Encyclopedia of Me...

I've seen several bloggers do this recently, and I think it's a great idea.

Each day (well, it won't be every day for me - but you get the idea) you blog about something (or things) that begin with a certain letter, starting with the letter A until you reach the end of the alphabet. And not just random things, things that have some sort of importance/value/meaning to you. I'm still pondering what I shall use for the letter A, so we'll see if that post goes up today or perhaps after a weekend of pondering.

Enjoy the gorgeous weather we're supposed to have this weekend. And spend a little extra time with the ones you love! :0)

Carpal Tunnel anyone?

anyone had/got carpal tunnel? can u tell me what it feels like?
the reason i ask.....for like the last 6 months, i've had this pain in my right wrist....well, really only down one side of my arm, from my wrist to halfway to my elbow.....i thought it was just a tired/strained muscle and would get better.....but it's not, it's getting worse .....i used to only feel the pain when i'd pick up one of the kids or put weight on that hand (like carrying a cake box with my hand underneath it)......now, i'm starting to feel it when i type or am icing a cake.....not when squeezing a piping bag, just when having to turn my wrist a certain way.....does that make sense?

i have a co-worker who had the carpal tunnel surgery like 12 years ago and she said she had a lot of numbness in her hand.....i don't have that.....just the slight pain.....but that the surgery fixed her right up and she hasn't had a problem with that wrist since (is now considering having the other one done)

i hardly ever go to the dr and i've been putting this one off as long as i can.....i know that an appt to look at this will only mean x-rays and maybe more appts.....that equals out to time and money for me.....both of which i can't spare.....but i guess u gotta do what u gotta do, huh?
i really am hoping it's not carpal tunnel tho.....not sure of the recovery time for that kind of surgery (my friend's was 6 weeks - but that was a long time ago)......but no use of my right hand means no cake decorating or typing for a little while and that means no work for sharon!
off to make a stinkin dr's appt...

day in, day out...

feeling a little down lately ....mostly because of the stress/wear/burden i sometimes feel with this side gig of decorating cakes....of course, i realize this is self induced ....never the less, it's sometimes overwhelming and i wish i had more time to just be....to enjoy my kids & husband, and not constantly have the thought of "what cake stuff do i need to do tonight?" right there in the front of my brain....the worst are days like yesterday when i get a migrane (or the kids want to spend quality time with mommy, or jaden has a ton of homework, or i'm just not feeling into it, or i just want to cuddle and watch a movie with my hubby, etc.) that i really hate that i can't just quit my real job and do cakes full time! i love to decorate, but sometimes start to wonder if breaking my back with requests every week is worth the headache....i'm already booked solid for the rest of this year and have sooooo many requests on my calendar for 2008! i've stopped taking new requests and pray that i soon see the light at the end of the tunnel....the light of owning my own shop, being my own boss, being able to balance/separate work & home, and making a living by doing what i love

Lovely weekend...

Sadly, I have no pictures to share from this weekend (the camera is with my parents on their vacation), but in the meantime, I've borrowed my sister's for the next couple of days.

I had only one cake to do this past weekend - granted, it was a 4 tiered wedding cake - but still, only one cake! So once delivery/set-up was complete around 5pm on Saturday, the weekend was clear for whatever our heart's desired. Unfortunately, Curtis did have to work all weekend but he was able to catch the Timberville Heritage Days parade Friday evening with us. The kids and i had a great time just hanging out the rest of the weekend. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the porch on Saturday along with some scooter riding....and we finally made it to church service on Sunday (for the 1st time in about 2 months - with Curtis always having to work and me always having cakes to finish up) which the kids LOVED.....and i was really inspired by the guest speaker we had. After church, we spent most of the rest of the day at my parent's house (Nana & Grandpa). It had also been quite a while since we'd had our traditional Sunday lunch and play time with them. Mom made a roast (yum!) and my brother and his family were also able to come by. Of course, there was plenty of swinging, sliding, riding 4-wheelers, etc. until i insisted that 3 little exhausted children follow me home. Daddy got home about the same time as us and after a bath, we all sat down and watched Mary Poppins. This was a fav of mine as a kid and I still know most of the words! But it must appeal to girls rather than boys......Jaden was bored after a little while and daddy zoned out after about 2 minutes! I eventually insisted Curtis watch football in our bedroom (how can you deny a man his football on a Sunday evening?!) and Jaden was content with drawing/coloring while us gals sang along.

The weather was gorgeous - I love the cool, crisp mornings/evenings combined with the super sunny, warm days! What a lovely weekend!

supercalafragalisticexpealadocious!!!! (It's still in my head!)

Gabrielle's 1st field trip!

Today was Gabrielle's 1st field trip and we went to Paugh's Orchard in Quicksburg. Gabby's "buddy" for the day (and the other kid I had to chaperone) was her friend Kaitlyn - they both go to In Motion for dance so already knew each other before finding out they were in the same pre-k class.

This orchard was so cute and fun! Paugh was such a character and had the kids laughing and enjoying themselves the whole time! We took a tour of the orchard and Paugh showed us how the pickers use their baskets, how the tractor moves the apple bins once they're full, the difference between the 6 types of apples they grow, explained what feeder corn is, showed us the peach trees (which of course are without peaches at the moment) and much more. The kids were allowed to eat/pick as many apples as they liked as well as try some cider, pick out a pumpkin and take home an ear of feeder corn. Gabby couldn't wait to go home and leave her corn out for the squirrels!

Here's a slide - what gorgeous weather we had!

Drawings by Jaden...

this is a worksheet that came home from school....i LOVE things like this! he had to come up with words that start with the letter at the top of the column....then spell the word and illustrate it.....my favs are the monster chasing him and the pic of space (complete with black hole)

the front...
the back...

Weekend recap...

my kids were in party mode all weekend!
we started out slow on saturday and did some painting....i bought these little wooden model kits from michael's for $1 each and they were a huge hit! i had to help the girls get their's glued together, but they really enjoyed painting them
saturday, was my company picnic.....i'm on the social committee so i helped plan and set up and had to be there early......we had arranged to have a moon bounce and pony rides which the kids LOVED! the pony actually ended up being 2 big ole horses and were definitely a favorite

then sunday was my nephew's 1st bday party.....it was at my bro's house which the kids love cause he has a huge back yard with a slight hill.....they must have rode matthew's wagon up and down that hill a million times.....the barnyard cake was a huge hit and i felt bad having to tell everyone that i wasn't accepting any more bookings for this year it was fun getting to cut/serve this one and i let all the kids at the party pick out a fondant animal to eat......the best was watching matthew with his 'smash' cake.....he wasn't sure what to do at first, but soon figured it out!
his cake...

ramblings...

i just wanted to share 2 things...

1 - for those of u that pick on me for dressing the girls alike (Travis, this means u!), i want u to see how they dressed themselves this morning...



2 - i love these shoes...

so darn comfortable!

Gabby's turn...

Gabrielle couldn't be left out.....it just so happened that she had a project to do last evening for her pre-k class.....her class is making a book about everyone's families......they were to decorate a page with pictures, cut outs, drawings, etc to show/describe their family and then write a story about it......here's Gabby's...


She chose the pictures (she was stuck on the beach vacation album ) and also drew a picture of everyone.....then she cut out things that she, Jaden & Corinn like.....princess & mermaid stuff for the girls and dinosaurs and a dragon for Jaden (she couldn't find a dragon picture, so she had Jaden draw her one - that's a baby dragon and it's mama looking at it).....we wrote the story about how her other 2 brothers live kind of far away with their mom and how we all like to go to the beach and the zoo and camping and ride bikes together.....she mentioned how she hopes we'll go to disney world some day and she also remembered at the last minute to include Socks, our turtle.....luckily there was just enough space in the top right corner to draw a picture of him.

a day at home with daddy...

yesterday, miss stephanie (our daycare provider) had to take a personal day for some family doctor appointments.....gabby & jaden of course are in school for most of the day, so corinn got to stay at home with daddy all by herself yesterday!!!
when they picked me up from work last evening, i got to hear all the details of her day....

first they made "panacakes" and she got to help - daddy said that she commented "you're gonna put the butter in the pan and it will melt".....he said "yep, that's right".....and then she said "i'm just so smart, ain't i?"
they played hungry, hungry hippos and watched spongebob squarepants
then, they had to take mommy's van to get fixed......daddy said that corinn had all the mechanics cracking up at her asking him a million and a half questions about what was going on......"what are they doin'?"....."who's that?"....."are they making mommy's car better?"....."look, he's washing his hands! why's he washing his hands?"....."what's this do?"
she got to have sandwiches for lunch (her favorite!) and play "order" with daddy.....that's where she pretends to be a waitress with a little notebook and pencil.....she's picked this up from our few trips out to eat and it's one of her favorite pretending games (along with mommy/baby kitty & school)
corinn also helped daddy put up a new light in the kitchen (really she just watched).....mommy's been wanting this forever (so she can see while cake decorating) and is sooooo happy it's finally up!

then they went to pick-up jaden & gabrielle from school (she always loves a trip inside school!).....daddy took all 3 to the playground and to do some fishing before they had their chiropractor appointment and it was time to pick mommy up

corinn had a great day! and daddy did a great job of not only entertaining her, but getting a lot of honey-do stuff done for mommy.....love u baby!

It's Jaden's turn...

Today, I wanted to share a picture that Jaden drew at school. Actually, it's a part of a little book they made in class to help learn how to spell/write color words. For the color green, he chose to draw a picture of his favorite (& only) pet, Socks the turtle! His interpretation is dead on!



I guess now, I've got to find a masterpiece of Gabrielle's to blog about tomorrow.

Smarty pants Corinn!

my 3 year old can write her name!!!
she learned how to write C - o - r in the old daycare, but has now figured out the rest at Miss Stephanie's daycare!

this is a self portrait that she drew for me and an example of her gorgeous handwriting! i can't help it....i bore geniuses!!!

Remembering September 11th, 2001

We lived in Maryland at the time....actually on Pennsylvania Ave., just outside of DC. I worked in Northern Virginia and Jaden's sitter was just a few miles from the Pentagon.

I had already dropped Jaden off, and was at work when the first plane hit.  I heard about it over the radio.  We were all of course stunned and glued to our radios.  There were a few co-workers who were concerned about loved ones close to the crash sites.  Curtis was working on an electrical job inside DC, and once we learned of the Pentagon being hit as well, I freaked out!!!

I couldn't get through to Curtis' cell immediately because all the circuits were jammed (everyone calling loved ones as I'm sure you can imagine).  I called the sitter and she hadn't even heard about what was going on yet.  She wondered why traffic was piling up outside, even though the morning traffic should have been gone by then.  Of course they were fine, but I was still terrified...at this point, no one had any idea if there were more planes coming and if so, where they were headed.

Finally, I got through to Curtis - they were already on their way out of DC.  Word had spread fast and everyone was heading out.  Thankfully, he had started leaving so soon...they ended up shutting down DC and lots couldn't leave.  I wanted him to go get Jaden, and for us to just go home...but I couldn't leave my job, and there was no way that Curtis could get over to the sitter's.

I didn't get much work done that day (I don't think many people did).  I stayed stuck to my radio, constantly praying that this madness would end.  I would check out everything online and call Curtis like every hour.  Later, I was glad that we didn't have a TV in our office...I don't think I could have handled seeing some of the things that were broadcast live that day.

I think about how this horrible tragedy affected me...I can't even imagine what the families who had loved ones inside of those buildings and planes were/are going through!  My thoughts and prayers are still with them.

I will NEVER FORGET!