park right near us. It is a beautiful park! We went with Mr. Handsome one day and walked all the way around the lake - 1.4 miles. That may seem like a small distance for most people, but for us with all the children walking, it was a great feat!

We went and saw my brother participate in a Veteran's Day program in Hampstead. He shot a rifle a few times. It was very nice.

Kristinie the Great sliding down the slide at the park.

Here are the banners a friend of mine and I made. Remember I asked my brother to put the letters on? Well, I am in the process of making NEW Thanksgiving banners. The only thing I will say is that I learned a hard lesson at the expense of my whole church. But I will say, Lesson learned loud and clear!

Here is part of a Christmas present for the children. I am going to put NCState on shirts for each of them. I cut the design with my e-craft. It's a pretty amazing machine!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my family. God has blessed me beyond measure and there is so much I can thank Him for!!! 

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Banners were hung on the walls with great care!!

Now if only I could see them and be there!! :( I am happy, and VERY relieved, to report that the banners my dear friend and I made, with the assistance of my brother, were hung today. And my preacher said they looked great. Lord willing, I will be well soon, and I can go see them. And I will take photos.

And here is a funny episode in the life of Jackie and Taylor:

Today, Beatrice says, "Mommy!! I can spell: M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I!" I said, "Great! What does it spell?" She said, without missing a beat, "Pensacaola!!" I, trying not to laugh hysterically, said, "No, not Pensacola." Before I could tell her she yells, "Minnesota?" Robert told her what it was. It definitely brightened our day!!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

I should be at church

Today was Homecoming at our church. And tonight is AWANA. Mr. Handsome and I are home sick. As in, I can't talk and my head is seriously congested with a fever. Mr. Handsome has a bad cough and is also congested. One of my friends agreed to take all the children, who, thank the Lord, are healthy and robust. I am praying they stay that way. Being sick is rather boring. So, since I am well enough to sit up but not well enough to go to church and tired of lying down, I figured I would do my blog early. We had a great week. I have been working on our Thanksgiving celebration. This year we are home and it is just our little family; well, BIG family depending on how you look at it. We have a three year rotation where we go to my family's one year, Taylor's family the next, and stay home the next. We do this at Christmas too. We decided for Thanksgiving to do a Snoopy Thanksgiving, so I am excited about the decorations. I have the napkins finished!

I call this photo candy corn-acopia!

Here is a napkin ready to be hemmed and the candy corn sewn on.

The finished product!! We also had Fall Festival on Monday. The children were so excited because they got to spend the time with their cousins, John and Rachel.

Here are John, Kristine, and Rachel waiting to get their faces painted.


Kristinie the Tiger!

Here are all three of them!

Spiderman John!

Princess Rachel

This is one of our church kids with Kirstine!! She and her sister and her brother are the sweetest young people! And our children love them.

Mermaid Beatrice

Our pastor, for some time, has wanted banners for our sanctuary. I have really wanted to make them but he has been looking at catalogues. I guess he got tired of it and mentioned it to a friend of mine and one of my dear friends was standing nearby and volunteered us to make them or something like that - I wasn't there so I am not sure!! But I am excited one of them volunteered me. I am the big pin! She is the cutter. We found out the ripstop nylon is VERY slippery when doubled and pins just slide it all over. So I volunteered to lie down. It helped keep the banners still. We were going to do the letters ourselves but I do not have access to the program that could do that for me so I had to rely on my brother for help. As you will see further down, he did a fabulous job. My friend and I made the banners and trimmed out the letters. 

Here we are at the nursing home. Beatrice and Beaker LOVE the fall display!

This is what happens when you put crayons in the washing machine AND dryer. THE BOY did this to his dress shirt. Thankfully it was the only damaged aritcle of clothing in the wash. It is a whole lot worse than it looks, too.

Here is a letter being sewn out for practice on Tom's machine.

Among our busy week, we got to watch a friends' four girls! They are terrific and all the children are buddies!! Robert feels a bit odd man out but makes the best of it.

Here is Banner Number One! I hope our pastor likes them. Our sanctuary AND our church looks just about like it did when they were first built - he is very fastidious and I hope this satisifies his fastidiousness!! He loves the Lord and he loves us and wants us to have a beautiful place to worship the Lord.

Here is Banner Number Two.
Yesterday was spent finishing the banners and dropping them off at church. I am excited that I was able to do them and my friend and I have lots of great ideas for other banners. My excitement for the week was Mr. Handsome buying me my Christmas present early. I guess he saw how frustrated I was not being able to use my own equipment and I knew my cricut just didn't cut it anymore (no pun intended). He was asking me what I was looking at online last week and I showed him the die cutting machine I was going to start saving money for. He said, "Why, Honey, why don't you let me get that for Christmas?" IS THAT A TERRIFIC HUSBAND OR WHAT????!!! He even let me order it now so I could have it early this week. And God blessed me because I found it 30% off free shipping AND no tax!!! I can't wait to get the machine and work on some new stuff. I'll post photos next week of the machine and the fun the children and I have with it. We have revival this week too so, Lord willing, when I am better, I will be able to go to a few services. Maddie and Robert start basketball practice. Taylor's family is coming to Wilmington for the third time in thirteen years to celebrate Christmas at the beginning ot December. My sister-in-law and I are getting ready to go Black Friday shopping. Our AWANA Thanksgiving dinner is coming up. I love this time of year. From November 1 through the end of December there are always times to be thankful and remember the birth of the Saviour!