Oh the sad and unbelievable lack of blogging

It is sad.

And unbelievable.

Isn't it?

There have been a number of times this week I've thought to myself, "hey self! you should blog that!"

And then life takes over again. Along with the laundry. And the blogging never happens.

And I've spent every waking moment of every day doing this:

Which is good 'cause it helps pay bills. But you see the floor behind me? Accurate representation of the rest of my house for the past two weeks. That's bad. Also, you see me? Bad too. Accurate representation of me for the past two weeks. No makeup, hair pulled back, apparently making weird faces mid conversation as well. But between myself and my very helpful husband, we make a killer team and blew through them while watching roughly half of the Friends complete series box set (last night we watched the one with the game where Monica and Rachel lose their apartment to Joey and Chandler-love that one!) and now there are no longer 15 large boxes taking up the entire office. Yay.

AND the best news is that I've been putting together some VERY fun things for October.

I am SO excited for the giveaways coming up!! I've had some awesome people willing to get involved, so starting tomorrow make sure you check in every Friday. I promise, it will be worth it.

One in particular I'm super excited about. And it all started with a phone call from my husband while at lunch at Costco. Figure that one out.

Also, with any luck, and since my car is dead and I can't run any errands today, there will be blog posts coming out my ears. Not literally of course. I hope.

But if you are bored, at least you might have something to read.

And it's time to start sewing up the rest of the Halloween costumes for this year. Which means that in roughly three weeks time I will be wondering what in the world I was thinking, why I do this to myself, and contemplating making everyone wear this for their costume next year:

And then Halloween will arrive and we'll have all sorts of fun and I'll look forward to that whole crazy cycle again next year.

'Cause I'm like that.

Friday Freebie

Welcome back to Friday!

I’m so caught in between the “Wow this week flew by! That’s great!” and “Holy cow-where did this week go?! I have too much to do!” Yikes.

Anyone else?

But one of my favorite things about Friday is sharing my favorite things!

I’m totally smitten with Etsy. I know I’m not the only one. And while I love my big box stores, I’d much rather buy as much as possible from little places. You know, the mom and pop type shops.

Little shop + internet = LOVE

Today I’m sharing one of the most adorable Etsy shops I’ve ever stumbled upon. Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? Let's celebrate that then!

I saw this shop and wanted everything.

Maybe one day.

I can tell you that at least a few things from Bugga Bugs will be included in the Christmas loot at our house in just three short months.

(only three months!! Anyone else aiming for all-or at least mostly-handmade Christmas this year?)

Today’s giveaway is any item you want from Bugga Bugs. Since it’s too hard for me to choose a favorite-you get to!

Go visit Bugga Bugs, come back here and leave a comment to let me know what your favorite pattern is.

As always, extra entries for being a follower, fbing, blogging or tweeting the giveaway. (please leave one comment for each entry).

Entries close at midnight MST Thursday Oct 1, winner chosen using random.org and announced Friday Oct 2.

Luxuries

First off, may my FIL be blessed for the rest of forever for sending us out for a night.

It was SO nice to get away for the night!

To just hang out, not worry about getting home to get a babysitter back home before too late, to not feel like we had to rush through dinner to get home to get kids in bed.

Mostly, to just be.

Our night away wasn't anything overly exotic or fancy, but it was so wonderful!

We went out to dinner, hung out at the pool, soaked in the hot tub, and went for Frostys at midnight.

And in addition to that-hold on to your hats-are you ready for it?? WE SLEPT IN! I woke up at 5:45, realized I didn't have to get up and rolled back over to go back to sleep.

Oh heaven help me, how wonderful that was!

Which brings me back to the point of this post. As we sat at breakfast this morning (that someone else cooked and cleaned up! woo-hoo!), we talked about how our definition of what a "luxury" is has changed.

Way back in our beginning (read as fresh young newlyweds), we used to look at big houses and fancy cars, name brand clothes and exotic island trips as things that would be a nice luxury one day.

Perspective is an interesting thing.

12 years and seven kids later, our definition of a luxury has changed quite a bit.

It is a luxury to sleep in

To eat as much bacon as I want from a breakfast buffet

To go out to dinner

To have a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice (especially if you didn't squeeze it!)

To go to Wendy's at midnight if you're craving a Frosty (where we live this would take longer than you realize. Not to mention you can't just leave the kids in bed and take off in the middle of the night!)

To sit and talk, uninterrupted, about important things and not so important things.

It is a luxury to make it to the end of the month and still have money left in the checking account.

To have a mostly finished basement, even if there is no real flooring down there and the kids' bedrooms don't have closet doors yet

To have a car that works, even if it isn't new or fancy, especially since it gets great gas mileage

It is a luxury to laugh together

To have good friends and neighbors

To have inside jokes

To live with someone that you love more than you ever imagined possible

And more than anything else, to come home together, to a house full of kids that missed you and felt like you were gone forever. And realize that you kinda missed them too.

Even if it was just one night.

Tune in next time!

Today's Freebie will actually happen next week, 'cause that's just the way today is happening.

Sorry folks, I'm takin' the day off!

Actually, I'm frantically running around the house like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get things presentable for my Father-in-law to babysit the kids. Overnight.

How great is that?!

He's treating us to an evening away and staying here with our crazy herd. What a treat!

Although I can't help but wonder if this is a hint.... Last week he called, asked about his 7 amazing grandchildren, then asked if #8 was on the way yet.

I told him #8 was on back order. I kinda can't believe I actually said that to him!

Maybe he's trying to nudge us in the direction of working on the next grandchild! ha!

He would be mortified if he knew I said that!

But hey, he only has one daughter-in-law, isn't it my duty to keep him on his toes?

Enjoy your weekend!

Freebie Winner!

The winner of the Americana tee is lucky #13....

Julie said...

I am a follower

aunteegem@yahoo.com

September 17, 2009 8:55 PM

Congrats Julie! email me at cateyball(at)yahoo(dot)com to let me know what size you'd like.

One day, I swear I will hear

the following phrase as my dog walks up to me:

*Ahem*

"Yo quiero Taco Bell"

Baking Cookies with Neil Diamond

No, Neil wasn't really in my kitchen yesterday. But back in the hotel days my husband was actually his personal waiter during one of his tours. Nice guy that Neil.

I'm just trying to expand my children's repertoire beyond HSM. Not that there is anything wrong with a rousing version of Fabulous.

But yesterday was a little Sweet Caroline (Bah! Bah! Bah!), a tad bit of "you are the sun, I'm am the moon", and a touch of Cherry, Cherry.

And a lot of baking.

Charlotte helped out with the flour.

And enjoyed it too much.

Apparently flour tastes better to a toddler. But flour and saliva is just a nasty paste.

Does this mean I'm raising a paste eater? Oh please no.

The boys picked about a million shapes to cut.

(look at them being resourceful and washing all the ones they want to use! yay!)

And then we cut.

And they snuck dough off the edges.

Rodeo season is over here.

Dang it. Maybe I can convince the hubby to take me again. I promise I won't drool over the bull riding.

Ok, at least I'll try.

This time of year we are usually gearing up for a Disneyland visit. This year we are relishing in Disney in the form of sugar instead.

Mickey Mouse cookie cutter-the souvenir that keeps on giving!

We kept the oven busy all day.

And then later we frosted with John Mayer. For some reason his music makes me think Fall. Him and John Tesh. I don't know how either one of them would feel about that.

I don't know how *I* feel about that.

I went to a John Tesh concert once. It was actually really great. He had a killer violinist. Charlie Bisharat. look him up.

I also went to a Garth Brooks concert once. That rocked. He had a killer fiddler. I don't know his name. I just remember "Johnny Woo-hoo". And that his pants were WAY too tight. It had to hurt.

Anyway.

Cookies.

I am retarded about frosting Christmas cookies (it's almost that time!!!), but it just doesn't quite bleed over to regular cookies.

Not to say we don't still have fun with it.

You'll have to forgive the lack of photos of kids frosting cookies. They mostly just inhaled them as they went. And I was in the corner of the kitchen playing with frosting too. But not inhaling it.

I was doing this:

Wishing Farewell to summer things

Welcoming Fall

Celebrating our best crop! (corn on the cob every night anyone? heh!)

Being obnoxious. Ooooo......cookies.....

"Laces OUT!" Couldn't resist. Aaron has no clue what I'm talking about. If you know what "laces out" is, you win a cookie. If there are any left for you.

Halloween is fast approaching....

Apparently one of the kids felt the need to help liberate some of those chocolate chips from the bottom cookie.

The cowboy cookies stayed plain. 'Cause it just seemed wrong to frost them all up.

This is my baby girl's hand. It's really hard to trace around a squiggly hand in cookie dough.

Then I tried to figure out the perfect Mickey Mouse.

Tried Chocolate Chips:

Tried Sprinkles:

But honestly, I have to say I think I just love the plain old simplicity of this:

Why? Because we like you! Wait, because Mouse ears don't need any help.

And for my meeting tonight:

My motto for meetings: "There is no meeting that cannot be made better with treats". Amen.