one day i will in fact be organized again. it seems that even the most organized person (myself) is bound to lose her way when she adds a hubby and three kids to the mix. today i finally got some of those pictures off my camera. i still need to do some editing, but i got a few done. it is also almost 3:30 am right now, so it is pretty unlikely that i will do anymore tonight... these are from the renaissance festival that we all went to in june.

how nice of C to let me dress him in this get-up!

princess M playing in the fountain.


all day G wanted to slay they dragon... we never did do that!

we now have fish.

the kids have wanted a pet for sometime now and i finally gave in. we found a lost dog a while ago and kept it overnight until its owner came to take it home. although that was fun for the night, i knew as soon as it left that we would not be getting a dog anytime soon. and due to the hubby's cat allergy, we had to think on a smaller scale. i figure fish are a safe bet. they stay in the tank; they eat there, sleep there, poop there... perfect! all i have to do is feed them and keep the tank clean. (i will be recruiting a plycostamus [sp?] to help me with this task at a later date.)

so far they are great. there have been no casualties. we got them each a fancy goldfish, but they are all different so i can tell them apart. they even named them. we have Vader, Princess & ObiWan. i guess this is my test. if i can manage to keep these alive and keep the tank looking presentable, maybe we can move on to a bigger animal in a couple years. of course, if i'm lucky, they will just love the fish and i will not have to take on the responsibility of cleaning up the poop of something that i did not give birth to.

only 10 more days 'til halloween... i'm torn between excitement and dread. i am looking forward to the kiddos dressing up, they are all going to be pirates this year - how fun is that?!?! i don't think they are going to agree to do a common theme many more times. i managed to keep myself on a pretty strict budget this year and i did pretty well. all i had to buy was the eye-patches and a bandana for each of them. so $6. pretty darn good if you ask me. the rest we can just use what we have at home. i am debating getting some yarn to sew some "dreads" into their bandanas for hair... we'll see if i get to that before the 10 days are up.

i think i am learning a bit as a parent, i definately made some halloween blunders in the past as far as costumes go. i think it was 2005 that G wanted to be Jango Fett from Star Wars and i didnt even blink at the $80 price tag for the costume and 2 "blasters"! not sure what i was thinking there, but that is NOT going to happen again. i like the idea that they can make their costumes out of things we have, or at least with very few outside purchases. imagination is something that has gotten lost and needs to be found again. i don't know that my parents ever actually bought me a costume, i'm pretty sure we had to make them, or my mom made them for us (yes - i remember the clown wig you made mom!). maybe next year G will actually want to make his costume after he sees how much fun it can be... i can only hope i suppose...

we will be carving a pumpkin or 2 this weekend, that should be fun. i think i'm going to pass on the store bought kits for that too, and just carve some classic jack-o-lantern faces!

the funeral was nice. it is amazing to know more about the life she led, i guess you only see so much of a person while they are at work. i am glad that her life was so much more than that. i knew she was artsy, but i found out she really made art, and she wrote, and loved poetry. it was all really great, and i got to see just how amazing she was in touching other's lives the way that she did my own.

i can only hope that i am ale to have such a positive impact on my own friends and family.

well, i have been watching what i eat now for a few days, and sadly i haven't noticed much yet. i know it takes time and all, so i am willing to stick it out. at the very least, i am eating a more balanced variety of foods, and i am pretty sure that is a good thing...

the exercise has been hard to fit in though. i was going to try and do Yoga after i come home from work in the morning, but i have just been so tired that i have gone to bed. I will try harder to get at least a few days in next week (maybe as early as tomorrow morning...).

on another note, i found out yesterday that a woman i worked with at my last job died on saturday. i had heard that she was sick, but i really had no idea things were so bad. i will be going to her funeral service tomorrow evening. she was really an absolutely wonderful person to know. even though i hated going to work, she would always make me laugh. she always knew how to make the day go by in a more delightful way, and the days she was not at work just drug on to no end. i will certainly miss her dearly, i know she will go on to a better place.

i guess i will leave on that note...

well, i have decided to start quilting again. for those of you that know me, you know that my short break ended up being close to five years. yup, since then i have managed to get a job, get a divorce, get pregnant, go back to school, get pregnant again, get married, stop going to school again and change jobs. needless to say, it has been a while. i was a little worried that i would have forgotten how to do it (why i thought this, i don't really know) but i seem to be doing pretty good. i started out pretty simple, i managed to piece a rail fence throw size quilt last week and i really like how it turned out. i will post a pic as soon as i have it all finished. now i am working on a two-tone log cabin. i've only gotten my "test block" done at this point, but i think it looks great! i cant wait to get this one together.

i did forget how easy it was to get consumed in a fabric store... one of the colors in this quilt is purple, and since the last quilt i made before my "break" was a king size purple and green quilt, my stash of purple fabrics was a little low. almost non-existant to be more accurate. as a true scrap-quilting kinda gal, i am a sucker for fat quarters. they're just the right size for me to put a few pieces of each into so many different quilts. so, today i packed up the family and headed to the fabric store. i did manage to find four great purples to use in this quilt. of course i found a green, and a red, and a pink, and a blue, and a yellow, and a really great orange with little pumpkins on it - but not so over the top halloweeny that i couldn't put it into any quilt i wanted to. i could have stayed in there all day and admired all the beautiful patterns. they have a little lego table to keep the kids occupied, which only made it easier to take my time browsing. i looked at all the cute baby prints, the great fall colors, even the true halloween only prints. i almost forgot i had brought the kids with me until i heard them yelling (playfully - but still yelling) in the back of the store. so i got my 10 fat quarters and a new square ruler and i was on my way.

everytime i get new fabric, i have to take out a small square and put it aside. i need 800 squares to make the charm quilt that i have had planned for some time now. once i hit 800, i will cut them all in half, send half to my grandma, and we will both make the same quilt pattern. i wonder if they will look at all alike, who knows. after i add the 10 i got today, i will be up to 650 pieces. i think i have a few more in my cloth stash that are set aside until i cut out of them too. 800 is getting closer and closer all the time. i get excited everytime i think about it.

so, i will get back to cutting out my squares and then my "logs" for the cabin!!

tata for now!

so, here it goes...

a lot of people seem to like doing this so i thought i would try it out. i, like a lot of others, have been watching the election, wall street, and all of the other crazy stuff going on right now and i have beed wondering what it all means to me. my hubby and i have been together now for four and a half years now, and back then everything was all peaches & sunshine. since then, he has had two surgeries due to his diabetes, we have had two children (and i have another from my previous marriage), he is not working (though he is "technically" still employed - but that is a whole other story...) and i am trying to survive on less then i was making a year ago due to a job change.

all in all, things are starting to get worrysome.

i wonder if i will be able to keep my job, pay my rent, feed my children, pay my bills, i could go on, but you probably get the point. and my hubby's diabetes is not getting any better. i know that part of that has to do with his own self-esteem at this point. not working for the past two years, he has confessed that he has been feeling worthless lately. we have also both put on some weight with all the stress and babies that have come into our life, it just seems that there is no end to it all.

so, anyways, my goal with this blog (at least to start) is to work my way through all of this and hopefully come out a healthier, happier mommy & wife.

i have managed to get a small start in organizing my life, i have done some research on what diabetics should be eating every day and i have made us some charts so that we can keep track of what we are eating. i also made a chart to track our fitness as well. i think a good starting goal for me is to lose 20 pounds (the amount i have gained since i started this job in june...) and i think he can start there as well. i want all of us to get out of the house for at least 30 minutes a day as a family, and i think another 30 minutes of exercise as well will do. i think this is a lofty goal, but i think we can do it if we both try!

i guess i will be off for now - it is time do get started on our new life! i can worry about the economy and the election tomorrow...