Results of our Laboring on Labor Day

Labor day weekend was extremely productive for us. We ran tons of errands on Saturday and felt really good about what we got done. So good, that we decided to spend Monday painting. I've had paint samples taped to my craft room wall for about a year now. About a week ago Michael's had a sale on their scrapbooking storage, so I took advantage of that sale and organized all my scrapbook and quilting paraphernalia. The last step was painting. I love the blue/gray color.(Although it is kinda hard to see in the picture.) It looks great with the white trim, blinds and light. It was an inexpensive project and one I'm glad to have crossed off the list. Unfortunately it doesn't look like one of those beautiful craft rooms you see in magazines. The thing that makes mine different is, I actually use it, so I want it functional rather than pretty.

Let’s add “Rat-sitter” to the resume

Cassidy quickly volunteered to watch Cinnamon and Gracie for our friends, the Wrights, while they were out of town.  Cinnamon and Gracie are rats.  My first thought was "Ewww".  Cassidy and I had a long talk about how SHE would be caring for the rats.  They would need to stay in Her room, and I was NOT responsible. 

Cassidy was so excited to get the rats that she made a paper chain to count down the days until she would take over guardianship.  She made a book called Rat Care in which she wrote all the instructions she had learned about caring for rats.  In the meantime I talked to Mama Wright and she told me with a cringe than the rats are kinda messy and was I sure I was up for this.  SERIOUSLY!!! NO!!! I am not up for this!!! But my darling daughter has her heart set on it.  And I have to pick my battles.....so we picked up the rats.  

I quickly discovered what makes them so disgusting.  It's the tails.  If they had cute little bunny rabbit tails I think I would like them, but those long ropey tails are just gross.  Ropey tails didn't bother the kids at all.  As soon as we got them home and set up in Cassidy's room she had them out of the cage. (oh, I forgot to mention she cleaned her room without being asked, to prepare for the rats arrival.) Ryan was holding one and Cassidy was holding one. *Shutter*

For the next several days I LOVED the rats.  Yes, LOVED them.  My children would go up to Cassidy's room several times a day for 30 - 40 minutes at a time, close the door and play with the rats.  I could hear them giggling and laughing.  They got out the Fisher Price Little People Castle and House and let the rats run all over them.  They tried to make a maze for the rats but they just crawled over it.  I can't remember the last time they played together without it ending in an argument.

The rats have brought my children together. So here is a big Thank you to the rats and the Wrights.

College for Kids

I didn’t want to over schedule the kids this summer but I didn’t want them sitting home doing nothing either. We heard about a program at

Tarrant County College where the kids take four classes of their choice, for three weeks, four days a week. We decided to try this program and the kids have loved it!!

Ryan chose to take Debate, Computer Animation, Stock Market and At your Service (a class where they make up a business and go through the steps of starting it.) Cassidy chose to take Spanish, Ceramics, Basketball and Speed Reading.

They both seem to be learning and everyday they change which class is their favorite. They were pretty proud to have their own college IDs. It kind of freaks me out to realize how old they are becoming. They are both so independent. I am really proud of them.

I’m sure you are thinking….Wow Karen!!….What are you doing with all your free time?

Well, I’ve been quilting, quilting, quilting. A friend turned me onto Quilts for Kids. It is a program through Downey Fabric Softener. You can request a quilt kit for free. They mail it to you for free. In return they request you make a second quilt and send it back with your free quilt. The fabric is pre cut for you when you receive the quilt and they send the directions as well. They are super easy and fast to piece together. I’ve used these quilts to practice my machine quilting skills. The best part is that the quilts go to sick kids in hospitals all over.

Here are the six quilts I have completed.

Fourth Bi-Annual Shelley Family Reunion

Every other year The Gene and Theora Shelley families get together for a family reunion. Our family lives all over the country so each reunion we meet in a new location. We have met in California, Utah, and Hawaii. This year we met in Kansas. What is there possibly to do in Kansas? you ask?? Well, we found plenty of things and to do and lots of things we didn't even get to do because we ran out of time. We went to a farmstead called Deanna Rose. They had animals in cages, and animals for petting. They had a fishing pond and pony rides. They had an old school house and bank. They had several playgrounds and lots of log swings. I thought my kids might be too old for this but they had a great time.

We ate at a restaurant called Fritz's in the Crown Center. What makes Fritz's special is that you order your food on a telephone from your table (a la training table) then a train brings you your food.The train runs along a track hanging from the ceiling. The train drops your food on a tray above your table that then lowers down to the table. I think that the adults enjoyed watching the train deliver the food as much as the kids did.

Off to Mimi and Papa's House

Ryan and Cassidy got to spend the week in Utah with Mimi and Papa. They were really excited to go and I was really excited to send them. My sister, Leslie (who lives in Dallas) was flying to Utah to visit a friend so, they flew with her. I thought I might be a little sad after they left but I had so many things I wanted to do I didn't have time to be sad. While they were gone, I cleaned my carpets, repainted my kitchen, saw a movie, and took in my sewing machine to be serviced. Together Nathan and I decorated Ryan's room.
























Here are the before and after pictures. We decided on a "Movie/Hollywood" theme. He had seen some of the decorations but before he left we hadn't chosen a color or any bedding. His bed was a mattress and a box spring on the floor, so he is truly moving up in the world.

A Mother's Theme

My friend Erin posted this on facebook and I thought it was pretty funny. In the description it says something about church. I'm not sure what this has to do with church or Jesus or God for that matter but it is funny.

Best Father's Day Gift Ever!

This Father's Day I received the best gift ever! Cassidy was so excited about her gift for me that she had to give me some hints several days before Father's Day. To give you a little background, I am a pure technogeek, and I love new things with electronics and high price tags. I think it is genetic, but I'm not sure I want to find a cure. So, I have been lusting over the iPad from Apple, but I'm not terribly excited about spending my money on one. So I don't have one ... but I want one. In my church group, the iPad seems to be multiplying like rabbits with a new one appearing every Sunday.

Cassidy says to me on Thursday, "Dad, you are going to love your gift. It has a battery, and you can take it to church." I thought, "hmmm, did Karen really buy me an iPad? Did she know that I really don't want the 3G version? What size did she buy? the 16 GB or the 32 GB? No, she wouldn't spend that much on Father's Day. But I have been a pretty good Dad this year."

Then Sunday morning, Cassidy came downstairs and said, "Let's get Dad his gift!" I started to get excited. Cassidy then brought out a paper gift bag with "tissue paper" which was really shredded toilet paper. The bag looked a bit small for an iPad ... but I continued. At the bottom I found my personalized iPad (small spiral paper notebook and a D battery). The best part was when she exclaimed, "Dad, it even has a battery so you can take it to church with you!"

I have a very funny daughter. She's creative and I love her!

I think I have the most wonderful kids in the whole world

Sometimes I catch myself just watching my kids.

Ryan is getting taller everyday and it won't be long before he passes me. (Remember when you were finally taller than your parents, well I never saw that day, but I do remember the day I was taller than Cherrie's mom.) His interests have changed. I have boxes of Thomas trains and Star Wars people and Fisher Price little people that I can't bear to part with even though he hasn't touched them in years. He knows more about computers than I do. (Remember when your mom couldn't work the VCR, that's me now) When I need help with the "entertainment system" I call Ryan to help me. Even with his big teeth I can still see my darling little boy. When did he get so big?

My sweet and sour Cassidy is becoming more sweet each day. She is so aware of what everyone is doing and who is right and who is wrong. She loves to be in the kitchen and has learned to make brownies all by herself. With her braces her face is changing. She hardly has any chubby cheeks left. However, she will still allow me to plant kisses on them. Cassidy likes to be tucked into bed each night and although sometimes it is at inconvenient times, I am glad that she lets me end the day with her each night. It's hard to believe that she is eight. She is long and lanky and it won't be long before she is taller than me also.

I think I have the best kids in the whole world!!!

P.S. I can honestly say that one thing I really like about the dog is that he will never be taller than me.

Who's the Leader of the Club.......

MICKEY MOUSE!!!! We (When I say we, I mean "I") have been waiting for this vacation for years. We finally saved enough money to go on a Disney Cruise and to Disney World. I've always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. I've heard such great things about them, but I am getting ahead of myself. First we visited Disney World. As we arrived my children reiterated to me - "NO CHARACTERS". For some reason they have become anti-character. At first I was a little sad and disappointed but after walking by several long, long lines of crying children waiting to snap a picture with a princess, I decided that "no characters" was not such a bad thing.

My parents met us at Disney World. We stayed at the Port Orleans hotel. The kids liked the New Orleans Jazz theme. We spent one day at each park then hopped on the cruise ship. We went on a 4 day three night cruise to Nassau, Bahamas and then Disney's Castaway Cay. We took the kids parasailing. Cassidy loved it, Ryan was a little less confident.

We had been informed by others that there would be a pirate night and we'd save ourselves a lot of money by bring our own pirate garb rather than buying it on the boat. I thought we had some of the cutest pirates and their costumes were very original. They each gathered together their own costume.

We all had a great time and would love to go again.

Ryan's first Scout Campout

Ryan turned 11 in February so he now gets to camp overnight. Nathan is his scout leader right now and there is only one other boy in their group but in a few months they will gain more. When I went to the scout store to buy his shirt I thought it looked kinda big but I know he's going to do a lot of growing in the next 5 years. (The truth is I don't want to have to put all those badges on another shirt) I didn't realize how big it was until he tucked it into his jeans. I now lovingly call it his scout dress. I love that the bottom of the sleeve is about at his waist. Isn't this a beautiful time in a boys life??? I can't wait until he is out of the gawky pre-teen phase. I'm hoping he's come out the other side of puberty as cute as he was when he was little. There's hope, right?

My Friend Colleen

This blog post is for my friend Colleen. If you do not know Collen, you really should get to know her. She is just like me except blond and she has 5 kids and is super crafty and she runs... okay so maybe she isn't exactly like me but our personalities are a lot alike. We used to live across the street from one another but then she moved, and then I moved and now we are several states away from one another. Thank goodness for Facebook, blogs and telephones!! (Remember when long distance cost a fortune?? I am grateful for cheep long distance calling too!) Anyway, for my birthday (37 in case you were wondering) Colleen sent me this cute necklace and earring set. I wear it ALL the time. It matches everything and I get lots of complements too. Thanks Colleen, you know me so well.

CAST-idy

Cassidy and a friend were rollerblading and Cassidy hit a crack in the driveway and went down. Oh the drama!! She was screaming and saying she hurt her arm. So we went inside and put some ice on it. (Ice and band-aids cure all) That night she was still complaining about it and she couldn't pull her sheet up over herself with that hand. I decided I'd better take her in to get an x-ray. The doctor said she didn't break it, or fracture it but had weakened it. He suggested we put it in a cast just to be safe so on St. Patrick's day, Cassidy chose a bright green Cast.

Six weeks later we went to have the cast removed. I asked Cassidy if she was nervous but she said she was just excited. During the 4 weeks it was on she acquired many signatures. For the first few days she carried around a sharpie for people to use to sign her cast.

I think she loved the attention of having a cast. I also think she enjoyed being waited on since there were a lot of things she couldn't do with a cast on. I was very excited when she got it off. Of course she wanted to save it. Luckily it wasn't too stinky. She still has it in her closet but I'm hoping we can throw it away soon. GROSS!!

Cassidy is an AMERICAN GIRL

When we moved into our Texas house Cassidy decided she wanted a puppy dog room. I was not thrilled with the idea so I put it off. Good thing I did!! She changed her mind about what style of room she wanted at least three times. When we were in Utah at Christmastime we found some really cute bedding and I talked Cass into an American Girl room. She loves American Girl and has several dolls. She always wants a place for all her dolls so we brought in a corner curio type unit that we had in my bedroom. She can fit two dolls on each shelf. (I told her that means she can't get anymore dolls, cause there is no more room.) Each doll also has a bed, although most dolls have to share their bed with another doll. We painted stars and used vinyl lettering to put each of the dolls names on a star. She was very happy with the way her room turned out and I was thrilled. It didn't take long to paint. I used that Home Depot paint with the primer already in it and even the red turned out great. I asked Cassidy if I could trade rooms with her because I loved her room so much. She just gave me "the look". ( I still need to paint the curio red) Seriously, how much do you LOVE the bedding!!!

Guilt Ridden

At the beginning of this year I decided to set a goal to blog at least once a month but ideally every week. I thought I'd just pop online and leave a few random thoughts I had had during the week. Well, Here it is almost May and I've yet to blog even once this year. It's not for a lack of thinking about it. I think about blogging quite often, in fact, I usually put it on my list of things to do but I never seem to get around it it. My biggest issue is that I don't have pictures. I caught up on all my scrapbooking and so I am very hesitant to take pictures of anything! I don't know how some of you do it. It seems you have a camera with you everywhere. I'm just not that kind of girl. I'm more the kind of girl that sees you with your camera and thinks, "oh, I should have brought my camera."

Anyway, the guilt has caught up to me and so let me catch you up on our lives as well. I am going to post several blog postings, which I know is really cheating but I like short blog posts, so if you don't like the way I blog go somewhere else. Just kidding.