Radio Silence

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post!  I promise, I haven't been an all around slacker.  Just here.  On the torch, I have been very busy almost every night.  So here are a few sneak peeks of what is coming within the next week or two.

Do you not have enough time to do everything you want?  If not, read this post and perhaps you can learn to knit.  Or pick up a new hobby.  I thought this post was great!

Here is one of my attempts at a sunflower bead.

Jezzie has doubled in size since we brought her home a month ago.

Meet Sugar (who started out as Rumblebuffin and was re-named Hammy within an hour of coming home and another hour later to Sugar).  She was Owen's 8th birthday present.  When he is home, he gets her out of her cage to hold her on an hourly basis.  It is so sweet.  Yesterday he stayed home to be spoiled by grandparents.  Today he went to camp (our county is out for the week...they take a week off after every 7-8 weeks of school) and asked if I would get her out every 3 hours to hold and pet and love.  I'll see what I can do to get a better pic of her from the front when Owen is holding her another day.

Sometimes I feel unappreciated as a wife and mom.  I feel like I do so much and it goes un-noticed.  For the most part, I am ok with this and do not become resentful.  I don't expect thank yous for doing the laundry, cooking, making the bed, dishes, packing lunches or all the other things I do to keep our family going (although it would be nice to hear occasionally).  But over this past week, multiple things heaped on me (and I may have exaggerated some things in my mind about how I was being ignored or unappreciated having a rare pity party) and I started questioning if I was really where I was supposed to be.  I just needed a little solitude and distance to realize again I would not change my life for anything and love my husband and children.  This post could not have come at a better time for helping put an end to my pity party.  Tis a good one for other moms because we sometimes need humble reminders.  Or at least I do.

Chloe took this pic of me last night while we were at Owen's soccer practice.

ThyHand is having a giveaway on her blog with this bracelet made by Lorelei!

Tonight I am booking a rental home for the week of Thanksgiving in Orlando.  Our kids have been asking for years to go to Disney World and we are finally ready (ie. we have saved up the arms and legs required to pay for the admissions for a family of four).  I found a lovely four bedroom home to share with my Mom, Grandma and Todd's folks.  The kids will be spoiled in love from the grandparents and the splendor of Disney.  I haven't been since I was six and have no recollection of going, other than the pictures taken at the time and stories that I ruined it for my Mom because she wanted to go on the rides and I was too scared.   Todd went to Disney Land as a teenager, but this will be his first time going to Disney World.  I'm so excited about every aspect of this trip!  Lisa, I will email you the dates we'll be in town :D

Last week a new etsian committed to buy these three sets of beads, but never remitted payment or responded to my emails/convos.  So I canceled the sale today and relisted them.  If you liked them before, they are back in the shop now.

Laguna rounds

Candy nuggets

Swirling Willow Eggs

Here is my sunset this evening.

Since Todd has tennis practice tomorrow night and I'll be putting the kids to bed by myself, he is putting the kids to bed tonight.  I'm hopping over to the torch now to melt more glass.

Have a good evening!

Owen's 7th Birthday

Owen will turn 7 years old today. Shortly after 8:30pm, if you want to get technical. Time has flown since that day when both my parents, my grandparents and some of our best friends waited out the hours in the labor & delivery room at Northside Hospital with us. Since I have no siblings and Todd has only one, our friends present at the hospital were given honorary Aunt and Uncle titles.

In these short and fast seven years, we have watched Owen grow from a little jaundice baby into a big boy who makes us proud. He is smart and excels at math, as well as picks up new spelling words quickly. He can read just about anything we put in front of him now, which is exciting.

He is strong-willed and can't be swayed from his course of action once he makes up his mind. Owen gave up diapers completely (yes, even at night) before he turned two years old. He stopped sucking his thumb cold turkey when he was four years old when he realized he didn't want braces. In spite of tears and many falls, he got back up on his bike repeatedly until he could ride it without training wheels in less than an hour and through many tears of frustration.

Owen is kind. He is quick to put himself in other people's shoes and is very sensitive to other's pain or sadness. He is gentle with animals and will admonish his sister if she is too rough with our pets.

He loves to dance and will break out the moves to music on the radio or his own singing. Owen loves We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions by Queen. For the past two months, he has only listened to Queen's greatest hits in his bedroom as he is falling asleep.

Owen is whimsical and loves to dress up in costumes or have his face painted to take on different identities.

He loves sports and tends to gain attention from softball coaches at batting cages and tennis coaches in camp because he is quick and has excellent hand/eye coordination.

Owen is independent. In Kindergarten, he would get up after his alarm went off and get dressed before brushing his teeth. Many mornings we would find him in the kitchen making breakfast for himself with either cereal in a bowl or waffles in the toaster.

Owen is a brother, a friend, my son, a goofy boy and as he sometimes reminds "just a person who wants have fun."

Today we are driving to North Carolina to see my friend Mary get married on Saturday. Today we get to spend 7 hours in the car with our newly turned 7 year old. Today, we are thankful he is ours and we're celebrating another birthday.