Highs and Lows, 12-5-2011

Man, I don't even remember when I did Highs and Lows last. I think two weeks ago? Anywho, here we go. 






<center><a href="http://lifecraftsandwhatever.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/Jenfur427/LinkParty-2.png" /></a></center>


Lows

• My oldest daughter is still being a bonehead. Ended up with a conduct grade of 75 the week before Thanksgiving, just for random crap like goofing off, stealing a kid's pencil, etc. She hasn't had a perfect conduct grade all last month, it's always something. It's getting old. I don't know if she needs to be spanked more? Yelled at more? Needs to fill sandbags in the backyard? Whatever it is, I don't know. Seriously makes me feel like a shit parent.

• My idiot dog decided to eat my Macbook power cord, which is $70 I can't afford to replace. This is after he ate my camera cord and my phone charger. We used to leash him to up to his bed, but he'd manage to stretch and grab my cords (his bed is next to my side table). So now when we're gone, he's locked in a kennel. Expensive lesson to learn. Asshole dog. 

• My middle daughter somehow managed to fall of her bike and land on her chin. Poor thing. Came in and even put her shoes away before telling me what happened. It was banged up pretty bad, and bruised instantly. She even had 4 teeth marks in her bottom lip. It looks so much worse in person. You miss all of the swelling in the pic, she's rocking a Jay Leno chin.

Highs

• Ava took her first unassisted steps! She's been cruising along furniture for a while, but whenever you'd try and have her let go of your fingers, she'd immediately drop. But she did it! Was holding onto the chair, and walked three steps over to me. About freaking time, she'll be 16 months old on the 10th. Lazy butt. 

• Had a night where I felt my heart grow three sizes. There is an elderly couple that lives next door that have always been so nice to us. The lady has been in rehab for a long time, recovering from an obstruction surgery. She came home the weekend before Thanksgiving, so I offered to bring them dinner. I made homemade lasagna, salad and parmesean knots. We were about to walk out the door, food in hand, when they knocked on the door. Turns out they thought we were having dinner here. Luckily they didn't see the food in our hands, and after some scrambling for more chairs and plates, we had a wonderful dinner with them, my parents, and my father in law. Just a refreshing evening, and they were really thankful to have been invited. 

• My front yard pavers around the flower bed are completed! I still need to take a good pic, but the weather is crappy, so that'll have to wait. But here is a sneak peek. 

• Miss Jasmin finished her Awana book! The first in her class to do so. I was a bit irritated, Jake and I showed up to her class for the awards ceremony, but they had done them early that night. So the instructor reenacted it for us so I could get a pic. 

• I went with Arielle to her field trip to the Dallas Heritage Village. You get to see what life was like in the late 1800's/early 1900's. It was pretty cool, except I was way under dressed and was freezing. And my bonehead child kept running off, even though I had 5 other kids to chaperone. My girlfriend Christy went too, her son is in another 3rd grade class, so it was nice to have someone to hang out with. 

• I tried the whole couponing/price matching thing 2 weeks ago. No, I didn't get a cart full of groceries for 26 cents. I did, however, save $11, which I was thrilled about. I figure if I go food shopping once a week and can save $11 each time? That's $572 a year.  

• We've decided to sell hubby's car. I've been tired of putting money into it for the past few years, but it was all paid off. It sat in a shop for over a year, and it's been back in the shop off and on again for the past few months. So we've been doing the one car family thang for a while. The guy who's fixing it said we'd get another 4-6 months before something else comes up, so he's selling it for us. Fingers crossed it sells quickly. Luckily hubby kept the inside immaculate, so looks wise, it's in great condition. 

• Ava's hospital bills from her 7th emergency surgery are officially paid off!! We're still recovering financially from it, but it's nice to cross that off the list. 

• Thanksgiving was great. My parents came over, and my father in law (Hi Steve!) drove down from St Louis. Hubby and FIL took care of the turkey, which was a huge relief off of my shoulders. It did, however, end up being ready two hours before we planned, so it was a scramble to finish the sides, but it was all delish. 

• My sales on Etsy have picked up. I added some painted pillows to my shop a while ago, and they're really starting to take off. I started a new etsy to better match my blog, and while I'm bummed that I lost all of my postive feedback, I'm thankful that things are picking up. 

• I won a sweet giveaway over at See Kate Sew. I picked up three yards of gorgeous fabric that I'm so excited to work with. Who am I kidding? I get great, gorgeous fabric, and then I don't use it because I want to save it for something really special. But I did buy a girls dress pattern on Etsy that I think I want to use it for. Ava would be a-stinkin-dorable in it. 

I think that's it. It's been a pretty cool couple of weeks. 

Photo Challenge, week 2

So. Yeah. Lesley's photo challenge came out on Monday, but you'll have to forgive my laziness lack of time, since I'm just now getting around to it. 





So I told ya last week that we'd be doing 5 at a time. You don't have to do all 5, which relieves some of the pressure. 

You should do it. All the cool kids are. 

Day 6 Books

I've been reading a lot of children's books lately. Ava has just recently discovered a love of books. She always wants to be read to. She'll crawl over to you and try and hand you a book, and God help you if you don't take it from her quickly enough, or she'll hit you with it. Ever been clocked in the ankle with a cardboard book? No bueno. 

Day 7 Something Funny

The Cam Wow app on the iPhone. It's awesome. My girlfriend Christy had it, I've never heard of it. It's pretty cool, you can see in the screen what your pic will look like (depending on the place on the screen, things either bloat or pucker). Seriously, I was laughing so hard I could barely take the pic). I texted the pic to my husband and said "My my, aren't you a lucky man?"

Day 8 Favorite Color

Yeah, I'm lame and don't have a pic of this, but I'll share anyway. Favorite colors are turquoise and red. Favorite colors to wear are dark gray and black. Exciting, right? Seems like I always gravitate towards gray and black when I'm buying new clothes. 



Day 9 Inspiring person

That would be my momma. She's one of those "would give you the shirt off of her back" type of people. She's awesome. Growing up we didn't get along AT ALL. But as I've grown up, and she's relaxed, she's my best friend now. Always willing to drive over to watch the girls, come help me clean or do housework, stuff like that. She's good people. 

Day 10 Nature

I guess this counts as nature. This was taken on my oldest daughter's field trip on Thursday. We went to the Dallas Heritage Village. You got to see what life was like in the early 1900's. Looking at the beds and shoes, people were so much smaller back then. It was really neat to see the clothes and pictures, and it was fun to walk around. Well, it was fun when I wasn't threatening to strangle my child because she kept running off, and I had 5 other kids to keep track of. Butthead. 

So there you have it, folks. 

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Thank you to those who entered the giveaway for the 5 Love Languages book! 

The lucky winner is...

Congrats Madeline! I'm sending ya an email!

Photo Challenge, Days 1-something

Remember how I told you that my bloggy buddy Lesley is doing a photo challenge? Somehow I missed her post on Monday. Stoopid Google Reader. 

The first challenge? Days 1-5.

 

Today you can link up one, all or a few of the following:

1. Favorite food

2. Smile

3. Happiness

4. Leaves

5. Morning sky

Day Uno, favorite food. 

That would be Sea Salt and Vinegar chips. Most specifically, the Miss Vickie's brand. Lays (NOT the kettle cooked ones, bleh) come in a close second. I got hooked on these when Ava was in the NICU all of those long months. But I love these so much that I can't buy them. I'll go through an entire big bag in one sitting. My Heaven involves Sea Salt & Vinegar chips, and Cherry Cokes. 

Day Two - Smile

This smile completely brightens my day. I know all parents love their kids, but after seeing all we've been thru with Ava, with her 7 surgeries, I'm just so much more thankful every time I see her smile. 

Day Three. Happiness. 

I'm going to be generic and say my family. But it's more than that. I, of course, love my husband, and he treats me like no one ever has before. But he's such an awesome daddy to my three girls. My two older girls are from a previous marriage, but he treats them like his own. There is no difference to him between my older two and Ava. There is no "step" children and "real" children. I know he'd walk through fire for every single one of those girls. 

Day four, leaves

The great thing about this challenge? You can interpret it any way you want. Like this pic, it's not exactly a picture of leaves. But there are leaves in the pic. This is my front yard as it sat yesterday. My dad and mom have been kicking butt on getting it done. Hubby and my father in law also got in on the action. I'm so excited to see it finished, and it's such a wonderful feeling to know that all of these people are working so hard, for free, to make your home beautiful. 

Day 5, Morning Sky. 

Yeah, I don't have anything. :( I'll be better prepared next week. 

So there you have it. Go check out Lesley's blog, cause she's awesome. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, dear reader! May your day be filled with love, laughter, and someone else doing the clean up.

Zenni Optical? Yeah, your prices rock.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Zenni Optical. All opinions are 100% mine.

I've needed glasses or contacts since I was in sixth grade. Back then, I had some huge black frames with super thick lenses (thanks to my horrible eyesight). That, combined with my frizzy poodle hair and glasses? Yes, it's as tragic as it sounds, people.

I've finally figured out the whole looks thing. Got those braces off, chopped off the hair. I'm a strict contacts wearer, but with the prices and styles at Zenni Optical, I'd be willing to change my mind. 

They have glasses starting at $6.95. Yeah, you read that right. And all the cheap eyeglasses (even the $6.95 ones) come with

• FREE Anti-scratch coating
• FREE Full UV protection
• FREE protective case
• FREE microfiber cleaning cloth

And they have some great upgrades that you can add to your selection

• $4.95 Premium Anti-Glare Coating
• $4.95 Sunglass lens tint

And shipping is super cheap! $4.95 for your entire USA order, or $9.95 for your entire international order. And they're offering free shipping if you spend over $50.

I love that when you click on the frame, it gives you a ton of information. Everything from lens width, frame width, frame weight, etc.

And my favorite part? You can upload a pic of your face, and "try on" the glasses. Saves me the trouble of trying to imagine what the glasses would look like.

The glasses I have right now cost me over $300 a few years ago. I wish I would have known about Zenni Optical back then. Would have saved me a ton of money, and these frames are so much cuter.

Wouldn't you love to save money too? The way the economy has been, I know we're all looking to save every penny we can. For me? That saved money would be going towards Christmas presents for my girls.

Wanna see my favorite eyeglasses? It's these bad boys. I would rock these, think geek chic.

  

A photo challenge? I accept.

So, my bloggy buddy Lesley is, like, the coolest chick I know. Totally witty, so pretty that I want to punch her in the face, and does the coolest wing eye liner thing that I'm STILL waiting for a tutorial for (ahem, Lesley). 

So, like me, she's been going thru a crafty slump lately. I'm catching up on Etsy stuff, being a mom, stuff like that. I haven't had the motivation to craft lately. 

And while some bloggers will do a whole post like "Hey, I stuck a pumpkin on my mantle! Isn't it great? Aren't I a genius?" and then post 20 different pics of said pumpkin from 20 different angles, that just ain't my thang. 


But, my dear Lesley called me out on her facebook, and challenged me to her photo challenge. And me, I can't back down from a challenge. So here ya go. 

There are going to be 30 themes. But no, I'm not going to harass you with one pic a day. She's going to group 5 themes, and do one post a week for 6 weeks. But she's starting us out with baby steps, so today's theme is "animal". 


We adopted Titan after we had to put Jasper to sleep. He's been a great addition to the family. The shelter didn't know anything about him except he was found in a mall parking lot. They said he's about a year and a half old, and probably a chihuahua/terrier mix. 

I took him to the vet on Tuesday. The vet told Titan "Titan, you just won the dog lottery with her as your owner". Talk about a feel good moment. I was on such a high. Well, until we got finished with his shots, exam, meds and I got handed a $93 bill. Dog better get a job. 

He's been so good for my heart, and while he doesn't replace Jasper, it's been a welcome addition to the house. And yes, he sleeps in the goofiest positions.