Bubbles!

Joshua's new favorite word....and past time!


And how could i be mad with a face like this?

The kids favorite song

Just about every day in our home the kids sing this song. I thought i would share it with you! It is quite addicting.....lol

Fun Sewing Project

Last week flannel was on sale at Joann's. Some of the flannel was on clearance for $2 and half off that for the firefly sale. The other flannel was on sale for $2. I thought it would be fun to make the kids some pillowcases. It was fun to choose a theme to match the kids personalities.
The first one is Emily's (frog) pillow. Notice the frogs! :o) the striped border was a fun touch to all that green.


Next we have Sarah. What else would i choose other than pink and princesses!?

Timothy got pirates! And a water looking blue border.


Next is Jacob, I choose a camping theme for him. He seems to be doing a lot of that lately...


Last is Joshua. He didn't have a choice! I just love the jungle babies, he also has a blanket with them. so he is stuck with what I wanted for him! :o)


All the kids were happy with their pillows! Even Emily! ;oP Since i happen to make Timothy's first, he decided to tell everyone that i loved him most! Sarah's happened to be 2nd, so she told him that i love her too because hers was next! lol

My Garden and Quilt for sale

the first two pictures are of lilies in my garden. We don't normally get to see them because the deer normally eat them before they bloom or just after. We were lucky enough to keep them protected enough to hide them this year. Go Weeds!!! :o)





Next is a the quilt i made to start off my quilt sale. I wanted the quilt to have a look of a quilt that your grandmother/great grandmother would have made. The quilt is hand tied and has prairie point edging. The blocks are made of muslin and the lattice is made up of various traditional calico's. There are several thoughts on laundering a quilt. My quilt teachers opinion is to do it the old fashion way and hang it out on the line and beat it. That is what i would suggest for this quilt. This quilt measures 39x 57 Price $50
contact me for more information.
debbiels1@gmail.com

Niece's Graduation Quilt

The moment we all have been waiting for......

Joshua CAN speak!!

For those of you that don't know Joshua, he is 22 mo and baby #5. With 4 older siblings, who needs to use words!? Screaming works just as well, sometimes better...

Some of his favorite words are; puppy, wuv vue(love you), bye bye, eww (when getting a diaper change), Em (for sister Emily), shot gun!(when getting in the van), on, off, mommy, daddy, night night, thank you and one of his favorites.....OUT! :o)
He is learning more words daily by copying what his older sibling are saying. With each passing day there seems to be less screaming.....YES!! :o)

Over the weekend a friend of dh's let him borrow his GPS. We have been doing some Geocaching. The first time i went with them, it was so funny to see Joshua run off with the boys searching for the cache, like he knew 'exactly' what he was doing! Then he would stop and take my hand and lead me along.

Next is potty training! He hates wearing a diaper! Every chance he gets, he takes his diaper off. several times he has taken his diaper off and ran into the bathroom, lifts the toilet seat...I help him sit on the toilet, but the next step still needs work. Could we be diaper free by the end of summer!? :o)

Raising a large family Pt 2

Geocashing is a fun, free thing the family can do together. The only thing you need is a few small trinkets to place in the cache' if you choose to take something out. The bad part about geocashing is that it uses up a lot of gas driving to find the caches. To fill the tank in our full size van ranges between $50-$75 depending upon the current price of gas......

Raising a large family...

I have been thinking lately about how much things cost or how quickly things disappear when you have 7 people in your family. I have started a list. Some of the things are only a dream...others a nightmare! lol

Admission to Cedar Point $263.65

One session of swim lessons for 4 $324

One package of cookies $2 (on sale) gone in less than 5 minutes

One gallon of milk 1.5 days max

Admission to the zoo on Monday $free$ :o)

Admission to the zoo not on Monday $55

McDonald's $1 menu for 7, no drinks $12

Wendy’s (not value menu) $23

Laundry-too many loads to count

Fat Billy’s ½ sheet pizza $11 (one meal)

Airline tickets for 4 adults to California starting at $1,966

(no price listed for under 12)

Admission to Lego land $334

California hotel for 7 days starting at $644.56

Trip to the ice-cream stand $18

½ Gallon of ice-cream approx $4 last one day

Loaf of bread 2 days max unless it is Whole Wheat

Movie tickets (matinées price) $42.25

Groceries for 1 month $700-$1,000

Bag of chips/pretzels 1 day max

Package of juice boxes 1 day max

Bottle of juice 1.5 days

Dance/music lessons 4 kids approx $4, 500 per year

Longing for summer break.....

Ohdela has been a good thing for our homeschooling. I am very pleased with the progress the kids have made over the past 6 months. In fact Jacob just received a 100% on a poem he wrote!! this coming from a boy who hates to write! I love that the lesson plans are already written out for me, and i don't have to make the tough decision of choosing the curriculum only to discover a few months down the road that i made the wrong choice, and waisted a lot of money. Emily (now in high school) is finally being challenged, she is way too smart! and she is doing the creative stuff i didn't have the energy for. All children are accountable to a master teacher in Akron, that has also been a great help in getting things accomplished. Timothy has really opened up to learning after switching. The first part of the year he never wanted to do school work. Now he wants to spend some time over the summer doing the work in the beginning of his books that he didn't do. :o) Sarah cant wait to start school in the fall! Yes, she is that old already! She is signed up for Ohdela and we will be adding one more computer to our home....I think that will make 8 I wish we had more room.....lol
So now here is the bad part about Ohdela, we are "still" doing school and we cant just stop because we want to! They have to work until 6-29. Timothy is actually finished with his school work, we just need to log 1 hour a day. Emily is finishing up her school work in between volunteering at the park for an American Girl camp. Jacob on the other hand, still has quite a bit of work to do. He has been struggling to keep up in math and finish off the current unit in all subjects. I am going to request that he is excused from the last unit. He will not have enough time to do it and mentally he is finished. (and so am i) Other than that, this is working for us. :o)

One of my new websites

I have decided to try to promote my Avon business a little more than i have been able to since getting a part-time job. I just signed up for an Avon website! It is a basic Avon layout, i still need to personalize it a little more. You can check it out by going HERE. You will need to register to shop online.

Friday's errands....

In yesterdays post i mentioned about running some errands with dh last Friday. I didn't have time to blog about it yesterday, so i decided to add that in a post today. :o)
Dh needed a pair of hiking boots for the many Scouts events they are doing, so he wanted to go to the camp store to look at boots. We ended up getting to the store 10 minutes before they closed! lol They were very nice about it and gave dh special attention and made sure he had a pair of boots that fit properly. He is happy with his new boots. :o)
Not too far away was a Joann store. We had planned on swinging by there because i needed some thread for a quilt i am working on. It is taking more thread than i had imagined! I just finished up my 3rd spool and need one more. The Joann's that we went to is bigger than the one in Garfield. The Viking dept had so many projects on display, i just had to look at them! If it weren't so far away I might consider taking some of their classes! With the recent change of Mgr's at the Garfield Viking store the classes are currently being re-vamped. It was kinda nice shopping at a Joann store where no one knew me. And when i arrived at the register with my
*1* spool of thread, no one gave me the lecture about how my purchase is lowering the average ticket sale....I wonder why so many co-workers are shopping at other Joann stores? ;o)
After that dh decided to take the scenic route home. We drove past this little ice cream shop and decided to stop. Unfortunately they only took cash....and we had none. Down the road a little we came upon a Dairy Queen. :o') So we decided to stop there. We got our favorite blizzard, reeses peanut butter cup with chocolate ice cream. yum....
It was strange how being out of Cuyahoga Co everyone was nice and we receive good customer service....

Our weekend....

When i last left you i had been called off work for 2 days in a row....

Friday night dh and i went out running errands together, and we stopped for ice cream. :o) Sometimes we only see each other for 5 minutes when he comes in and i run out....
Saturday since i didn't have to work, i took the girls and josh to lake farm park for the working dog weekend. The boys and Scott were doing a scouts thing. If we are ever able to move i really want to get a dog like one of these...
This "puppy" was SOOOO cute!!!!! Look at those paws/legs!!! She is a Bernese Mountain Dog. I WANT ONE!!!!! too bad you cant see her face! She was so cute!! this is Ajax, he is a Border Collie. I also love border collies!! Ajax was so cool! When we took this pic, he had been sitting in the same spot for a very long time. I just had to pet him, i had Em take a pic first. Once we started petting him he decided to lay down. We got him in trouble because he was told to "sit!" He, was a cool dog!!!
Here is a Newfoundland. He was such a laid back dog. A HUGE laid back dog! as you can see in the picture! Joshua really liked him, of course josh liked all the dogs and gave them all hugs, and brushed their tails on his cheeks. but he spent the most time with the puppy....
Sunday i attended my work picnic. wasn't bad. My friend that retired was there. i mostly talked to her, Best place to be when the water balloons came out. No one would throw a balloon at her! so i was pretty safe. I had planned my arrival very carefully, lol not to arrive too soon. but just enough time to be seen. lol I went right to work from the picnic. The evening was pretty quiet. Corporate was coming Monday morning so we needed to have a "Perfect" close. Monday when i arrived at work I asked how it went and i was surprised to hear that they also thought the store looked "perfect" Normally they (mostly Mgr) don't. Then i find out that they will be back "again" on Tuesday! So we needed another "perfect" close! Working with a hard working co-worker was easier on Monday than Sunday. Sundays co-worker kept getting distracted, so she never finished anything. she kept bouncing around from place to place and i had to finish that for her. but she is not the worst person to work with.
So, now about my schedule....for two weeks i had hardly any hours, the next schedule i have almost 20! Way too many for me! Where is the happy medium?? One of the days i am working is fathers day and it is also my 3rd Sunday in a row. I am scheduled from 8:45 am to 3pm. There are several things wrong with that shift. For instance, my availability states i am not available till after 2 on Sundays, and i am only suppose to have to work 1 weekend a month. I am expecting this is a test.....from "NO" hours to "TOO MANY" hours, plus a conflict on availability. I am torn as to if i should say anything or not. I am not sure what is the passing answer. if i say something I could be back on the list. If i don't say anything and work the shift, she will expect to get away with it all the time.....Hmm....Or is it all in my head?........lol

The game continues.....

This week I was scheduled Sunday, Monday and Friday. It had been arranged, and approved by the Mgr for me to work another employees schedule on Saturday, but she didnt know what time she was scheduled. Friday morning i get a phone call from the asst. mgr telling me they didn't need me to work, so i could have Friday night off. I mentioned that i was to work Saturday morning but didn't know the time. Could she please tell me. she put me on hold for a really long time...when she came back she said that shift was covered and i was not needed! I challenged her, because i had recently talked to the other employee and all was fine! She got a little flustered, so i know she had been told to say this. So i don't have to work Saturday either. Next week my schedule is Sun, Mon and Sat. It will be interesting to see what happens next week. Sunday is our employee picnic, so i am pretty sure they wont call me off, because everyone will be at the picnic. Sunday i will also get my schedule for the following week. that will be interesting too!
Honestly, all this is really starting to pi** me off! I suppose it is time for a meeting with the mgr, i just don't know what i should say to her.......

My punishment...

I think my bosses plan is backfiring......Part of my punishment from work was loosing my normal Wednesday night. Since i didn't have to work, i had the chance to spend the night with my oldest child. :o) she doesn't get special treats too often, especially with 4 younger siblings.

Last night i surprised her and took her to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie! We even had popcorn, which we normally don't do because of the price. In fact we don't normally go to the movies because of the price....
And my post wouldnt be complete without a pic of Will Turner....lol

Doing foolish things....

Ive requested a lot of days off work because the Boy Scouts are doing a lot of camping this summer. I also took off to help at the church rummage sale, but it turned out they didn't need my help. My boss was not happy that i asked for so many days off. I was worried that i will make her s**t list...funny thing, the next two weeks, my hours are cut. At first i was very upset! Now that i have slept on it, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing. I have been working a lot of hours. That with trying to HS, has left me exhausted! I was considering quiting at the end of summer anyway....The kids are happy i don't have to work much this week.... or next! :o)
So my other foolish thing is, i made an expensive purchase that we couldn't actually afford... Knowing i wanted one (eventually) the viking employee's let me know that the embroidery unit for my sewing machine was going on sale. They are doing away with them and this was the last one my store had. It was half off the retail price! How could I pass up that deal!? Unfortunately, i was relying on my paychecks to pay off my bill...I guess i will have to sell more Avon....or get busy and finish my projects i am making to sell.
since we are on the subject...several of you have asked for my website address. That is a funny story. Dh worked so hard creating this website for me then it took me so long to finish the quilt i was making and Dh forgot the address for the website. lol So for a while we were searching trying to find it. Just about when dh was ready to give up, he found it. Since i don't work much this week, perhaps we will get the pictures loaded and i will get the website published! :o)

2nd post in one day!!

I forgot to mention, at work for inventory if we got below a certain % for loss we were promised a pizza party and a Joann GC. I found out this past week that we did really well on our inventory and we will be treated to a pizza party, we will receive a *$50* Joann GC and we will also get to choose a Joann shirt! that is pretty cool! I am sure i can find plenty of things to spend $50 on....lol I never purchased the Joann shirt because they are kinda pricey. The pizza party...we'll see if that ever happens.....lol

Happy Retirement "E"!

Last night was the retirement dinner for "E". It turned out to be a very nice evening! Unfortunately I forgot the camera! :o/ 4 people signed up to attend (one being me) I decided to get a table for 8 *just in case*. We ended up with 15! *E* was very surprised to see everyone that came to celebrate with her. I brought a bouquet of flowers, balloons and a cake. Another employee also brought flowers . she almost cried when she saw these things. She kept saying "My kids don't even do this for me!" I kept telling her "We aren't your kids!, we are your friends!" She couldn't remember ever getting balloons, and couldn't remember the last time she was given flowers.
I had passed around a card at work for everyone to sign and we took a collection. she received several gift cards to different places, which she was thrilled to receive.
She will be spending the summer gardening and spending time with her grandchildren. She told us she would come back to visit (since she has gift cards to spend) and will make sure to make a mess of the dept and cause all sorts of trouble! ;o)
Work wont be the same without her. I haven't heard yet who will take her place.