Sunday, November 29, 2009

doo...doo...doo...doooooo UPDATE! :)

I warned y'all it was crazy around here in October, right? And I was really hoping for a slower November, but I swear that my calendar went straight from November 1st to November 30th in one big blink!

Quick run-down of this month...

* Bob got a nasty buggie and spent about a week lounging on the couch, sure that he was dying...from a really bad case of the coughs. ;) No worries, he's all better now and of course, is my big strong manly man again. ;)

* Super-Duper Exciting News...I got my ZUMBA certification! A dark (& way toooo fast) drive to Oklahoma, a long day of dancing, dancing, dancing, and Woo Hoo...I'm for real! :) I'm so excited to have this new opportunity in my life...something that brings me joy, that I can share with others, and that I'm actually a bit good at (not bragging, just happy to find my *thing*). I'm looking into teaching locally, another FUN opportunity. I'm really blessed to not *need* to work, and have the luxury of patiently and actively looking for a regular class that I can do while the kids are at school. In the meantime, you know I'm shigglin' it every chance I get, especially now that I have the cd's at home and can practice 24/7! :)

* Lilli is a ROCKSTAR gymnast! :) After some mega-rough weeks (to the point that her coach threatened to put her back on Level 3), she has really blossomed. He had her set some concrete goals and work towards them. She's been crossing them off the list, one by one...including her biggie...front handsprings on the trampoline and tumble-track, which she did successfully last week! :) But even more that the physical skills she's been improving lately, her attitude towards hard work, repeated practice, and "failure" have been sooooo much better. She's been thinking positively (she told her coach that she's "keeping happy thoughts in her head b/c she stays on the beam better that way!"), being engaged in her school projects, and just overall ROCKIN' it! :) Love that chickadee and am so thrilled to see her have so much positive reinforcement from a teacher/coach for a change!

* Thanksgiving was the usual...well, for us anyways! That means...no turkey in sight, no huge family gatherings, and no drama! Sah-weet! :) We only do "mom Thanksgiving" b/c both Bob's and my dad go to other family get togethers. So we headed down to MawMaw's to start cooking. The last 2 years, I've had the pleasure of showing my mom and grandma that I can actually cook like a grown-up now (last year, I made chicken cordon bleu; this year it was homemade pork taquitos). They made the sides and fixins' so that I could just fry, fry, fry. Yummy lunch was had by all...then we made our plan of attack for Black Friday. Dinner at my SIL's is always a bit crazy b/c of all the kiddos (our 3, plus her 5 in a tiny house!), but it's *awesome* b/c we always end up playing card games. Soooo fun! :) Learned a new one called KIMPS and Bob and I actually won! :)

Some seriously fun KI goodies this month too...

I've been playing with some "embroidery" stitching lately. I saw "embroidery" b/c I truly don't know what I'm doing...I just stitch and see how it looks. If it looks bad, I pull it out. If it looks good, then I go with it. I made a cupcake with silver sequin "sprinkles" from a KI digi brush (Lucy kit). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cupcake yet...although I think it might be turned into a pillow for a friend's Christmas present! :)





The layouts I posted this month are an old and a new...
newer one is a quick & easy one using paper scraps. (stripe is from KI digi Roxie...altered to match Heirloom paper). The notebook papers behind the pic are letters the kids wrote to each other, paperclipped in place so that they can be removed and read without disturbing the picture.




older one is the one I did for Kim and Ira to celebrate their new baby Austin! The sheer wings are cardstock backed, the ribbon is popped up so that she can slip pics in without disturbing it, and the stamps are mixed in with buttons and glitter glue dots.





So that's me in a nutshell right now! :) I promise to be back soon...before Christmas at least! Ok, ok...WELL BEFORE Christmas. December got to be less crazy, right? (please say "right!" so I won't go crazy!) LOL :)

XOXO...Stac :)