R2-D2

My first scratch-made Halloween costume was this year's R2D2 for my 4 year old. Somehow over the last 9 Halloweens, I'd managed to get away with "assembling" costumes from stuff around the house. So here is proof that I did make at least one home-made costume!

Supplies: trash can, silver spray paint, 1 inch and 2 inch blue painter's tape, X-acto knife, silver, black and blue Sharpie pens, cardboard circles, glue gun, fabric strips, stick on door stop, duck tape, bubble wrap.

Starting with the white plastic swing-top trash can, I spray painted the top silver and the hubs cut out arm holes and cut of the bottom. I wrapped the armholes with shiny silver duck tape to smooth the rough edges.


Then the real work began, so I brought in some assistants...I wrapped the top edge of the can with the 1 inch blue painter's tape. Using the black Sharpie and a picture of R2D2, I free-handed shapes onto the can.

Next, for the "body", I used the 2 inch blue tape and taped on the 2 rectangles horizontally and used the X-acto knife to cut away the excess tape to reveal the "pointy shapes". Moving down, I used more blue painter's tape for the vertical rectangle and square. The cardboard circles were spray painted silver and hot glued on. The bottom "dial" was drawn free-hand with the silver and black Sharpies as were the additional designs on the silver top part. The inside of the swinging door was secured with duck tape and cushioned with small bubble wrap sheets.

Tim cut out another section for a "face hole" and again, I wrapped the sharp edge with the shiny duck tape. Next, for R2D2's "eye", I spray painted the white door knob stopper and hot glued it on. Then I hot glued fabric strips to the inside of the can to rest on his shoulders to support the weight of the can with out it sitting on his head. I used felt, but it stretched out after a while, so I would recommend using something different.

The Star Wars crew at Trunk or Treat...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2010

First Halloween in the new neighborhood went very well. We started at 5:00 at a neighbor's house (the other Cooper) to have some munchies, then headed home around 6:15 to get all the lights on. Daddy headed out with the kiddos and I stayed to hand out candy. There were not as many kids as I thought there would be, which means a lot of left over candy. Not good!

This year was a first for me.

Over the last 10 years, I have purchased many costumes and "crafted" many from dress-ups we already had. This year was the first made from scratch costume. Cameron has had only one Halloween costume request this year, R2-D2. He never wanted anything else. The only ready-made R2-D2 costume I found was for toddlers, a t-shirt and toboggan cap that wasn't very impressive. So I Googled a little and found some homemade R2-D2 ideas. So I got a swing top bullet style trash can, some duck tape, spray paint, painter's tape, sharpie markers, and 8 hours or so later...voila: R2-d2!!! Cooper was Darth Vader and I was hoping for a Star Wars Trifecta, but Abbie wanted to be a Dragon Warrior Ninja.

Boy stuff

From the decibel level of Cooper's scream when he saw this big truck-a Dodge he tells me (above), I thought I had run over someone in the parking lot. Would you believe this was at Wal-Mart? Really, I swear!

Tim took Coop to the 24 hour sale at the Ford dealership. He found lots of contenders for his list of coolest trucks. On his list of "must-haves"...a crew cab, because "I want to have a family" he told me.

Party On Dude! Boys fishing weekend :)

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?????!!!!! Just being silly on a boys night out at Dick's Sporting Goods.

ouch

I didn't know The Biggest Loser premier was on tonight. I'm sitting here watching the agony on their faces knowing that's what I must've looked like last night in my first aerobics class in five, maybe 10, years. Buttz and Guttz. I about hurled my guttz. I can hardly walk after I sit for a few minutes. It's mainly my thighs. Right now, my thighs hate Tracey the aerobics insructor. The timing was bad on my part. Tim is out of town this week. The kids' bedrooms are upstairs. Bedtime is torture...I really don't know if they brushed their teeth or not. And I think God is laughing at me. Tonight and last, there have been huge crashes in the kids' rooms around 10:30, of course, requiring investigation. So I sprinted up the stairs as fast as my legs could possibly go. If someone had been stealing something, they'd have had the truck filled by the time I made it up the 16 steps.

Last night a large picture tumbled from Abbie's dresser knocking over her lava lamp and everything else on the dresser as well. Tonight, Cameron fell out of bed and was already tucking himself back in when I got in there. The cruelest part is that going down the stairs hurts even more than going up them.

Grateful Friday

It's late on a Friday to be getting to my post, but at least I actually made time today to post. Today was a good day...lots to be grateful for this week

• It was great last weekend to spend a long Labor Day weekend on the boat with all the family. It was a beautiful weekend and we had a nice time doing a bunch of nothing.
• I got things done today: made the bed, 3 loads of laundry (and put it away, yay!), cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned the bathrooms, paid some bills, vacuumed out the car, went for a walk, whew!
• Cameron took a nap today...WHAT??? Which is why I was able to get all of the above done!
• The Fall crispness in the air..woo-hoo! Hanging up my new fall wreath and flag :)
• The house has been crawling with kids since school started. So happy that the kids have made a bunch of friends in the neighborhood. One day after school this week Abbie bounced into the house and announced, "I'm really having a lot of fun at my new school!"
• Cameron finally started pre-school yesterday. And one of his teachers is good friends with my neighbor. We are starting to know people who know people :)
• Making Pumpkin Spice coffee with vanilla caramel creamer...in the Keurig...mmm, right now I'm wishing it was decaf :(
• My best friend is moving closer, only 40 minutes away! Much better than 2.5 hours :) She closes on the new house next week.
• We got the 108 inch long curtains hung up on the 14 foot wide curtain rod with only one or two little "arguments". Love them!!
• Taking steps to get the basement and spare room finished, starting with the electrician adding 20+ recess lights in the basement!

Happy September!

Grateful Friday/Happy Birthday Cooper

Another Grateful Friday, another Grateful Birthday. Today I am grateful for the second of my babies. Cooper turned 7 this morning at 6:24...I think! Anyways, he is my sweet boy!

Yes Cooper you are still as sweet as ever. Just so innocent and kind. Always remembering your Please's and Thank You's. The only time I ever see you worked up is when you are fighting with your brother or sister. I do think that you have finally figured out that when you cry, I will do whatever you want. But even so, you don't take advantage of it. I can't say that I have figured you out though. You are kind of shy and introverted so sometimes it is hard for me to figure out "who you are".

You are currently obsessed with Ford F series trucks. I hear about every F250 and F350 that we see on the road. I also know that there are up to F750's and also an E series commercial van. And if by chance it is a dually, well kiss my grits, there's gonna be a party!

You love to draw and right now your subject of choice is Ford pickup trucks, see previous paragraph!

I am excited to see what kind of man you grow into being.

I hope you stay as thoughtful and gallant as you are now. Always holding the door and wanting to help out. You love to help me cook dinner. The other night I needed the step stool to reach the flour on the top shelf. You got it for me and steadied it with your foot while offering your hand so I wouldn't fall. I nearly did fall trying to see through the tears welling in my eyes.

You have become quite the fisherman this summer. You and daddy and Pappy have spent lots of time on the boat, you like to call her The Red Pearl, but unfortunately I think daddy vetoed that name. We are headed to the beach house later tonight because you wanted to go fishing for your birthday.

You are so excited about starting at your new school next week and meet some new friends. You want to have a sleepover so badly. You have seen Abbie have sleepovers with her friends and you get so sad.

This fall you want to play basketball. Right now that is your favorite sport, other than fishing of course. We have to get a new basketball goal because we had to leave your old one behind when we moved. You were not at all happy about that.

I Love You my sweet boy! Happy Birthday! Time to go to the Beach!!

Grateful Friday

I am grateful for the gift of my daughter. Happy birthday baby girl. A decade of being a mom. I feel like I have always been a mom, at least always wanted to be a mom, way longer than 10 years. It was just that I had to wait until July 2nd, 2000 for God to make it official and give you to me.

Over the last 10 years, I've spent countless hours trying to teach you things, how to read, how to play soccer, how to use your manners, etc. I'm realizing now that as you are getting older, that I will begin to learn so much from you. We are beginning a shift in our relationship. You are becoming a young lady and a few of the "strings" are lying on the floor, no longer attached, but rather ripped away whether I liked it or not.

Last week you snuck my razor and shaved parts of your legs. You've grown up so much this year, especially physically. You may have just turned 10, but are beginning to look more mature than your age. I remember sneaking make-up to school in the 5th grade. Guess we will be crossing that bridge soon too.

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your low-key day with cupcakes and a trip to the pool. It didn't go quite as planned, but tomorrow we'll be back in Clemmons visiting friends and our sleepover at the Herman's will be tons of fun.

You went to sleep tonight with a big smile on your face because you got to talk to Spencer S. tonight.

I should have done this earlier because I'm so sleepy I can't remember all the things I want to write about you on your special day. I just love you so much. You are such a beautiful confident young lady, a fantastic big sister, and a better daughter than I could have ever hoped for.

Today is the day

Today is a big Grateful Friday! Closing day. The first closing is already complete, so hopefully our attorney's office is finishing the final prep for our closing in about an hour and a half. We left Tim's truck at the house last night. The previous owners were out on Monday.

• I'm grateful that this day is finally here
• I'm grateful for our many, many blessings. God has made himself clearly visible to me throughout this entire process.
• I'm grateful for our friends and family that have helped us so much through this time.
• I'm grateful for email and Facebook. I'll be in constant touch with those I love, so missing them won't be quite so hard.

Grateful Friday

Today I have so much to be grateful for...

• my mom for helping me so much over the last 6 weeks. We had some great talks and I couldn't have gotten all the packing done without her.
• that our house sold so quickly and I did not have to have our house "show ready" during the summer when the kids would be here all day
• that we have had wonderful realtors that have made sure everything has gone smoothly considering both us and our buyers are relocating
• for a small group of great friends that I consider family and the chance to have one more night out with the girls this week.
• never thought I'd say it, but I'm grateful for Facebook.
• that my best friend is also moving and will only be 30 minutes from where we are moving

90 days and a lifetime ago...

Wow, almost 90 days since my last post. So much has changed it seems like a lifetime ago. Tim and I went to our counselling and although it ended up only being 2 sessions, it was amazingly effective and enlightening. In the course of the last 3 months we decided to do a couple of major renovation projects on our house, the replacement windows and the deck. Then we talked about moving to a newer house a few miles away. We talked about moving to Raleigh. We had talked about Raleigh before and realized that if we ever planned to move "away", then this is the time. Abbie really wanted to finish elementary school with her friends, so we thought we should stay put and enjoy our recently completed renovations for one more year.

During the "to move or not to move" discussions, I had also realized that it made no sense to be so stressed about making the right or wrong decision. I stopped and gave it back to God. I prayed and asked God to open my eyes to His plan, and help me to see the path He layed out for us. Once I did that, nearly immediately, our whole world changed.

A day or two after we decided not to sell, I emailed our realtor and asked if she would keep us in mind should she come across a buyer that was not finding what they were looking for and she thought our house may be perfect for them. Her response was, "Well, actually, since you mention it..." I did not respond to her right away. Iwanted to talk to Tim about it first and see if he was interested in going ahead and letting this couple see the house. Before I even mentioned it to him, I got an email from a lady through Zillow.com. I had posted our house with a "make me move" price and she wanted to find out if we were serious about selling. After hearing the story of these 2 couples, I realized it was the same couple. They came to see the house and about 5 days later, they made and offer and we accepted.

We had about 1 week to find a house in Raleigh if we had any chance of qualifying for the tax credit. We made a family trip and actually made an offer on a house, but it ended up not working out. Then I made a solo trip. No luck. Tim's schedule opened up on April 30 so we decided to try one more time. This time, the last house we saw, I think it was about the 16th -one that I had previously deleted from the realtor's selections-knocked our socks off. We sat down with our agent to write the offer around 3:30. We headed home and had to pull over along the way to finish our negotiations. We made it back home and waited for our agent to email us the final contract that had to be printed, initialed, scanned and emailed back to her before midnight. Did I mention that the homeowners were on vacation in New Mexico and had to be located in the dining room of their hotel to receive their faxed contract to sign?? I clicked the send button and got the final contract to our agent at 11:55 pm.

So ended the first chapter of the next phase of our lives. The 3 weeks since then have been filled with inspections, appraisals and boxes, dotted with baseball, t-ball, and softball games.

Just under 3 weeks until the big moving day. So much to do...

Grateful Friday

• I am grateful that i sat down to talk to Tim for a minute this morning before I left the house with Cameron to go get doughnuts for his class. I got caught just behind a serious 4 car accident.
• I am grateful for the laugh I got in the Starbucks drive-thru. The driver got a cup of whipped cream for her eager 4-legged passenger. It was pretty cute watching the dog get so excited to see that cup. He was lapping up that whipped cream before she even got the window closed :)
• I am grateful for the one-on-one time that Tim and Abbie will get tonight at the first annual Daddy-Daughter Dance at her school. Mommy is also very excited to get to play dress-up with her life-sized Barbie. You never get too old to play with dolls, right?
• I am grateful that my mom is picking up Cameron's birthday cake on her way over so I won't forget.
• I'm grateful for the Moravian Chicken Pie and Macaroni and Cheese I picked up for dinner. Side Note: sign spotted at the Moravian Church when I drove by with my pie in the passenger seat: "Get to know us, we are more than just Chicken Pies"
• I'm grateful for a husband that actually suggested and is open to seeing a marriage counsellor to help us navigate some bumpy roads we've been travelling for a few months. We need a refresher course on priorities and communication skills.

Grateful Birthday Friday

Today I am most grateful for my baby boy, he turns the big "4" today! My baby is growing up too fast! I remember all the chaos surrounding his birth as if it were yesterday. An induction a day earlier than expected, an epidural that wouldn't take (then wouldn't wear off), a near emergency C-section, then a quick push and poof! there he was :)



Cam-Cam! Where do I even begin with you boy?? You are a giant jumble of contradicting personalities.



You are "NOT A BABY", but I think your only level of speech is whine. I would never call you shy, but sometimes you hide behind me all day, not coming out even for Pappy. There's no one that makes you as mad as Cooper does, but you love love love your big brother and sister...maybe your sister a little more since she snuggles you and doesn't really mess with your toys. As soon as Abbie and Coop leave for school, you're asking when they will be home...at least a couple dozen times...an hour!



Your favorite food is rice and pintos from Chipotle or a cheeseburger Happy Meal. I think you are literally scared of food with "color". You are by far the pickiest eater of the 3 of you kids. I can't get you to drink a fruit packed smoothie or eat my veggie-laced spaghetti. If it's green, you won't even LOOK at it.



Playtime is still all about Thomas. You've had Thomas birthdays for the last 3 years. Thomas trains and tracks all over the house, Thomas movies in the DVD player, Thomas coloring books, Thomas shirts and jammies.



You're a lefty like mommy and daddy. You love to color and have displayed your creations all over the playroom walls...no paper required :(



Your best friend is Connor and his cute little way of saying your name comes out sounding kinda like "Gremlin" which I find totally appropriate. You have a funny little way of blaming your body parts for getting you in trouble: my legs don't want to go to bed yet, my brain wanted me to eat another cookie, my arm just wanted my toy back!!!



I love you so so much my baby boy. I hope I'm not spoiling you since you are my baby, but I almost don't care. You are my sweet Gremlin with the crazy faces. Happy Birthday!

Cameron doing laundry

After we got Cooper's room put back together, we took all the dirty sheets down to the laundry. Cameron started shoving them into the empty dryer. I said, "No, no those are dirty. the dryer is for the drying the wet clothes." To which he replied, "Okay, then I'll put these in the wetter."

Things I learned before lunch today...

Today I decided that I didn't need Tim to be here in order for some of the Honey Do List items to actually be completed. Today I separated Cooper's bunk bed into twins and rearranged his room. I hated that bunk bed. It's one of my biggest cases of "buyer's remorse". What I learned today comes courtesy of that crappy bunk bed:

• I will never buy another bunk bed
• When it comes to furniture, it's not worth saving a little money. Buy quality pieces that will grow with your child and not have to be replaced. In the end, you'll probably spend the same amount anyway, or maybe even less!
• Crappy furniture is still heavy
• Even small mirrors are heavy
• 3 year olds are always in the way when you are trying to move something heavy

I wish I could've seen my face....

Well we finally had "the talk" last Friday. No, not that one. The guy at the Tae Kwon Do place showed me the payment options for signing up for classes. It's completely ridiculous. For both Abbie and Cooper it would be $258 a month, minimum 12 month contract. I know my mouth had to have fallen open. I couldn't even speak. Speechless I tell you. I don't even want to continue with the free month because it will only get their hopes up. There's a reason they don't put prices on the website and arrange an appointment to discuss pricing with you behind closed doors where you can be seated when you find out.

There is another place closer to our house that I am going to check into. They don't have prices on their site either, but they specifically state NO contracts.

Hi...YAH!!

The kids have their first group Tae Kwon Do class today. I haven't seen them this excited about anything in a long time. Abbie has never moved so quickly to get her room cleaned up. We went Monday to get their uniforms and have a private intro lesson just for them to get used to it. I wish I'd inconspicuously pulled out my phone and gotten a quick video but I was trying not to distract them, since they were learning about the 3 "focuses", mind focus, body focus, and I think eye focus was the third one. Hey, I wasn't the one who was supposed to be paying attention!

Cameron was so cute doing his little "chops" and "kicks". And it was no surprise to me that he was the loudest at the "Hi-YAHs". One time when they were taking turns, instead of doing a "chop" he yelled his Hi-YAH and threw out both arms with full Jazz Hands, a bit more like "boo I scared you" than martial arts. Again, the video would have been much cuter.

Grateful Friday

Long busy week and yet a short one since the kids were out of school Monday for a teacher work day. Lately I've been even more forgetful than "normal" so I'm going to have to look back at this week's calendar to try to remember all the things I'm grateful for that I told myself, "hey don't forget to put this in next week's Grateful Friday post".

This week, I'm grateful for:

• Having a fun day last Saturday at the Fishing and Boat Show with the family. And thankful for the nice lady that chased me out of the restaurant to return my forgotten purse.
• That our 16 boxes from IKEA were delivered on time and were quite easy to assemble and look very nice in my facelifted family room. Only one piece was damaged and the replacement is on the way.
• For my girls morning at my house Tuesday. In homage to the retro vibe hitting FB right now, we brought old pictures and laughed and ate and had a grand time!
• That my roots and my gray are gone and replaced with sparkling blonde tones.
• For the back-up camera on my van or else I think I would have hit 3 people today. I'm in a minivan people!! Even when I turn myself around I can't really see back there. If you see some white lights on the back of a 2500 lb mass of metal, it's getting ready to come towards you...don't step in front of it!!
• That our replacement windows are FINALLY being installed as I type!! The front of the house is done and I swear it feels warmer in those rooms and I can actually SEE OUTSIDE. It's like when I first got glasses and put them on and then you realize how bad it was before. I've been waiting for this for 2 years!! They are white and look so bright and clean, but they make the roof look even uglier than it already was (I hate the brown roof but it's only about 10 yrs old) :(
• For actually remembering to set my alarm a half hour early so I could get the kids to Pappy's house so he could take them to school for "Gabs with Grands", breakfast with grandparents before school. I don't think we did it at all last year. It's Grandy's turn next year!
• And last but not least...for all the snow that's on the way tonight :)))) After it's melted and gone, then BRING on SPRING!!!!

Grateful Friday

Today I am grateful that I know where all of my immediate family members are and they are healthy and alive and that I can pick up the phone and call them and talk to them if I needed to.

I am grateful that if my family or I want something to drink or eat, I can walk in to my kitchen and open the fridge and ample food and clean water is in there.

I am grateful that I had a warm soft bed and a home to sleep in last night.

I am grateful for all the people-military and civilian-around the world who, in the event of a tragedy, have the training and ability to drop what they are doing and immediately organize rescue and aid efforts.

Ugh

I am so NON-confrontational. Really mom, I'm not. But when it comes to my babies I guess I'll just have to make an exception. Among the many reasons I'm glad to have Abbie back at our neighborhood school is that she is keeping an eye on her little brother. In the 6 short days that she has been back, she has come home at least 3 days to tell me about a boy that has been shoving, kicking, and hitting Cooper in the afternoon bus line. It's a boy just down the street that we know. I was in a Bunko group with his mom and the mom I trade morning carpool with is one of her best friends.

Ugh, I don't want to make this phone call.

I waited the first week to get more info from Abbie and from Cooper. Over the weekend we had a "Bully Seminar". It was all about speaking up for yourself and when it's okay to defend yourself and that mommy and daddy would not be mad about that. But today when they came home and told me that Cooper got kicked again, I knew I had to make the call.

She wasn't exactly surprised. Mostly just disappointed that her son would be acting that way towards his friends...we did just go to his birthday party a few weeks ago. Also disappointed that the adults in charge of the bus lines were apparently not doing anything to discourage what was happeneing. Hmm, hadn't thought of that.

The phone just rang. It was her. She talked to her son and he admitted that, yes, he had been hitting and kicking Cooper, and other friends, for no good reason. She had me put Cooper on the phone so her son could apologize. It was a very nice gesture and I am hoping that this won't be a problem in the future.

I'm sure this is only the first time we'll be put in this type of situation. It was resolved in the best way I could have hoped for. And in the future I'm sure I will be longing for the day when we were just worrying about one of the kids getting "socked" in the arm.

Grateful Friday

This first full week of 2010 (do you say "twenty-ten" or "2 thousand ten"? I haven't decided yet) I am grateful for:

• Abbie has had a wonderful first week back at her old school. Feels like we are "back home". The program at the other school was an opportunity that presented itself, we gave it a try for 16 weeks and it wasn't the right place for her. So glad we made the right choice to bring her back to her old school.
• That Tim will finally be back home after a week out of town. That's the longest he's been gone in......well I can't remember. One of the kids actually asked me if he moved!!!
• My shopping trips to Charlotte this weekend. Saturday with Tim and Sunday with the girls.
• That I didn't accidentally schedule my hair appointment and my dentist appointment on the same day.
• For my new washer and dryer.
• That I am finally starting to feel better this week after being sick since the week before Christmas. Some kind of viral sore throat (2 trips to the doctor) then a sinus infection.
• Oh yeah, and Cooper is grateful that the tooth fairy remembered to come the 2nd night since she forgot to come the 1st night ;)