Life with Baseball

One a good note, I am finally feeling better. I did end up with pneumonia but thank goodness for antibiotics. They have kicked in and I am feeling better. Thank you for all your well wishes. I did get the project of shelves and less toys going in Colton and Camryn's room but have not finished. I still need to finish Julie's curtains seeing how I took half of them down and now her windows look funny!! Julie, they are coming!!

The baseball craziness has officially begun. We are having games every night and sometimes more than one child is playing a game. I am so thankful that we got on teams with friends and that those friends have been so willing to help us out. The Nussbaum's have been great about offereing to take my 5 (he will be six in 2 days!!) year old to tball. That has been a huge stress reliever as this is my work week on and it has been busy already. I so want to make all their games but am realizing that it might not be as easy as I thought it was going to be. I am so glad the boys are having fun and it makes it all worth the juggling, early dinners and late nights to see them enjoy this and just having a great time with it.

Camryn is still doing dance. I am so excited as Michelle Devine took professional pictures of them today. She did a class pic of all of them in pink leotards and an individual picture of them with black tutu's. I cannot wait to get the CD with the pics on them. I have seen Michelle's other work and it is gorgeous. Once I lose about 500 lbs ( just kidding) I would love to have her do a family outdoor picture before it gets too hot. She has some great locations and again, her work is amazing. So for any of you in Arizona, look up 1 day at a time blog for Michelle's work. I wish I was that talented to take such great pics.

I will be working on doing a slideshow for Colton's birthday which is in 2 days. He has seen the ones I did for the other kids and is soooo excited it is his turn. It will be fun and a little sad knowing my 4th and final boy is turning 6.

Wahh!!

How is that for an indulgent title? Wish I had something more funny, more witty or more anything to say. But yet, I get to blog I am sick yet again. I have tried lysol, antibactierial spray and have even considered moving into my own plastic bubble:) That could be fun but a little boring I suppose.
No kidney infections or even pains this time. Just a lovely sinus infection, bacterial (can we say working on pneumonia) upper respiratory infection and strep on the outside of my throat. How is that possible you say? Well, I have it. And do not even ask me to take a picture as it is horrendous and just downright disgusting. I have also lost my voice, but my kids are all seeing this as a good sign as is my husband who keeps saying "honey, I just cannot understand you!" That is ok as I will just save up all my talking for when I feel better - watch out Dad! (He seemed to be a little too giddy about getting off the phone with me after only 5 minutes:))
I have been taking Zinc, drinking lemon water and just about any other holostic thing that someone can come up with. But darn it, it is not working! The doctor told me I had to rest and that just about put me into hysterics! I have 5 kids and work full time and my house is a mess, so resting is just out of the question for now. Guess I will just tone it back (although if I tone it back anymore my house might get condemned). I do have lots of good ideas for curtains, kitchen paint and repainting my countertops. My yard sale lady does the refinishing as a business and wrote down the instructions for refinishing my counter tops. Will cost about $30 dollars in supplies and lots of elbow grease. I have the boys to help with the manual labor. She even is going to give me directions on how to refinish the cabinets on a shoestring budget. I will get a whole new kitchen look for a fraction of the cost and will get the satisfaction of knowing I could do it myself. I love those moments:)
Well, I am going to go back to resting and then tomorrow take on the 2 little kids room. At least I can sit thru it as right now it looks as if someone set off a toy bomb in there! I think I might take before and after pictures as I got some cool cubicles from Target for their toys. Wish me luck and if I don't resurface for a few days, it is probably because I passed out in their room:)

China Hutch

Here is the china hutch. I am thinking putting some greenery on top. Let me know if you think that will be too much!

Twilight

The big day is here:) Twilight was released on DVD. No matter that I somehow got a copy on my personal computer a week ago (thank you Snediker). I still dutifully went to Target today and bought the movie!! Now I can watch it whenever I want. One of my friend's, Ali, said she had already watched it 4 times today. Mine is still in the shrink wrap:) I plan on flying out to Virginia to enjoy it with Kasandra as she cooked a turkey, is making homemade popcorn and is making a party out of it. Here I come!!

Spring

I love the scents and colors of spring. We only get a very short season in Arizona before we are into full on summer. So for now, I am going to enjoy having the fun pastel background and try to not be hungry from "sugar" being in the title. Rich also surprised me by bringing home my garage sale smokin find of a china cabinet. I finally get to put out my china and crystal that I have had since I was married. It is out of the box!! It survived being stored at my parents house and being moved from Virginia to Sandy, Utah. My parents then drove it down to Arizona. Granted, this all happened about 12 years after I was married. I am having such fun arranging it and rearranging it. The back has mirrors so the kids are having great fun looking at themselves. I foresee lots of dances and goofy stuff going on in front of it:)

Crazy Drivers

I grew up learning to drive in Dale City, Virginia. At that time, we were just a small (relatively speaking) suburb off of I95. Like people said, Dale City was a like a faucet. You turn it on in the morning and everyone leaves and the faucet goes off. You turn it back on at night and everyone comes back home after another days work. It has grown now and I don't think I would just call it a suburb. Anyway, learning to drive there meant learning to drive in lots of traffic. Navigating the I95 for the first time as a driver was scary. People did not slow down to let you yield in, you just had to go for it!!

I now like in Mesa, Arizona and the Phoenix Metro area has become very big in the last 15 years. I was headed out to see a patient tonight in the town of Sun City. This is actually a retirement town and is age restricted. I was driving along the 101 and minding my business of driving. For once, I was not talking on the phone or texting on my blackberry (both very bad habits). I was paying very close attention and I believe I was because the Spirit whispered to me to pay extra attention to my driving tonight. I am not a crazy driver but can get distracted. This time I kept hearing the still small voice saying "pay close attention."

I am so glad I did because if I did not I would either be very badly hurt or have gone to see Heavenly Father tonight (which that is ok too but I still want to be around for my kids). I was driving in the middle lane of the freeway when some whacky lady pulled right in front of me from the left lane. She clipped the front of my van but continued on her way off the exit!!! She never slowed down, turned to see why there was a loud noise or anything. She was young looking so it cannot be blamed on the Snowbirds here. Thankfully, there was no other cars next to me so I was able to swerve a little, put on my brakes and manage to get the car driving in a straight line again. Thankfully the car behind me was not tailgating and was far enough back that he was able to put on his brakes. Believe it or not, no other car was hit, the flow of traffic was not interrupted and thankfully my van was not upside down!!

I pulled over, got out one of the baseball bats and pulled the wheel cover out so I could still drive. I was supposed to be at a patient's house at 5 pm but was a little late. They were very understanding and helped this poor tear stained nurse into their house. They managed to calm me down (I was there to admit their mom to hospice services) and we went on with the admit. I was told I needed to file a police report as I need to get the car fixed. I did not call on the freeway as I was late to the appointment.

So tomorrow I and my 5 kids are going to drive down to the Phoenix Police Station to file a report on a hit and run. I know the lady will not get caught and I don't really care about that. I am just so thankful I listened to that still small voice or there woudl have been a different outcome tonight. I am hoping by taking the 5 kids with me that I will get in and out of the police station fast:) Lesson learned to pull over and call the highway patrol immediately or else you have to go to the highway patrol headquarters:) Sigh....what a fun spring break for the kids!

More Garage Sale Pictures

Here is some pics of the material. The yellow and blue is imported from France. That fabric already has plans for a home at a friend in Virginia's home:) The others I am going to hold onto and I am sure at some point I will find a way to use them.

Here is some more of my garage sale finds. I also bought two silver platters but our good friends the Nussbaums have a website where the sell high end pens for great prices. Todd said he would like the platters to photograph his pens on. We lucked out as we traded the platters for some very high end pens. Give his website a visit at http://www.isellpens.com/. I also got material imported from France, Italy, etc for dirt cheap prices. I got a whole bolt of gorgeous fabric that was originally $22 a yard. My friend Julie bought the whole bolt (15 yards) for $25. It matches her kitchen perfectly so guess what, more curtains!! When I finish them I will post pics as I cannot believe what a perfect match it was for her kitchen. I never go garage selling but this one got me hooked. Now Julie and the Nussbaums are going to come over to help me know where to put all this stuff;)

Garage Sale Finds

Went to a garage sale in our neighborhood this weekend. The ladies are interior decorators and had lots of fun left over treasures from clients that decided to change their decor. Fun for us!!

Also got a china hutch but I have to go disassemble and reassemble it to get to my house. Lots of fun times. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it all:)

Curtains and pillows

The above are the curtains with the shears lying next to them.

One of the pillows with my funky trim. Could not get it to lay straight so you could really see the trim.

Another shot of the pillow with the funky trim.

This pillow has tiny beads for the trim. Wanted to mix it up a bit.

Can't quite see the trim on this one. Next is making the kids blankets as I am finally done with Julie's curtains. Yay me:)

Maybe a Broken Bone?

My 9 year old has been complaining of a sore foot for 2 weeks. Me, being a nurse and so thinking I can diagnose anything, thought he just had a pulled muscle. Took him into the Dr yesterday for an earache. Turns out he has an ear infection and possibly a hairline fracture of the ankle. Made me feel like a horrible mom for not taking him more serioulsy! Thankfully we just got a call from the Dr and it is just sprained. Good thing with baseball season here!!

Now I am going to go work sewing for my friend, Julie. I have been making her curtains and am surprising her with some throw pillows for the family room. I found the funkiest beaded, fringey stuff to go around the pillows. It is going to look soooo cool;) Sewing actually relaxes me and it is fun to make things for other people. Has gotten me back into the groove of sewing again as last year I was doing lots of baby quilts, costumes, etc. Now my creativity bug wants to come out!! I will take a picture when I am done with the pillow so you can see how fun and funky it is going to be! Off I go to sew:)

Baseball Practice

I was soooo excited for baseball season to start. Now I have 4 practices today for each boy (thankfully Rich is the coach of 2 of them). But I think I might lose my mind! I did find out more friends on Colton's team so I am hoping that it will work out with a carpool.
What to do? Put on my driving shoes and run everyone to practice, then do homework, then shower them all and then fall into bed. Did I mention I love my comfy king size bed? My husband told me he had to sleep on the couch last night because I snored. I never snore!!! I told him he was lying and next time he will have to record it so I will believe it. He is the snorer in the family, not me!! Hmm, how rude I say to that comment:)

play lists

Decided today they were boring so I am mixing it up and hope you have fun listening')

Baseball Season has Begun

Baseball season has officially begun for those of us that live in AZ. I have 4 boys playing this year and Rich is coaching. These pictures are old as we don't have uniforms yet to take pictures for this year.

Brandon is playing in the juniors league, Darin and Dylan are playing in the Minors league (on the same team thank goodness) and Rich is coaching their team again. Colton is almost 6 and is starting his first season in T-Ball. His best friend, Cameron Nussbaum, is on his team. Colton is so excited as he has been waiting to play for the last couple of years. It is going to be so much fun watching these little ones play!

This also means it is a crazy time in our household, trying to get them all to practices, games, etc. Brandon's team is practicing at his Jr High school so at least he can ride his bike there. Darin and Dylan get to go with Rich to their practice. I am going to have to work out a carpool for Colton!! The season means that we will be having ball games every night except for Sunday and Monday. We pretty much bring picnic dinners to the games. Camryn will be my only little one running around at the games. It is still nice weather so we are not dying of heat stroke during the games!! I love to watch the games and the boys always laugh at me as I am a very vocal and cheering mom (ok, sometimes they get mad at my loudness.) I just cannot help myself from jumping and screaming at a good play or a good hit. That is just the kind of mom I am at sports games my kids play in - loud!! Brandon has so enjoyed me attending his basketball games and yelling my loudest (haha). So I am now resting my voice so that I am ready for the cheering to begin for my 4 baseball players:) Bring it on!