A Tutu Happy Candy Corn Princess!

This year I made Presley's halloween costume.....well, one of them. ;o) We had a costume swap at MOPS this year so I swapped Presley's costume from last year with a bumble bee costume I found. Usually, we celebrate halloween twice! Lots of the churches in our area do "trunk or treat" or a carnival so we always plan on celebrating with our church and our neighborhood. I found a cute little candy corn hat on pinterest that I wanted to get for Presley so that she could be a candy corn for Halloween this year, but the hat on Etsy was selling for WAYYY to much! So, I put my little sister to work and voila! I had one candy corn hat made for free ;o) I was going to try my hand in sewing the costume part of it, but with all of the move stuff coming up it was just way too time consuming. I looked on Etsy and Amazon for a quick candy corn costume fix, but didn't find anything....not in my price range anyways! I did see quite a few candy corn tutus on Etsy that were selling for $25-$100! Can you believe it? ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! Ridiculous! So, I decided to search on pinterest ;o) Sure enough, I came across a tutu pattern that I was sure to be able to do on my own in no time at all! SO, after a few tweekings and the blending of two ideas I came out with a candy corn costume for my sweet girl. I found the candy corn tights at Party City on sale for $1.99, a candy corn shirt at "Once Upon a Child" for $2.99, and a pair of black ballet shoes at Old Navy for $4.99. There you have it, folks ;o) A Tutu Happy Candy Corn Princess!

Here is the link to creating your own tutu. I did everything the same except I used one of Presley's fabric headbands like the one below and weaved the tulle to make 3 rows consisting of yellow, orange, and white. Click here for inspiration.

Presley's waist is 17 inches so the headband worked perfectly when it stretched over her waist. For the tutu part, I used 3 different colors of tulle and I cut 16 inch strips for the yellow, 12 inch strips for the orange, and 6 inch strips for the white.

Ring-Around-The-Rosie

This past weekend we celebrated Joey's Grandad's 87th birthday. It was great to get together and see everyone.....especially cousin Cooper, Aunt Christy, and Uncle Lance! Presley is really coming out of her shell and Preschool has done wonders for her confidence. Usually, she needs 30-60 minutes to warm up to everyone, but this time she only needed a few minutes. She had so much fun playing with Cooper! One of Presley's favorite games to play is ring-around-the-rosie. She could play it for hours! :o) After the party, we put presley down for the night. As we were saying our prayers she thanked God for "playing ring-around-the-rosie." ;o) Ah, fun times!

Welcoming Home the Troops

Yesterday afternoon we went to DFW to "Welcome Home the Troops" with our hometeam from church. It was a great experience and a wonderful way to teach the kids about a servent's heart and true heros. It was quite overwhelming, there's so much to be said in the eyes of a soldier. Afterwards, I felt so guilty for never having welcomed them home before. I get so wrapped up in my own life that I fail to see outside my little world.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, the he lay down his life for his friends. -John 15:12-13

In the above video you can see that Every soldier ran to the hands of those who had gone before them.....as it should be ;o)

A Hoarder of Memories

There's a couple of good things that come out of moving......
1- you get completely organized, and
2- you purge yourself of things that have been sitting around your house for years.

I read somewhere that if you don't use an item that you have been saving or an item that you have packed away within a 12 month period then the chances of you ever needing it or using it drops to about 8%.....funny number if you ask me.

Anyhow, I am a hoarder......a hoarder of memories. I keep everything! I have letters from friends from when I was in 6th grade. I don't know why I hold on to memories so tightly, but it might be because I experienced loss and fear of loss at a very young age. Loss has pretty much been a part of shaping my life.

I save pretty much every piece of paper that has writing on it. lol. I have a 100+year old diary that my great great grandmother wrote in when she was a teenager. What can I say.....I love memories. ;o) It's pretty much the only thing that you have, God willing, at the end of a life.

So with all of that said......I have boxes and boxes of letters, video tapes, cassette tapes, and pictures from my past. I realized today that these boxes of memories have gone with me from house to house to house. They have followed me through 8 moves.......and they are about to embark on a 9th move! While I was cleaning out the guest bedroom closet today I briefly thought to myself, "I should throw these away." BUT, then I sat down for a second (or a thousand) and read through some of the memories. I couldn't bring myself to throw away one piece of paper (well, that's not entirely true. I did throw away one of my journals from January 2001-July 2001 because I completely exasperated myself reading it. God's patience is immeasurable......I discovered just how great it is by reading through 2 of my journal entries today. Good-Ness!)

During my re-reading of memories, I came upon a poem that I had framed a few months after my mom passed away. Reading through this poem lead my mind back to the grief I felt so deeply after realizing that she was really gone. I remember, at the time, not having any sense of God's presence. I knew He was there, but I just couldn't "feel" his comfort or peace. I was so consumed with pain and grief that I couldn't really feel anything, but pain. Those of you who have lost a parent at a young age know what I am talking about. I remember feeling like the one person who gave me comfort and peace, my mom, was ripped away from my life and I was left with an empty hollow space. I would love to say that God swept in immediately and filled that emptiness I was feeling. However, it didn't happen....at least not immediately. He was there the entire time and I know that now, but when you are in the midst of grief it is very hard to see Him, the One Who Comforts. As I walked through the journey of grief with my eyes on God, meeting with Him daily, then I began to see Him and "feel" His comfort. The pain and grief I once felt was slowly, but persistently, exchanged for feelings of peace and comfort......that ultimately came from God. It was during those moments of grief and silence that I came upon this poem. I framed it and kept it in my bathroom so that I would keep my eyes on the One who comforts. I had faith that I would be healed from the pain of loss and that God would exchange it for peace. And He did. ;o) Today, as I read through this poem, I was once again filled with a hope worth waiting for.

When The Heavens Appear to Be Silent

When the heavens appear to be silent,
And God seems not to answer at all,
When your cries in the night seem useless,
And God fails to heed your call.

When the prayers you have prayed go unanswered
And doubt and despair fill your heart,
When hopelessness steals into your life
That says: "God isn't doing His part."

Ah, blessed child, your God is at work,
Though ne'er can we see till it's past.
That He, in the silence of angelic hush,
Has carved out your message at last.

When the heavens appear to be silent,
You stand, child, on Holy sod,
And quietly as you but rest in His love
You find then the heart of God.

That's why the heavens are silent:
There is nothing your God cannot do.
But, yet, He has chosen the better part,
Of silently changing you!
-unknown

M.I.A. and Another Pumpkin Patch

Joey and I have been a little stressed (aughhh) to say the least. Selling our house has become quite the chore....and working with our buyers (both sets) has been a little overwhelming at times too. I guess I have been MIA because I have gotten several emails from several friends asking if I am alright or if I am pregnant??? They told me that they were worried because they haven't seen me on facebook lately or seen very many blogs from me. lol. I guess I go MIA when I am pregnant????? Just so you know, I am not pregnant and everything is perfectly fine. We are just up to our eyeballs in boxes and trying to move! I also have not done a very good job of keeping people "in the know" about my personal life. So.......I thought I would do a very quick run down of what has gone on in the last 30 days.

The House:
We put our house on the market after finding a house we liked that we put an offer on.
We got outbid on the house we were interested in and decided to keep our house on the market to "see what would happen."
We got an offer on our house 7 days after putting it on the market, but had a foundation scare and so the buyer pulled out.
Joey and I had a professional come in and look at the foundation and got confirmation that everything is completely fine with our house and it's foundation.
11 days after our first buyer pulled out of the contract we got another buyer. We have gone through all of the inspection and everything is good!
We close on our house October 31st.
We will be moving into a house on an acre of land with a pool in Copper Canyon....about 5 miles north of where we are at now. :o) Yeah, fun times!

The Personal:
I had a doctor's appointment at the end of September and everything looks good. I will have to be on an anticoagulant called Lovenox and then switch over to Heparin at 32 weeks conception. Joey and I met with the doctors and have weighed the risks, pros, and cons of conceiving again. I have felt God tugging at my heart and I am at peace with our decision to try to conceive rather than adopt. It has been a hopeful journey and God has completely spoken to me and given me a peace that passes understanding. I keep a daily prayer journal, have for years, and it is truly amazing to see what God has done and is doing in my life. I would love to share, but it's pretty personal and I don't have it in me to write a blog like that right now. Ha!

The Pumpkin Patch:

On another note, Presley and I went to a lovely pumpkin patch on Monday with Sara, Brian, and the boys. We had a great time. There was a little drama surrounding the entire event and if you would like to read about it then you can click here and get the scoop on Sara's blog. ;o) I will just add one thing...........After Sara and the boys left the pumpkin patch things started to run rather smoothly. ha! All of the rides were going, they had 3 horses up and running for the pony rides, and they opened up the petting zoo of 3 goats and 2 pigs. lol. However, when I say that all of the rides were going ;o) it was because we (the parents) were given the right to start and stop the rides whenever we wanted while the 80 year old man running the rides was off in the porta potty. ;o) And really, we just took the initiative to start and stop the rides after realizing all of the kids were looking a bit cross-eyed from going round-and-round for 10 minutes straight. Can I get a woo-woo!

round and round we go ;o) when we'll stop, nobody knows...

Presley is very proud of the fact that she DOES NOT cry at preschool anymore. She tells everyone and anyone who will listen......including this 2 ft donkey. I had it on film, but all you can hear is the wind rushing by. She left the above conversation with a nice compliment to the donkey informing him that, "donkey, you have big ears."

And so it begins............

'Nuff Said....

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch 2011

Thursday evening we headed to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. It 's the same one that we have gone to for the past few years. It was nice because the group we went with rented out the patch from 5-7 so it was a very small group. We practically had the entire patch to ourselves. Presley was very engaged the entire time. She went on a hayride, played on the wooden train, jumped in the bounce house, and got her face painted. It was wonderful to see her playing with everyone and enjoying herself.

Having fun on the hayride

Getting her face painted....I was very surprised that she wanted to do this ;o) She hugged every big pumpkinJumping in the jump house....first time she hasn't chickened out!

A Scraptastic Weekend Retreat ;o)

Seriously, there is so much going on right now and so much that has happened within the past week that I am finding it hard to sit down and blog. However, I will blog about this past weekend. ;o) Friday, I headed out for a long weekend of crafting and scrapping. My older sister and I tagged along with Sara and her friends to a scrapbooking retreat in Roanoke, Texas. Last January, I went to a retreat with Sara that was about 2-3 hours away. It was really nice only having to go 20 minutes down the road to Roanoke. The house is located on main street making it really convenient. We were able to just walk down the road and find lots of delicious restaurants. There was also the cutest little book store and coffee shop right across the street from the cottage.........it had really good mochas and pumpkin spice lattes. I was able to get a lot done and get caught up. Sunday afternoon, we met my dad for a late lunch and then headed back home. It was really nice to spend time with him and my sisters.....just like old times. ;o) Here are a couple of the pages I did from this weekend ;o)