Ohmygosh, I didn’t think you could still experience homesickness as an adult, but you can even when it’s only been two days you’re away and you’re only 110 miles from home!

The wedding went fine - great, actually - but after the rehearsal dinner I was so tired and my morning (evening, actually) sickness was creeping in and even tho our hotel bed was big and comfy, I was longing for my own pillow in my own bed. I don’t think I was ever so happy to be home on Sunday, mainly b/c I was just so exhausted. Conner crashed and we didn’t hear a peep from him all night. He did fantastic tho, the whole weekend - my boy gets five gold stars! He was carried around, made to stay up late, take naps in the car, be around a lot of new people, not be around mom and dad, and he did fannnntastic. He did have a mini meltdown just before the bridesmaids went down the aisle - seeing me, dad and papa and not being able to get to any of us made him very anxious. But he pulled it together, did his ring-bearer trek down the aisle, got to the other papa and was whisked quickly and quietly out the side exit so he could play outside. Tim’s parents came to the wedding, too, and ohmygosh were they lifesavers! I don’t know how we would’ve done it without them. SO happy they were there.

So now we’re home and hopefully this week will be so incredibly boring that I can catch up on some crafting, emailing, girlfriend-time, and smothering my boys with kisses. And I do have to say Happy Birthday to my dad - he’s 50 today! 50! And the man doesn’t act a day older than 18 Happy Birthday, daddy - I love you!!

When my computer decided to go ape-crazy on me a few weeks ago, I immediately went into panic mode. I had just recently backed up all my files so that wasn’t a worry. I was more upset by the fact that I couldn’t check my email 100 times a day until it got fixed. I mean, how else will someone be able to contact me?

The first day was pretty hard - I got to check my email before Tim left for work, and then again when he got home. Twice. That’s it. It was awwwwwwful. When Conner went down for his nap, what was I supposed to do? Certainly not read - no, no, no, I don’t read. That was my ‘net surfing time. No more blog reading. No more emailing. No more watching random YouTube video’s and forwarding them to everyone to see if they thought it was as funny as I did (which they never do because let’s face it - I laugh at everything).

I hated not having my laptop handy. But as the days went on, I came to realize just how much stinking time I waste on that thing. And I mean waste. Don’t take offense to anyone who’s blog I read and comment on, or who I email regularly - it’s not you…it’s me. And it’s all the other junk I read.

So what have I been doing with all my newfound freetime? Well, for starters I got all my crafting done for the fair that is to be held tomorrow morning. That was such a relief to get it finished and not a moment too soon. I even finished in enough time to whip-up some yummy fall treats, which, are making me salivate worse than Pavlov’s dogs.

I also spent a few days visiting the in-laws in Georgia and it was so much fun! Conner did great on the flights (on the way down he was a little overtired and couldn’t just point to the pictures in his book, but point and squeal “Apple!” or “Ball!” - the lady in front of us actually moved to the back of the plane after a few rounds of “Mama! Cat! Mama! Cat!”) and was so compliant when he was lugged all over creation. Conner has never been a big talker - not tangible words, that is - and in the last few weeks he was just beginning to talk more. But getting him in a different environment must have inspired him because his vocabulary just exploded! He was saying things I’ve never heard before…and never remembered teaching him. It was pretty cool, but also a reminder to be careful what I say when I make a woopsy. Hearing your toddler say “Cap!” instead of “Crap!” will only be funny for so long.

My crafty cohort, Jen, and I were invited to be on a local news show to talk about the craft fair we’re participating in tomorrow, and to show off some of our goods. At first I was reluctant - TV? No way. I’ve got so much to do, not to mention the camera adds 10 pounds, so I had to lose 10 pounds pronto, ya know, balance it all out. But after much persuading, I decided to do it and it wasn’t as punishing as I thought it would be. I wish they would post the video so I could upload it - I straightened my hair for it, brushed my teeth and everything…it was a big deal - so if they do I most certainly will link to it.

I feel like we need to catch up on so much more. How are you? How has your fall been going so far? Seen any good movies? No? Me either. Except for the Princess Diaries 2 that I tivo’d a few weeks ago. I love Anne Hathaway, she’s so beautiful and classy. And Julie Andrews - she’s amazing. Ah, I digress.

It’s time for me to rest my weary bones. I leave you with these grubbin’ pictures of Conner. This first one, his hair reminds me of Harry from Dumb & Dumber (my favorite line after Lloyd had rigged the blind boy’s beloved dead bird - “Harry! I took care of it!”)

Conner, how do you feel about PB&J?

Who’s my happy boy?

*The clutches and tote bags above are for the craft fair and any leftovers will be put in my etsy shop next week.

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.

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?

What was life like before having children? I do not fully remember. But I bet I had lots of time to sit around and finish projects at my leisure while watching You’ve Got Mail. I’ve gotten better at learning which crafts should occupy my time and which will be put off until another time, but I still feel like I bite off more than I can chew most days. So I’m taking it one day at a time, one project at a time. Even tho this is the 8th day in a row that I’m consumed with a project (that takes second place to being a wife and mother). Hopefully in a few days I can show you all what I’m up to, because I really do want to be done!

Anyways, I leave you with this picture of Conner in his new big boy chair. He loves sitting at the table with us when we eat and it’s nice that he has his own place, too. This is his showing-you-his-teeth face, by the way.

Okay, a couple things worth noting:

1) High School Musical 2 premiers tonight on the Disney Channel - woot woot!

2) Tim really wants to name our next son (if there is one in our future) after our dog, Jaxon. Seriously. Tim spent all of Wednesday evening renaming Jax (as a way to make this possible), Max, and calling him that. And even before he left for work this morning, he gave a compelling argument why this is okay - Indiana Jones was named after the dog, after all. I’m scared that he’s not joking about this.

3) My brother and sister in law had their third child, a little boy named Even Joseph, this past Sunday and we’re so happy for them (except the part where her water broke and she had the baby an hour later, with no meds, which was not part of the original plan)

4) My friend Erin is turning 31 tomorrow (yay) and for her party I was asked to once again be a cupcake wench. The more I’m asked to make them, the more I think Kelly is right about us opening a shop together. Anyone interested in investing?

And thanks for the all the book recommendations. Do any of these have large print and pictures? Because that’s pretty much a requirement for when I read. Did I neglect to mention that? Just kidding. Sort of. Okay, have a great weekend!

I do not get into gadets. Like, at all. I think some things are cool and would be fun to tinker around with, but for the most part if it runs off of a battery or needs to be programmed at all I don’t care for it. I can say this with certainty, because even after I got my 60GB iPod for Christmas, it sat in the box for almost three weeks before I summoned the strength to figure out how it worked. And the only thing I can still figure to upload is music.

I don’t care about cell phones either, until this was dropped on my doorstep a week ago

Isn’t she beeeeutiful??? I never cared about cell phones, just wanted one that worked, but I love this one mainly because it’s pink. And it plays Fergilicious when Tim calls.

So that’s all. Not a lot going on here, and yet a lot is going on. I’ve recently started reading again for fun (anyone who knows me, knows this is odd b/c I don’t like to read) and finished The Nanny Diaries (for the third time) just in time for the movie to come out next weekend. I really hope they end it differently than in the book, because the ending was sad. Sad, but real. And I don’t like to live in reality when being entertained. I have some other books I want to read, but I’m looking for some suggestions on fun, light reading - anyone got any to share?

Thanks for all the picture-love! I’m no professional like others I know, but it’s still fun and almost always makes for a memorable experience.

Nothing too exciting is going on ’round these parts. The heat is starting to creep back up into the 90’s, so that means we lock up the fort and blast the a/c. Despite it feeling like the inside of a dog’s mouth outside, I was craving some winter comfort food. So I busted out my recipe box and cooked up ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken over wheat pasta.

Delish! And man oh man was it so good. I love me some carbs. And cheese. And anything that pairs the two together. Wow, my whole mouth just filled with saliva…

I’m also a huge fan of lemon. I love lemon-scented anything and am currently in search of the perfect lemon square recipe. While this one isn’t it, it’s still yummy and incorporates another favorite of mine - cream cheese!

The recipe is posted at the end and it’s a great one to have since it’s so easy and only has five ingredients - woot woot!

Our church is holding a charity 5K tomorrow (that I’m also running in, so wish me luck and cool breezes - an expected high of 94 degrees!!) and they needed some baked goods for the participants. So I spent the last four and a half hours in the kitchen making muffins and cookies. One hundred of each, to be exact.

So happy when the timer went off for twentieth, and last time.

In other news, Tim has started to play his guitar again which makes me swoon. I had been asking him for years, literally, but it took one of his boyfriends wanting to hear him play and what do you know - now he’s interested. I don’t care, I just love to hear and see him play. Memories of freshman year of college, sitting on the wall in Demoss Hall, him playing his guitar…*sigh* (hey, gimme a break, I was 18). Conner really likes when Tim plays, too. Because that means the guitar case is free.

Okay, must wash some dishes and prop my feet up before I start running around like a busy bee this afternoon. And as promised:

Lemon Cheese Squares

1 pkg. lemon cake mix with pudding in the mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/3 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine cake mix, 1 egg and oil in large boil and stir until crumbly. Reserve 1 c. crum mixture and press the remaining mixture into an ungreased 13×9-inch baking pan. Bake 12-15 mins. or until light golden brown. Meanwhile, combine remaining egg, cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl and beat until smooth. Spread over baked crust and sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 15 minutes or until cream cheese layer is just set. Cool in the pan, cut and dig in.