Exciting!

I've been booked for my first all by myself all Broken Road Photography wedding on September 23. I'm nervous and excited and more excited! I cannot wait. This couple is so fun loving and laid back. I know it'll great experience!
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to photograph little George again. I cannot wait to see him and his mom, and probably his dad too. Maybe get a family photo taken for them.

In the meantime I need to go tend to Firefighter. He cracked a tooth or something yesterday and has been in excruciating pain since then. Nothing is taking the edge off. Nobody is open until Tuesday. It's going to be a long weekend

Swimming Fun

As I had mentioned before we were going to take the kids swimming to celebrate Super Hero and Wild Boy's birthdays. We did on the 18th. I've just been to busy to post about it. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures being that I was in the pool with the kids the majority of the time.

Family

I have learned in the past two weeks that family is what you make of it. It doesn't matter if it's married in, blood, adopted, divorced or anything. Family is what you choose to make of it. Firefighter's family is one of those families. He still claims his former stepdad. It gets more interesting too. Last Friday and Saturday we got together with all of them, since a lot of them were in town for Pop's(former stepdad) mom's funeral. I met more of them and got to know them and I have to say that I love and adore the dynamics of this family.
This is Pops. He's a great sport. Miss J(his girlfriend), Mama E(his daughter), and I all attacked him with silly string.

Then there is Firefighter, Marine(former step brother), and Marine's younger brother not Pops' kid S-Man.



The Saturday night poker game. Left to right is Marine, Pops' cousin, Pops' ex wife(Marine, S-man, and Mama E's mom), another of Pops' cousins, his son, Mama E, and Firefighter.


Marine was given a 10 day leave from Iraq to attend the funeral. He went home yesterday. He and S-Man allowed me to crash their party and go out with them this past Wednesday night. Can I tell you that I am SOOOO thankful for that break.

Aunt N, Aunt T(Firefighter's brother's girlfriend)and Marine right before we left for the airport yesterday to send him back.


Firefighter and Marine just as we dropped him off.



Overall I think I was given a lesson in families. I realize that the dynamics of my family back home aren't too far off since my family consists of super close family friends too.
I have been blessed with a huge support system and family and could not be any happier even with the dysFUNction.

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Blond Terror was not a fan of the water a few weeks ago, well at least by himself. He finally let loose and totally enjoyed the pool last Sunday.

Possible Changes

Our wedding date may now be up in the air. Heck we might even courthouse it. Firefighter is trying to join the Marines. It's exciting and scary at once. There were several things that have fueled this so far. He goes and takes another pre asvab test today and if the score looks good he'll be up on his way to MEPS soon. Lots of prayers have gone into this. I figure if it's not in God's plan for us it won't happen. So far a lot has happened to show me that this very well may be his plan for our family.
I'll keep ya'll updated as we go.

Photostory Friday

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This is Firefighter and Blond Terror working on the project truck. Blond Terror is always up in his Daddy's business trying to do it too.

The results are in...

It was a close one. Tea length is is the winner. Lucky for me that means I only need to add one or two more layers. It also means that Prissy Pants' dress will also be tea length, or knee length depending on how the layers fall on her. I'm working on the kids' bedroom right now trying to get it clean. Hopefully I will be able to sit down and work on the dress some tonight! Will post pics when I do.

George William

One of my good friends had her sweet little boy last night. Firefighter and her fiance lived next door to one another growing up.



He weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and is 20in long(I'm quoting this from my awful memory I might have gotten his length off a bit)
He is a cutie. I'll be going to see them once they get home. Probably sometime this weekend. He'll be in the NICU until Wednesday to receive antibiotics.

Birthdays

Today is Super Hero's 6th birthday. I cannot believe that it's been 6 years since I was holding a tiny(9lb 10oz not so tiny in newborn terms) baby that I had welcomed into the world less than 12 hours before. It seems like so long ago and only yesterday at the same time.
We were supposed to go to the 'Toulbox pool today to celebrate his and Wild Boy's birthdays. Wild Boy's was July 24. We got up and got everything ready and got the cakes done and it started raining. I checked the radar and it had a giant green blob over head and we wasn't supposed to let up at all today. Then the sun came out and it didn't rain again until 7 or so. Go figure I divert everyone here and the sun comes out. We'll be swimming next weekend.
First there was the cake fiasco. Last night I was too exhausted to make 1 cake let alone 2. So this morning I asked the boys if they wanted cookie cakes. They were excited. We got to the grocery store and go figure they only had 1. So we get it and I talk to Super Hero about another cake. He got excited so home we went.
We decided on a dump truck dirt cake. We got his Tonka dump truck from the backyard and wash and scrubbed it in the bathtub. We then lined it with foil. About this time Wild Boy see what we're up to and he wants a cake like that too. So I go get his Tonka truck from the backyard and scrub another truck and foil line it. Wild Boy picked out a chocolate cake and Super Hero picked out a Butter Pecan cake. We made 2 round cakes of each one. Dumped them in the bed of the truck. Tore apart the 2nd one to make sure it was pretty even. Poured chocolate pudding on top of both of the cakes and smoothed it over to cover the whole cake. Then was the fun part for the kids. They each took a row of Oreos from a package put it in a bag and smashed and smashed them. We then sprinkled those on top of the pudding to create dirt. Added a few gummi worms and you have a dump truck dirt cake.


In my opinion the Butter Pecan cake was 50 times better than the all chocolate cake.

then came time to do the candles. Firefighter insisted that the window a/c, which was blowing full blast, would not blow out any candles. Before I set down Wild Boy's cake the candles were out. They both ended up blowing out Super Hero's candles.

The Park

Yesterday we went to one of the parks here in town. The park was for the kids. The bike ride there was for exercise for myself. I'm having a heck of a time trying to kick this weight that has decided to attach itself to me even though I did moderately exercise and always eat healthy. One of the downsides to nursing for me, and not most moms, is that I hang onto weight. Since Blond Terror is weaning, and will be fully weaned by the 15th, it will be a lot easier after that. He'll be 19 months old and I figure we made a darn good go at it. We won't make it to my 2 year goal but that is all on me. I cannot physically handle the nursing any longer. It sends me into sensory overload. Back to the weight loss part. I'm following a better exercise routine suggested by my doctor. So far I feel much better physically. I don't think I've lost anything yet but who knows. I don't have a scale being that I'd rather be happy with what I see in the mirror than a number on a scale. As soon as Blond Terror is fully weaned I'm going to do a detox/cleanse to help me get rid of some of the crap in my body and allow me to lose the weight and start over with a healthier life style.
Back to the park. The kids had a blast!\





if you haven't already please vote to the right. More information on the dress is 2 posts down :)

recycled goodness and other fun stuff

I don't think I had mentioned that my dress, with the exception of the muslin holding it all together, is recycled. The lace is from old curtains I found at a yard sale, The satiny pearly goodness is from my wedding dress from my first marriage. I figured my sweet princess wouldn't want to wear it and I'd rather buy her her own when that day comes, Lord please don't let her grow up too fast. The sash will be made of denim from my scrap box.
The hay/straw bales will be used for seating and then used to feed the horses and whatnot during the winter months. All of our plates, forks, and cups will be compostable. They'll be put in a separate can so that I can bring them home and put them in our handy compost pile. All other bottles and cans will be recycled. Favors we're unsure of at this time. I'd love to do tree seedlings but I'm afraid early October wouldn't be a good time to plant them. I could be totally wrong.
Eco friendly for sure!

Don't forget to vote in the poll on the right. It ends early next week so that I can get the bottom part of my dress finished.

the dress

So I had found a dress that I love. I cannot afford said dress. I decided to use it as inspiration to sew my own dress.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but we're going with a autumn country theme to the wedding. I'm sure when you see the parts of my dress that I'm about to share, because it's not done nor will it be anytime soon. I am working out to lose some weight and don't want to have to make alterations to it again.

There is a new poll to the right. Keep in mind that I will be wearing a pair of brown cowgirl boots with this :)

ETA: that is a tea stain on the lace. All of my fabric was coffee and tea stained. It settled weird in that particular spot.

Dressy Jean/Casual for guests. Which means if you're coming please wear a comfy pair of jeans!
No chairs, bales of hay or straw instead. Mini Cow Bells to ring for kisses. Pumpkins, leaves, and corn stalks for decor. My bouquet will be made up of black eyed susans, orange lilies, red gerbera daisies. There is more I just can't think of them in my mad at myself for dying my hair, should've been dark brown used this color before, a lovely shade of purpley black. Hoping it can be fixed!

If you're gonna do it, do it right

(this picture has nothing to do with the story :) Although I did take it on Saturday afternoon)
This weekend has been interesting by far for us. I wish I could say that it started off like any other weekend but it didn't. Firefighter worked until 7:30pm or so. The paycheck was totally worth it though. Kinda sucked too because he didn't get to see his boys before they went to their mom's house that night.
I was feeling entirely too lazy to cook so we ran to the grocery store. As we're getting back into the van I apparently forgot that my forehead was there and smacked it with the corner of the van door. Like I hadn't opened that same door at least a million times before. I felt super suave.

Then there was Saturday. I had the privilege at 9am to help take a truck off a trailer. This truck doesn't run. I was in control of the wheel and the brakes. I am positive that had it not been at the angle that it was that I would've gone through the closed garage door. But I didn't so I guess that is all that matters.
We did some small things around the house until his boys got here. Off to my mom's house where we dropped off Prissy Pants and Super Hero. We went to Firefighter's dad's house to have his pin grinded(I know should be ground but it didn't make any sense) or sawed off out of his trailer hitch so it could be removed. Wandered the mall for a little bit. Then off to grocery shopping. That was the easy part. On the way home I could feel something off in one of the truck tires. I told him I gave it a week before the tire blew. HA no wood to knock on. Not 30 minutes later he says "I think my truck is leaning". We stop take a look and sure enough the tire is low. We're less than a mile away from the fire department we figured we'd stop there and air it up. Nope didn't make it there. The tire blew.
Most people have a spare. Our spare is on the rear driver's side. The new blow out is the passenger side front. So no spare. I call mom to come rescue me. As we wait for mom to arrive everyone we know, that isn't at the demos, happen to stop by. We got comments like "Should've bought a Ford"...It was a tire nothing to do with the brand cause you know your Ford is only a year or two older than our Dodge and it's falling to pieces. Or "Should've filled her up before you left town" all the while our truck is still running so the a/c can keep the 3 boys in there cool. Mom finally arrived and took me home to pick up our van. I drove back out to get everyone else, I only had Blond Terror with me, and all of our groceries before they all went bad. Thankfully the only grocery casualty was a bag of frozen biscuits which turned into a bag of dough. What made it better is that not a single bag ripped. That is because we always use reusable bags!
I'm side tracked. As I was moving stuff from truck to van I smack myself in the chin with the new hitch and ball that Firefighter picked up for his boss since we went to town and he wasn't. I am still surprised that I have teeth left on that side of my face after the two hits that I dished to myself.
Thankfully within a few hours Firefighter's awesome boss helped get the truck loaded onto (the boss's) trailer and then to home.
If you're gonna do something do it right!

All of these holes that you see were there yesterday when we blew it out. There are all of these that you see plus an additional 8 on the inside of the tire.
We thankfully have a few "new" tires because of a friend of the boss.



Oh and what I said was to come in a future post is here.
Firefighter and I are getting hitched on October 4, 2008. It's been a long time coming and much awaited for. More information later on!

County Fair

Well not our county fair. We went to the Shampoo County fair last Saturday. Yeah I know I'm late posting this. It was youth day so there were bracelets for the kids. They got our money's worth out of them. Of course having to buy 4 bracelets and some tickets for the 5th one was not cheap. It was worth every penny though.
Funnel Cakes Yum!
Sorry got side tracked there for a moment. The kids had a blast. Firefighter and I only rode 2 rides being that our smallest was too small to ride any of the others safely. I have to say though that I have quite the little thrill seeker on my hands. Kyler rode on the Tilt-a-Whirl and had a blast. Laughing, smiling, and screaming "Whoa" the entire ride. He's going to be my sky diver. I see it now. The older boys rode everything that they were big enough for, with the exception of the ferris wheel whose line was super long. Prissy Pants on the other hand doesn't like to ride anything that could move remotely fast. They had fun as did we. It was a great family filled day and I'm so glad everyone is home and we're where we are supposed to be.









exciting news coming soon!