Going for the “Big Squeeze” tomorrow…

Yep…time for a mammogram.  Fun, fun, fun.  Actually this is a followup mammo from about 6 months ago when I found a lump in my left breast.  I was very scared (several people in my family have/have had cancer) and went through a lot of testing, but Praise God it turned out to be nothing serious, just some dense fibrous tissue.  But they want to do this 6-month followup just to make sure nothing has changed since that time.  My appointment is at 1 pm EST, so if you think of it, please say a little prayer for me!  Thankfully this IS a digital mammo, so I will have the results immediately…no waiting!  If you have the opportunity, I highly, highly recommend going digital when it comes to the mammo – I’ve had both and digital is MUCH better!

The “upside” to this visit is that I get to stop by Hobby Lobby while I’m in Lexington!  (The doctor’s appt. is in Lexington, which is almost 2 hours away from me).  I have NEVER been to a HL in my life so I’m excited!  If I get a good report, I’m gonna treat myself to some scrappy stuff!  If I should get a bad report (God forbid!), I’m gonna soothe myself with some scrappy stuff.    It’s a win-win situtation I think.

 

Anyway, better head off to bed…I have that 2 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow…and of course the “Big Squeeze”!!

Baseball…again!

Well, you might as well get used to it…I’ll probably be posting a lot of baseball pics over the next couple months!  Here are a few from tonight – they are a little ‘noisy’ (or grainy) b/c I had to crank up my ISO since it was late in the evening and VERY overcast – as a matter of fact it started raining HARD just as our game was over!  They were all taken at ISO:1600, SS:1/800, F5.6

Here’s my son on deck:

Him batting:

And running into 1st- check out his cute little tongue!  :

And here…he was saying to the 1st base coach “I think we’re gonna win this one!”

Did we win?  No, we didn’t.  They played really good for the first 3 innings, and were ahead during that time…but after that the just kinda quit…it was SO cold out there tonight – and windy and sprinking rain part of the time.  I think they just couldn’t concentrate b/c of the cold!

Anyway…thanks for looking!  You might see more this weekend…another game!

Black Crayon + Dryer = A huge mess!

Yes, one of my dear, lovely chidren apparently stuck a black crayon (of all colors!) in one of their pockets and it got washed…and then dried…which caused it to melt…all over every single piece of clothing.  Most importantly…ALL my son’s SCHOOL UNIFORMS!!   I don’t have pics to share…I thought about it after it was too late…but let me tell you, it was BAD.  There was black stuff everywhere on his clothes, it almost looked like he’d laid down in a tar pit and rolled around.  I was sure they were ruined.  But I figured I should at least give it a shot (beats buying ALL new uniforms, right???)  Well, almost hours, 2 Stain Sticks and 1.5 bottles of Oxi-Clean spray and several scoops of powdered oxi-clean later…we now have CLEAN uniforms!  Woo-hoo!   I could NOT believe that it took it all out, but it did.  Wanna know the secret?  Well, I’m not sure if I’d call it a ’secret’, but here’s what worked for me:

Step 1:  Rub the Stain Stick all over the bad areas (in my case…pretty much the entire garment!).

Step 2:  Spray Oxi-Clean spray all over the bad areas (again, in my case…all over!).

Step 3:  Fold the clothes “onto” themselves so that the spray will say moist longer.

Step 4:  Let them sit for about 30 minutes (at least…you can let them sit overnight even).

Step 5:  Put clothes in washer, add detergent like normal, and add 3 scoops of oxi-clean powder (overdoing it?  Maybe…but it worked!), let washer fill and agitate, but DO NOT LET IT SPIN OUT!

Step 6:  Let clothes soak in the washer for at least 30 minutes.  Then wash as usual.    Viola!  No more crayon!

 

Like I said, it took me a LONG time to stain stick AND oxi-clean spray EVERY spot on EVERY peice of clothing in that load (it was a BIG load of clothes too!), but it was well worth it to not have to buy all new uniforms and other clothes for my kid!

Handmade Card Storage

I make a lot of cards, and I finally found a way to organize them so that I can grab exactly what I need quickly and not have to dig through them ALL everytime I need a card.  I had a pink metal box/tin that I decided to use.  I made dividers for different occasions – birthday, thank you, etc.  I even have a “blank” section for cards that have no sentiment so that I can use them for anything, or simply stamp on a quick sentiment when I need it.

Here’s what it looks like:

Baseball Opening Day

Last weekend was opening day for my son’s little league baseball team.  Here are few pics I snagged throughout the day…

My son:

Waiting for their pictures to be taken:

Isn’t he so cute ^^  ???    I love my boy!

Homeschool Banquet/Prom Photo Shoot…

 Well, I had a blast last night shooting at the Homeschool banquet.  The kids were a lot of fun, and I feel like the photos turned out well.  Almost everyone ordered too!    I wish I’d had more time to be more ‘creative’ with posing and such, but we were on a pretty tight schedule, so I basically did a full length and a closeup of each person/couple.

Here are a few of my faves from the night.  And…I snuck in some shots of an ADORABLE baby too! (He was the little brother of 2 of the kids at the banquet)  The mom said she’d like to schedule a photo shoot for him soon too!    Just click on the photo for a larger view.

I have some other photos to share too…I’ll do seperate posts, though!

AW&CT April DT Projects

I have completed several projects for the April DT on Angels Wings & Crafty Things…if you’d like to see them, please run on over to AW&CT!  to see what I and the other gals – Robin, Tricia, Lee, Ema & Deb – have created!  (Love you girls!)  And while you’re at it…why don’t you just join the AW&CT family – that great 6-month participation contest is still going on…and I happen to know that there is going to be a great prize for this month’s winner!    Trust me…you’ll love it!

I still don’t know anything about the bakery job…the girl has been so busy that we haven’t been able to talk yet – so I’ll keep y’all posted!  I did withdraw my application here at the church though.

Planning a Willy Wonka party…

Well, my soon-to-be 5 year old daughter has decided she wants to have a “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory” birthday party – that’s her favorite movie right now.  So, I’m tryig to come up with ideas for decorating and for games…if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!  I only have about 2 weeks until the party, so I’m under the gun here!

I already have the invitation planned out – I’m making my own wrappers for Hershey bars to look like a Wonka bar and the golden ticket inside will have the party info on it – when, where, time, etc. 

 

Decisions, Decisions…

I still don’t know what to do about the whole job thing.   I found out today that they have narrowed the applications for the admin. assistant at church down to just a few, and I was included in that few. 

But I also think I’l enjoy working at the bakery/cafe.  I am talking to the owner about the job a little more today.
I just don’t know what to do!  Someone help me!  AKKK!  Yikes…I dont’ have time for a crisis…gotta go get the kids.  I will update when I figure out more!

Cowboy Hat Cake & Wedding Cake…

I’ve not done many cakes lately, but I did do this one for my son’s Birthday a few weeks ago.  It was butter pecan cake with caramel filling:

And this was a wedding cake from this weekend:  White Almond Cake with buttercream filling, Triple CHocolate cake with caramel filling and Raspberry Lace cake with buttercream filling.  Iced in buttercream and adorned with fresh flowers – those orchids were beautiful and smelled divine!

Although I thought I didn’t want to do many cakes this year, I’m considering working for a girl here who just opened a cafe/bakery downtown.  She needs to hire another baker/decorator and so we’ve been talking about that.  I will know more tomorrow.  I’ll update when I get more info!