Never ending battle

I have decided it's a never ending battle that I have no chance of winning.  I live in a small 700sq ft house. 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bath. Which for me is just fine...But add a few more people in the mix and well it can get crowded. At the moment my granddaughter Morgyn and great granddaughter Randi live here with me.  Randi is 2 1/2 and very very active. I also have a 1 1/2yr old grandson Noah and a new grandchild on the way and due in late January. I have finally decided I am not meant to have a clean clutter free home. And you know what I am not going to stress over it. I am going to embrace it best I can.  I can at least enjoy a picked up living room after Randi goes to bed and before she gets up. Other then that as long as we can get out of the house in case of a fire or some other disaster, I am ok with that.  Oh don't get me wrong I am sure I will get upset from time to time when it gets to me, but I will calm down and life will go on.  Here is a picture I took the other day after I had spent most of the day cleaning while Randi and her mother were gone.  I enjoyed the clean living room for about an hour and then, well they got home and this is what my living room looked like after her being home about 5 min.

Well I better get going and enjoy my clean living room while I can before she gets up.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day and beautiful weekend. We are expecting some thundershowers today but cooler temps, and some cooler fall like temps over the weekend which I am going to enjoy immensely.  I am going to be involved in a church service project outside tomorrow morning so the cooler temps will be a welcome relief. Then everyone will enjoy a nice picnic at the park.  Again enjoy and don't sweat the small stuff, life is to short and you never know when things will change in an instant.

FIREWORKS

I love fireworks, I love going to watch the fireworks, I love to look at pictures of fireworks. Must just be the kid in me. Fireworks is something that brings back wonderful memories of my childhood when every 4th of July my father's side of the family would get together for a family reunion of sorts. My father side of the family is big. There were 8 children in the family and of course then came the spouses then the children. I have 27 cousins.  Needless to say between the siblings, spouses, children, siblings cousins etc there would easily be 150-200 people in my uncles backyard. Lots of good food and family to round out the day. BUT the thing that all of us looked forward to was watching the fireworks at night from the comfort of my uncles backyard. They didn't live that far away from the fairgrounds where they shot off the fireworks so we had a very good view and didn't have to "fight the traffic" (parents words not mine).  Lots of oohhs and aaahhhs from all of us. 

Over the years I have seen many fireworks on various occasions and have loved every minute of it.  A week or so ago in our town we hosted a fireworks convention PGI (Pyrotechnics Guild International).  I thought cool would see a few fireworks as they were putting on shows a few times during the week. I didn't know what to expect but honestly didn't care because I was going to watch.  Now we were warned as a town that these would be nothing like our local fireworks on the 4th, they would be bigger and louder and for people living near the fairgrounds this could prove to be interesting.  They suggested that if you live nearby and had animals you might want to board them for the week. The county even moved all the animals at the local animal shelter out of town for the week because of the stress we were told it could cause the animals and the animal shelter is located on the same property as the fairgrounds so this was a good idea. 

All this talk really got me excited to see exactly what they had in mind to show us.  Let me tell you I was not disappointed.  These "little" shows they were putting on were amazing. They were bigger, stronger, brighter and louder then any I have ever heard in my life.  My great granddaughter and I went every night to watch them from a parking lot not far from the fairgrounds. Actually if you could see the sky from any where in town you could see fireworks.  From what I have heard you could see some of them 12 miles away in the neighboring city.

The Grand Finale was held Friday night and my cousin and I went out to sit with my sister at her friends tomato farm which was just on the outskirts of the fairgrounds. We could see everything and we had such a nice cool evening to sit outside and enjoy the show.  From what I hear their were over 10,000 people actually at the fairgrounds watching the show and that number doesn't even count the people sitting in various places around town.  But seeing the number of cars in the parking lot at the fairgrounds I can only imagine and I actually am glad I wasn't sitting in the fairgrounds.

This video is about 28 min long and was just a glimpse into one of the shows that was put on that night. This is truly amazing and actually doesn't do it justice after seeing it in person but does give you an idea of what we saw.  If you have the time it is well worth watching.  Turn up your volume as there is some wonderful music that goes right along with the fireworks.  I don't think you will be disappointed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuN58qGSNM&feature=share

If you ever get a chance to see anything this company puts on anywhere close to where you can go see, trust me its worth going to see.  They will be back in 2016 for another weeks convention and I will be right there watching every minute God willing.   

I can Breathe again :)

For the past couple months prior to June 28,2012 I have been extremely stressed. The reason for this stress was preparing for my oldest daughter Amanda's wedding. She is not one of these people that gives you much time to plan. When she makes up her mind to do something she thinks and feels it should happen NOW. When her and her boyfriend Ed decided to actually get married, (after all they had been talking about it for a year or so) she told me that it would be in 2 months. 2 MONTHS is she kidding me, PLAN a wedding in 2 MONTHS???? You can't even order a wedding dress or for that matter make a wedding dress in that amount of time. We had the location for the wedding, that wasn't a problem. She wanted to have an outdoor reception...Ok but do you realize daughter dear that you are talking the last part of July when the weather normally is FREAKING HOT??? And the way the weather has been this summer she has got to be kidding, but she wasn't. Ok fine but we need a backup plan, you know in case of rain, which by the way we hadn't had any so far this summer and everything was drying up because of the FREAKING HOT WEATHER.


Ok now what do you want your wedding to look like? Any thoughts, as I keep a smile on my face when I ask her. No she really hadn't given that part any thought. She had the guy, had the ring, set the date, had the church so she would have to think about that, as I had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach because I know how she is when she makes up her mind. She will decide what she wants and it needs to be done NOW. Not in a few days/weeks but have it done like yesterday.

Well first on the agenda was she decided on her colors, Purple, Pink and Orange. At first I didn't quite grasp those colors mainly because I was thinking a little ahead as far as flowers, but hey it was at least a start. Then since we live in a small town and not many places to buy a wedding dress I started looking up places nearby where we could go look and pray they had dresses in stock she could buy and have altered in time. Oh and did I forget to mention not only did we need to find a wedding dress but we needed to pick out some affordable bridesmaid dresses for the 2 friends that were standing up for her. They are both single mothers with a tight budget. Ok the headache was starting and let me tell you it didn't go away for day AFTER the wedding.


Now going shopping with my daughter is a challenge in itself. I need to mention here that she has these ideas in her head and there is no deviating from those ideas. Now trying to find those ideas is another story. She gets very frustrated quickly when she can't find what she is looking for when she steps into a store. But again I keep the smile on my face and tell her it will be fine we will find what she wants or we can find some material and I will make her wedding dress exactly how she wants it. The first place we went to turned out to be closed that day, oops forgot to check that little detail, but then in my defense why would a store be closed in the middle of the week is beyond me. But that's ok I had my list of stores. The next store we went to was this small little local bridal shop. Cute and I saw potential, all Amanda saw was to many choices and I could see she was already getting stressed and I was waiting for the explosion and her just throwing up her hands and saying forget it, we will just elope. I told her calm down and just look we have time. AHHHH did I just actually smile and tell her we had time NOOOOOOO. But I again being the mother said it would be fine. Every dress we were shown just wasn't what she had envisioned for herself. The lady showing us dresses was so nice and so calm with Amanda which made it easier on me. I looked around myself and found a couple to show her that I thought she might like. She ended up trying on about 5 dresses in this shop. With each dress she tried on she was getting frustrated because for one they were to big on her so she couldn't tell exactly how they would look, but I explained to her that these were basically sample dresses so they needed to be a little bigger for a wide variety of people to try on. The first dress she tried on was one I had found and even though it wasn't her size I could tell it looked beautiful on her. I had to look away so she wouldn't see the tears in my eyes... MY DAUGHTER WAS IN A WEDDING DRESS... After the 5th dress she said she was done, this wasn't fun anymore and wanted to leave. I quickly helped her out of the dress and told her that was fine we could leave. I didn't want her to have a meltdown this early in the game. I knew one was coming I just didn't want it to be so quick. We left the store and discussed the dresses she tried on as we were on our way to the next store. The next store we went to wasn't that far away, and when we got there, there was this young girl sitting behind the counter, she never really looked up at us and we started looking at the dresses on the racks. Well after about 15 min the girl ask if she could help us, DUH... The girl asked what she was looking for and when was her wedding. When she gave her the date of just 2 months ahead, the girl looked at both of us like we had all of a sudden grown another head. We were told that wasn't possible and she couldn't help us and basically she just walked away. Well needless to say we left. We then again discussed looking at a couple more places on my list and she said she didn't want to but that she really liked the 1st dress she tried on, the one that I had picked out for her. I told her then if that is what she wanted and she liked it then we should go back there and get it. Which is what we did. Now all we had to do was set up for the alterations. The bridal shop consultant was wonderful and so helpful which I am so happy and relieved for.

We also looked in this shop for the bridesmaid dresses and she found one she really liked and we thought they would look good on both girls. It also came in the color she wanted or at least that is what the book said. Well long story short a week later, turns out the dress no longer came in the color she wanted. So now we had to look again. Here again I was the calm one, trying to keep the peace and told her if we couldn't find what she wanted I could always make the dresses. Even though secretly I wasn't looking forward to it but I would if needed. After all I still had my granddaughter and great granddaughter and myself to figure out what we were going to wear. We looked and looked at so many dresses my head was spinning. Nothing was what she had envisioned. NOTHING, did I mention NOTHING??? Well in talking to my mother a couple days later about what she was needing to wear she told me she found a couple dresses online she thought would work for the bridesmaids. I went to the website and looked at what she was talking about and yes they were pretty close to what Amanda had envisioned. I quickly copied the website and sent it to my daughters phone so she could look it up. She did and she was excited because yes that is what she wanted. So I called to see if they had the sizes we needed and they did. We made plans to go to the store that night when she got off work. WELL turns out they weren't exactly what she wanted but she guessed they would work. While walking around the store we ran across a dress in the exact color she wanted, style was good for both girls as they both had different shapes and this dress we both though would look good on both girls and wow they had them in the sizes we needed. We talked to the sales clerk and ask if we could put these dresses on hold till the next day so the two girls could try them on. That was not a problem and we put 4 dresses on hold in a couple different sizes just in case. The next day Amanda took the two girls there and they tried them on and they fit, they fit great, they looked great. I got a text from my daughter telling me they worked. I got off the phone and did a happy dance. We now had the bridal gown and both bridesmaid dresses.


We had also found a dress for my granddaughter and great granddaughter and actually she found a dress for me. I was just going to use a dress I already had and just alter it. But she liked the dress she found, I tried it on and it looked great so we got it. We were done dress shopping YEAH.

She decided on what type of decorations she wanted. What the flowers would look like. Which we took my mother with and picked out all the flowers. My mother was going to make all the bouquets, corsages, for the guys and for the vases for the tables. We found the right colors she was looking for, the vases in the colors she was looking for, ribbons etc. She decided she wanted little gift bags for everyone at the wedding that would hold bubbles, matchbooks and a little candy. I made up the pattern for the bags, she scanned it on the computer and put the initial and date on the bags where she wanted it. Printed them out then I cut them out, and glued them all together and put ribbons on the handles. I made 75 little bags. Her and Ed filled them all up. We had a few extra so we figured we could use them to hold the candy she wanted on the tables. We shopped for table coverings, a few hanging lanterns for the ceiling in the pavilion at the park where they were having the reception. We found everything in the colors she wanted. WHEW

There is a Kitchen supply store in town that did catering also, and when they went down to check it out she found they did a cookout type of food also. So that is what they decided to do. So the food for the reception was cookout style. Hamburgers, hot dogs and brats, salads, veggies, chips, fruit and punch. All sounded good and everyone likes cookout food. Amanda had found a picture of a cake she thought was really really nice and so they took the picture to the lady who was doing the cake and she said no problem she could do that. Wow things were really falling into place in a short period of time. Well not without a lot of stress, delays, meltdowns , but still all in all falling into place.
Needless to say I was sweating out the weather thing. After all this summer so far was a scorcher. And even though it hadn't rained in I can't remember when, we still needed to consider that possibility. We kept track of the weather on a daily basis. Because we needed to know how to proceed and what to tell the caterer and cake lady. And of course would have to rethink the reception ideas because we had gotten things for picnic tables not round tables that would be at the church if we needed to do reception there. In the end we had the reception at the park. It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny nice cool slightly windy day. You couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. I was relieved.

The decorating, the rehearsal, the wedding, the reception went off without a hitch. It was an all around WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL day for a wedding. She had lots of friends and family there to share in her day. I had some wonderful close friends there and it was great to be able to visit with them as much as I could with everything going on. Everyone had a good time as was evident in all the smiles and the pictures we have seen so far. Although it was all wonderful, I am glad it is all over. Even now almost 2 weeks later I am just now starting to feel like myself again and not be so stressed and so very very tired.
I know this post was long and lots of pictures, but I hope you enjoyed a small glimpse in what went into getting my daughter married and trying to make her day a very special and memorable day. Thanks for reading.

Graduation and an upcoming wedding

Life once again has kept me busy and not enough hours in the day.  This summer has already started out busy. My grandson Kharson went to his senior prom and he was stressing out about that making sure he got everything he wanted and to make the night special for his girlfriend

 and he graduated from high school June 3rd.

My daughter Amanda and her fiance Ed will be getting married July 28,2012.  We have a short period of time to get ready for this. My daughter really hates to shop when there are lots and lots of things to chose from. She gets frustrated very easy in these instances  So I guess having to plan and execute this wedding in a short period of time is a good thing in a way.  We have found a beautiful wedding dress for her. It actually was in the first place we looked and the first dress she tried on.  Even though this dress didn't fit her exactly it looked perfect on her. So I can only imagine what it will look like once it is tailored to her. She picked out the bridemaids dresses and bought a dress and sandals for Randi to wear. Invitations ordered, photographer scheduled. We have the church and reception area taken care of. They want to have a cookout for the reception and she found a caterer that does that so that part is all ordered. Cake is ordered. We are going to look at flowers this coming Wednesday.  My mother and I are going to put together all the bouquets.  Still lots more to get done but I am sure it will be just fine. Hectic yes, but it will get done.

I am not sure what I am going to wear yet. I am thinking I might just remake a dress I wore for my youngest daughters wedding awhile ago. I paid a small fortune for this dress and only wore it 2x.  It is way to big on me now so it will need to be altered anyway so I am going to see what I can do to make it work. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming summer and enjoys themselves.  Take time for yourself.

Life happens and time passes by quickly

I have not posted in a long time. I can't really give a definitive answer as to why, but I suppose I can safely say Life happens and I lose track of time. Since my last post my granddaughter Morgyn and great granddaughter Randi moved back with her boyfriend, was there about a month and half and has moved back in with me again. Also my grandson Kharson has moved in. He is 18 and a senior in high school. My house is full, very full. Even though I am stressed a lot of the times mostly because of all the stuff around me and the constant movement within this home, I am happy that they are safe here and after all these years of not being able to see Kharson because of his father's hatred for my daughter, Kharson's mother and other things to numerous to mention, Kharson is living here with me. He has always maintained since he was forced by the courts at age 4 to go live with his father that when he got older he was going to come live with me. And pretty much about a week or so after he turned 18 he moved out of his fathers house and now is here. This grandma is happy in that respect that I finally get to have a relationship with my grandson.
I have been busy trying to go through this house and get rid of things and take to goodwill and or just get rid of. I try and devote at least 3 days a week to do this. I just pick an area, drawer, closet etc and go through it. I am making some headway it seems as I have made many trips to drop off stuff at goodwill, but then at times I look around and think I haven't even made a dent. I have been out on my own since I was 18 and I am now 56 so that's a lot of years to accumulate stuff. And boy it seems I have accumulated lots. But it will get done. I am trying to take the motto...Less is More...
My youngest grandson Noah turned 1 the end of March and he is trying to walk. He falls a lot and then decides enough of this stuff and just crawls to where he wants to go. My son Bryce, Noah's father, has decided since he can't seem to find a job around here that doesn't lay him off after a month or so, he is going to join the National Guard. I have mixed emotions about this. But I will support him in the decision he makes.

I am actually going to have a whole evening to myself tonight with absolutely no one here. I can't remember the last time that has happened. I am so looking forward to having some quiet time to myself and I have some craft project in mind to do that I haven't had a chance to get done. I may not do anything also, but enjoy the quiet. I may just decide to sit back and relax and read. Hmm decisions decisions...I guess will have to see how I feel at the time.

I am hoping to keep up with this blog a little better then I have in the past. Will hopefully be able to add some interesting tidbits along the way, time will tell. As I have said, Life happens and it happens fast, it can get away from you quick. Take care and enjoy your day in whatever it is you want or need to do.

Terrible Two's are among us AHHHHHH

I am not sure what happened to my very sweet and loveable great granddaughter Randi...I am positive the Terrible Two monster has taken over her body. She went from this loving adorable child to this thing I don't even recognize. Oh she fools you every once in awhile and loves on you and gives you all sorts of kisses and hugs and plays nice. BUT...just when you think all is well, she smiles and man watch out.

She has become this daredevil and climbs up on everything she possible can whether it is safe or not. I lost count on how many bruises this child has at any given moment from her climbing and ultimately falling. But she gets right back up and finds something else destructive to do.

As you are picking up, fixing something, putting something back she has messed with, She will be into something else and as soon as you call her name and tell her NO for the millionth time, if she has something in her hand she will throw it. Doesn't matter what it is, it gets thrown.
I have baby gates that I use for the hallway and kitchen to try and keep her contained in one room at least where we are at. I can't hook them up the traditional way as I need to be able to let my cat get to her food and litter box, so Randi has figured out how to move them and just head into wherever her little heart desires. They work for awhile but when she wants something and its in her way, she just moves it and gives you this look and says "HaHa" and on her way she goes.

Don't get me wrong I love this child with all my heart, but this old granny just doesn't move like she used to. And Randi knows this and takes full advantage of this knowledge. Her mother (Morgyn) and her are living me at the moment and Morgyn is going to college and will be starting a new job next week. So I am the babysitter while she is gone. By the end of the day or when she takes a nap, which isn't for very long, I try and rest.I hope soon this Terrible Two monster leaves our home and my adorable little one will be her loving self soon. This granny needs a break. :)

On a lighter note, I got to see the Senior pictures of my grandson Kharson. He is such a handsome sweet man. I can't believe he graduates this year. Time sure does fly.

Attitude of Gratitude

This week has been a trying week for me, but I made it through. I hope next week gets better. I do have a lot of things to be grateful for despite having some rough patches here and there. I did end the week on a nice peaceful way. My church had a Nativity Exhibit Friday and Saturday. I was able to go over tonight and see it. There was lots and lots of Nativity things. There was also lots of music going on through this whole event. It was just a wonderful peaceful thing to see. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to see it. This is something from what I understand that is going to be an every year activity. The total exhibit was from Nativity items that belonged to the members of my church in my area. There were Christmas trees, garlands, pictures everywhere. There were poinsettias, red and white ones everywhere also that were bought by the members and then after the exhibit is over we will be able to get them and use them in our homes. This really was a beautiful thing to see and a lot of work went into getting it all accomplished. Here is the website for the Nativity Exhibit if anyone wants to check it out www.valparaisonativityexhibit.blogspot.com

I took some pictures of some of the exhibits that I thought I would share. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did seeing them in person.



This was a crocheted set that was really cute.


The above picture was taken so you could sort of see an overall look of the gym as it was decorated. The Nativity's were all around the perimeter of the gym.
This was in the center of the gym and had the white Nativity's surrounding the tree.
Some Precious Moments Nativity sets.The above was an edible Nativity set. It smelled wonderful in that room and I am so sure that this took a long time to make. There is also a closeup of some of the sheep and of the roof so you get an idea of what it looked like.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead and takes time to enjoy the season and be nice to everyone. Smile always it makes for a nice day and you never know it may mean a lot to someone.