All things new...

I had the priviledge of welcome into life the newborn daughter of one of my best friends. She is adorable and mommy was a stud. I have to say though, for my first delivery, (other than my own two), WOW. Very cool experience.

Onto life.

Sunday, my son (Cowboy Bob), my daugher (Princess of Buttons) and I decided to take a quick shopping trip to Joannes to restock Mommy's clip making supplies. (More on his later.) After spending a good ten minutes going over every single button CB found amazing, we discovered the remnants bin. I think the skys opened, and angles sang; my son found a roll of flannel bearing the likeness of Lightning McQueen and Mater. We decided to pick it up, thinking a small throw or travel pillow could be made. After paying for our purchases, we headed off to a friends house for the Super Bowl. I had completely forgotten about the purchase until my son, looking through the bags, looks directly at me and asks: "Mommy, where my pillow?".......

If anyone tells you a two year old cannot understand what adults say, THEY LIE. This kid remembers EVERYTHING. He heard me say in passing I could make a pillow from the fabric, so, three hours later, he looks for the remnant and wanted to know where his pillow was.

Lucky kid, turns out, the "remnant" ended up being the exact length and width to make a full size pillow case. He is just a LITTLE excited.

I love the little booger. He is such a kick. Sure, he can drive me crazy, but he can be so unbelievably, stinking cute. The hardest is when he gets you right in the heart. Last September we visited Disneyland as a family. He remembers. A lot. If he sees Buzz, he remembers shooting "the Buzz guns" with daddy. He remembers seeing Nemo. But what he can't seem to understand is how far away DL is from us.

A few weeks ago, he came up to me and asks:

‎"Mommy, we go to Dineyland?"

"No honey, it's too far away."

"But we go get car and dwive crazy! (Because I once said people drive crazy, he now thinks driving IS driving crazy.)"

"No son, it's too expensive. We don't have the money."

"But Daddy go work an get money!"

"Yes, love, but it's still too expensive. We have to wait till next year."

*prolonged sigh* Ooooookaaaay."

Kid, if I had the money, we would go back. Just for you.

Speaking of money, my grand plan is along it's merry little way. Soon I will be willing to open my Etsy shop. Which, btw, is the reason for the new blog name. It's also the name of my shop. Inspired by my weird sense of humor and my quirky children. I plan to post occasional updates regarding new and exciting things I will be working on.

My current projects are pacifier clips. All born from needing one for my daughter and absolutely refusing to buy one pre-made, followed by making the mistake of looking them up online and seeing all the cute and crazy things you could make, especially if you add felt.

Felt. My new favorite material. How have I never, before this, actually made stuff with it?!?!? You can do all kinds of things!!! So the result has been a few new clips for PB, which has melded into hair clips, pins, etc. All my own design.

My first felt design by hand? An owl. Second? A sea turtle. I love sea turtles. :o)

We will see how this goes. And where this goes.

Changing of the name.....

Not to be confused with 'changing of the guard', however, similar idea.

I changed the blog name.

Why?

Well, for starters, there is a darn good reason that I am choosing to withhold right now. Because I feel like it.

Ok, maybe not but I have a good reason which will be shared at a later date.

And the other reason?

Because no one actually reads this and I felt like it. :-P

In other news:

A lot has happened since my last post. A... LOT...

I have a second child. A girl. She will be 3 months on the 28th. She's a lot of fun. One of the most happy babies I have EVER met. Anyone can make her smile.

However...

She is a CHAMPION vomiter. Seriously. Kid could win gold medals in distance and volume. Thankfully the episodes have lessened over the last three months (Lord knows it needed to happen, even just for the sake of mommy's sanity), but they do appear on totally random occasions. All I can say is, THANK HEAVENS for all the "previously loved" and new burp rags, cloth diapers and receiving blankets we received as gifts. They have, most definitely, been put to good use.

But she is a doll. Ok, yes, I have mommy goggles, but seriously, she is! What is more cute than a 3 month old learning to laugh at mommy's antics or one who loves to just sit in your lap and grab onto your fingers to play with while cuddling? Not a whole lot in my book.

More on Princess of Buttons later...

Crafting, crafting, crafting. It's funny. I had months of really not a whole lot going on but now that I suddenly have another child and a whole new dimension to my personal insanity, I am crafting more than ever. Will pictures be posted? Eventually. Hopefully. Maybe Not. We'll see.

True to form, a lot of things have changed in the past few months.

And it would be easiest to describe it as confusing, frustrating, relief, anticipation and yet, a little fear.

Most of the people afore mentioned were able to keep their jobs. **Yeah**

Only because the Board of Supervisors decided to re-instate the mandatory furlough, but this time, it has to be done between July and October of THIS YEAR, meaning the hubs will loose over 8 hours per paycheck. **sigh**

All of this because the union rep that represents both my mother's department (Ag) and my husbands (Probation).......(please, explain to me how THAT makes sense)....... decided to, strategically (HA!!), not GO to the BoS meeting (supposedly as a bargaining tool), thus screwing over EVERYONE in that bargaining unit. **growl** So goodbye over $200 out of every paycheck.

BUT

On a brighter note.......

My pregnancy is coming along nicely. At least, as to be expected. I mean, honestly, if I am going to be completely truthful, my daughter is kicking my butt. I have been sick all 5 1/2 months thus far, my heartburn is a constant, every day battle, and I am carrying her MUCH lower than I did Ethan, so I can't wear over half of my maternity pants or shorts because the seam below the belly band is cutting into my stomach. Nate keeps reminding me I wanted another child but I keep reminding HIM that I wanted another CHILD, NOT another PREGNANCY. I don't understand women who enjoy this whole experience. Seriously. If there were not a small, precious child at the end of this battle, this whole ordeal would be called a DISEASE. At the very least, the term "parasite" does apply. In this particular case, if I don't eat every two hours, I feel faint and sick and will likely throw up. BUT..... I am not hungry, which makes trying to eat an interesting experience.

God, if you love me, PLEASE, can I have all boys from now on???

**smile**

Update

Will I ever become consistant at this? Probably not.

Today has just been one of those days.

You would think that the awesome power of God's provision and His proving his love and care for the past two years would prevent a near panic attack, but it is amazing how a single circumstance can cause one to fall and fail.

Today we found out that many of my husband's co-workers lost their jobs yesterday and they are being told today. What makes this all the more difficult to bear is that quite a few of these people are friends of the Hubs and I have met them personally. They are good people.

It is hard not to be cynical and see the world in a dark light when you look at the circumstances. They were told, just last week, that the hall where they work is loosing one of their large contracts that provides bed rentals from outside the county = big bucks lost. So they were warned that layoffs would be inevitable should they be unable to replace these rentals with another contract. Less than one week later, we get a call informing us that there were layoffs despite the promises and despite the probability of another contract. To make matters worse, these were all good staff, full time people who have been at this job a long time. Yet the place of employment will continue to hire and staff part-time employees who are under-trained and lack experience.

Why do jobs like this convince themselves that somehow it is cheaper to staff with people who have no experience and are under-trained?

To make matters worse, depsite the years that the Hubs has been employed, there is a very small pool of people under him to prevent himself from loosing his job. They have mostly staffed with part time people since hey could not afford to hire more full time staff. With this lay-off, that small pool of people is completely gone. In other words, should there be any more lay-offs, the Hubs will definately loose his job.

For the past two years, God has provided in amazing and sometimes, totally unexpected ways, helping us to get out from under a HUGE pile of debt, despite lack of funds and creditors that were unwilling to work with us. So you would think that it would be easy to sit back and wait all of this out, knowing that God would provide even if the worst happened.

But it's not easy. True, we are commanded not to worry, but sometimes it is very hard. I can't help but think of how hard it would be for Hubs to find another job, especially in this economy. Even the CHP, who has had open applications for years, has shut their doors due to the overwhelming number of applications due to so many law enforcement officers and staff loosing their jobs. So how would he find another job? Even scarier is the thought that I would have to find employment. I am four months pregnant. Who would want to hire me?

As difficult as it may be, all I can do is keep the nose to the grindstone, continue to work hard at getting out of the remaining debt we are in and pray that jobs stay secure, despite the circumstances. Please, Dear Heavenly Father, take care of those who lost their jobs and please, please, if it be in Your will, keep the jobs of those at the hall safe and secure.

*sigh*

It's going to be an interesting summer.

My fourth attempt at a diaper cake.

Just testing to make sure my phone can blog again.

Procrastination.....

A name in which I could blame my complete lack of any contribution to this measely little blog, but, alas, not even this describes my lack of any craftiness whatsoever over the past two years.

August 2007 I discovered I was pregnant with my son. I attempted to complete a few cigar box purses, only to discover that I cannot use my normal adhesives. Something about finding a warning in capitol letters about 'NOT FOR USE IF PREGNANT OR CONSIDERING BECOMING PREGNANT' or something to that affect. Ok, now that I am completely terrified to use any household product in my home, so much for getting those done.

Crochet? Complete lack of patience. Don't ask me why, I have no clue.

Knitting? Well, I think my lack of enthusiasm just MIGHT have something to do with the fact that my knitting attempts still look like that of a First Grader. Ok, no, that is not entirely fair; I have no doubt there are gradeschool children with better knitting cababilities than myself.

Beading? No interest. Nadda. Zip.

Sewing? Alas. My poor machine. I knew him well. Last year, my sewing machine died. Just died. And with a total lack of funds to purchase a new one, all sewing attempt, except those attempted by hand, have been put waaaaaayyyyyyyy out on the back burner. *sigh*

So that pretty much leaves me with photography. A little trip here and there, but most of my photos for the past year have been of my son. Maybe eventually I will get around to posting some, but nothing spectacular, I promise.

So for the past year and a half, I have done nothing. Oh wait, not entirely nothing, I did make my son a hat. With a loom. Which saddens me a little but not enough not to use it while I still cannot knit.

In other words, its time, again, to get off my lazy rear and start doing things. For real. I mean it. Seriously.

Time will tell.