August 2008? Has it really been that long since I’ve blogged. Well I know very well that it has, this poor blog has sat neglected and all but abandoned for two long years. I started it back when blogging was new and hot and I wanted to use it as a way to promote my business. But with many good ideas and intentions it got to be too much and the blog fell to the wayside. I was ready to just leave it dead, why bother really?

But lately my life has changed so much. One of these came along to keep life interesting:

We moved, I went to work in my husbands office, and Bug n’ Belle my beloved passion for so many years has all but been mothballed (that is the short story, maybe I will have time to share the long story later.)

Lately I’ve been reading and following a lot of great blogs. And I went back the other night and looked at this one and realized what a great archive it was for my family memories. And I decided that I wanted to rekindle my blogging and make another try at it. If for no other reason than to have a place to archive thoughts, ideas, and stories for scrapbooking. I debated whether to scrap this one and start an all new blog. But have decided instead to rework this one and keep the existing content. I will be changing it up, but I’m going to keep what is here as my starting point.

So here I am back in the saddle. Ready to share my life, and my family, and my crafting, and whatever other random thought comes into my head, with you in 2011. My goal is to blog once a week at least, and I’m determined to keep my goal this year!

It’s time for back to school and of course that means it’s time to get a hair cut! All three of mine really needed it. Kyle was probably in the best shape because Daddy hauls him off the the barber shop every 6 weeks or so. But he has been wanting to grow out his hair like his 15 year old cousin and hasn’t been so chipper about getting his hair cut lately. Amy always wants a hair cut, but she also likes it long. Two conflicting principles so I am usually telling her no hair cut, while Kyle is getting drug to the barber shop. She has been swimming all summer and her hair was like straw on the ends so she was due for a trim. And then there is Evan.

I have chronicled before how Evan despises hair cuts! He had not had his hair cut since before he went into the hospital seven months ago. He came out of the hospital with some major PTSD and a major don’t mess with me attitude. I can barely get his teeth brushed at night and I cut his fingernails when he’s asleep. I few weeks ago I got in a few snips snips to get the bangs out his eyes, but he needed a hair cut! When someone called him a girl that was the last straw and I told my husband he has got to get one.

We were in Portland last weekend and I made a call to Little Clippers to see if we could slip the kids in for an appointment. Luckily they were able to squeeze us in and everyone got a back to school haircut!
Evan still fussed about getting the haircut, there was a little big of wiggling and some tears, but it was nothing like the last one where we had to pin him down. He sat in that car and the hairdresser was actually able to use clippers around his ears. He was so funny when it was done he reached his hand up and could feel his hair was gone and he didn’t quite know what to make of it. But the next day he declared “I love my new haircut!” He sure does look like a big boy now, I think my baby is just about gone.

Kyle Before, somehow he managed to escape the after shot:

Evan:

Amy:

It was a sad day in our household last summer when we had to put down our old faithful friend and pet Izzy Belle. It’s been a lonely year without a pet and we (the kids and I) finally convinced Daddy it was time for a new pet! Actually the truth of the matter is we got vermin in the garage. You know the long tailed, yellow eyed variety. Daddy handled them and it was not a pleasant task, so when I mentioned that we never had any trouble with vermin prior to the death of our cat he finally conceded to getting a new cat!

Amy, Evan, and I went down to the local animal shelter, Saving Grace, and picked out a frisky new kitten we have named Suki. (Actually the name is currently under debate but for now I will refer to said kitten as Suki! Amy wants to name her Rainbow Flower and Daddy wants to name her Victoria (her shelter name) I much prefer Suki.) She is a Abyssinian mix. Her mom had been brought into the shelter too and I got to see the mom and she was a very sweet, calm, cat. I liked the name Suki because one of our favorite shows was Avatar the Last Airbender. Suki was a Kiyoshi warrior and wore face paint, I think our Suki Kitty looks like she has warrior markings on her face. Plus she is supposed to fight the vermin so why not give her the name of a warrior! Not to mention I think Victoria is a dumb name for a cat. But I may have to concede on this one because I named all the children. But for now we will refer to the cat as Suki, and we’ll see if Daddy even reads this blog to see this discussion!

We have been enjoying our new pet very much. She has taken to me and Daddy, but can only take the kids for short spells. She has gotten very good at hiding under the bed. Amy is absolutely in love with Suki and could play with the cat and hold it all day long if she could. Suki is very sweet and as soon as the kids are in bed she comes right out to cuddle with us. She is also showing much promise of being a good mouser, she is one frisky little kitten! Luckily so far she hasn’t bitten or scratched the kids so I think she is a well balanced cat who we will love for years to come.

It has been a long road for Evan and for me too. My reluctant little guy has resisted any attempts to potty train for the last year. His stint in the hospital left him with some PTSD and a major don’t mess me with attitude (thus the hippie hair do, he won’t let us touch his hair and neither of us has had the energy to pin him down for a hair cut yet.) So I have been patient. I have been very patient. I knew from experience with the first two not to push it. And FINALLY he is peeing on the potty. We’ve been going comando and we haven’t done training pants yet. But when he’s home he will go pee in the potty on his own! WOO HOO… we’re making progress. I have to chuckle when I see him on the little potty because he is so big now, and tall. The long legs sticking out. I’ve gotten him to use the potty seat a couple times, but he much prefers the little potty for now. Just for posterity I had to take a picture. Something to blackmail him with later in life!

I made a great find today! For some time I’ve been looking for some old architectural elements that I can use as photo props. There is an architectural salvage in Portland and every time we drive by it I beg my husband to stop, to no avail, I think he knows better. But I found a lady here in town who has lots of rusty, weathered, pieces which she turns into wonderful pieces which she sells in her shop Madison Moore’s Having collected pieces for years to make over she has found herself overstocked and I scored two gorgeous weathered barn doors. She also gave me tips on how to paint (color) them but keep the weathered look. I’m just so excited to have these and have the opportunity to play with them, and if I get antsy I know where I can get more!

So here are my tattered, weathered, beautiful doors:

And playing around a little to use them as photo props:

I have wanted to make more Pinny Aprons since I did the first two last summer, but my design time has been so limited that I haven’t gotten back to them until now. When it comes to every day dressing for my kids I personally love things that I can add to a pair of jeans and plain shirt to dress it up, but still be practical for play. So for me the Pinny is a perfect item. It can be casual or dressy, it can be worn year round, and it can be taken off if play becomes too messy and I want to save the outfit from stains!

The first two Pinny Aprons I have made this season are reversible. You get two outfits in one and it is perfect if one side happens to get dirty, you can just flip it over and voila…. a whole new clean outfit! I have more designs cut out and one the way, I hope that you love them as much as I do! Right now I have my first few listed in my shop on Etsy, but I hope to have some listed in our webshoppe soon!

Zoo Boo Reversible Pinny

Rainbow Sherbert Reversible Pinny

Once again we are restocked on the Dex Dura-bib. We can’t seem to keep these in stock lately and I finally figured out why! Kate featured these with her kids on the fabulous TLC show Jon and Kate plus 8. One advantage from ordering from us is you can PICK YOUR PRINT! I have them listed by design, print the ones you like best. And we offer FREE SHIPPING on all US orders and very reasonable shipping on international orders.

I can’t say enough about how wonderful these bibs are, they wipe off easily, they catch everything, they snap so baby can’t yank it off, and they LAST! Mine have been through 3 kids and they STILL have wear left in them.

We had a beautiful day here in Oregon, but I … I mean the bunny… hid the eggs inside b/c its been so cold and foggy in the AM and the eggs get all wet and nasty.

Kyle (just turned 6) is questioning all the mythology. I finally just said in answer to like the 100th question about all the logistics. “you can believe what you want to believe but your brother and sister still believe in the easter bunny (and tooth fairy and santa) and you need to let them keep that magic.” AND I’ll kick your butt and you won’t see your Nintendo DS for 2 weeks if you go around telling them that the easter bunny isn’t real. LOL! There must be some wild stories flying at kindergarten.

I bought the wrong PAAS kit. It had spackle paint and my kid’s hands are all dyed green and blue from it. Poor Evan was beside himself that he couldn’t get it to wash off (and god forbid mommy try to help him do anything these days, I send him out to the car 15 minutes before we leave b/c he has to climb in and buckle himself in the car seat and it takes forever. Huge fits if I do any part of it).

AHHH…. the joys of motherhood are without number.

Now who is going to eat the 24 eggs we dyed today???? Thankfully I have good cholesterol! I only hid 10 of them b/c I was worried they’d leave stains on my carpet. I don’t think anyone will notice.

Hope you all have a very good day with your families. I’m sick and feel really crummy, but my motherly duties for Easter are done in regards to the rabbit, so WHEW… and we have no family coming over… pretty easy!

Amy has learned to ride a bike on two wheels! When Kyle learned we went out front to ride bikes one day and he said “mommy take off the training wheels!” I went and fiddled around in the garage to find some tools that would work, took the training wheels off. We have a nice flat grassy side yard so I got him started there and we quickly were riding up and down the sidewalk. He was so ready to be on two wheels. The biggest thing they have to learn is to put their feet down when they stop. Pat came home from work and Kyle was zipping around on two wheels and daddy felt a little left out!

Unforunately we had a repeat. Amy declared training wheels gone! I took her to the side yard, daddy came home from work… I told him I’d let him teach Evan how to ride a bike! But when they are ready, they are ready, it doesn’t take much to get them riding. Daddy did get to help with learning a few of the other skills.

There are definately 3 steps to learning to ride a bike:

1. Balance and stop. They have to learn to put their feet down when they stop.

2. Turn, the training wheels make the turning radius much different, they have to learn to judge space and turn within it.

3. Start, I think this is the hardest, the have to learn to push off, pedal, and balance at the same time. Of coure the little kids bikes you can’t rotate the pedals backwards (because that’s breaking) and that makes it more of a challenge in some ways.

Amy has plenty of bumps and bruises from learning to ride, but she is so proud of herself! Here is my little Amy Belle zipping around the street!

We are way behind on our blog. Little Evan gave us a good scare by developing pnemonia. It started out as, we think, the flu. He is prone to the croupy cough and he woke up crouping one morning and we knew he was sick. But he kept getting sicker, spiking high fevers I couldn’t get down and just so lethargic. When he saw our family doctor…

Evan got himself admitted to the hospital! I will admit I suspected it was coming, he was so sick, and I had packed a bag “just in case.” You know that old murphy’s law, I figured packing a bag and being prepared would be a sure way NOT to get sent to the hospital. Our family physician is organized with an urgent care unit so he was able to send us downstairs for labs, a chest xray, and an IV infusion. They put him on Rocephin and he was dehydrated so he needed fluids. Our doctor was borderline whether to admit Evan or send him home with us to monitor closely, then they did a blood oxygen read on him and he was at 85%. Which got him a fast ticket to the the hospital.

We did three nights at our local small town hosptial and Evan just wasn’t getting any better, they did another chest xray and his left lung was almost completely occluded. He had been on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics so to see that he had made no progress was very scary. Our family doctor then made the call to transfer us up to Dorenbecher chidlren’s hospital in Portland, he just felt like we weren’t going to receive the care we needed in our small town hosptial.

Evan and I had an ambulance ride to Portland and he was admitted to Dorenbecher. And I have to say after 3 nights in our small town hosptial Dorenbacher was like being admitted to the Hilton. The staff and facilities were wonderful. Evan ended up having surgery to drain fluid off his left lung and they removed an abcess. He had a chest tube for 2 days to drain off his lung. When they grew out the cultures from his lung he ended up having MRSA, which would explain why he didn’t get better once admitted. The antibiotics he was on don’t cover MRSA. As soon as they got him on Clindamycinwhich covers MRSA he started to improve.

We ended up doing six nights at Dorenbecher and it was a happy day when Evan was released! Nine nights in a hospital is a lot and having my baby so sick. (I know he’s almost three but he’s still my baby!) He is up and running around and seems to have recovered from his ordeal just fine. And we are just now playing catch up with our lives too!