Late...so late.

It's almost 1 am and here I am...awake.
Nope no insomnia anymore just stuff on the mind.
Nothing bad, nothing sad, just stuff.
Thinking about the temperature that's slowly dropping, flowers I meant to bring in, is it warm enough in the garage for Kiley our old kitty?, is it too late to have another piece of brownie?Is it too late for Kahlua and cream? Will the temperature be cold to the point that it will ice over enough for Nick to stay home? Will I get a grant to go back to school next fall? Will I get called on for a job as a translator? What will 2010 bring for me and my family? Will Z find himself back to his old self when school starts again? Will I stick to my long distance running regime and eating better this new year? Could this really be the year of the Sexy??? Well Tonya, Karen I do hope so, Will I finally remember to buy hair coloring for this cotton picking grey? Why is my skin so bloody dry this season!?

I need to stop thinking, stuff brownie in my mouth curl up on the recliner next to Nick, be grateful for it all and relax!

Christmas, Christmas and More Christmas.

First off....Christmas photo or my attempt for one at least.

Next looking at Christmas lights. Since we were already in the O.C. Papaw took us to see some lights around the neighborhood first.

We saw traditional lights first, by which we saw about two cop cars in front of someones home....Domestic disturbance????

Seriously Oak Cliff isn't all bad. Quite honestly I didn't want to leave.

It's diverse, multicultural and where else can I get me some REAL Pan Dulce (mexican sweet bread!?)

Which brings me to this neighborhood.

I loved this! They also had a "Santa Drive In" in their drive way and showed free movies for the neighborhood. We wanted to stay but it was too chilly out.

LUV the pic below!

Had to pose the boys, they are after all true Oak Cliffians!

Oh and yes Gingy.

Zenon received a gingerbread man book at his class book exchange and Ethan loved it...since this year Gingerbread men are his thing.

He tapped the bed and asked me to sit next to him...he wanted to talk.

He asked for a gingerbread house along with trees and a chocolate lake.

I didn't even have a kit! So I made due with what I had at home.

He was happy with his Ginger hut, chocolate lake and trees.

Then Christmas Eve. Nick came home early and recommended we head to Dallas early before the storm.

It was just starting to flurry before we left, the boys stood in the drive way catching flurries on their tongues.

Little flurries became gusty flurries. This was right outside of church before services.

We braved it since Church is practically right down the street from John and Debs.

Christmas morning...we were exhausted they were excited.

I too was excited...I got a NEW CAMERA!!

Went from 5.0 mega pixels to 12.2......super happy!!

Thanks John and Debbie you spoil me way too much.

One of my first shots with my new camera.

John made a mini snowman with skittle eyes that bled out and it looks like frosty got two black eyes in a bar room brawl and had his arm torn off.

Last but not least the whole reason for celebrating.

Our "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.

Boys helped me frost and of course lick spoons.

Finally singing and blowing of the candles.

How long will they make this cake with me??

Okay maybe they won't want to sing or blow the candles but I want to have two grown boys baking a Jesus cake with me every year.

Who knows they just might surprise me and beat me to the kitchen when it's time to bake our cake.

Nick's begun the countdown until next Christmas and I swear I wanted to throw a shoe at him.
Now time to gear up for a new year!!

For Helen: Tutorial for stenciled shirts.

For my friend Helen whom I found online, then found out she lived a town away and here's the kicker she even went to school with my hubby....what are the odds???
I think she's lovely yet never formally met...Helen we must!

Helen asked how I did it so here it is.

These are the basic materials I use:

Sponge applicators (about 1.00 for a package at Walmart)
Freezer Paper (only place I've ever found it was again Walmart about 4 dollars but last forever!)
Slick paint
Blades- I found this pink one at Target for about 4 dollars but favor the gray blade which I've had since High school! I LOVE LOVE my grey blade, I believe it came with an art kit my mom bought me back in the day.)
Cheap flexible cutting board.
Shirt of choice and size
Iron
Ironing board

I print from images I find online. One day I will try and create my own but for now Google works the magic.

I used to hand trace the images on to my freezer paper until a light bulb went off, I cut my freezer paper to the correct size and feed it into my printer, skipped a whole step..no more tracing.

Take blade and cut out your stencil.

This is time consuming but I actually enjoy it.

When your stencil is cut I arrange it on the shirt and iron it on.
Some stencils you'll see you'll have to piece like a puzzle onto the shirt piece by piece (reason I didn't use the Weezer stencil above...wayyyy too much work!)

Start painting.

I use two coats when using black paint. Wait until your first coat is completely dry before applying a new coat.

White paint is tricky! I use 3 sometimes 4 coats of paints though careful sometimes the whole thing will come up paint and all when you use a lot of coats. Though if that does happen (like one of my gifts that I'm making did) don't worry it just has a worn look which is pretty neat.

When your shirt is completely dry start ripping and peeling off paper. I sometimes use tweezers to get the little bits of paper.

TADA!

Finished product.

I'm making all the kids in our family one....can you say Busy?
Hope this helped Helen!!

It was bound to happen......

Little E decided it was time for a hair cut...A "Real" hair cut.
He got his hair cut, he's thrilled........I'm sad.

The
End.

(will post pics of the new Little E soon.)

Countdown REALLY begins!

The Christmas gift making started today and now I'm sweating it thinking....
Will I finish in time???

Here I'm tracing a stencil that I will hand cut then print onto a shirt.
The process is quite easy but EXTREMELY time consuming you can see a finished Tee I made last year here

http://monkeylemur.blog.com/2008/06/03/
(you'll have to scroll down a bit to see it.)




This lovely stack will become my crayon roll ups.




I love making things for Christmas as stressful as it is sometimes I truly enjoy it.

Resignation letter

Satan,


This is my letter of resignation.

I am resigning after serving you with fear, hate and despair.

I am happy, loved, faithful and have too much goodness to keep feeding you and giving you what you want.

Your degrading, self loathing, and a poor excuse.....poor excuse for anything.

This morning upon arriving for my day, my day of a beautiful morning, day of prayer, day of fasting, you decided my happy optimism was too much and sent me a phone call.
A phone call that made me sad, stress and cry.

My morning was ruined and you did it, no one else but you.

So I collected myself and thought you attacked me because you know you can get to me.

So with this letter I resign being your door mat.

I applied and was accepted to a higher more prestigious position, one with respect, happiness and love.
A job where I love to punch in every morning, no means an easy position, there will be alot of hard work, sometimes employees get feisty but we figure things out in the end.

My shift ended at 10:00 am this morning for my resignation is effective Immediately!!



Liza

New Chapter.

Our first visit with Santa was like this..........




Now as mean as it may seem I think this picture is Freakin' hilarious!
I seriously love it.
Little E (huge Jowls and all) looking at his brother like he's out of his mind.
Did we redo the picture?
Heck NO!
This is reality so I'll take reality over the average pic any day.

Now there was only one more Santa attempt and it send me into a ball of tears.
We took them to the mall when Zenon was 2 1/2 E was 1 1/2 and Z lost his mind. We're in line one minute he sees Santa and takes off!
I had to seriously tackle my kid in a beauty salon. He was shaking, crying and had a glazed look in his eyes.
I trembled all the way home, I think then and there I knew something was wrong.
(He hadn't been diagnosed yet.)

We never attempted Santa again.

Now 41/2 years later the child tells me he's staying up all night because he WANTS to see Santa and give him a hug.

Music to our ears.

I think we'll attempt those Santa photos again, mom and dad have been waiting....patiently.

Funny little tid bit.

Conversation with E while Nick and I helped the boys with their homework:


Little E: "Mommy why is the house SOOooo dirty today?" "There's stuff everywhere!"
(motioning his little arms in giant circles)

(Pop's snickers)

Momma: "Because I spent the day washing clothes then went to help yours and Zenon's class... I was real busy today."

Little E: "Why doesn't daddy help you?","He should help you."


HA! So priceless!

(Pop's did not snicker, he pretended not to hear...stinker.)

OH FUDGE!!

Every year Mawmaw Chappell makes yummy fudge...last year...sigh..she didn't.
So I thought maybe I could take a crack at it.
Nick loves Peanut butter fudge so Peanut butter fudge it is!
No peanuts please.

Process was a lot easier than I thought...messy but easy.




Voila!!
Okay so it's no Mawmaw Chappell's fudge but it came out pretty yummy.
Nick and I are wondering will she give me her fudge recipe????



Maybe it's a "If I tell you I'll have to kill you" kind of recipe , I sure hope it's not.
Because I'll tell you something, she's a jack of all trades!
She bakes, cooks, quilts OH MY!
She's like having my own Martha Stewart in our family...I love her!