Quick announcement!

Ok friends! I know this will come as a shock to some of you but I've decided to make a few needed changes in my life in hopes of simplifying. I'm realizing the importance of this new self awareness and am excited to make a few changes.

I've decided to stop crafting right now!!! It may sound strange of me to give up something that appears to be a positive outlet for me but in all honesty it's become stressful, a disappointment and financial burden on me that is wearing me out!So goodby Roberts craft, Hobby Lobby and Jo Anns!!!! No more craft supplies for me! I'll be finishing up the projects I already have supplies for and I have discounted all my inventory on my BLue Cricket blog for hopefully quick sales. I just need these things gone! The endless reminders of inventory just sitting in my storage room is enought to drive me mad!

So the good news is all my stuff is marked down and to be honest if you see something you like I'll probably take anything you offer just to get it out of here (that's the good friends only discount!!! don't share that news!!!)! So jump over to my blog and see if there is anythign you want or need. Tell your friends, link my blog, make a post about my sale!!!Anything would grately be appreciated!

I'm sure I'll still make a gift here and there but I'm done with mass production of certain things! The ribon boxes may be the only things I continue to do but I'm still un sure!

I appreciate your help in getting the word out!!!No need to worry about me having some sort of mental break!I'm just become self aware and I have to say it feels great!!!!!


www.bluecricketdesign.blogspot.com

I know! I know!!!

It's been too long but man have I felt swamped!!! I am getting ready for a big trip by myself this weekend that I can't not tell you how much I need!! I am planning my first and ony trip away by myself. I knew exactly where I was going!!! It makes it easy when some of my favorite people in teh world all live in one place!!! I'll be headed out to Phoenix and I could not be more excited1!! Bryn can you email me your number!!!! I'd love to see If I can pop in on you!

I've been running around trying to get so much stuff done! I signed up for a swap that I need to finish getting ready to ship and still need to pick up a few things! I need to make sure I have the girsl cloths all picked for the weekend so Mike won't putt his hair out trying to find and fight with them every morning when it comes to getting dressed!! That in and of itself could put the cabash on future trips!!!!Macy can be that difficult!!! I have to finish getting together my baby gifts for my dear friedn Shireen who I will be seeing!!! ANd I still need to pack! Seems like a ton.I am hoping to finish the bulk of it today so I am not in a panic tomorrow!

I am still dealing with a bum knee. Yesterday was teh first day I noticed any differance. Now I can "somtimes" walk up a stair or stand up with out it killing me but it seems to ache more when I'm just sitting and sleeping is a joke! It's really a joke! I'd love to get this taken care of, whatever that means, as soon as I can. We are planning on getting knocked up this summer and I can not imagine being fat and preggo and on one good knee. I may hav eo see an Orthopedist next week if it's not better by the time I get back.

ok... I better hit the ground running!!! Ton's to do! I am off to see if I can make a dent in my to do list! This will probably be my last post till monday so soak it in!!!!

here's a few words of wisdom to tide you over!

- Be sure you search your car thouraly before you tell your husband and your neighbors that some one broke into your car and stole your garage door opener!!! It will save you a lot of embarrassment and anxiety!!!
- Just becasue the B cup bra makes you look like a shell of your old self, it still calapses upon hugging frineds and causes interesting stares!!
- There is nothing wrong with bribing your kids at 9 pm with a Sonic Drink if they help you look for a missing $300 gift card! Nothing wrong!!!!Especially if they would have found it!
-Check that one bathroom that rarely gets used more often and especially before guests drop in. Luck would have it that one of your kids may have used it and once again forgotten to flush!!! Nothing says "Welcome Friends" life a present like that!

Lost, pain and drool.Yep! That about sums it all up!

I can't find my thing-a-ma-jig that up loads my photos. Darn!!! I had some fun stuff to show you all.... It will have to wait I guess!!!!

I went to the doctor yesterday for my knee and my jaw!!! My knee was getting worse and while I was paying a copay I thought I'd throw in the jaw pain for good measure! So basically I have an inflamed knee and cartilage issues, what ever that means and I have TMJ. I got a prescription for an anti inflamatory and had to pick up a mouth gard to sleep with at night to help my jaw.

So here's how my night went last night witht he new fancy mouth gaurd. I put it in all excited for possible relief only to look back in the mirror in horror seeing a stranger looking back!It's not pretty! Trust me! I lay in bed trying desperatly not to think about the fact that I have a huge plastic tray in my mouth that my upper lip doesn't even cover and I can feel spit swimming in my mouth. That obsessive thougt process went on for oh about a few hours. When I finally started nodding off I was only to quickly woken up by the gross feeling of drool seaping onto my cheek and onto my pillow!!!GROSS!!! That was it! Lost sleep and a drenched pillow were not helping the cause so out it came! Not sure if I can ever get used to such a contraption.

Today I'm just beign lazy! 11:11 and still in my robe...gotta love it!

The Good !The Bad and the Ugly!

Let's start with the good!!! Ok...I'd rather call it the fantastic!!!Introducing my very own!Super cool!!! Never thought I'd have such a great logo but now I do..... Blue Cricket Design Logo!!!
How cute is that!!!! Thanks to a super talented, amazing, awesome gal and friend we like to call Hannah, I have this great logo for my business! Jump over to my Blue Cricket Design blog to see it in action!!! Thanks again Hannah for showing off your mighty talents for me! I love love love it!So simple and so perfect and so me! (not that I'm perfect!!HAHA but so my style!)

More for the GOOD department... we had a great turn out for the first ever book club meeting!I was worried, and still am, because it's a church book club!We'll see how it goes! It's not like I read bad books but when it's a group full of church ladies, all not being as cool as Tara and Shelly and Jennifer and Angie, it may get stale. We picked our first book and I can't wait to get started! The girls stayed way past the meeting just to chat and get in our girl time!I so love this group of girls and this ward is proving to be one of our favorites!

We'll be reading Small Change by J. Belinda Yandell.

Also good...Fathers Day!!!Gotta love a day that we can shower our special men with special attention and foot rubs!!! I (heart) my hubby!!!He's a great dad and we had a wonderful Sunday together honoring him!

Now for the BAD... Not sure when, not sure how, not sure why, but my knee is so messed up!!! It's like I've become this old lady and my body is slowly turning on me and turning me into an 80 year old!!! My left knee is shot. It's swollen and achy it's just one more part of my body that ages faster then the rest of me!!!It must be my left side because on my left my knee, jaw and shoulder are all giving me attitude!!! Can you really hurt your jaw by sleeping on it wrong!!! that's my only explanation. My shoulder sucks because I raised two 105th percentile babies and toddlers on my left arm and I favor sleeping on that side!!! So what the heck is wrong with my knee and jaw!!!

I better start buying convalescent care insurance! I'll be in a home sooner then I will qualify for Senior Citizen discounts at Denny's!

Another bad... So yesterday I get two comments on my blogs. One being my family blog and then this private blog. I had no idea who they were from. The name was ambiguous and the tiny picture by the comment was too small to recognize anyone in it. And I was pretty sure I only sent out invites to people I knew! When I tried to jump to their blog from their comment it sent me to a page that read Profile not found! Great!!! DEAD end! So I first go and block them from my private blog seeing as I have no clue who they are or how they got in. I was so curious who they were because they sounded like they knew me but never identified them selves.

I finally posted a "I'm trying to figure out who you are post" and this morning figured it all out but not before totally making this sweet person feel bad. YIKES!!! What was I to do!!! I had no way of knowing who they were!!! Luckily it was a sweet girl from my ward. Had I been able to jump on her blog I SOOOOO would have known. She felt so embarrassed. HELLO!!! I'm the lame-o over here!!! I had to ASK who was out there! Oh the joys of blog embarrassment!!!

Hopefully it got all cleared up and she feels welcomed on my blog!!!! I am so looking forward to getting to know her more!

And CRAZY how an invite got sent out with out my knowing it!!! I'm still wondering how that happened.

Has that ever happened to you guys!?

Now for the UGLY... So I bought two Angel Food cakes for the book club and we collectively as a book club only ate one of them. Sadly I must confess that I polished off the entire second cake by myself over the following few days! Now that's ugly...but man was it good!!!

so girls... in the future if you ever come to my house and see a dessert made for the said gathering, PLEASE, please, PLEASE help eat it. We know what I'm capable of!!!You've been warned!

We were dying!!!!!

So yesterday I went to my good friend Regina's house for the afternoon with the kids! She and I have known each other since the second grade when we first moved to HB. We grew up in the same ward and really have loved being close again!! She is always a good time guaranteed!!!

Well yesterday some how the conversation of the number of guys we kissed and who came up and this is where it got hysterical!!!

We both prefaced the conversation with how most of the guys we kissed were good guys and no regrets but there was defiantly ONE guy we could have easily done with out!To set the stage we both were pretty sure we'd know each others "conquests" (he he!) because we grew up in the same area and singles scene. I started naming the guys I had kissed one by one and when I got to this one guy...we'll call him Bob, Regina's face went all surprised on me! I said his name again with his last name, Bob Blabla, and she was reassured it wasn't the same dude. But when I said he was from Tustin she was convinced!!!

WE TOTALLY MADE OUT WITH THE SAME GUY!!!!!! ha ha ha how funny is that and the best part was that HE was the guy on both of our loser, creepy way too forward guy lists!!! After comparing notes we could not stop laughing!!!He was sooooo the same creepy all over you guy to the both of us! And so funny that we both gave into him and made out anyway!!!

Ahhh!!Gotta love single life!

So in my book my number of guys I kissed isn't to high or too low. 8! That's not too bad right! I'm no walking hussy right! 8 seems like a great number! It's funny because I can remember each first kiss with each guy and it just cracks me up!!

P.S.... Mike was number 2 and he still hold the title of best kisser and I'm not just saying that because I married him...There was always something wonderful behind a kiss from someone you truly loved!

Any way... What's your kissing history!!! do you out number your spouse by a lot or vise versa!? I love hearing about this stuff!!! any crazy funny kissing stories!

The only thing that comes to mind is I almost broke up with Mike when we first started dating. We were Seniors in high school and let's be honest...I had so little experiance with kissing so when he started slipping me the tongue I got so grossed out and remember thinking I can't date him if he wants to French kiss me... the basis for the fear was my short stubby tongue!!YEP I'm tongue challenged!!! I thought for sure he'd catch on to my handicapness and dump me first!!! We'll I got over it and 11 years later he still likes to kiss old stubby over here!

Somethign to tide you over with!!

Hannah's grid of her garden was too too cute and I had to copy her idea!!!Copying is the biggest form of flattery so I hope you don't mind Hannah!!! Check out my family blog to see what we've been up to in the garden!!!!

www.dulgarian.blogspot.com


Off to hang out with a super duper awesome friend from home and childhood!!!! We're off!!!

2:02 a.m. ...For REAL!!!

So I know I didn't fall asleep before 2:02 a.m.! I was plagued with restless MIND syndrome last night and I swear I couldn't stop thinking! When this happens to me, and it happens often, I get so random in my thoughts and that's what keeps me up. Or I'll get some of my best ideas that I just roll with it and I have chapters and stories and ideas and projects all planned out to the T when I wake up! and then the funny magic wears off and when I wake up cranky and sleep deprived all my ideas seem half baked and nuts! oh well... Here's what crossed my mind for hours on end last night and into the wee hours of the morning!

- need to get a compost bin but worried that it will smell. I think I'll put it in the North West Corner of the back yard so I can walk through the garage to fill it and the smell of rotting food won't follow me back into the house!
- I think I figured out how to make a collage on photo shop. I mentally went through the steps that I read about on the tutorial I found last week but I'm pretty sure the lack of sleep got in the way of any sanity when it came to this thought because I'm pretty sure there isn't a "Hokie Pokie " button or feature on there any where!
- I also have resigned my initial thinking that joining an improve group would be a good idea! This lead to a crazy dream later in the morning involving Janice Dickenson and fish net stockings!!!All bad things when put together!
- Grilled onions are worth the effort!
- I need to get working on my magnetic message boards this week!
- Man I need a pick up truck! I found a cool open air market that showcases creativity and I so want to sell there but I don't think my corolla would make it down the I15 with a sun shade, two banquette tables, tutus and my other crap all hanging out the truck and windows!!! yeah!! That ain't gonna happen!
- Titles , themes, Ideas and entries all flooded my mind while thinking of blogging and writing. Oh girls...look forward to some fun topics!!!
- Are the girls too young to teach them how to do laundry! Man I hate doing laundry...and yes they are too young!Don't worry! No need to report me to the Child labor law committee!
- CRAP!!! I just planned book club at my house the same night as BUNCO!!! lame lame lame!!!!
- Mike's breathing sounds like he's saying "AIIIIIIRR BALL!" CRAZY!!! at least he's not snoring!
- If I could work at Home Depot I would so want to work in the paint department! It's the only thing I know relatively well and I'd love to mix paint!
- I wonder if Boo has a new blog post yet! Man she takes forever to post new stuff!
- Small wonder!What a great show!"She's Fantastic!Made of Plastic! Microchips here and there!!!" I wish I could flip an on/off switch on my kids and put them in a closet each night!
- I so don't look forward to being pregnant again!Why can't I just pop out a few kids and skip the preggo part. I'd gladly shoot out three in a row and suffer thought the first year with multiples and call it a day then have to break out with pre teen acne, barf for 5 months and sweat between my boobs!
- I want to try a new sonic flavor this week.

See what I mean. For real I just can't turn it off at night some times! So here I sit yawning and wishing for dream land while Blue is at my hip begging for yet another snack and it's 10 am!!! This is going to be a fun day!

Silhouette Project

My good friend Michelle had some amazing silhouettes made of her family some time ago and that idea was filed back in my mind of something I wanted to try some day. Then she was so excited to take a class at this adorable store in Mesa that I literally lie awake at night envisioning how amazing it would be to go there!!!Anywho.... I wanted to do my own version of a silhouette so I finally just figured it out by doing a little search and tweaked it to fit my style and needs... I have wiggly kids that don't sit still!!!

Here is the outcome and a little tutorial if anyone wants to make one them selves!!! Thanks Michelle for your willingness to walk me through the process...I had just finished when I saw that comment!!! you're the best!






(pictures are in order from start to finish from left to right!)

- take a profile digital photo of the person you want to use and print the photo on your printer. It doesn't have to colored. You can shrink the photo to get the desired size.
- carefully cut out the face.
- place the cut out on a black piece of paper ( you can use whatever color you want! a fun print would look cool too! get creative!) and trace it out and then cut it out again.
- Have a fun selection of scrap book paper that will coordinate the room or area you want to display the finished product in. I use 12x12 paper.
- Trim the paper to fit the front of a 12 x 12 artists canvas and all four of it's sides.
- Paint the edges and the corners of the canvas with a coordinating or complimentary color so no white canvas shows through.
- Use modge podge to adhere the paper to the canvas.
- Take your cut out silhouette and and glue it to the canvas with the traced side down so no tracing marks show.
- Turn the canvas over and press it for a few minutes so it is completely attached.
- Then apply one layer of Modge Podge to the entire canvas and let dry!
- Add any embellishment you want!
- Cut a hanging bow out of ribbon and hot glue gun it to the top of your canvas.
- And hang and enjoy!!!!

So cute huh! I really had a fun time making these and they look so adorable in the girls room! they are super easy and affordable! If any of you make one I'd love to see a photo!!!

How to save $100

Please forgive the scary no make up face! But a girls gotta get her hair color on!!! This is how I save a huge chunk of change!!! I start with an all over darker shade and say good by to all my blond!then I do that cool beauty school cap and pull the high lights through and slap on some all American bleach!!!

Oh yeah... Wife Beaters and doing your hair in your own bathroom go hand in hand!!!It's like trailer homes and pink flamingos in the "yard!!!" The two are close friends!!

A brief encounter!

So my sister Boopers rolled into town for a split second last night ! Her and Baker were on their way home from Lake Powell and crashed at out place. The girls tried to stay up as late as they could but 9:30 tends to turn my girls into walking zombies and crashing into walls while stumbling down the hall became a little too hard to watch so we put them to bed!

Finally after 10 they arrived and even if it was only for a few hours of late night catching up it was still great to see them!They were up and gone before us girls made it up!

Nothing like a visit with your best friend to put a smile on your face!!! Even if she was all to kind to remind me I needed to color my hair and I should change my header photo!!! still gotta love her !!!

An "Almost crap my pants I was so scared" moment!

So we just got back from a family walk I'll never soon forget! It started off as any family walk on a beautiful Sunday evening! We loaded the kids into the double stroller and headed off. We decided to walk the path along the stream that lined the back of our neighborhood homes! It was really a beautiful area. Ducks were peacefully swimming, gardens were on display! There could have been "God Bless America" playing on loud speakers and it would have perfected the setting! We came to a point on the walk and noticed a sign...No Trespassing! Hum! That's odd! It's the river walk way...isn't that city property! So we thought nothing of it and kept on going!!!

OK!!!!This is the part when Heavenly Father shook His head and went "tisk tisk" to us!!! Not five minutes later we come to an old run down yard fully opened to the trail we were on. Macy started pipping up a little too load and Mike and Both tried to shush her repeatedly. We both kind of knew this was probably why it was marked No Trespassing! Maybe these people did own the land. So just as we were almost past the back yard , Mace is still too loud and this dog starts barking and comes out of no where and charges across the yard. My heart practically jumps out of my chest and I'm in front of the stroller and Mikes pushing. He calmly says " just keep going...look ahead" but this beast of a scary looking, rabies infested, mad dog keeps coming with no fear. It all happened so fast. The dog gets right up on Mike and I hear Mike kick it and slow down but then move forward again. I keep moving forward but looking back ready to see my husband being eaten alive by this beast and I ask "did he bite you?" to where Mike says "Yes but just keep going! Don't look at him!" I'm seriously fighting the urge to run and cry and throw my body over my kids all at the same time. Miraculously the dog seemed to stop at it's property line or something and we managed to get far enough away from it only to find that the path ended at a fence. I was about to cry thinking the only way back was to cross paths with that dog again but I noticed the girls and I could fit under the fence and Mike would have to throw the stroller over!

Once we were over the fence we regrouped and tried to get our heart rates down. Mike was so collective and calm and brave! I was so proud of him! We checked to see where the dog bite him and it was so strange...not a single flesh wound or anything. Mike kept looking for some sign of contact but there wasn't. He said that he totally felt the dog bite him but thankfully there wasn't any wounds.

We were totally watched over. It could have been a terrible out come! I as amazed at so many things that occurred during this short ordeal. The first thing that we were blessed with was that Macy was in the stroller. She had been walking next to the stroller throwing rocks in the water for a good part of the walk and could have been an easier target for the dog. Secondly, the girl didn't make a peep during all this. Both my girls are scared of big dogs and to see me panic like that and feel the danger and still be calm was a miracle. And lastly I am still amazed that Mike was so calm and knew exactly what to do and wasn't hurt. He was such an all star! I was a freak of course inside and out but he was incredible!

I keep thinking of all the "what could have happened" out comes! I also was so grateful to be with Mike. So many times I had wanted to go on a walk back there by myself or with just the girls. I don't even want to think what could have happened if that were the case. I feel totally blessed to have been protected the way we were!

The moral of the story is...When you come across a sign that says "No Trespassing," DON'T Trespass!!!!!!!!