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The princess went to Tennessee with her grandparents last weekend to celebrate thanksgiving with her great grandparents. They live in Pigeon Forge so you have to go through miles of outlet and specialty stores to get to their home. My dad’s favorite shop is a Christian book outlet and I am pretty sure he feels an obligation to keep them in business since he visits there on his way in and out of town and comes home with bags full of books. This trip was so exception and he bought the princess a new childrens Bible. She was so excited to show it to me when she got home last night and put it in a safe place before she went to bed. The first thing she did when she woke up was grabbed her Bible and jumped on the couch and we had this conversation.
Lainey: Mommy, I am reading my Bible!
Mommy: That is great, Baby! Is that a new Bible?
Lainey: Yes, Yes!
Mommy: Who gave you a new Bible?
Lainey: I got it from my Papa!
Mommy: That was nice of Papa!
Lainey: Oh yes, my Papa is real nice and real fine!
I couldnt control my giggles after the real nice and real fine! She was so cute and so sincere. It sounded straight out of Mayberry in a repeat of the Andy Griffeth show! The southern drawl she used made it even sweeter. She doesn’t have a southern accent but a weekend in Tennessee brought out a sweet little twang in her words.
My little hiatus was longer than expected! Soon after I posted my giveaway I ended up catching the bug that has been going around here. Everyone in the house seemed to catch a touch of it and then we all ended up with a cold so we are just coming out of our medicated states and feeling like ourselves again. I thought I would show you a little bit of what I have been up to since my last post!
Hubby celebrated a birthday and Alaina helped him blow out the candles. (Blow is a nice way of saying she essentially spit on his ice cream cake!)
I spent a day baking with a friend and testing out a new apple pie recipe:
8 peeled and cored granny smith apples
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
3 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup of water
pie crust (use your fave recipe!)
Melt butter in a saucepan and add sugar and brown sugar and water. Have the apples sliced and in your pie crust. Work out your lattice over the apples. Pour your ooey gooey mixture over your lattice letting it soak into your pie and covering all of your lattice. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then reduce the temp to 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Yummy!
On Friday I had an appointment to get my hair cut. For the last few years my hair has been long and just getting longer. I just haven’t taken the time to get it styled in over a year! Here is the before:
and the after:
And lastly, what you all have been waiting for…..thanks to the random number generator the winner of the fabric giveaway is Lisa! Congrats and go take a peek at her blog as it is fabulous!
For another giveaway! I have used this fun and funky owl flannel for several projects for the little miss and I have an extra yard of it and decided it was time to do a little giveaway! Leave me a comment this week and tell me your favorite blog tutorial and you could win this fun fabric and another yard of a surprise fabric!
My weekends are largely spent at work. It was a long weekend with lots of things going on at church. Classes, productions, curriculum, coordinating volunteers…a little heavy this season but nothing to out of the norm. What was strange is that everyone around me seemed to be in the know about me. There is an open position at church that I didn’t think about applying for. Not that I didn’t want it, but didn’t feel like I was wanted to apply for it. Silly as it may be I had come to grips in another time and another place it would have been the ideal but my heart and my head couldn’t agree to the terms of the position therefore I chose to ignore the opening and carry on in my ministry and make it the best it can be. That being said I have felt a strong pull towards changing things up and it made a few waves this week that I was unaware of. I have been bubbling all week with excitement over a few answered prayers and apparently it hadn’t gone unnoticed. So, after a few wink wink nudge nudge’s I have begun to wonder if I may be meant to apply for this position afterall.
What a strange idea that I would end up wanting a position similar to one I have had in the past and swore up and down I would never take on again.
I was tagged by Sheree to share seven random things about me! So, here we go! More about me than you ever wanted to know!
1. I recently stopped biting my nails. After almost 28 years of biting my nails, four months I stopped cold turkey. Now that I finally quit I am not sure what I could never do it before when I had tried. Now I have long and pretty nails and have only suffered one broken nail since 
2. I have a thing about symmetry. Pillows, picture frames, bookshelves. Things have to be symmetrical or it bugs me to no end!
3. I drink way to much diet coke on any given day. It is a sickness and borderline addiction. I swear to you that I literally get a little high on the first sip. Only another diet coke addict would understand that but I know I am not alone!
4. Two of my favorite foods in the world are two that I can’t have. I love peanut butter and eggs (not together!) but Alaina has a severe food allergy to all nuts and eggs. We choose to be an egg and nut free house to help protect her from what could make her sick.
5. I love to sew (ok, that is not a new or a random thought!) but I can’t read a pattern to save my life. I can follow an ebook with step by step picture instructions but give me a pattern I just can’t get it. Everything I make for Alaina is based on pictures of things I have seen and I just guess how to make it. I have alot more things I have sewn that don’t make it to the blog because they turn out to be complete messes. Anyone want to come to Kentucky and show me how to use a pattern? Lol! There would be a lot more pretty blog posts:)
6. I am obsessed with candles. I have a candle burming almost all of the time in my house. I am picky on the scents and can’t stand any floral scent. Fall is my favorite time of the year because I can bring out my pumpkin scented candles!
7. Cinnamon. I like cinnamon but cinnamon flavored makes me gag. Cinnamon gum or toothpaste makes me nauseous. I like cinnamon toast, I like it sprinkled on my applesause but full on cinnamon flavor makes my tastebuds revolt!
I was having a rough weekend and have been at odds with myself over my job. If you volunteer or a part of a ministry I am sure that you understand the overworked and underappreciated feelings. I have been feeling very upset over my job recently. It has been really hard for to to take over this position that someone else created and make it my own. I know that we are not doing the best job that we could and I truly believe that there is nothing worse than looking at your own work and finding it sub par. I can’t do my job alone and I have to count on volunteers to have the same passion for my work as I do which is not an easy feat.
What I was not relying on was the one thing that I needed to have my focus on. On Tuesday I had an absolute vision from God of what this ministry is supposed to look like and I feel so at peace now. I know how hard the job will be from me now but I no longer feel like I am flailing. I know that not everyone who reads my little blog is of the same faith and that is ok. But, I do hope that you are not scared by this. I think everyone can understand feeling relieved when direction has been placed in their lives. For me it is a huge relief to know that their is a new direction in my life and in my work. A much better one that I could have originated on my own.
I also heard from my boss yesterday that I did a great job. But, you will all be happy to know that I had my little revalation before he had a chance to tell me! Thankfully, I haven’t stewed over it too long!
We had a fun day yesterday! The earlier part of the day was me rushing like a mad woman to make Alaina Wiggles overalls since she outgrew her last Wiggles custom from last year. I cut out all of the appliques and got them ready and only started sewing about an hour before we had to leave. I was so happy to get these done! She absolutely loved them and so did I, until I put them on her. I don’t know what kind of an idiot I am but I have a stack of overalls in my sewing closet and I had picked up the 2t overalls which ended up looking like floods on her. They were still really cute, but way to short. She got compliments on them all night which of course made me a happy lady that no one made comments that I dress my little one in clothes that don’t fit!
Here was the finished results!
The Wiggles always put on a good show and last night was no exception. We had floor seats so when we were getting to our seats the concert was just beginning the Wiggles were running through the crowd on the floor and since we hadn’t gotten to our seats yet we were standing in the aisle and both Jeff and Anthony gave her a hug. t was very sweet and the little one was a little star struck! I wish I would have had my camera out to catch the moment. But, it was so cool!
It was also a special night because my Dad got to come with us. The Wiggles are a special bond between my Dad and Lainey. They love to watch Wiggles togehter and my dad as probably gotten Lainey every Wiggles DVD and toy known to man! Since my Dad’s surgery 5 weeks ago he hasn’t been out of the house to much and last night was his first big outing without his cane and while I know it was painful for him I was so glad he got to share the night with Alaina.
And just because he can’t stop spoiling her here is a funny picture of her with her new pirate dancing loot!
I knew that I had to teach at church this weekend. I teach most every weekend so it was not a big surprise for me. I was comfortable with the lesson and knew where the props were for the activity. But, we started the evening to a meeting that had really low attendance for what we were expecting. Then I couldn’t get my lessons to print out. I couldn’t find my props out of my supply closet and to make a quick trip to the store and find a replacement. I come back to church in time and get things set up. Lesson still won’t open on my work computer and therefore I have nothing to refer to as a I teach. I do my best not to stress and pray with my other adult volunteer and let her know of our technical difficulties. Feeling a little better I take the stage and begin with announcments and in walks my boss. (Have I mentioned that I work at the church? I am in charge of the Elementary ministry) Pretty much caught me completely off guard since I had talked to him an hour ago and he never mentioned that he was sitting in on my service. I feel like I did suprisingly well given the circumstances and he left before the service was over but now that I am home I am left wondering how I did, was it good enough and did I do something bad that warranted me being evaluated. So, now the overanalyzing begins and hope I get good news later. I hate that I am feeling so self concious about this but it is hard to sleep easy not knowing the circumstances around it all.
Ok, enough rambling. Back to your regularly scheduled crafty discussions.
