Another Evy's Tree Giveaway

I really do have a blog of my own, I promise I do not get paid to just blog or advertise about my friend Amy and her Evy's Tree creations! But yeah, I've kinda got SO MUCH other stuff in my head about life right now that I CANNOT share YET that I am not blogging about my own life much. Does this make sense? Believe me, I'll blog tons later, when the time is right. MEANWHILE.....

yeah, Amy is doing a giveaway. I think she does these to MAKE me update my blog...haha....

Aren't these pretty though? She's deconstructed a hoodie and turned it into an adorable hoodie/tee hybrid with fantastic ruffles on one side. Seriously, this is the stuff I see in the mall and can't afford because the price tag is hovering too close to triple digits AFTER the dollar sign. But she does stuff that is not only gorgeous but durable. Trust me. I have one of her original hoodies (the Whimsey, love it!) and it gets worn (even here in Hawaii) on rainy, cool nights. And washed alot. And it looks gorgeous still and yes, I get envious green-tinged looks when I wear it. Heehee...

Here is the black one that I COVET:

And the brown one that I would wear because yeah, chocolate brown does look good with my coloring and my husband likes brown....

So click on over to: http://evystree.blogspot.com/ and enter to win this giveaway. Good luck!

Evy's Tree Giveaway to Celebrate 100

Wow, I am a loser when it comes to keeping this blog current! And I have a secret; there is alot going on in my life right now and since I find it hard to keep a secret I just know that I'll say too much on my blog, so to avoid saying too much right now I am simply not blogging very much! Haha how's that for an excuse like you've never heard before about a lack of blogging?

HOWEVER, my dearest and awesomest friend in the whole wide world is doing a giveaway on her blog and this is enough to cause me to remember my blogger log-in and pull up the "New Post" tab again. I would support anything that she does and these Tees are so beautiful. I want one for when I have this baby and want to feel cute again. I will never look as skinny and cute as Kate, the model, but I can always suck in my tummy and TRY to have that same glow that she has, right?

Here are the tees:

SEE? Aren't they great? So to enter the giveaway go to: http://evystree.blogspot.com/

Dear Mommy: Stop and Hold Me

Well hello everyone, yes it has been many moons since my last blog post. However, I am not apologizing. Sometimes things are just too busy to blog, right? But if I had to offer excuses, I do have two: firstly, I am in the last stages of the first trimester of this pregnancy, and much like last time I have been very, very sick. Let's just say when those pregnancy books off-handedly mention the "less than 1% of pregnant women who will suffer extreme hyperemesis gravida,"they might as well put my name in that sentence. It's just ridiculous how sick I've been, but I have hope that it will soon end! I have tried every medical and old-wives-tale remedy and although some things help a bit, nothing works very much. BUT I am NOT complaining....just sincerely wishing that the sickness part would end soon.

My second excuse for not frequently blogging is this little mess of a diva, seen here in her pigtails, princess panties (that she insists on wearing over her diapers), and big brothers cowboy boots: (pic removed by author)

She is VERY attached to me, and every time I sit down at the computer, she feels that the only place in the entire house she needs to be at that very moment is either on my lap, commenting on every thing she sees on the computer and making attempts to type herself....or standing on the chair behind me, sweetly singing and "scatching" my back, as she puts it. She's actually a pretty good back "scatcher" but still....it's hard enough to intelligently write when you are sick and exhausted...but much more so when you're distracted.

And I love that she's attached to me. I treasure these moments. I will leave the computer, turn off the dishwater and walk out of the kitchen, or get up from sorting the laundry just to sit down on the couch with her for our very frequent cuddle times. Things don't get done (including blogging, obviously), but Liv and I have many special moments together. Samuel wasn't much of a "sit and cuddle" type (is it a boy/girl thing?) so these are great times. She and I sit and sing, play with each others' hair, and tickle each other. We nuzzle each others' necks and make funny faces. We snack on random things that suit our immediate craving (my constant pregnancy hunger and she eats everything in sight, all day long), and laugh at the birds outside.

Maybe she's spoiled. Maybe I'm lazy. And certainly, I don't care if anyone believes either sentiment. Because one advantage I have in being an 'older' (over 30) mom is that I know how fast time zips by at a dizzy speed, never to be regained. I know these little munchkins grow up too fast and my time with them is too short. I will have years (later) to clean my house, write a blog, and sleep as late as I want. My years with these babies, however, is brief, so if I have to let the dishes pile to the ceiling just so I can get an extra hug out of my son or a soft kiss from my daughter, then so be it.

Samuel and Olivia 'helping' me sort the laundry by just taking over the laundry basket and making it a boat that will save them from the ravaging floods. I love that Samuel is also saving his favorite red & white puppy that was rescued from a yard sale.

Now the boat has become his bed, using Daddy's sleeping bag.

Living proof of how fast time flies: my nephew Joshua Royer when he was about Samuel's age. I was there when he was born!

This picture was just taken a few years ago....or so it feels.

Joshua graduating from high school, 2010. See....he grew up in just days and now he's a young man, about to enter the world on his own.

So I leave you with one of my all-time favorite poems:

Cleaning and scrubbing

can wait 'til tomorrow

For babies grow up,

we've learned to our sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs,

Dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby

and babies don't keep.

(by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

adapted by Wendy Lyn)

I {gasp} Like Being Pregnant!

I like being pregnant!

I know, this may seem odd in light of the extreme nausea I seem destined to endure every waking moment for the first trimester. I get sick if I don't eat. After I eat, I feel sick. When I wake up at night, I feel sick. In the morning, I am sick. When my husband turns over in the night and shakes the bed, I feel horribly sick. In the evening...well, you get the point.

And yet, while I was taking a shower last night, I stood under the hot water and in the middle of my slow, deep, anti-throw-up breaths the realization struck me; I like being pregnant!

Why? Because my body is doing exactly what it is intended to do. What it was intricately designed for, and what a man's body is NOT made to do, at all. Somewhere in the middle of making an Adam Clone from a spare rib, God thought it would be neat to veer from His original Blueprint for a Human and create a few extra organs. A uterus. Two ovaries with fallopian tubes. Miniscule eggs that amazingly are present when a girl is born and that contain the makings of more human, a sort of storage facility for yet more Blueprints for Humans. He invented the idea of Aunt Flo (yeah, maybe not exactly our favorite feature!) and set it all into motion.

The man is supposed to work with his hands and support his family. I'm sure that men feel great satisfaction from forming or creating something utilizing their brain and brawn; I know my husband feels immense pride when he can lay the paperwork aside, grab his power tools, and build a piece of furniture.

And on the flip side, the woman does her greatest work with her own body! With little brain or brawn required, her body is designed to naturally create the greatest masterpiece of all....another human. It's amazing to me that our female bodies; these emotional packages of monthly cycles and hormones, can actually function as a factory and build another human being in a small pear-shaped organ nestled beneath our stomachs (and uncomfortably close to our bladders).

So yeah...my back will ache. I'll spend time tossing and turning in bed between seven pillows that threaten to push my husband off his side. I'll wear a path in the carpet between wherever I am and the closest toilet. I'll eat like a horse but deposit more than a few meals into the closest receptacle when the nausea strikes. I'll cry over sentimental Hallmark commercials or when I read a headline about a missing child. The stretch marks will appear as a fleshy roadmap on my skin and the clothes will come in bigger sizes. My ankles will disappear from sight and shaving becomes an optional luxury or an attempt at strange yoga poses.

And afterwards, when the labor has been endured, stitches received, and my body has emptied itself of its burden, I'll stand in front of a mirror to survey the damage that includes a saggy tummy. Dark circles under the eyes. Soreness everywhere. I will survey the damage and say; "It is good!" I'll be proud of my body for doing its job successfully. I'll applaud it with a standing ovation and make a promise to it that I will not be embarrassed by its appearance because that would be like criticizing my husband when he comes home sweaty and tired after a long days work.

I will nestle my new baby's soft neck and thank God for His amazing creation; a woman's body and its unfathomable ability to reproduce.

9 Months Pregnant; August 2006

After Samuel Elton Gray joined us on August 19, 2006, after 2 hours of back labor then 8 hours of easy labor.

9 Months pregnant; October 2008

Going through 6 hours of easy labor; for some odd reason it made me feel better to scratch the back of Elton's neck during the contractions!

With my midwife and Elton, happy that Olivia Sunshine Gray joined us on October 17, 2008.

The News, Cravings, and A Great Giveaway

Well now the secret is out so I feel like I can blog again without 'accidentally' letting The News slip out! Since we just recently went through the sad experience of a miscarriage, we were going to wait until the magical three-month mark was passed, but I've been soooo sick and it's becoming stressful to hide how badly I've felt when I'm around friends. And I'm at the 8-week mark, so hopefully everything is fine with this one. In the case of pregnancy, sickness in the first trimester is a good sign, or so they say. I've been reminding myself of that as I have laid on the living room floor, too sick to move an inch, and my sweet husband has been taking off work early to care for the kids. I've had to keep two big bowls by the bedside; one to utilize for the easing of nausea (trying to be gentle with words) while husband rinses the other one out and brings it back! Eeewww.....but anyway...needless to say, it's been a rough month but I know that it will all be worth it in the end. In November, when we are finally holding a blessing that we can TRULY be thankful for during Thanksgiving.

God is so good, isn't He? I heard a song on the radio today (Air1, my fav) that was simply saying: "Jesus, you are all I need....all I need...all I need." And it's true; my Jesus is everything to me and despite what life holds, if you have Jesus, you have enough.

I can already tell that I have pregnesia, or whatever brain ailment comes along with pregnancy hormones, because I just totally forget the deeply inspiring and thought-provoking words that I was going to say in the previous paragraph. Seriously, I was typing away in deep meditation on Jesus and I glanced over at Olivia eating her Mac 'N Cheese and yeah....the thought-provoking words melted out of my head and I started thinking about Mac 'N Cheese, and how I always have the weirdest food cravings with my pregnancies. They are always different!

#1 (Samuel) - Banana's...smell, taste, thought of them...made me sick. I wanted Claussen cold pickles during the first weeks but after that it was ice cream and Dr. Pepper.

#2 (Olivia) - Dr. Pepper...smell, taste, thought of it...made me sick. I wanted Claussen cold pickles during the first weeks but after that it was chocolate chip cookies.

#3 (this one) - Fried food is making me gag. I ate Claussen cold pickles and lomi salmon during the first weeks but currently, it's Vietnamese food or Hawaiian-style saimen.

So much for a spiritual blog. And I was going to talk about something really deep. Guess you'll have to tune in later if you are hoping for a spiritual nugget!

Oh and yes.... I wanted to mention this great giveaway going on at DearLillie's website. She is amazing and her creations are incredible. Here's a pic of ONE of the dress styles up for giveaway to the winner....this is the one I want! Isn't it awesome?I know I'd feel like a princess in it...who wouldn't? But if you want to enter and try to win, I wish you the best of luck....because I LIKE all of my blog followers and would like for ANY of you to feel like a princess in your very own beautiful dress :)

Here's the link to her website: http://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com

Marriage BC (Before Children)

My friend Amy is having a rough day with her energetic son, and I tried to bring her comfort even though I'm smack dab in the middle of Kid Chaos myself. I'm just having a little bit calmer day than her, so it's easier for me to see the light right now. The only light she's seeing are the fluorescent Target store lights floating around in her head while she wistfully thinks about getting out of the house (alone) and having some (alone) shopping time!

After I got off the phone with her, I started thinking about my life and marriage BC; Before Children. The comparisons are so hilarious that I wanted to share some of them here...

BC I worked outside the home, brought in a nice tidy paycheck, and had no qualms about spending some of it on myself. Manicures, new shoes, Starbucks...all guilt-free pleasures. Now I work in the home, make no money on my own, and can't remember the last manicure or Starbucks.

BC I had little breakable collectible things all over the house, including my miniature tea sets. Now I think they are packed somewhere and we have NO breakable collectible anything setting anywhere, and I strongly discourage anyone from buying me such a thing! It would be swallowed if it had small pieces, broken, or turned into a neat space missile that should be thrown across the room, in my son's opinion.

BC my husband and I took college courses, both on campus and online. We spent hours studying, reading, and writing papers. Now my husband has to lock himself in the office just to break out a Biblical commentary to research a sermon, and I'm so clueless about what's going on Outside that I didn't even know what the health care bill was about (see previous post).

BC we'd go out to eat with our other married (no children) friends, all the time if we wanted to! We'd sit at tables without highchairs, kids menus, or crayons. We could order anything off the menu without a thought for the price. Nothing was spilled onto the floor, in our laps, or flung across the room. The loudest we got was when our husbands got into their weird guy humor jokes and we wives would sit there shaking our heads. Now if we just go out with one other couple, our friends Tyrel and Kenda Butler, we have to ask for FOUR highchairs and spend so much time ordering kids meals, extra plates, extra napkins, and kids covered drinks that we are hardly aware of we order for ourselves except for making sure it's 'within our price range', also known as figuring out where in the pay period we are and if we need to stay in the $15 a meal range or not... Food gets flung and other patrons notice the loudness of the kids as we just try to eat our food before it gets cold.

BC I'd clean the house once a week (ONCE a WEEK!!) and it stayed clean! I'd complain about my husband leaving his socks in the living room instead of taking them to the bedroom laundry basket. Now those socks are the least of my worries, of course! Cracker crumbs, toys scattered, milk-filled sippy cups fermenting beneath my bed, permanent marker drawings on the wall, and a three year old who sometimes gets distracted using the potty....daily vacuuming and cleaning is necessary, although exhausting.

BC we'd sleep late on weekends. On lazy Sunday afternoons my husband would enjoy playing video games while I enjoyed lying on the couch and dozing as I watched him play. Now sleep itself is a rare commodity and I never see my husband play games because if he gets a chance, it's late at night when everyone is asleep.

The list goes on....but it's funny how different things were BC!

And to be honest, life was more boring. Now we have constant little companions who crack us up, annoy us, keep us awake, and bring us joy. Little breathy kisses and tiny arms hugging our necks. Squeals of joy at Daddy piggy-back rides and snuggles when we read to them.

We may be more tired, our home may be dirtier, poorer, and noisier, but oh...in many ways we are so much happier now, than Before Children.

Monday Musings about Sunday Chaos

This will be a random post because it's Monday morning and I'm just sorting through my mental thoughts so I can clear my head enough to get something accomplished today. But you are welcome to flip through these thoughts with me; perhaps you'll find something interesting!

First I have to tell about Fergus. I told several friends at church about this terroristic little boy that I saw at McDonalds yesterday, but now I'd like to tell the world because I just can't believe his mom and her craziness! After the Baptist service yesterday morning (Elton preached there and did great; they own the building that our church rents and since they are currently without a pastor, they ask our ministers to fill in), we went to McDonalds to let the kids eat and run off their energy before returning for our own service. Within a minute of walking in the door, this very tall 4 year old boy smacked Samuel and made him cry. The mom did nothing. In the hour that we sat there and watched all the kids playing in the playground, I saw this kid smack, pinch, push, and spit at all the other little kids, with the mom only occasionally glancing up and mildly calling out to her son. At one point, he grabbed a 3 year old boy who was being watched by his grandmother, and began choking him. Everyone watched in horrified amazement as the poor grandma kept saying "Stop! Quit it! Leave him alone!" After what seemed like 5 minutes, the mom calmly walked over and sweetly told Fergus (yes, that was his horrid name!): "Fergus, a little less physical contact with the other kids, please." Oh yeah, there was a lot of eye-rolling going on around her. The other severe warning this new-age ditz had for her son? "Fergus, honey, please give the other children a little more personal space, ok?" I've HEARD about these kinds of moms...the ones who don't want to 'offend' their kids and who want to raise them gently or whatever, but seeing one in action was unbelievable. How can you expect a 4-year old brat (or a child of ANY age, for that matter), to understand and obey such ridiculous requests as these?

OK, moving on from that rant....but still at McDonalds....the large screen TV was playing CSPAN or something while we were there, and all of the drama about the health care bill reform thing was being watched. So here is my {gulp} confession: I had no idea what it was all about! I used to know all the political news and now....I've been so caught up in alphabet flash cards and other child-related life activities that I just sat there while heated debate swirled around my table. Even the other guys in my church were discussing it later while I just averted my eyes and concentrated on wiping Olivia's ketchup-smeared face. Health care bill? Reform Something-Or-Other? NOT A CLUE.....!! When I came home and read my friends' comments on Facebook, I was made to understand that the USA is all of these things: Headed down the pooper. Becoming Communist. Becoming Socialist. Losing its Liberty. Denying the Constitution. And Obama is the Antichrist and Satan rolled into one. Oh yes, and he is a baby killer. None of this was very helpful other than letting me know that the Health Care Bill equaled BAD. And yeah, this morning I had to get up and spend some time reading online and educating myself about this. I won't offer my personal opinions on my blog but at least I know a little more than I did yesterday....poor mindless mom that I am....hahaha...

OK, last thing, I promise. On Saturday I finished my green messenger bag and I.Love.It. I bought this hideous pair of green denim, elastic-waist pants at a thrift store for 99 cents because I like the color and had a great bag in mind. I found some cool black/white fabric on sale at a store and got to work on my bag....it took about 3 hours (stopping now and then to refill sippy cups/change diapers/restart movies ), and cost about $4 total to make. I used my Green Bag all day yesterday and got a lot of compliments, and it made me realize that I like making these things for the fun of it, and actually have no desire to make things to sell! Weird! I'd like to just make things that people like, and then give them away, just for the sheer joy of knowing they like them! Is this strange or what....anyway, here's pics of my bag. Now I have to sign off and clean the house, do laundry, or some other typical housewife chore that will effectively shield me from knowing about how the government is sending America to Hell In A Handbasket.

My Lovely new Green Bag :)

Used both the original back pockets from the Hideous Pants to make pockets for the bag; this one is on the back of the bag.

Inside of the bag, with the other pocket.

It's reversible too!