And here are a few more

The kids making sand angels. Next year they'll get to make snow angels.




Jesse showing off his new power ranger sword. It's foam.


All tuckered out.

Chrsitmas Pictures 2

Here are the kids showing off some of there goodies and playing at the park.

Coyotes Jersey he got from Grandma Betty






I'm a fairy princess!

Pictures from Christmas Day

Thank you mom for the digital camera! Here are some pics from Christmas morning. There's even one of Shawn. ;-)

And some more Christmas pics....

It wouldn't let me put themall in one post, LOL.

Jesse hanging an ornament


Anya's princess dress


Smile!

Christmas Pictures

These were on the same roll as the karate pics, well except the Santa one. They were all taken last week.

Hi Santa, here's what we want for Christmas.......


In front of the tree


All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth



Growling at the camera, don't ask me it was their idea

Jesse's Karate Testing

Testing was in mid November, he went from green belt to purple belt. He's about a year and a half away from his black belt. Well it'll be about two years since we're taking a break until after the move. I think there was a problem with the film as they're all over exposed and grainy. Very unusual.

He's the kid in front, I caught him mid kick.



Posing for the camera.



With his teacher Mrs. Matthew


Here's Anya with Coach Smith.

No, I haven't fallen off the planet

I'm still here! Really I am. Life's just been more hectic than normal. I got a job, quit said job because of daycare issues. Got another job that is more flexible. Found out we'll be moving early next year. I'm in full blown holiday chaos as I type. But I think I have some somewhat recent pics of the kids. Still working on the holiday cards and photo. I'm thinking I'm gonna borrow someone's digital camera and make them on the computer it's so much easier that way.

I found Anya the cutest little holiday dresses. She's gone princess on us. Our little tomboy princess. She wears the dress and tights with her tennies. I got a roll of film here I need to get developed, as usual, I have no clue what's on it. I know Jesse's last karate testing is on the roll still in the camera.

Hmm, I really need to get that roll of film developed and Anya's formal portraits done. The most recent pics I have of her are her birthday and Legoland so here's one from her birthday.

Let's see here's Jesse's 1st grade picture, taken in October. He's got his mouth closed because he's lost his top two front teeth.

I've already decided one of my resolutions is to update this blog once a week. So here's to hopeing I can actually do it.

Goals, High time I started writing the things down.

Nothing overly exciting has been happening. We've found our summer routine and have settled into it. I've decided to try something new so I would be motivated to update the blog more often. Starting this month I'll keep a running tab on things like words written, stitches made and books read, I"ve got it all marked down in my journal. And of course I'll update the pictures as often as I get them. I've got a roll of film sitting here waiting to get developed. I know Jesse's Karate tournament is on there and I think his last testing (Lion patch and Camo headband) is on there and some pics of them playing in the sprinklers as well. I'll probably drop it off sometime this week as I gotta get more film for next week when he tests for his Green belt.

Reading wise I'm nearing the finish line in Harlequin's 100 book challenge. I will probably hit 100 this month or next. Last month my obsession with Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series (I read 11 of the 12 books) dramatically increased my book count. I'm slowing down now and taking my time. I've read several E-books and written reviews on them for The Enchanted Ramblings E-zine. I've already finished this months LUNAs both were awesome reads. I took a week reading each of them just so I could really savor the characters and plots. Now I'm digging through my TBR pile looking for things that catch my eye and steadily working my way through Jhenah Telynoru's AVALON WITHIN. It's an amazing book, that needs to be read sloooowly so all the material can be set in.
Books read: 76

Words written......well it feels slow moving but I've got a buch of stuff hand written in my notebook so it can't be that bad. Just need to get it all typed into Word so I can add it to the word count. Although, it should be noted and celebrated that I actualy stuck with a story all the way through and wrote the words 'The End' on it. The last few weeks have been really dry, it's been something like three weeks since I made goal over at the Enchanted Scribe. The muse has been missing something fierce lately. But I tossed and turned last night from dreams which usually means she's back and ready to work again *crosses fingers*. Here's to a better week writing wise!
Words typed: 15,859

Stitching is actually going well, if you ignore the fact that I've got six projects going all at once. I'm shooting for 3 finished projects by year end. I'm gonna scan each of them in and start picture folders that reflect my progress. I think I'll try to update those monthly as I rotate through them often, weekly seems to be the most recent trend. What can I say I hate doing back grounds, it gets monotonous.
Stitches made: 5, 738

I'm Edumacated

Just got off the phone with my academic advisor and it's official once my grade posts for this final class, my degree program is finished. All I have left to do is pay the diploma fee and I can say I'm a college graduate. YAY YAY YAY YYYYYAAAAAAYYYYYYY


The school path I've been on for four long years is finally over. Now I get to start down the road to my CPA certification. Which starts with the job hunt game. Always a fun time.

I spoke with a woman at Appleone, it's a employment service company and she was veryconfident that I could get a job pretty quickly, apparently employers will be happy with the degree and little to no experience because I've got that very expensive piece of paper.

I'm all excited, I can't wait until July when we get to go down to Phoenix for the graduation ceremony. I'm really looking forward to meeting the instructors and my fellow students.

I gotta go celebrate this! TTFN

A really nasty issue

Hi y'all,

One of my fave authors, PC Cast, talks about ARC's (advanced readers copies) being sold on Ebay and Amazon. This is WAY illegal. If you see one, report it to Amazon or Ebay and send the seller a note telling them they're wrong. I've attached a link to PC's post so you can read the whole thing in detail.

Invasion of the Munchkins

Well look at that it's a munchkin invasion!

It's been a while.......

There's been so much going on it's insane. I'm nearly finished with page one of Dragon Knot, I doubt I'll finish it by Sunday but it's over half done. I got sucked into Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls on the Gameboy so I've been playing that instead of stitching, *bad......, I know, I know*.

I tried to start my quilt and have wasted so much fabric it isn't funny. Cutting fabric is waaaay more difficult than it sounds, I feel like an idiot messing up something so simple. Finally found a book with clear directions and explanations of things like selvage, so I;m ready to give it another try. Hopefully I'll have a square to show off in May.

We went to Legoland on the 13th and it was fun. DS was tall enough to go on the roller coasters. So DH and I took turns going on them with him. He screamed the whole time and declared them "Scary Fun!" which is the point of roller coasters, can't wait to take him to Magic Mountain, he thought the Technic one was steep, LOL. We found one ride DD could go one and she loooved it. You know those cute little planes that go in a circle and you can make them go up and down. She kept looking over the side and exclaiming "WOOHOOO" the grin on her face was huge. She threw a fit when it was time to get off. The kids also spent over an hour digging for dinos. Pictures are forth coming I promise.

Last week DD turned two. She is turning into such a ham, posing for the pictures while she was opening presents. We sat her on the couch and then brought the presents to her, as I came into the room loaded down with them she looked at them grinned threw open her arms and exclaimed "MINE!" Little girl is getting really smart. She was also convinced that you got your piece of cake by grabbing it, I took a roll of film and those are forth coming as well. Gotta wait until payday to get them developed.

The light at the end of the school tunnel is finally big and bright and so close I can touch it. Just entered week three of my final class, that's three weeks of school left. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I"M GRADUATING FINALLY IT'S DONE!!! **jumping around room** Sorry had to get that out of my system. We'll be going to the graduation ceremony in July, UOP Online only has one ceremony a year and it's down in Phoenix so we'll be doing the running weekend and staying with mom.

Like I said it's been insane.

Making a Quilt

I've decided to try my hand at quilting. I've wanted to do it for awhile now. So I got this book, "The Quilter's Bible", and I went to the quilt store, The Christmas Goose, and bought all the fabric and tools I need to make my blocks. The ladies there were absolutely wonderful! When I asked about an easy pattern for a beginner not only did they show me an excellent pattern, A Pocketful of Posies, they made sure I had all the tools I would need to make it.

Anywho I've got all my materials and I sit down with the book and start reading the steps and my mind gets over loaded. Wow! There is way more involved to quilting than just sewing the fabric together. I had to step back and come up with a game plan. This could easily take over all my crafting time and I've still got other projects that I would like to get done sometime this decade like that Dragon Knot. Som I'm rotating, one day stitching, one day quilting.

Hopefully by the end of April I will have page 1 of Dragon Knot done as well as a few squares of my quilt.

Of course when I was planning all this out I completely forgot about school and the final exam is this week. So everything is on hold while I prepare for it. Thankgoodness I've only got one more class after this one.

Stitching Madness!

For the last couple weeks I've been in full stitching mode. My current obsession is The Dragon Knot from HEAD. Have to admit I got bored working on the background so I jumped down and started working on one of the dragons. I've finally started making some progress on it.

Gotta love how the scan shows the hoop mark so well don'tch'ya? Just got a lap stand I like so it should be a thing of the past.


If you want to see what I'm working on go here....http://www.heavenandearthdesigns.com/dragonknot.jpeg