That’s my mantra for the rest of the month. I seriously must’ve been hit with a stupid stick to agree to doing the craft show 3 weeks before and with very little inventory. I’m using up a lot of supplies that have been sitting around taking up space and that is very good, but I am running myself ragged. My fingers are slightly sore from all the crocheting, and I’m even doing stitches in my head as I fall asleep. I need an intervention!

I hate being so busy. I used to love it. I used to create business to make me feel like my day had a purpose, hence making me feel like I have a purpose. But thankfully the Lord showed me how much He wanted to be the center of my attention, and once I gave Him that, I realized I wanted Him to be that, too. Since then I have hated being busy. So the past few weeks have been really hard for me, feeling like I am going and doing constantly. Pulling out my journal and prayerfully writing is something I look forward to whenever I get the chance. And I really really hope I get that chance more often in the near future.

And now here’s some *whine* with my cheese - I have to have a retreat on a root canal that was done 4 years ago. Blech. Because there is no nerve there the only indication there was a problem was the swollen gum I woke up with last week and not a seering pain. Retreating the tooth is the better (and cheaper) option - option B was extracting the tooth, screwing a titanium bolt to my jaw, then screwing on a fake tooth. He had me at “titanium bolt into my jaw”. So I am really praising Jesus right now for that. And then my second glass of *whine* is that my laptop went Mariah Carey on me and would not cooperate at all. Then a few days later the monitor pooped out. Granted, she’s been a good girl and boy has she been through it - dropped numerous times, liquids being spilled on her, four keys ripped off by the hands of a toddler, and yet she still hung in there for me. But now she’s waving the white flag. So by the end of next week I will be the proud owner of a new computer, because while Tim shares everything with me, his laptop, sadly, is not one of them.

So to keep from boring you with more details, let’s go on a picture journey, shall we? I cleared off my CF cards and had many pictures I had forgotten that I had and I’m not sure when I’ll have the chance to load them to flickr, so until then, here is just a few.

Those of you who checked out my shop when it opened might have recognized a familiar face from another hilarious blog: My beautiful and oh so funny friend, Kelly. When needing a model who would look fabulous while also feeling comfortable in front of the camera, she was the first person I thought of and boy-oh-boy did she not disapoint!

Sell it, Kelly, sell it!

This is Conner’s favorite way to wind down in the evening. Between him and his dad, I bet you couldn’t guess who came up with this idea.

This next picture is something we see on a daily basis and is so hard to keep a straight face when we come into contact with it. It usually starts as follows: I (or Tim) tells Conner he can’t have, do, eat, jump on, harrass, or mutilate something or one of the pets. He grimaces painfully, runs out of the room, a thud is heard, and we round the corner in time to see this:

He’ll then look up for a split second to see if his dramatic performance will earn him an academy award (or any sympathy) and when we shake our head in disagreement, he mourns the moment even more. This age really is the funnest and most entertaining for all involved.

This last one is one I will look at and giggle infectiously from today until many years to come. This was the morning I was supposed to meet Kelly for a walk at 8 am (which normally wouldn’t have been an issue, but as Murphy’s Law and Toddlerhood would predict, Conner slept late on a morning we had to be somewhere). Since we were rushed to get out the door, and the recent dip in temperatures hadn’t motivated me to pull out his fall digs yet, I grabbed the first things I could find and…well…the look speaks for itself.

It’s very Larry the Cable Guy meets Elmer Fudd. I can not believe I took my child out in public like that, but I did and not only that, but I have proof of this. Poor kid. Socks AND sandals. He never had a chance.

There are more I would love to share, but editing the pictures isn’t an option at the moment so more to come when we’re up and running again.

When we first brought Conner home from the hospital, like many things I thought would fall into place, I chose a diaper brand and immediately pledged my loyalty to it. When I realized that 1) my baby had no butt and 2) had boy bits, the diapers we were using just weren’t cutting it. After trying several different brands, we chose Huggies since they were consistent in keeping him (and us) dry. Fast forward 19 months and we’re still pretty loyal to Huggies, despite the fact they are on the pricey side.

As any mom of a baby will tell you, when someone wants to give you diapers to try, you don’t care what brand they are or remember your track record with that brand. You give them your mailing address a.s.a.p. and ask what’s the legal limit to how many you can be given. A few weeks ago I was asked to try out Luvs Diapers with Bear Hug Stretch and review them on this site. At first I was psyched (read: FREE! DIAPERS!), but then remembered that Luvs was one of the brands we tried a few times and Conner would leak every time. The new feature on this particular diaper is the Bear Hug Stretch, a stretchy side tab that provides the snug-fitting, leakage protection while also preventing bunching and sagging.

While I would love to say that these new diapers restored my faith in LUVS in the leakage department, they sadly did not. Nine times out of ten Conner woke up damp and had to be changed from his pj’s immediately (and the diaper wouldn’t be that full, either). During the day they kept him dry as a bone, but nighttime was a different story.

They also had a weird smell (and yes I know diapers aren’t supposed to smell good - ha. ha). Even before they were used there was some sort of fragrance in them that was strange, and so when it mixed with his urine and stool, it became even stronger and more pungent. Tim said he didn’t notice this, but I am particular about smells and noticed it right off the bat.

One thing that both Tim and I unanimously agreed on was how good the side tabs were. They’re not only Velcro, but they have sticky tape on them as well. This allowed them to stay put very nicely, without have to push down on them too hard to get them to adhere. They also weren’t as bulky, even when filled to the max.

I’m told they’re comparable to the other leading brands in price, so you’re not paying extra for the features of this diaper. All in all, they were great to try but I’m just too brand loyal to switch. However, given the opportunity to purchase these with a coupon or other incentive, I certainly would.

That’s what my blog has come to, apparently - once a week updates. I have intentionally been stepping back from this blog, but that reason is only 50/50. I’ve also been emersed in playdates, adult dates, crafting, frolicing, organzing, etc. etc. and blogging isn’t the first thing I think of in the morning anymore (*gasp* - what has my life come to). I’d much prefer to read other blogs that make me so happy, and will ocasionally be reminded that I need to blog. Okay, not need to blog but should. So, on with the show.

Conner is finally talking! I say finally only because it becomes slightly annoying when he’s around other kids his age and they’re saying, “Cookie, please” and “Look! Car!” and the only word that is uttered from my boy’s mouth is, “Ball!” over and over. But the last few weeks his speech is finally catching up with his knowledge and today he pointed to a pumpkin and said, “pun-tin!” And because I’m still getting used to having him say real words, it took him saying it about ten times before I turned to look and see that he was, in fact, pointing to a pumpkin. Everyday a new word is thrown into the mix and I can’t help but explode into applause when he masters another one. My favorite tho is when he holds his hands out (or up) to me and says, “me”, which is when he wants me to hold him. You can bet I will drop whatever it is I am doing for that brief moment when my baby boy still wants his mama to hold him.

I have also decided to do another craft show. As if I weren’t busy enough, for the next three weeks I will be making about twenty bags and other miscellaneous odds and ends to sell. The bags will mostly be clutches (like this one), but I am also doing some felted bags, which I did one earlier today and now I’m afraid I won’t want to sell it - it’s so yum! But we’ll see. I’m just trying to stay calm and keep things in perspective. And realize that agreeing to do a craft show a month before it is to be held isn’t the best. I’ll be putting what’s leftover in the shop, if anyone is interested.

I’ve also decided to pull the plug on Sugar Daisies. It hadn’t been updated in over eight months so I set it to private until I decide what I want to do with it. The ultimate goal is to write a cookbook - something I’ve just started researching and am super excited about, but only time will tell where it falls on the priority scale, if at all. So to those who loved it and linked to it, I appreciate it so much, I really do.

Okay, I think I’ve babbled enough. I leave you with this picture of my cutie pie, so happy to be playing on daddy’s computer.

My poor blog. It’s so neglected. It and my sewing machine have teamed up to plot some sort of revenge on me. I can feel it.

So it’s finally September. I feel like I have been waiting for the fall since January, and that is not an exageration. I was going through Conner’s clothes from last year, deciding what he could get away with for a few more months and what ones need to make their way into storage, and I was getting so excited. Last fall when we took him to the pumpkin patch, he was only 10 months old and just leaned against the pumpkins. This year he’ll be able to throw one clear across the field. He can still fit in his old man sweater, which thrills me to my core because I luuuuuuv that sweater. Most of his shirts fit, but his pants are a little on the capri-side - the benefits of having your child growing only up and not out.

I have always said Conner was a hoss, and I think it’s hilarious that his BFF is slightly older, but much tinier than he is. Guess which one is mine.

Now in Conner’s defense, Judah is on the small side, which makes their pairing even more comical - we’ve got both ends of the spectrum covered. You don’t think your kids at such a young age have “friends” that they consider, but when Conner sees Judah his face lights up and he starts chanting, “Dah! Dah!” over and over and with increasing excitedness. And to see Judah doing the same, pointing and smiling at Conner, saying, “Ca-ca! Ca-ca!” (which, yes, is poop in spanish) is so cute.

Aside from my everyday and not-so-everyday activities, I decided I would participate in the blood drive our church was doing. I showed up at my appointed time, signed in with my blood donor card and waited to be called back to the booth to do all the paperwork. I wasn’t nervous at all - I’d done it before, not to mention all the blood I had to give when I was pregnant - until the nurse poked me with the needle and said, “Ugh, I knew it!” Apparently, she knew my huge vein was going to roll and so I then had the pleasure of having her fish around under my skin with a needle until she got it. That wasn’t too bad…until my vein collapsed and she got to call the head nurse over, who looked at it and said, “Uh oh, you have a boo boo”. And boo boo indeed:

Yeah, that fatty hurt! And five days later it’s still pretty sensative and looks everybit as nasty as that picture, and if people ask about it I just tell them the American Red Cross are a bunch of violent do-gooders. Not really.

And in other news, my hubby is famous! Our buddy and entertainer extroidinaire, Dan Portnoy, did this road-trip project (you can read more about it here) and the first installment of it is up. Tim was asked to tag along and you can see just how good-lookin’ my babydaddy is.

I leave you with this picture of Conner testing out his attire for my brother’s upcoming nuptuals. A toddler in a tux - does it get any cuter?