Busy Busy!

I feel like I might be dropping off the face of the earth for awhile... with the combination of the holidays, a growing Facebook "fan" community, and a free shipping special I offered over the weekend, I had a whole flood of orders in the past few days! It's great, and I feel really jazzed to see my business starting to take off, but a little overwhelmed at the same time. I have A LOT to do this week. I want to do a good job for these clients and make them really like my stuff. I take a lot of pride in what I do and want it to be excellent. But at the moment I'm feeling pretty much stretched to the limit of what I can physically do!! So if I'm not a great blogger for awhile here... that's why!

Piano

Tonight we're visiting Ammy and Papa... the piano was a big hit. :)

Family Night

Tonight we had a much needed low-key family night. We caved and bought Toy Story 3 because they were out of the rentals at Blockbuster and we sort of had our hearts set on seeing it... it wasn't a horrible deal, though it would have been a little cheaper on Amazon... sigh...

It was worth it to sit together on the couch and munch popcorn and just be together. It's been a really busy week with the craft show today (which went significantly better than either of the other two I have done; I still think I'll stick with online sales- and maybe start doing a few "bow parties" at friends' houses in the new year), and all the emotion of having a good friend dealing with something as serious as what's going on with my friend's son Isaac (he is doing very well, though, and she is feeling uplifted by all of the prayer and support, so that is good). We just needed some time together, and so I'm glad we could have it.

Something about having a renewed sense of the fragility and preciousness of life makes me appreciate these sweet girls even more than I usually do. It's possible I allowed Carolyn to set precedent by dancing on the coffee table simply because I thought she was cute.

It wasn't long before she was joined by her sister (and the Ooh-ey)

I think Ooh-ey is Nora's favorite person in the family. She would like it (and preferably "they" as she has now discovered that there are more than one...) to come everywhere with us. I think her special relationship with this guy is very cute- she likes to feed it, put it to bed, and talk to it when she thinks we're not watching. :)

Shaken

A close friend of mine found out today that her son (18 months old) has leukemia. She is the third person I've been connected with in the past few months that has had this same news. It all feels so very close to home right now, and I feel shaken at the sudden reminder that as much as we think we have control over the events and course of our lives, we really do not. Today's events haven't changed reality- I really never did have any assurance that  bad things wouldn't happen- but the cloud of illusion has been abruptly and painfully lifted as I'm now watching a dear friend wrestle with this sudden valley in her life. Would you please join me in prayer for Linda and Jacob and their son Isaac (and also their daughters Laney (3) and Gabby (4 weeks old)). Linda is a blogger too, and when she feels up to it, she will be updating her blog at http://quistnshout.xanga.com/ .

Going Under Again

It's another one of "those weeks." Big craft show Saturday. 1000 projects started. Gigantic mess in my craft room (aka secret lab)... too much to do, not enough time to get it all done... time to work feverishly every spare second I have... only to find that on Saturday, no one will come to the show. That seems to be the normal manner of things, at least in my experience- I don't really like all the sitting around. BUT, the upside is that I have made some really AWESOME things in the process of preparing for this show and the ones I've done before, and they look really great!! With or without great craft show success, my little business is blooming. And that makes me happy because I cherish the hours spent in that little room letting my long-suppressed artistic self run wild.

I made these today, and they made me feel happy. I think I would put them in my hair if I was wearing something that matched. :) And that's kinda what I'm going for. Some styles that can cross over between big girls and mamas. :)

Fun, and Not So Fun

Yesterday our flight didn't leave out of Jacksonville (about 2.5 hours south of Nana and Papa's house) until about 4pm and the whole crew was up early due to the time change, so we busted out in the morning for a quick hour at the beach before cooping up the kids for the long journey home.  It was the best part of the whole day- and would have been the best part even of a much better day than one spent in airports, planes, and cars! The weather was beautiful, and the ocean is so magical and wonderful. 

There's just something about the ocean that brings out the child in me. I took a few pictures of Carolyn dancing in the shallow water and playing in the waves... but then I just joined her and had a ball looking like a nutcase. :)

The water was really quite warm for November, and the sand was so soft... and my girls are so beautiful that they take my breath away sometimes.

Nana and Nora had a lovely time playing in the sand.

Later I brought Nora a bucket of bubbles I caught on the surface of the water... possibly pollution (hopefully not!)- but I thought they were just the product of the waves on the shoreline and the tide coming in... guess time will tell... but we washed her hands pretty thoroughly after we were done, and she really did have a wonderful time playing in the bubbles.

Her toddler enthusiasm and wonder is so fun to watch!

It took me several shots to catch this look on her face, but I'm glad she did- every time she reached into the bucket for more bubbles, she made this "oohhhhh!" face!

Finally it was time to go (if anyone knows how to photoshop the lady in the background out, let me know! the picture would look so much prettier without her)- it was a good thing I brought some more clothes for the girls! They were all wet!

After a much-enjoyed lunch from Chik Fil A, it was almost time to go, but I fulfilled my promise to Carolyn and we went out to the dock to look at the water at high tide. I like this picture of my 3 favorite people all peering over the edge of the dock. Thankfully, no one fell in. :)

Then it was time to go. We drove to Jacksonville and boarded our flight to Baltimore, where we ended up sitting for over 5 hours waiting for a late connection. Thankfully, they had a Potbelly's!

We made a huge mess devouring our dinner... well, some of us ate.

Carolyn enjoyed her PBJ sandwich (minus the J)

Nora was too busy working on the three poopy diapers she had in the span of time we were at the airport! Even with as much as I overpack for trips like this, we were down to just one more diaper after the final one! 

The rest of the evening wasn't really picture worthy (if indeed you can even say that the first part of it was!) Our flight kept getting delayed and moved... we camped out at the gate and thanked goodness for the laptop and the DVDs we brought. I tried to walk Nora around in the stroller but due to Poopy #3 never did get her to go to sleep. Finally at nearly 11pm they drifted off once the plane got in the air. We finally got home exhausted after 1am. Today it was SO GOOD to be home! Even in my messy house and too many loads of laundry to keep up with and all the CLUTTER CLUTTER CLUTTER. I happily worked on orders all afternoon, and I'm actually looking forward to my next craft show on Saturday. :) 

And now I have officially finished blogging my trip. If you want to see more pics, you can see my Facebook album. :)

Porch Pictures

Lighting in our other series of pictures being a bit brighter than ideal, with the consequently shadowed faces, we decided we needed to attempt a retake of the family portrait. The Porch had the best light, we thought, so that's where we did it. Overall, a success... though not in every picture. :)

Doug, Katy, Emily, and Jake. A cute picture. I believe this is when the adults started to do the chicken dance behind the camera.

Our little family. The Chicken Dance had evidently become somewhat less funny at this point.

Nana and Papa and the Grands.

Beloved Uncle Kerry with the nieces and nephew. He's amazing. Never had the chance to be a dad, he has doted on his nephews, and now their children. This time Uncle Kerry brought the brand new Knuffle Bunny Free (the third in the wonderful Knuffle Bunny series) book for the big girls- along with their very own KNUFFLE BUNNIES! The little guys got a sock monkey and accompanying book- which was just perfect for Nora, who LOOOOOVES all things "monkey." Even as wretched as she has been feeling at moments the past couple days, she is still thrilled with her monkey, and even allows it to share the bed with her and the "ooo-ey" (Lovey).

The cousins. They got along amazingly well. Carolyn and Emily seem to have the kind of friendship that is immediately struck up anew even after long absences. They played together so well the whole time we were here. I felt like I hardly saw Carolyn all weekend, she was so happy and busy playing with Emily! Jake and Nora don't share too many of the same interests (he is all about TRUCKS), but they managed to play nicely together also.

Great time had by all. Never seems like long enough when we do it, and always seems like too long until the next time we'll all be together again. But it really was a great time. :) Thanks Nana and Papa for being married for 40 years so we have an excuse to do this!! It's a great reason to celebrate. :)