Is It Naptime Yet

I realize I haven’t done my 5 things for a little bit. This is mostly due to being busy, sick, or just out of the habit.

Since it was Thanksgiving I thought I’d do my list of 5 things, but with the twist that it’s about friends

1. I’m so grateful to have a friend who invited me to the temple with her. I haven’t been in far to long and I’m happy she thought to ask me to come with her on her monthly excursion.

2. I’m grateful to have a friend who loves my girls and watched them for part of our lunch so I could go buy presents for them. I cherished hearing that she would love to watch them because she loves my girls and spending time with them. (She also loves children in general, but I like to think she likes mine a little more  than the others, at least until she has her own.)

3. I’m grateful for a sister/ friend who let me and the girls just hang out with her for hours since I needed to be somewhere other than my home so Jon could study in peace and quiet. She did this yesterday and today.

4. I’m grateful for friends who support me in homeschooling and help me out when I’m struggling.

5. I’m thankful for new friends that I meet and help me on this journey called life.

I find myself wondering what a future friend is doing right now and who I might become closer to in the future and how we will help one another in our lives.

I realize I have a lot to be grateful for and am so happy to have so many wonderful people who are a part of my life.

I just hope I can be as thoughtful and kind as those who I encounter and those who show me love through the small actions they make towards me or my family.

Last year Carolyn and I hit some stores on Black Friday together. This year Jon’s aunt and uncle were staying with us just for the night, so I was unable to go out with her.

The only thing I really wanted to buy was coats for the girls and Old Navy was having a killer deal, $15 for any coat, adults included, too bad I didn’t need one. Since I couldn’t go and I didn’t know when I’d be able to leave the house since we had guest, Carolyn went for me and for herself. She was at Old Navy at 3 am and waited two hours before she even got into the store. She was able to get exactly what I wanted for Lilah, but they didn’t have the coat I wanted in Eden’s size, in any color even, so she grabbed a couple other options. She did do shopping for herself, and I’m not sure if her plan was to be there so early before I asked her to look for coats for me, but I think it’s so super sweet that she did.

I went to a different Old Navy later and found a coat for Eden, though I could not find one for Lilah, so it was totally worth her hard work, or at least perseverance.

I also bought tons of chocolate to make truffles and popcorn, which I’m looking at taking orders on if you would like to buy some, and nearly bought a Cricket just because it was so. dang. cheap. The Michael’s on Russel is not well traveled and even though it was $69.99 and you could use a 25% off coupon, they had like 10 left at 8 am, and I know they’re a hot item. I just didn’t need one, though I was tempted to buy one and see if I could make money on E-bay.

So if you want something from Michael’s on Black Friday, visit the one on Russel and Pecos. It is never busy and they always have what I’m looking for.

Also, isn’t my sister so sweet?
I don’t even know if I’d have been willing to go at 3 am. Though I stay up till 2 am lately and what’s another few hours. The young lady who checked me out at Old Navy had been awake for 33 hours. Crazy.

The Holidays are upon us and this year is no different.

I have no idea what to get my family for Christmas.

Well, I do have a couple ideas. We always get the Pixar film for the girls, but that always comes from Santa and is the only thing they get from Santa.

I always give the girls bubble bath. Lilah’s caught onto this and I think I have to follow this tradition for the sake of it just being fun and a tradition, plus it’s pretty cheap.

I do have my parents present and the sibling present. (We trade names in my family. Though now we just rotate, so you don’t get the same person over and over, and since there is an even number of children, this year who you have, also has you. )

I just don’t know what to get Jon and I have no idea what I want.

We both want the Batman movie, but have decided that neither of us will get it for one another because we both want it. I know it seems odd, but whoever buys it for the other, then that person gets a little short changed on their gifts, and what if we both buy it for one another? Then we have to return it and that’s  pain since we’d have bought it from Amazon and have to deal with shipping it back.

So if anyone wants to buy us a gift, Batman The Dark Knight would be perfect. Otherwise I guess we know what we’re getting for our anniversary in February.

Or maybe we’ll just buy a Wii, and call Christmas good. (We try not to spend a lot on Christmas, so a Wii would take our budget, not to mention games to go with it.)

So what do you want for Christmas? Maybe it’ll give me some idea’s to tell Jon what I want for Christmas.

My friend Anna just posted the Lily Munster Costume we worked on. She designed and made the dress and I made the cape. I had a pattern to work by but I had to make modifications and design the hood from scratch.

She does regular sewing as in: cosutmes, bridal, and clothing. Though she has also made drapes and is certified in alterations.

So I’m a slacker mom. I blame it on a few things. First Linux, second Facebook, third trying to earn money by sewing, and fourth my procrastinating self.

I’m just a lame blogger lately, but I will record Halloween this year, finally, like three weeks later. Pictures to come once I reboot into Windows or figure out Linux.

Our Halloween this year was pretty low key. We had only one party to go to, though there were a couple others we could have gone to, and the girls used costumes that had been previously made, so I had no sewing whatsoever to do. Since I had no sewing to do I took on a job for a friend and made this cape for her business. I know, impressive, especially since I had to draft a pattern for the hood. It was a pain and but it gave me some money to put into my Sew Lacey account.

Our only Halloween party was for my sister’s work. We go ever year, or at least the past three years, and have a ball. Lilah was a fairy and Eden was Glinda, she decided not to be Jasmine, and I know this post isn’t nearly as cute without pictures. So I’ll try hard to get some up before the end of this week, maybe month…OK year. (I do have to order the Costco calendars and our holiday cards and I have all the pictures in Windows, so I may get them up within the month.)

The girls had a blast at the work party. I think it was because they were able to eat a doughnut before they ate their super healthy dinner consisting of a hot dog and bun, with ketchup. Luckily Lilah had gone bobbing for apples, so she had that wonderful germ covered apple to eat with her hot dog dinner. Eden later also bobbed for apples and ate half of her apple two, even more willingly than she ate the hot dog.

The girls also participated in the cake walk. Eden won after four or so dances, then when they wanted to end it Lilah simply won by being on a number! She was still really happy, though I’m sure it’s because she was able to eat a cupcake and a doughnut all in the same night.

After the trick or treating we headed home and the girls had fun sorting their stash of candy.

Saturday, on Halloween Day, we carved our pumpkin. I had the girls draw pictures, then I transferred them onto the pumpkin. I had to modify Eden’s a little because I don’t know how to carve a pupil in the middle of the pumpkin’s eyes or illustrate pink cheeks on an orange pumpkin, but I think they were both pretty pleased once all was done. After carving we got ready and visited the Blake’s so they could see the girls in their costumes.

Once dark we headed out on our street and hit up the four houses on our block. Then we visited my friend Beth and then onto the parents to trick or treat with Zarina! The girls were so happy to go with her, and she was adorable, even if she stole a little of my girls thunder since she was so. dang. cute. Right after we headed out Howard showed up with his three and we all trick or treated together. (Jon stayed home and handed out candy. He ran out a little early, at 8, and said next year we need to buy 12 bags, because the 7 I bought this year was not enough and we want those who trick or treat in our candy barren neighborhood to get some good candy, or at least two pieces from us.)

There was a street that goes all out in my parents neighborhood so we decided to go visit it. We took a wrong turn to visit a cool house, but we were able to see a fire truck and the firemen handled out candy to the kids. Eden by this time had decided to stop trick or treating, but I had her go get candy from the firemen anyways.

After being pointed in the right direction, or the direction I thought we needed to go, we saw hoards of people on the street where the decked out cul-de-sac was. I was also spotted by a high school friend, and we later figured out her mother happens to visit teach my mom. Small world since we both lived in a different area of town when we went to school.

On the crazy Halloween street there was a haunted house, but we opted to just walk the street and visit the houses handing out candy. They had barricaded it off so no cars were driving down it, and there were plenty of spooky costumes and houses. Lilah liked one where it looked like a head was on a table, but it was really a guy who was alive and just coming out of the table, or had his body under the table. (I’m trying to describe it like she did.)

After the major street Brien still had a lot of energy and he and Andrea finished trick or treating with Zarina and the older cousins, Howie, Kaitlyn, and Lilah and I took Adrienne and Eden home. As we passed one house some candy givers asked if we had been there, but I declined and said  we were headed home ’cause they were tired. I figure Eden wasn’t going to take it anyways and Adrienne was to little to care, and I wanted to just get home.

The kids went through the candy and I let the girls choose two things they wanted to eat. (They had already enjoyed candy throughout the day a little.) Before Eden had a chance to eat her Milk Duds she had to go to the bathroom. We used the upstairs one and I ended up staying upstairs to talk to Andrea. Around fifteen minutes later Eden comes up and asks if she can eat her Milk Duds. Since I wasn’t there to ask, she had patiently waited even though the other kids were enjoying their candies.

That night I decided that my kids are going to be highly successful because they can delay gratification. (There was a famous marshmallow study on delayed gratification and it predicting which kids would be more successful in life in the 1960’s.) Both Lilah and Eden are really good at delaying gratification, though not always. Like this week when we let them choose seven pieces of candy and we tossed the rest, and told them they could eat them whenever they wanted or just one a day to have them last, but they wouldn’t get any special treats again till at least neat Wednesday, or a week later. Both have only one or two pieces left and once I had to tell them they could not eat candy before breakfast, even if they were told they could have it whenever they wanted.

So that in a long nutshell was our Halloween. Candy, cousins, family fun and the possibility of highly successful adults, unless you give them no boundaries, which makes sense to me. They’re not getting more candy after seven days, they just can’t have other sweets until seven days, which may or may not happen anyways since I’d have to buy something sweet or make something sweet.

Now I’m slightly more prepared for Thanksgiving, but only because I don’t have to make anything except rolls.

Lilah’s a sensitive child. I’ve always known this. She’s also very brave too.

Today we had the lovely little red mole removed. Really, we could have left it, but it might have gotten bigger, I didn’t want hours of bleeding if it got scratched badly, and I know I would want something like that removed if I was a teenager, so I went with removing it while she was young, and while we were there and had insurance to pay for it, though technically we’ll be paying for it since it’s a new deductible year.

Anyways, Lilah was very nervous about this. She did not want it removed and the thought of it made her teary eyed. At the office the doctor talked to me and then I explained to her how he basically said we could leave it or remove it, Lilah replied in her very own words, that Lilah speaks and is somewhat technical, that she thought we should leave it. Then as the doctor and I tried to tell her that it was probably best to remove it now she started to get all red in the eyes and nervous. I couldn’t help but get teary eyed too as I knew my baby was nervous and just wanting to avoid the removal of the mole.

It hurt a little bit to have the anaesthetic injected. I know that it causes a pinch and burn from my own mole removals. Then the doctor took a little while to get back for some reason and then quickly removed it. I stood next to her, but did not watch. It was over rather quickly and hopefully in a couple weeks the scab will be gone and she’ll be like new, or like old.

I feel like a baby writing about how sad I was to see Lilah  when she got teary eyed today. She was so nervous, but I knew that it wouldn’t be too bad and once a teenager she’d probably be much happier without it. I just felt so bad for her once the news was delivered, and hurt that she would be hurt too. I know there are many other mothers who have had children go through much worst and I hope I never have to endure those moments myself, or watch them really.

Bottom line: Mothers hate to see their children hurt or afraid no matter how little the hurt or fear is.

I’ve yet to blog about this, and now might be a little too late, but I’m selling my bags at a local little craft fair. It’s just in a woman’s house, but a little publicity is still good publicity.

Sew Lacey is the name of my business and it’s tag line is: It’s Sew Lacey, but it’s so you. Jon thought of it on his way home from work once we had decided on a name. My site is SewLacey.com, but we’re still fixing it and figuring things out, but you can see pictures of the totes I’ve made and what you can buy of mine if you go to the craft fair. The fair will also have lotions, candles, Christmas decor and plaques that are amazing. I think I might be buying my parent’s gift there. (Lotion’s are by my friend Sam and here is her site.)

I’ll only be there in the evening once Jon’s home because Eden has a fever and I don’t want to leave her with anyone.

So come by if in Vegas, and once I get my site up I’ll be doing a give-a-way for those who help get my name out, so keep you eye out for when SewLacey.com is ready for more costumers. ( I’m excited and nervous at the same time for all that’s happening, so any positive words are welcomed. 🙂 )

The Holiday Gift and Craft Boutique

When: Thursday November 5, through Saturday November 7th.

Place: 6787 Vintage Highlands Lane, Las Vegas NV, 89110

Time: Thursday and Friday from 9am- 8pm, and Saturday 9 am- 3pm.

I was blog flipping just now and killing a little bit of time before I go back to sewing and someone wrote about their child’s Primary Program, and I remembered what  a slacker mom I’ve been in the blogging arena since I’ve been so busy with other stuff.

Our Primary Program was the 25th. My parents were able to be there along with my sister Carolyn. Jon’s mom showed up a little late with Dara and Jason, and in the rush to get in and sit down Jason was lost. So we sat through the sacrament and while the kids filed up the stairs Jon went to go find Jason, but then Jason came in the opposite door Jon went out and Mom went to go find Jon. Lilah was the very first child to speak and opened with: Family Life is most like to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. (It should have been Happiness in family life…. but I forgot to go over it with her one last time when I heard her practice it incorrectly the day before and no leader corrected her.)

So Jon heard Lilah give her part, he had made his way around the building and was at the other door, while Grandma missed part of it.

Eden’s part came later and was: I lived with Heavenly Father before I came to Earth. She was so cute and started to turn and get down before she finished so we heard, I lived with Heavenly Father before I came t….. I thought she did great, but that may be because I sympathize with her nervousness in front of others.
Both girls were so cute and I had fun watching them. Lilah was very animated when she sang at times, and I was just happy to see Eden singing because she doesn’t like to at home sometimes.

Just another note. After the practise on Saturday while the kids were eating their pizza one of the teachers told me how well behaved my girls were and how sweet they were, another teacher joked that they needed 24 more kids like them and then to get on it, as in have 22 more kids. I love my girls and I’m happy they’re so well behaved. I feel blessed to have two sweet children who listen and show respect to others, but I’m not sure I could guarantee even one more like them, let alone 22. 😉

1. Motivation to do something new.
2. Jon and his computer skills.
3. Jon’s support and ideas.
4. Two daughters who want to help and are excited for me.
5. I’m happy to venture into the unknown, at least unknown for me.