so we went back home and traumatized a few of our kids

the husband and i are from california. i think you know that. since moving here to the midwest, we've not gone "home". and even before that we had the deployment and other things that got in the way from our visiting. so we made the trek, BY CAR, this summer. we drove all 30 hours straight through. he took the first overnight shift, i took the all day shift, and then he took the late night shift till the early morning. we left late thursday (10pm ish central time) and got to san diego saturday morning (1 am ish pacific time)

we had to stop for the kids and us to walk around a little and have breakfast lunch and dinner and bathroom breaks. BUT we did excellent on time non the less! during the week we spent most of our time at the beach/pool. my kids love water.

after 15 and a half years of marriage we are still feeling super blessed and lucky that we made that commitment to each other. it was pretty special going back together to where we got hitched and to show our kids that this is where mom totally tricked dad that she wasn't really that crazy before he knew any better and got married for time and all eternity.

we did a total of 4,000 + miles round trip throwing in disneyland in-between seeing all my family and all of his family. 

this was the kid's first time at disneyland they enjoyed it very much...i may have made the mistake of starting off with space mountain as our first ride of the day. the two younger ones were a little on the frazzled side. oops lessons learned. they eased into the swing of things after a couple more slower rides. hands down everyones favorite ride was the Matterhorn. with splash mountain a close second. (minus the girl she didn't go on matterhorn, she liked splash mountain the best)
all in all the girl got mickey ears, the boys ate junk, mom and dad fulfilled their duty of getting them to disneyland.

 while i was in los angeles i was able to go back to close to where i grew up (and very close to where i went to elementary school and art school) to the uber cute fabric shop called sew modern.

 i was able to teach the kaleidoscope quilt class. and i had a blast getting to know all the wonderful women in that store. what a wonderful place to be. if you are in the area check it out, it's right off the 405 freeway.

we ended up not going straight through back to iowa. we went to utah for a total of seriously less than 24 hours but we did make sure we got to see his family, and of course get cafe rio.
and i'm pretty sure the only thing that tastes better than cafe rio, is cafe rio after you haven't had it for so long. iowa you need a cafe rio. just sayin. oh and you need to learn that your version of "mexican food" is totally wrong okay fine...different from the costal mexican food. we did make sure we had what jake and i call "real mexican" food. and of course seafood. (just me everyone else could care less about the seafood)

but i must also mention that during our time we ended up going to the san diego zoo.
and of course it wouldn't be a V and Co. vacation with out some sort of traumatizing experience.

all went well till we got to the chimps. 

would you like to hear a story? 

it was a pretty nice day we had taken the bus around the whole zoo right off the bat because well, why not, and this way we could see the "hot spots" we wanted to hit up. my kids all have their special animals they obsess about but because they mainly spent their impressionable years by the monterey aquarium, we were out of luck on the REALLY obsessed over animals, like penguins, dolphins, sharks, and otters. but the two younger ones were happy with the second tier of loved animals like turtles, bunnies, and bears. aaaaaand monkeys. the monkeys were cute i must admit. the way they look at you like grumpy old men and then they scratch their bum, or pick their nose and eat it? that's like prepubescent and teen humor all rolled into one. add the cool factor that they can totally swing around and dangle from one branch to another = awesome. so my kids were totally loving the monkeys. the husband was a little more like "oh look another monkey, this one slightly larger by say a couple of pounds, and with white hair sticking out from his ears. can please move onto the panda bear i heard there's a baby."

wikipedia stock picture

okay so perhaps the husband was a little right. there were a lot of monkeys, and orangutans, and different kinds of apes, and then there were the chimps.

when we got to the chimps my kids were finally thinking "okay we can go see other kinds of animals now." so we checked them out for a little bit they were cute and funny. most of them were just like "what are you looking at" but two where "playing around."

i started laughing cause the two reminded of me and jake when he pokes at me to try to get my ticklish spots. and me swatting his hands away.
seriously the boy chimp was like "i'm going to get your ticklish spot." and the girl one was like "seriously stop, im trying to not be tickled right now."  i went to move and tell jake. i turned to him and  right when i do i hear our third noise maker say really loud "look they are tickle fighting!!!!"

now, keep in mind, i'm not looking at them any more but i am facing my family. slowly the faces of my family members and the people around them go from smiley or nonchalant faces to:

i immediately knew something was up just by the looks of everyone's mouth's starting to hang open like in mid thought of "what the hel......"

my 11 year old noisemaker speaks first "UH that's not tickling." the 13 year old looks at me and says "yeah that's NOT tickling anymore."

the 9 year old and 6 year old don't believe them and are pretty sure they are still tickle fighting. people around us are snickering at our conversation. in the corner of my eye i see other parents are quickly moving and ushering their children away in crowds.
mind you this all happened in like 30 seconds or like a minute or something like that but it literally felt like i was in slow motion...
i turned around and sure enough the turn of events went from subtle advances of tickling to full on "brown chicken brown cow..." cue in porn music.

my mouth is gaping wide open.

my husband says " well it looks like the one on top is winning."

we quickly usher the kids away and the husband then finishes by saying

"tickling got us 4 kids."

true story.

we're glad to be home.
and well now i don't have to have the talk about how babies are made.

V and Co: the tale of tiny hexagons and english paper piecing.

 our summer vacation is halfway done. actually more than that. we go back to school in middle of august much to the children and my sadness.
my summer vacations growing up didnt end till labor day.
anyone else out there like that? what ever happened to having summer during the summer? hmm.
one thing i am excited about summer ending is that i get to have more scheduled time with my sewing machine. but for now we continue with and enjoy our summer

i've mentioned before that normally i don't go places with out having something to work on.
most of the time i will either get my checkbook balanced, or work on some kind of binding (when i have something to bind that is!) but one of my favorites is appliqué and english paper piecing hexagon work.

 this summer i wanted to make some tiny little hexagons.
i started with even smaller than these shown
these measure 7/8" and 1" across
when i started the smaller ones, i quickly figured out they were going to be a little frustrating to the point of wanting to throw them across the room and swear in my head like a drunken sailor, which in my book is still bad...so i went with a little larger hexagons and adapted a few little hints here and there on how to have great looking small hexagons and help me with my not swearing like a drunken sailor, even in my head.

these babies have traveled with me and i have worked on them at gymnastics, in the car line waiting for orchestra to get out, waiting to have reading camp get out, waiting to have band get out, and of course the pool. 

on wednesday i'll do step by step hints and how tos from start to finish on these little guys. (which you can also incorporate into your larger hexagon work)

i'm slow to blog these days. as you can see even my pictures here are from my instagram feed. but i promise to keep blogging, even if it's just to update that i'm still planning to blog. :)

a great day. we'll talk soon.

V and Co.: summer happenings

 we are in full swing summer mode over here.
our strawberries are growing and are super sweet, there's something incredibly cool about eating from your own yard. i miss our days in the middle of nowhere when we had an acre and had our raised beds of veggie's but strawberries make up for it as we could never really get strawberries in the middle of nowhere because they don't grow all that well up at 7000+ sea level. but we did try anyways.
so ofcourse seeing our plants do so well is pretty wonderful.

another fun surprise was seeing all my new patterns and my new fabric collection on the back cover of stitch mag super super happy to be on there.

 summer at our house means lots of activities one of them being scout camps of all sorts for the each of the three boys. so far two have gone on their week long adventures, one is left to do his two day hike later on this month.

i got to volunteer at the youngest boy's camp, and learn quite a bit about nature and archery. and other stuff. but i really liked those two. so all i heard of the other ones were "blah de be blah, animal care..blah de be blah blah cooking over a fire :)

 aurifil was in the house at Pineneedles Iowa this last week as well. i was asked to talk about how i use my aurifil thread collection in my projects and of course other aurifil thread as well. cause well, it's the only thread for me :) and i am kind of a snob when it comes to thread now.

i've mentioned my sewing machine has felt a little bit lonely this summer as i knew it would. i did get to sew on it a little bit this last week.
it.
felt.
great.
as i am getting a lot more of my hand sewing done that need some kind of machine work, i'll throw in a little time with the sewing machine when the kids go to bed.

but not too much because that's the only time when i get to see the husband these days.

he's been equally as (oh okay waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more)  busy as the kids and i.
he opened up (on top of working at the local private university) his own private practice. and is working a lot of hours trying to set up everything and making sure all wrinkles are ironed out.  (cause he's that kind of a person)
he's been able to make it home most nights for dinner and family time, but we try to work in a walk at night so we can catch up on the day's happenings and then after that we old farts get tired and get into bed.
he leaves as early as 4:30 in the morning or most mornings around 5:45.

needless to say. he's busy. we're busy.
we like to see each other and talk. so we make the time when we can. :)
pretty proud of him and all he's doing and also keeping his family as one of top priorities.
i'm blessed.

 so during the time in the day when i'm here and there between running around to scout camps, gymnastics, band and orchestra, and of course the pool i've been transporting with me and working on a few projects.

later this week (after the 4th of july fun we'll be having over here) i'll give you a few hints on how to work with tiny little hexagons using the english paper piecing technique.
there are tiny little boogers, but they sure are cute and i'll show you how i used them in a fun little project!

happy fourth of july week. we will continue on our summer mode, of family, pool, and add some grilling to the mix.

have i mentioned i love summers.
because i do.
we'll talk soon.

V and Co: i miss my sewing machine...but...

 i haven't touched my sewing machine for over a week. maybe it's been almost two.
sigh.
i really miss it.
i have been thinking of a butt load of fun things to make...and yet...no sewing and no crafting has happened.

no, instead i find myself traveling in the car to and from concert band, jazz band, orchestra, gymnastics, reading camp, and scouts. phew!
every morning we are up and at em.
man, i spend a lot of time in the car.
but it's okay, my kids are happy and active in things they like. and it gets us up and moving as a family early in the am.
i can't complain, i also enjoy the time i have in the car with each individual child to each individual activity we are heading to or from.

this year we have our summer schedule again (but this time i laminated it, thank you very much! oh and i spelled vacuum right this time!)

every day they are responsible for things that aren't on the list (i.e., pick up room, make bed, take laundry up to the laundry room)
i put pick up rooms on wednesday as a more "deep clean" pick up room, as in check the closet for all the stuff that was stuffed in there to hide it, remove all excess toys on top of dressers and so forth.

and this year we added a fun little experiment to our chore list

this year we have added timed increments to each chore, and a small allowance to be earned for each chore completed either by or before the time is up.
for example for bathrooms they each have 10 minutes of hard work (each child doing something different) and when the time is up they get either 25 to 50 cents depending on the chore (bathrooms are 50 cents, dusting is 25 cents).

what?
too cheap you say?
nope.
not when you go to the pool everyday and their snack bar consists of items from 25 cents to 4 dollars.
my kids love to earn their day's snack junk at the pool by finishing up small increments of chore times.

oh go ahead say it "but vanessa you have a teenager! wont he totally say "whatever, don't care, i have money from my birthday anyways.""

yeah, well here's my answer: no work= no pool or video game time or friend time. so you can either work and get paid enough for the snack bar or you can get nothing and the whole family suffers that day.

it's never come to that thankfully. because my kids know i'll do it. i don't threaten, i follow through.

i also have decided that 5 to 10 minute increments of time is a huge amount of time when there is motivation to get the chore done.
every day we have finished most of our chores by 10 even in between all the traveling we have been doing for the summer activities.

my minions are doing awesome, and i love that this experiment of small timed increments has worked out so well.
we go to bed with a relatively put away, clean house, and wake up having to just hit the scheduled chores to keep it up.

i think i may try this on just me when they go back to school. because let me tell you when you only have 5 minutes to pick up the master bedroom and you don't want to be the only one that didn't do it in the allotted time, you'd be amazed at just how darn fast your butt can get in gear. i think i'm going to give myself 10 minuted every day to tackle the storage room that houses all my fabric scraps. perhaps a scraps giveaway and listing some fabric in the shop? hmmmm. we'll think about that later on.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again. one of my favorite things about the midwest is the fireflies, and the clouds.

 this looks like it's some kind of smoke billowing from some far away fire...but they aren't they are clouds. this was the scene when i looked east from my back yard.

and this is what i saw when i looked west later on that evening on my husband and my walk. 

i love the midwest clouds. my husband is like "why are you so weird about the clouds?" and i'm like "they totally look like "Toy Story" clouds and then at other times they do weird things like...blah de be blah blah blah." yes, by that time he tunes me out. what can i say i like them. it makes me happy. happy makers they are.

so yes, i've been feeling like i really would love to put in some sewing time. and i will here and there. (there has to be a rainy day in there again sometime right?) or perhaps one day the kids just decide they want to stay home and make quilts one day instead of going to pool. no? well maybe. you never know.

but for now, i'll enjoy the things that are making me happy till i can get back to the other thing that makes me happy...sewing.

:) we'll talk soon.

V and Co: last hurrah at Saint Joseph, Lake Michigan

our family has been trying to create new yearly traditions.
and since we find ourselves in a totally new location in the united states, we will have to try to find new places and things that will be a part of our yearly traditions.
it's kind of fun and exciting.
as you know:
i grew up at the beach. i love everything about it.
the warm sand in between your toes, the sound of the waves, seagulls, and fun excited yells from kids. i love building sandcastles,  i love how my hair becomes a big cotton ball frizz fro, no wait i don't like that... i love running back into the water to "wash off" the sand so you can eat some watermelon. i love the smell of salt in the air and the ocean water mixed with surf wax. i love watching the sunset over the water. there is so much i love, that i think secretly i decorate and pick things so i feel like i'm just a jaunt away from the surf.
i miss my ocean.
i've not lived next to the ocean in over 5 years.
yet, i can still close my eyes and hear, see, and smell it.
it is still very much my "happy place" in my mind.

this year jake decided after hearing for a year now, so much about "the beaches of lake michigan" he decided that we would give it a try and see what all the fuss was about.
he misses his ocean too.
so much that the old glory days of surfing with his brother are getting kind of sad for us to talk about because it brought so many fun and sometimes funny memories that it just makes us miss it even more.
sigh.
but then we list and remind ourselves of all the wonderful things we have going on in our lives, how happy our children are how well we are doing, and of all the new and fun things we get to experience being in this neck of the woods.

so for our last hurrah and our attempt to find new places to create reoccurring family events, we packed up and headed out to saint joseph, michigan.
 the kids were excited, jake and i were going in with level headed excitedness. we knew it wasnt the ocean, and we werent pretending that it was, but we didn't know what we were going to get.

what we got was this:

just a few of our pictures i've managed to go through (mainly my instagram!)

sheer happiness, nostalgia, relaxation...for everyone.

the husband, when we visited the surf shop (yes they had one!) was given the run down on the best time of the year for surfing the size of the waves and yadda yadda yadda...for the area. he had stars in his eyes, and a huge grin on his face.
throughout the week we played at the beach, walked the cute strip with little shops and restaurants next to the beach which totally reminded me of the stores and cafe's i would walk past on my walk to the beach in my san diego town.
we visited neighboring areas and did some sightseeing and tried out a few different beaches. but by far i think the saint joseph one was my favorite.

i think it was at the end of our first day that jake turned to me as we watched the sunset go down into the lake that he said "i think this is going to be our best new yearly tradition isnt it?"
yeah i think so.
as we were packing up to head home the boys and katie were already talking about "next year when we come back, can we..."
yeah, this was a good new tradition.
lake michigan makes for a great fake ocean, big frizzy cotton ball head and all. till next year saint joseph!

V and Co: clouds of the midwest

this summer we've had a couple of firsts. this was our first full summer in the midwest. this summer we went to chicago for the first time. this summer we saw our first scary storm. well scary for us because we've never heard the sirens go off before that day. there was this weird look to the sky and then all of a sudden the clouds were scooped to the side and what was left behind was the greenish dark blue sky.  the only way i could describe it was that it looked like someone was skimming their hand next the clouds and pushing them over as they folded over each other. kind of like if you had some soap bubbles on the the top of a bowl of water, and moved the bubbles over to one side. it was eery, as my neighbor and i scrambled to get the patio furniture close to the house or in the house we looked up then looked at each other, we each said "oh swear word" mine was actually that phrase as we stared at it, and then each took a picture and then she yelled at me "GET INSIDE!"
the picture i took didn't do it justice, but i had to get inside before whatever force that was pushing the clouds like that got to where i was standing.
it all ended a few hours later, and a few phone calls finally reaching my husband and son who were out at scout camp, (they were safe in a shelter) we lost power for over 12 hours.

so far the clouds keep our family in awe. i don't think we've ever experienced soooo many cool looking clouds and sky. it's really beautiful. the corn is really on the sad side i've been told due to the lack of rain we've been having...but i'm hoping to get some fun corny pictures. if i could take a picture of the fireflies over the corn fields and do it justice i would.
but honestly it's breath taking and i don't think i could get a picture to even show you that phenomenon. :)

we are really enjoying our surroundings. it's neat to see new things even as a middle aged gal like myself.

poop...
i'm middle aged.
:/
i'm a middle aged woman who says "poop"
:)

V and Co: making cute shrinky dinks

phew!
didn't mean to let so much time go by
well the last couple of weeks have gone in a flash. and honestly, if i can be so bold...i've enjoyed being lazy laid back this summer.  gosh i'm going to miss it. but the kids are anticipating school and...okay only 50% of my kids are super excited to go to school, and the other 50% wish that school was optional.
but whatever we're enjoying the last little bit of summer and when we get to first day of school there will be tears and they will be by me and that is enough to make all the kids want to get on that bus. :)
soooo...
last week we had a couple of times that we couldn't go to the pool. i know shocking, but by the end of the summer they do get a little tired of going to the pool every single day and we also had a sick kid. we stayed at home, so to keep myself sane, and the kids entertained we bought some shrinky dink making material.
and can i just say that shrinky dinks are just as fun if not funner as an adult than they were as kids? they really are.
seriously.
so much fun.
i think it ended up being more about me having fun than them. even when the kids were all done, and i was like "lets make this!" and "wouldn't this be cute!!!!" and "lets make it smaller and see how little it turns out!!!"

my kids were like "okay mom. put down the pencil and walk away from the shrinky dink."

we started off first by making our own drawings and the boys walked away with some really fun storm trooper helmets the oldest one drew for them...and then katie brought out a book and asked "can we do hello kitty?!" 

YES.WE.CAN. 

so we started to flip through the pages...

edited: for all of you asking:
i found my shrinky dink paper at Michael's (of course)
but here's the amazon link to the exact stuff i used:
Shrinky Dinks Shrinkable Plastic 

and of course there's a whole selection of pre drawn shrinky dinks as well.

so katie picked out some that she wanted to make herself and then i picked out some i wanted to make for myself for her. and then we went to town.

i thought this little croc was such a cutie.
on the package it says you can use color pencils, markers, and crayons, or pens. i tried markers...they kind of smear after they cook, so maybe if you use markers make sure you let them air dry for a little bit.
same thing with the crayons. they seem to stay a little melted for a while.
so i would say the colored pencils are you best bet.
but hey if you like smeary need to wait shrinky dinks...who am i to tell you what's best. :P

see how cute my croc is? i know right?! anyways katie did pretty sweet on her cake as well. 

she had me trace the cake and then she colored in the cake.

then i cut them all out. 

we made corn and hello kitties and grasshoppers, and puppies, and penguins, and stormtroopers, and spongebobs...man we made a lot of stuff.

any ways it was fun.

and now i have a ton of little shrinky dinks all strewn about my house.
but the memories are there. and i think we may have started something fun...only this time i'm the mom. :)
shrinky dinks rule.

winner and nostalgia

my view this summer has been of this. (and yes i've purposely cropped my legs so they look like they last forever and are not short tater tot looking legs.)

and other pools in the area, and the parks, and behind the wheel driving to and from camps and what not.
i don't think i've stopped in the house for too long, except to do our morning routines.
sounds about right for this family. that's the way i like it. busy but not over scheduled, just simple, boring, busy.
i really love summers.
like
a
lot.
last summer i didn't get to really fully enjoy "our summer" because of all the moves and selling of houses, and trying to figure out where we were going to live, and then stressing over the move across country when we did decide where we were going to live, and then having to say goodbye to everything we ever knew...but...
...BUT...
whenever you go through something really hard, and trial-some, it gives you a new sense of happiness, and peace when you leave unrest, and rocky waters behind.
i have been feeling immensely blessed, can you tell?
i feel like i need to keep knocking on wood.
we are approaching our first anniversary living here in iowa, and aside from the weird garage sales starting on wednesdays instead of friday or saturday, and well some driving things (did you know they still have 55 mph here on the freeway?!) i can't complain.
i got a mild first winter.
i've re-found my love of hats again so my hair doesn't look like a cotton ball on my head with the humidity, and i've learned of mineral based powder and makeup...when i wear it in the humidity so i don't look like alice cooper anymore.

life.
is.
beautiful.
and i love my boring summer of wondering if we should grill once or twice or every night. and i love that my children have friends, they bug me to call to see if they can come to the pool with us, and i love that my husband loves his job, that his practice is doing well, and that i get to enjoy my very normal boring life.
i get to wake up.
we get to do our chore routine.
then i get to go somewhere with the kids to waste a few hours.
so that when we get home it doesn't feel like forever before dad gets home for dinner.
yes, i love my normal boring life.
i'm in a blissful happy place.
oh we miss our old happy place, that small middle of nowhere town that i still can imagine living in, but we are very happy that our new happy place will be a good place to be as well.
and hey, that little town and the people in it is one the ONLY reasons i keep my Facebook account open, so that i can feel like i still live on my little road, just around the corner from the first house we owned (with the cows those stupid swear word goats) and just a few blocks from everyone we knew.
yeah, i miss you little of nowhere town, please know you will never be forgotten, but that we're doing okay. :) till we meet again right? ;)

now for a winner of that book i was talking about last week:

winner of the more take 5 book is:

~ Julie ~ said...

My plans for the fall are to make my neighborhood Christmas gifts! I just know I'll be on top of things this year and get everything for Christmas done early so I can enjoy the holidays without the pressure of last-minute gifts! (Yeah, right!) I have some snowman fabric already bought to make some cute mug rugs for everyone's hot chocolate mugs! Thanks for the opportunity to win such a great book! :)

thank you all for playing.

i'm sorry its been a little on the quiet side on the project front, but i'm really enjoying living life outside and with my family. i'll be throwing in a project or two perhaps if i so fancy. the girl noisemaker is starting to bug me to do more sewing, so perhaps we will...or maybe we'll paint. we shall see how it goes.

all i know is that this is a wonderful time in my life, and i can do a lot of working when all 4 of the kiddos are in school this fall. (ahhhhh! the day has come when i have no kids home during the day? what?!)
so for now, perhaps i'll babble of silly things. like how ridiculously happy i am with boring, and normal. :D

V and Co: what our summer looks like

please excuse the fact that real life paper does not have spell check and i spelled vacuum wrong :)

last year our summer was all kinds of crazy and no schedule was had. i hated it. i am reminded that work well with schedules, and the best way for me and my children to keep to a schedule is to write it down and have it up and accessible for all to see and to be reminded.

so this summer we are incorporating what we've done summers past:

a pretty scheduled summer.

oh now don't roll your eyes at me and say "yeah, well, what if you can't stick to a super tight underwear up in a bunch kind of a schedule? i mean life happens!"

yes, i am the first to say " i KNOW life happens." oh man does it. like at least once a day if not once an hour life happens.

so here's the secret to my success:
i only stick to a super tight (well sort of tight but not really) schedule everyday, monday through saturday UNTIL 11 AM.
yup, after that its pretty much free for all.

but i try to be smart about it.
after our chores we have lunch...and then  because after lunch i kind of want to keep all the work we just totally did for the day still reasonably done longer than say .5 seconds after i say we are done, i pick one thing that we will do for a few hours away from home.
 like for example i buy a summer pool pass, make sure i stake out all parks (maybe even take a bike ride to the closer ones), and check out the free things going on during the summer that happen AFTER 11 AM.
oh and of course
and i threaten my children that if the chores on the schedule aren't done...no free time later on. oh and they know i will make up "crap work" just to keep going, that only had to happen one time for them to know i was serious. it.sucked.royally. (for all of us!) for a whole day. 

most of my kids are still in the age that i can totally rule over them (ie. none of them can drive and if they want anything i still am the ruler of their world muwahahaha.) and because they are all reasonably young (12 and younger) they totally still are excited to go places, like parks, and pools, and places with friends. normally i have just one that likes to throw a hissy (the oldest one, but he's been like that since birth, and pretty sure he'll be like that for the long haul) so i'll keep this going and adjust it as they get older.
but that's how i do it.
that's like the #1 thing i get asked: how do you schedule your summers?
then the second one is: how can you eat so much chocolate?  the answer to that one is a mystery. i just really like chocolate, and the darker the better. hmm. maybe i should get some right now. :)
happy sigh.
i do in fact have plans to sew. maybe today. but first we need to get past our chores, then go to the pool (YAY ITS OPEN!) then, maybe i'll get some sewing done when we get home and all the noisemakers are tired.

so? you think you can follow a schedule like mine? i swear it works for us. but maybe you have something that works better for you? please share. i'm always open for more ideas.
k. we'll talk soon. :)

V and Co: at the lake

 happy Memorial Day.
we are enjoying our family and the weather and our freedom due to all the sacrifices made in our behalf. every day is a blessing and i am so indebted to those who have made it that way. thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifices, thank you for your valor. :)
today we are celebrating memorial day with a little bit of BBQ-ing and a little bit of lake. we are scoping this place out for future camping excursions.
this is the closest thing to a beach i've been to in a long time. it has made me super happy and somewhat nostalgic watching my kids play in the sand having my husband next to me complaining its hot, and having sand be in all the wrong places by the end of the day.
it.was.blissful.
:D
have a fantastic day.
i am.
talk to you soon.

V and Co: home

for the summer months i'll be blogging here and there with a few pics of what we're up to. i'll be closing comments so that i can focus mainly on my family and this special and rare occasion of having my WHOLE family at home. you can still contact me via email, facebook, or twitter. please feel free to! and we'll "talk" more on the blog after the summer months! thanks so much!
we are moved in.
we are eating, sleeping, and pooping living in our home. (oh you know i had to throw that in there...its been too long since i said that word on here.)
it feels good. and comforting, to finally have things settled.
some of the small details that made it in the move and into this house are finding new homes.

the animals are calming down, children are adapting to "new" things like fire flies and humidity.

that first day we rolled into town, i guess the midwest was having a really big heat wave which includes a LOT of humidity.

we had to spend the night in a hotel till we signed papers on the house, so we got to the hotel and we all (we, meaning husband and i and the 4 kids and the big huge dog and the angry cat) were trying to get inside into some air conditioned air and quickly at that. once we were inside and settled i passed the mirror did a double take and yup sure enough i came face to face with:

alice cooper
i turn around to jake and say "really? you weren't going to say anything about my makeup and hair?"
he answered: "what? oh yeah your hair's doing the angry squirrel thing."
i stand there staring at him not understanding so he continues: "you know cause it looks like it's screaming at you."

so i turn to facebook yet again. and yes you came to my rescue (apparently no ones make up was staying on for a few days) but i was given the suggestion of mineral make up to keep stuff on, thankfully i had that on hand and now no more alice cooper face (or hair! i got stuff for that too!)
soooo....
even though i've only put up one frame on the wall (see first picture)and we've been here only a week and 3 days... i feel like this is finally becoming our home. and i feel really comfy here. iowan's are SUPER nice. seriously!

there is one major purchase i need to probably look into, and soon...couches, so we can stop this kind of behavior. seriously he does somersaults and hand stands whenever he can. so next on the list: couches and gym classes for kyle. :/