Going Overboard...A Blessing & A Curse

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love crafty projects. Not like the kind you buy in a kit, but coming up with my own. I feel very blessed that I have a creative mind, but sometimes it is a huge pain in the *** because I can't just do something halfway and be done with it.

Our swim team assigns team buddies to all swimmers. An older swimmer is paired up with a younger one, and they are supposed to encourage and cheer each other on throughout the season. From time to time throughout the season, buddies also trade gifts.

This Saturday's meet is our first home meet, and has a "Beach" theme. I came up with the clever idea of making personalized beach towels for Jack & Olivia's buddies. Sounds easy enough, right?

I bought a couple of $3.99 solid towels from Target, and tried out writing on them with a bleach pen. I was sure it would do the trick and look super cool with the color bleached out in the shape of each swimmer's name. Four hours and a wash load later, nothing had happened. I guess the cheap Target towels are also bleach proof...a good thing if you're using them in the house and want them to stay color safe...a bad thing if you're actually TRYING to bleach them!

I started thinking of other ways to accomplish what I wanted, and searched the aisles of the craft store for fabric paint that wouldn't be scratchy on a towel. I didn't want to freehand it, since I wasn't sure how wide the spray nozzle would span. I saw stencils next to the paint, and thought "Hey, I could do that!" So, I bought the paint and decided to give it a try.

First, I created a name stencil using old shelf liner paper and my Cricut. It took multiple tries to get the letters sized right, the blade depth just right, and the stencil placed in the center of the contact paper.

Then, I took the towels outside and placed the stencil on.

Using the Spray Stencil fabric paint, I lightly sprayed the stencil opening.

I let it dry for about an hour, pulled off the stencil, and voila! Success!

I contemplated trying to do the outline of a shark on the other end, but managed to restrain myself and leave well enough alone.

All in all, the project took about 6 hours. I messed up spraying one towel and had to make a second trip to the store for a new one.

I love that I'm creative and want to use that talent to benefit others. But sometimes—like today, when I'd rather have been just laying on a lounge chair with a book watching the kids swim—I wish that I could be satisfied with something less than original. Chances are, the kids' buddies would have been just as happy with a plain old beach towel.

Top 10 Things I Love About Summer Vacation

School's officially out for the summer. To commemorate, here are the top 10 reasons I love summer vacation:

10. The lunch boxes can gather dust in the cupboard, unused for weeks, except for the occasional outing or picnic.

9. I can work out in the morning without worrying about rushing, or then being too stinky to show my face on school campus.

8. There's time for these in the afternoon, giving me a couple of hours of quiet bliss.

7. It stays light until nearly 9:00 (I actually have a love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings Time. It makes the 8:00 bedtime hard to enforce, but I love saving on our electricity bill).

6. My kids can substitute swimming for a bath. This creates some awesome hairstyles.

5. I get to show off my cute pedicure and get a tan line from my flip flops.

4. No homework to supervise, Thursday folders to review, fundraisers to participate in, or research projects to do.

Jack with his recent report on Humpback Whales.

This project was due two days before our final move.

It was not my best work. But Jack thought it was awesome.

3. I can drag my laptop outside and write my weekly newspaper articles from a lounge chair with this view...

2. I can slack off and let my kids do all the chores, with only a little bit of bribery.

And the number 1 reason I love summer vacation...

1. It will eventually end!

Just like childbirth...only different!

Moving is a lot like having a baby, I've decided. Months of preparation lead up to the big event. The preparation is followed by several excruciatingly painful days. Then you spend several days not knowing which end is up and not remembering where you put anything and spontaneously bursting into tears. Then one morning, the pain is gone, and you wake up and think, "Hey, maybe that wasn't so bad after all..."

The last 5 months have been filled with all sorts of uncertainties and chaos. When we decided to put our house on the market back at the first of the year, it was with a specific house in mind. When that house fell through, we were pretty much devastated, and wondered if we were making a big mistake. The next several weeks were spent house hunting, praying, and trying not to panic.

In mid-March, we took a look at a house that had been on the market for a couple of months. The price had been significantly lowered, was in an ideal neighborhood, and we pretty much fell in love with it. It was everything we were looking for, and more. It was a short-sale situation, so we didn't have high hopes for a quick response when we submitted an offer. We had secured a month-to-month rental, had put most of our belongings in storage, and were ready to live lean for several months if necessary.

The day after we moved into the rental, and just two weeks after submitting our offer, we received the phone call that our offer had been accepted and approved by the bank. We had some hurdles to overcome with inspections and such, but one by one, things fell into place, and we finally closed escrow on May 21.

Two moves and 200+ boxes later, we are finally settling in. We still have a long ways to go in the decorating field, but it is feeling like home. We have amazing new neighbors, who welcomed us to the neighborhood with a gift certificate to a local restaurant (seriously...how awesome is that? We never even met most of the neighbors in our last house, and we were there for 6 years!). They have 2 sons, and our kids have already made friends.

After just 2 weeks, it already feels like home and we are thrilled with our decision!

Everyone has been asking to see pictures...so here you go!

Front of the house

View from entry into dining room

The kitchen doesn't have much counter space...or cabinet space, but we have a big pantry and laundry room, which makes up for what the kitchen lacks. At some point down the road, I want to level off the bar and make one giant island.

This was the kitchen the morning after the move...

This is the kitchen now!

The kitchen dining area has a great view of the backyard.

The family room adjoins with the kitchen, into a "great" room.

I love being able to watch the morning news while packing lunches!

There is a larger-than-life mural on the wall going up the staircase. I'm still not sure about the nudity and passion displayed here (not to mention the leopard looking on...), but even more unsure what to do to replace it. We'll have to take some time to figure this out...

The view of the entry/living room from the second story balcony.

The high ceilings create some pretty cool acoustics for the piano.

We've got a playroom upstairs, and this is the kids' domain.

It's great having a central place for their toys, video games, movies, etc.

The biggest challenge is not having it turn into a "Disaster Zone"!

Our guest room is downstairs, away from the noise of the rest of the house.

Visitors are welcome!

There are lots of home improvement projects on the "to-do" list right now.

Steve has been busy!

The kids are having a ball with the pool.

I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time in the backyard this summer...

Goin' Ga Ga

Whenever we get in the car lately, it seems a Lady Ga Ga is playing on the radio. If I had a dollar for every time I heard her sing, I wouldn't have a mortgage payment...

The songs are a little suggestive, yet upbeat, catchy, and stick in the brain. My brain, and my kids' brains as well. Case in point, here's Grant . . . singing "Paparazzi".

His lyrics? "I'm your babysitter, follow you until you love me...Papa...Paparazzi"

Not quite sure how he got "babysitter" in there. Sounds like a stalker to me.

Who says a minivan ain't cool?

This is my new favorite commercial.



I'm perfecting the swagger...and I want the license plate to match.

A word of caution...

My best mother-in-law (yes, she's my only, but still my best) sent me this bumper sticker today.

Ironically, I was sitting at a stoplight when it arrived in my inbox.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Or perhaps a cautionary warning.

I love my iPhone. I love that it has email, internet, texting, weather, movie times, and all sorts of other apps that make my life a little easier and a lot more fun (including Scrabble, which entertains me and distracts me when I'm sitting waiting for a kid somewhere...). I can keep up on all that I need to during the day when I am away from home. But it is also tempting to pick it up at times when my focus should be otherwise directed. Like at a stoplight. Granted, I wasn't moving, and the light had just turned red, so I knew I had at least a couple of seconds to sit and wait. But I'm not ready to meet the Big Fella, so that phone is staying closed when the motor is running from here on out.

HDL, LDL...and what the h*ll

At Grant's physical last week, the doctor expressed some concern over his girth (I've always loved that word, but rarely have a chance to use it!). Sitting in his little boy briefs on the table, his belly protruded and he even showed signs of "man-boobs". He's gained 9 pounds in the last year, pushing him from the 75th percentile up into the 98th percentile. His BMI officially classified him as overweight.

I take partial responsibility. The past few months have not marked me as the most consistent, health conscious mother on the planet. Far too many snacks have been eaten in place of healthy main courses, and way more tv has been watched than is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. With the chaos of moving, packing, unpacking, repacking, moving again, well, you get the idea.

I trust our pediatrician completely. She is devoted, caring, and goes out of her way to make sure that we don't feel like just another chart. So when she expressed concern, I was a bit alarmed. She gave me a book on dealing with childhood obesity (am I really using that word on my 3 1/2 year old?). She said it was time to make some dietary changes, increasing his fresh fruits and veggies, decreasing any sort of processed, prepared foods, and cutting out fast food altogether, plus increasing his physical activity. She requested that Grant undergo a full blood panel work up. The real bummer? He had to be fasting in order to have the bloodwork done. Ugh.

So, Friday morning, I bribed him with cartoons while Jack and Olivia ate their breakfast. I gave him a sippy cup of water, and told him that after we were done at the lab, we'd go out to breakfast.

We dropped off Jack & Olivia at school and got to the lab about 9:00. They called us back, and asked me to sit in the chair and hold Grant on my lap. He climbed on up there and was chatting and flirting away with the phlebotomists while they prepped him. He had no idea what was coming.

When the needle went in the first arm, he didn't even flinch. Just stared at his arm. Unfortunately, his veins were uncooperative and after fishing around for a couple of minutes, she withdrew the needle with no blood. Time to switch to the other arm. Again, he didn't move a muscle, or make a sound. The whole lab was looking at him, and whispering about this cute little guy who was being so brave. I had to agree. Take two was successful and enough blood was drawn to run the tests.

When we went to stand up, all of a sudden Grant said "I don't feel so good" as all the color drained from his face. The lab tech quickly grabbed us a bottle of Gatorade and we sat in the lobby while he sipped.

Sad face...

Once we were done, I asked him where he wanted to go for breakfast. He chose Panera...and when we got there, he ordered a giant cinnamon roll and a chocolate milk. Just what the doctor ordered? I don't think so. But what fun is life if you can't indulge on occasion?

Happy face...