The week ahead...

I had someone e-mail me asking what I did when monogramming t-shirts as far as the excess shirt. This is a size 3T girls t-shirt, so pretty small. Most of the shirt is out of the way up top, and I pin the bottom just so it doesn't ease up and get caught in the needle! Onesies and gowns and some other small items are another story!
And here is a true CIRCLE font! This is not a monogram wizard font, but rather a merge font I've had on my computer but FORGOT I had it!! I primarily use mono wizard so I forget about the other fonts I have which I have to merge with my Sew What Pro program. I really like this font! MWP has 2 circle fonts but I like this one much better!

And this is typical Mallory! She is in to E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!! Far worse then the boys ever were!! She is also smart enough to know that when she grabs something she isn't supposed to have, she runs like crazy away from you! Cabinets and doors have to be on lockdown if you want a minute's peace without having to see what she is in to. She is also teething so anything you can find in the evening (right before supper) that will make her happy, you just about let her do it! The other day I let her smoosh and play with a box of Nutrigrain bars for 30 minutes. Today I bought her a toothbrush at Walmart so I let her play with it/chew on it for 10 minutes. Forget all of the toys she has...

Browder is doing VBS at his Gigi's church this week, so I get a little break with just the younger 2. Jeff is still sick and has barely left the bed since Friday night. I guess when he recovers I'll go in with gloves and a mask and sanitize our room! I'm looking forward to next weekend - every June Jeff plays in a golf tournament at Wynlakes so starting last year we sent the kids to Enterprise to visit my parents. I get about 3 whole days with NO KIDS!! Last year I spent hours by the pool reading magazines and soaking in some sun. It was fabulous!! I love love love my kids, but have been with them just about 24/7 since school got out (2 weeks) so the break will be very refreshing! I hope to do LITTLE monogramming and maybe a little cleaning, or I may just do NOTHING!!

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Production schedule this week is 7/day not counting Friday. But... I've done 5 tonight so I'm a little bit ahead! Everyone who brought me stuff last week or ordered anything SHOULD get your stuff back this week before Friday!

A few pictures...

Here's a pic of G in the whale shirt I made him. I already had the red gingham shorts. This is a GREAT whale (from EB)! I've done it in yellow seersucker as well and it was cute! I like the red on the light blue Garanimals T!
And here is G on Mallory's changing table. He had both doors shut inside like a bird! This was an old TV armoire Jeff & I bought when we first got married. It is one of my favorite pieces of furniture so we put it to use as a changing table in her room.

And thanks to this blog, I get many customers and orders from all over! This was a special onesie and bib I did for a sweet first birthday! This went all the way to NY! The mom mentioned taking a photo for her party invitation - great idea!

And lastly, Jeff is so great about taking the kids jogging. B usually rides his scooter, but unfortunately on this day the scooter battery died so I see Jeff headed up the driveway pushing both boys with the scooter in tow! Jeff did make the trip to Primed today (after telling me smartly when I decided to go the other day "you're going to be there for three hours!!!!!"). He has strep throat and tonsilitis!! :( Hopefully the meds and shot will kick in overnight and he'll be back among the living sometime tomorrow!

Today I took the boys to Wynlakes to the pool. Browder has been fine all day after our adventure yesterday to B'ham by the way. Our first pool trip for the year and it was surprisingly fun and easy! I put Mal in sitter service, then ran her home for a nap while Jeff was laid up in the bed. Browder is swimming like a fish and Garrison was up to his neck kicking and doing great in the water (with swimmies on of course)! I could almost lounge in a chair and just watch them!!
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Doing a little monogramming tonight! The production schedule thing worked really well last week. My turnaround is a week to two weeks and I'm finally feeling like I'm not killing myself and sewing 12 hours a day trying to get everything done! Since school has gotten out it has been a challenge balancing 3 kids and work! Thank you Jeff for putting me on the schedule!!

There's something about Birmingham?

About a month ago we attempted a family trip to Birmingham to visit Jeff's brother, shop and eat din din. We got to the 65 exit (still in M'gom) and had to turn around. I had some type of virus and ended up throwing up later that night. We decided to try it again today! I should have known when Browder woke us up at 5:30 AM complaining of an earache that we should have called the whole day off! I got in bed with him and by 7:00 I was sandwiched between him and G in a full size bed. I managed to snooze off and on a while longer. B was still complaining and whining about the ear, so I called the PED and got the 10:00 slot. Seeing as tho I had just got out of bed at 8:36, I had to hustle to get everyone dressed and fed and to the Dr.'s office by 10:00. You know as I'm trying to get them loaded in the car at 10 til, I realize Mallory has a load in her diaper (never fails)!! There's nothing like taking 3 kids to the Dr. when only one is sick. He had an earache - do you sit in the well room or sick room? I sat in the sick room and they played with/touched just about everything in there. We were called back quickly, so now you have the 4 of us stuck in the tiny room! A middle ear infection and a couple of stickers later, we headed out with an Rx for Browder. Race to the PO (which closes at 11) to get a package mailed to NY and by Adams to get the Rx filled, thru Zaxby's and home for a quick lunch. I walked in the door and there were waffles still sitting on the table from b'fast!! Jeff got home not too long after that and next thing I know he's laid out on our bed!! Now he's not feeling good, but we decide to pack up and head out at about 1:00. This is when it got fun. Did I mention that I had to drive? We got to 459 and Browder started puking all over himself - pink no doubt from the amoxicillan! What do we do? We head to 280 as fast as we can and straight to Old Navy to buy the boy a new outfit! I had only brought his PJ's. So we strip him down to his undies in the Summit parking lot and I run in to Old Navy to buy something for him to wear. Of course it took me 30 minutes to pick something out. Polo shirts were 2-fer so I had to find 2 colors in his size and shorts to match. I had coupons too, so I had to check out separately and of course the price of B's shorts was wrong. In the meantime G has to pee so Jeff lets him go right there by the car!! ANYWAY, we get B dressed in his new duds and managed to squeeze in a little shopping! I got some new white jeans/pants at the Gap and a new pair of Yellow Box flops from Belk before we headed to Trey's house. En route there B began to puke some more, but this time luckily in the Old Navy bag!! All was well at Trey's! The kids ate a snack (saltines and a few Ritz), played a little Wii and we headed out to make our 6:30 reservation at PF Changs. Get there, get seated, Jeff is not looking so great. He managed half a lettuce wrap, got his tea to go and spent the rest of dinner in the car, leaving me & Trey with 3 tired, starving and wild kids! They were banging chopsticks like they were drums. Mallory was throwing stuff and pitching a complete fit. I ended up digging a sucker (her first sucker of her life I might add) out of my purse just to appease her for a few minutes while we waited on our food. Thank you Wachovia Teller!! I have no idea what I ate. I scarfed it all down while shoveling anything and everything to Mallory to keep her happy and in the meantime B & G have created 2 ft long sticks with chopsticks and straws stuck together. Got the check, sent M to the car w/ Trey and took the boys to the bathroom. We did the stall thing, washed our hands and did the stall thing again. Gotta love potty training! Washed up again and headed out to the car in hopes of finding Jeff ALIVE! Got everyone's PJ's on and I headed south! I am a terrible night driver but we made it home safe and everyone is fast asleep in their beds! Needless to say, it was what you call "a trip from hell-o"!!!! Nightmare!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm pretty sure Jeff has what I had a couple of weeks ago. Browder... not so sure? He refused to eat lunch and I then gave him a dose of Amoxicillan (msp), so it could be any number of things - ear infection, the antibiotics on an empty stomach, a stomach virus, car sick?? Who knows!! We are not sick people?? We have been sick more in the past month than we have in the past year! The iron seems to be working for me. I didn't realize how sick I was until finally I have felt alive and normal this week! I did have a msg. from my Doc yesterday that they made me an appt. with a Rheumatologist in September. I'm guessing that is a good sign if I can wait all summer? Physical and blood check again the first of July!
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Anyway... I had to "blog" about our little family excursion! Tomorrow is a new day, and Garrison & I hope to be by the pool at Wynlakes at about 10AM. Goodnight!

Saturday update... G was up bright and early as usual, so I convinced him to let me go lay down with him. That didn't last long so I fixed him a bowl of cereal and turned the toons on. Next thing I know I'm entering dreamland and hear "MOM, the toilet water is NOT going down"!!!!!!! Yes Browder has stopped up the toilet with too much toilet paper!! I managed to turn the water off, but not before I'm wading in it. Threw about 9 towels down and plunged about 50 times... nothing. I think it has gone down by now and I'm not sure if Jeff was successful at fishing anything out? I saw him go in with a wire coat hanger. He, by the way, was asking for Primed hours so here we go again!! I'm feeling a bit "tested" here?

A productive day...

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Browder wore "normal clothes" on the evening boat ride Sunday but HAD to go swimming, so he went in his (NOT) tighty-whitey's. It was FREEZING, he was blue and shivering but would not admit he was cold!!
Here is Sissy on the boat. She actually did OK with the awkward life jacket!

And the boys in their swim shirts and life jackets ready for the first Seadoo ride of the year. The water was a bit chilly!

And Happy Birthday Browder (yesterday)! We ate at Tips of course, and the waiter put whip cream on his nose. He got that red under armor shirt for his b-day and I had to peel it off of him today so I could wash it. That, and we had battle today over cleaning up toys and "caring for" his toys and it became a dual between he & I over whether or not I should take away his b-day presents. He told me he didn't care, so I took the shirt off his back along with several other things and put them in "time out". THEN he got it and had a meltdown! It's so hard to be 6!!

Today I was SUPER PRODUCTIVE!! My schedule today was 7 items, and I did twice that - 14!! 2 were things for Mallory so they really didn't count. All of the kids took a good long nap so I had both machines going and got a lot done. I still have a lot to get done this week but if I can have another afternoon or two like today I'll be allllllright!

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My sis in law bought these cute bloomers at My Kids Attic, evidently really cheap. She bought Mallory a pair, her 2 yr old a pair and an extra pair we could use just for the fabric. I had this cute Apples & Oranges green t-shirt laying around so I did the tweet bird on it with matching fabric. I love this bird! I also did the raggy cross today on a burp cloth (another raggy design from EB - love them all). And... I did the beach ball on a jon jon so I replaced my picture today. I think I like the solid colors on the beach ball the best!?

Cha-Ching!!

You know you're an embroidery fanatic when you drive back from the lake early on Memorial Day to hit the sale at Hancock Fabrics!! They had 50% off notions today, so I went in and loaded my buggy with Sulky! I'm very familiar with Sulky brand because that's what they sell at Hancock's here in town and every few months I can get it 50% off! I've tried other brands/stuff and like them too, but have used this so long it's what I'm used to. I ran out of spray adhesive (which you really aren't supposed to use) last week and sent Jeff to get another can. I think he spent like $14 on one can (no coupon or sale). At half off plus an additional 10% off my purchase today only, I got 5 cans for $30! I also stocked up on every type stabilizer I use - all at 50% plus 10%. Luckily I was there from 4:00 to about 5:30 and they closed at 6, so hopefully I didn't make anyone mad who might have come in for Sulky - I didn't leave much on the rack! My #1 stabilizer I use is a medium cutaway and they only had 2 tubes, but the rest ought to last me for a long time, or until the next big sale!
I also picked up these fabrics. Nothing great - a few solids (I was low on yellow) and the pink/yellow circle & turq. w/ white dots is a pique type fabric (textured??). I only got turq. because the lady in front of me in line bought all they had of the other colors. She drove down from B'ham!!

Production schedule for the week is 7 items/day (actually 8 one of those days)!! Yikes! I did quite a bit Sat. night and none yesterday or today as we enjoyed Memorial Day at the lake! And Happy Birthday to Browder today, my first born who at 5:45 pm turned SIX!! He got a red under armor shirt which he has not taken off, and tonight we went to eat at Tips (of course) and then went to Kinnucan's so he could buy some croakies for his sunglasses. He turned 6 right? Croakies?? He also got a Disney digital camera and a new Pac Man plug & play game which has 12 games on it! Saturday he asked if he could add a Wii to his b-day list. Uhhhh.... NO! Maybe Christmas we will jump on the Wii bandwagon. Happy Birthday Browder!

Matching Shorts

I love it when people bring me things to match! Sometimes it's not so easy, but sometimes it is and it's so much fun! I've had this "car" applique forever. It was like one of the first ones I bought and it's so simple. I think I had it on the blog and maybe the sample wasn't very cute? No one ever asked for it so I think I took it off! You may not be able to see the tiny little cars on these Zutano shorts, but they are similar to my old car so I got to revive it!!
And this is my absolute favorite!! I have SOOOOO many designs on my computer and a lot of them I have never stitched out. This is one of them! Again, cute Zutano shorts and I just had to use this airplane to match! I love the colors in the shorts so I think the colors in the plane turned out really cute! The transportation "words" on the shorts were also in all caps, hence his name "WILL" in all caps. What a cute little summer outfit!

I'm down to my last 3 items I'm technically "behind" on, but it's 11:00 and I'm pooped! I'll have to finish Monday! Goodnight!

Happy Memorial Day 2009!

Here is a new design coming soon from EB! My other purse has been very popular, and this one is equally cute! Rachel sent me 6 new designs last week which I finally tested yesterday, and I know she is working on getting the new Dotty applique font on the web soon.
Here is the scalloped patch from a previous post done with a monogram inside rather than a single applique letter. The person I did this for gave me some scrap fabric to use to match some shorts or pants (the orange polka dot). I LOVE this new patch! So many possibilities.

And Happy Memorial Day! I totally forgot I had this cute flag design, so I bought the good ole $3 flag t-shirts for the boys from Walmart today. You can't beat that!! Maybe I can do an applique flag shirt by the 4th of July!?

If you live in Montgomery and have kids, you eat at Chappy's! Lately they have had a yummy cheese pizza on the kids menu. It used to be a real little cheese pizza, but now it's more like pizza sauce & cheese on a flour tortilla (recession pizza perhaps?). Last night we made them at home with the pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. I think Jeff put them on a cookie sheet in the oven first to melt the cheese, then put them on the stove in a skillet just to cook the crust a little crispier (with maybe a little butter). They were GOOD and the kids helped make them, and they loved it! Thank you Chappy's!

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I still have 4 items to do this weekend from last week's "production schedule"! Then I will start over Monday with everything else. It seems to be going well - although the idea was for me to NOT have to work on the weekends. But, yesterday I only did samples for EB and spent the afternoon on the couch watching The Bachelorette on my TIVO, therefore I'm doing a little bit today! I hope everyone has a great (and dry) holiday weekend!! We're headed to Lake Martin tomorrow to celebrate Browder's 6th b-day, which is Monday! Jeff & I always ponder the fact that 6 years ago all we had was a dog!! Now no dog and 3 kids and an insane amount of craziness!

New EB font

I have had a couple of e-mails asking about the new EB applique font. Rachel said she is going to TRY to send out a newsletter and have it up on the web tomorrow (Fri). I have had a couple of people e-mail me and I reply and my e-mail gets returned!? So if I haven't responded to you, I tried!! The 2 I can remember have .rr. in the domain! Sometimes my knology e-mail can't communicate with charter e-mails, so it may be something like that!?
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I went to my Dr. today and my blood counts are still low. He put me on 2x day iron and I'll recheck the first of July when I go in for a physical. The Primed Dr. also called me today, but when I saw my Dr. he had not faxed over the results from Saturday, so still waiting for my Dr. to take a peek at those and see if there's anything else I need to do! I feel much better, but hate all of this medical stuff! I didn't think I was this old??
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My "production schedule" is working out pretty good. Although today I spent most of the day cleaning up pee and poop, then the Dr. and now it's 9:30 and I'm trying to work. I've had Garrison in undies every day this week and every other day is good. Today wasn't one of those days!! I think he peed in them twice, then as soon as I put a pullup on for nap he pooped in it! He did better this evening with Jeff here!? I'm determined to potty train this child!!!!!!!!!!!!
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On a blogger note, the past few days it will not save my layout changes!!?? Maybe I need to delete some stuff? I tried to organize the designs on top and it won't save it, so for now they are not in any order. Most are new EB designs and a couple are other random ones.

Back among the living... I think!

Here is the girl version of the surfboards I did on a big lime green towel! I thought it turned out cute! (The dirty looking spot beneath the middle surfboard is my starting point - air erasable marker which disappears with a little time).
And here is the most precious pillowcase G got from his Aunt Kitty! Browder got one too! I did not sew these, but thought it was so cute and the boys LOVE the pirate-ness of them! (I don't think this is a MW font)

I think I am back among the living! I had a dental appointment today so it was our first outing since school got out with me and all of the kids! I took G with me and my SIL kept the other 2, then I got them back and I took them all to Chappy's to eat lunch, got the boys' hair cut, got me a SB (my first in a WHILE) and came home to a little laundry, cleaning and monogramming. We spent a couple of hours outside this afternoon too when everyone woke up from naps. Before today I've barely gotten the mail! I do go to my Dr. tomorrow afternoon and had Primed fax over my blood labs to my Dr. so hopefully he can recheck and hopefully show everything is back to normal (or headed that way).

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Jeff set me up with a "production schedule" the other night, so this week I'm doing 6 pieces a day. That would mean I could take the weekend off and then figure out my production schedule for next week depending on how much I have on shelf #2. I guess on Monday shelf #2 moves up to shelf #1 and everything new gets put on shelf #2? That puts me completing new items about a week out, which seems reasonable!!

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The new EB applique font is called Dotty I believe, and I'm not sure if it's up on the web yet? Keep checking! Rachel sent me a bunch of new girly designs today too. Once I get done with my "production schedule" for the day I will start working on them!

School is out!

Here are a couple more new designs from www.embroidery-boutique.com. I think Rachel is trying to get these up on the web today (if they aren't up already).
Love love this layered scallop patch, and the "m" is a new alphabet she is releasing also with a variety of sizes and stitches (zig zag, vintage and satin). The patch would be precious with just a monogram or anything else inside!!

Today was our first day sans school. Garrison was up bright and early (6:15 I think?). We tried underwear today and by 11:15 he was on his 3rd pair. Right now he's trying to tear up the blinds in our den... It's going to be a looooonnnnnggggg summer!

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The virus, the neverending virus, is still workin on me! Friday night I computer-diagnosed myself with something horrible so Saturday I got up (feeling awful) and decided I needed to go to Primed. Jeff warned me it would be a 3 hour affair, and it was! 2 hours in the waiting room (after I "called ahead" to sign in). An hour in the back with a little nurse time, more waiting and finally a decent looking doctor! He definitely said I was anemic (but didn't give me any iron supplements or instructions) and other than that said it was "the virus"! Today I made an appt with my regular doc for Thursday. So we'll see (if I don't die first!).

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Hopefully business will be slow & steady for a while. Without school I have very little time for monogramming! Mallory is in to EVERYTHING! If she is not pulling my mouse pad down or pulling fabric out and dragging it all over the floor, she is back in my bathroom sucking on a bottle of hairspray or dialing numbers on the telephone. I don't remember the boys ever getting in to everything as bad as she does? However, my dining room wasn't a sewing room either when they were toddlers! Anyway I'll be doing the very best I can, and will hopefully feel 100% by Thursday if not before!

Monogram Wizard Plus

Have you heard?

http://www.needleheads.com/EF/index.html

Evidently Monogram Wizard Plus is now selling an upgrade with new features. Sounds like you can click and drag instead of the annoying arrow buttons that move the letters 1/1,000 of a CM. Also, rotate and flip. It appears as though you can also import other designs and letters (PES format or the format you use). I personally LOVE Sew What Pro for merging, and I'm not sure how this compares, but it sounds like it might improve Monogram Wizard Plus and make our jobs a little easier!?!? Check it out! Prices seem to range from $80 ++.
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Tomorrow is the last day of school! I'm not sure if I'm excited or terrified or relieved. It'll be nice not to have to get up and go anywhere every single day. And with 3 kids I'll probably save a lot of money. Not a whole lot of fun to drag 3 kids around town shopping when it's 100 degrees! I still seem to be fighting the bug. The fever appears to be gone - I just still feel BLAH and have little appetite. I'm ready to get over this!!!!!!

Under the weather.... again!

Here is another new EB design coming soon! Mallory had these pink gingham bloomers, so sista got a new shirt this week too! All of my kids finally got a shirt from their momma! I need to just keep white t-shirts on hand for sampling so my kids will get to wear my work! I have 4 other new designs to sample (like today) - a lemonade stand (C-U-T-E) and a new alphabet and a couple others.
I swear I was JUST sick a few weeks ago - I threw up and had fever for several days. Well, Mallory came down with the fever Sunday afternoon and by Monday night I had it as well. I didn't think adults could get the infamous "fever virus", but evidently they can! I sewed all day Monday and at 9:00, all of a sudden, my back started hurting so I went to bed with the heating pad. I dozed off and at 11 woke up with 102.8 fever. I thought I was going to die! Yesterday was better and so far no fever today. It has been rough! And I have felt for poor Mallory - if I felt as bad as I did I can just imagine what fever does to her little body! :( She was fever-free yesterday so she's over it and hopefully I am too (and hopefully the boys won't turn up with it either!)
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Yesterday was my 8 yr anniversary being married to Jeff! There wasn't much celebrating going on ~ I think I was laid up in the bed at 7:00 watching American Idol. No good dinner or anything - I ate watermelon which was the only thing that sounded good! We did eat at No. 16 Fri night and it was a lot of fun and the food was all very yummy! We ordered 5 tapas I think and 2 appetizers and it was all great! Happy Anniversary Jeff!
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Friday is the last day of school for about a month. The little ones will go on Tues/Thurs this summer and Browder will be busy with VBS, art camp and the family trip to Seagrove (with my entire family). Browder thinks we have a beach house. We've been going to the same house - I think this is our 4th year - so he calls it "our beach". I'm counting down....

Happy Birthday Garrison!!

G turns 3 today!! Last week of school and then it's serious potty training time for this child!! He LOVES some cake and icing! We had a great Mother's Day/Birthday gathering with Jeff's family and extended family last night!
Sneak peek of a couple of new EB designs! A cute golf bag - luckily I had a white shirt for Browder so he gets a new t-shirt out of the deal! I bought him some turq. gingham cargo shorts at an overstock sale so I did this to match. He'll be 6 soon, so his wearing of this type stuff won't last forever. I think this is a great bigger-boy design!

And I LOVE this - and again, luckily I had a white t-shirt for Garrison so he gets a new t-shirt as well! This is a great summer design!

I also have a few more new designs to test. Maybe Mallory will get a new t-shirt too?

TGIF!!

This is totally random, but does every mom's car look like this after a morning of running errands and picking the kids up from school? This doesn't even look so bad...
This is everything from my car that comes inside at 1:20 when I am home from picking everyone up. Backpacks, lunchboxes, Target bags, etc. It takes me 30 minutes to get everything put up!

Someone sent me a link to this site: http://itsybitsybunny.com/ P-R-E-C-I-O-U-S!! Birthday hats and various bibs and burp cloths. I've made a few birthday hats but these are super duper cute! I wish I had time to make bibs too, but I haven't quite figured out how or when I could do them. Anyway, check out this site for inspiration!?

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Today is Jeff's birthday and of course he is on the golf course. I guess the Flood of May 7th wasn't bad enough to shut the course down today. Tonight we are going to Number 16 at Hampstead with some friends. I haven't been yet so I'm anxious to check it out. Montgomery has very few "cool" places to go eat, and evidently this is one of them. Sunday is Mother's Day. My sweet husband asked me what I wanted, to which my response was a CLEAN HOUSE (also clean garage & shower & carpet). My monthly cleaning lady didn't make it yesterday, was going to come today but called and rescheduled for next Friday! :( I guess that means Mother's Day is delayed for a week?

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I have a few new designs to test for EB today, so I'd better hop to it!

A little scary!

After my post this morning G & I laid on the couch watching The Wiggles. I decided to go check things out and found that the 2 ditches had become one big river flowing beside/behind my house!! Luckily it has receded and you can now see the road again (for the time being - the rain just got hard again??). It has been thundering and lightening all morning so I have not even turned my machine on yet. Hopefully after lunch!?

Our side door view. I almost started making sandbags!! Crazy people were actually driving through it, so you could see waves coming up our driveway like at the beach! Haven't they ever heard of "Turn around, don't drown"?????

Sewing Marathon?

I had planned on cramming in as much sewing as possible today. However, the weather is very questionable this morning. Below are a couple of pics I just took of the drainage ditch behind our house (behind the fence). It is your typical drainage ditch with usually a foot of water. As you can see it looks like we live on a river!! The 2nd one is the ditch right behind my house and the first one is across the street.

Of course I can sew in the rain, but I don't like to have my machine on during thunder & lightening. I have had the power go out before while in the middle of doing someone's t-shirt. Once it goes off you can't just pick up where you left off. So... hopefully the "storm" part of this will pass quickly! I ventured out to take Browder to school and Mallory is napping so it would be a perfect time to SEW!

Our Atlanta Weekend!

Me being "out of commission" meant we spent the weekend in Atlanta this past weekend! We went over Fri. and just took the boys. Jeff had a kitchen/bath show Sat. so we tagged along for a fun family weekend (minus Mallory who is too small!). Fri night we ate at Atlanta Fish Market in Buckhead - YUM! We stayed at the Hampton Inn which the boys LOVED -hotels are so exciting to little kids! Sat. the boys and I shopped and ate lunch, then picked up Jeff and walked around Centennial Park and the boys played on their playgrounds. We then moved to some friends' house from the hotel and had a great time! Sunday we had brunch with family and went to the Braves/Astros game that afternoon. The Braves lost but it was so much fun! Our tickets had passes to the 755 club, which was key to us staying for all 9 innings with a 3 and 6 yr old. (On a side note: if you drive a Lexus, they have an entire parking lot set aside for you to park at. Of course we didn't know that until we had already parked 1/2 mile away at the Orange lot!)Monday - we went to the Georgia Aquarium which was incredible and headed back to Montgomery after that. It was just amazing to see all of the fish and crazy things, like a dragon looking seahorse. And the tiny fragile real seahorses - all things God made! Really incredible! We had a great weekend!

This was at the 755 Club. You can eat lunch inside or out, and they had a section of seating and no one was in it so G was able to play with the seats up and down 2 aisles! It was also "Bark in the Park" day at the game, so an entire section was nothing but Braves fans AND THEIR DOGS!! Small dogs and horse-sized dogs. I'm not sure it smelled so nice and we wondered about all the poop and pee?? It was fun to see though!

Yesterday we had Browder's birthday party (early). He had a joint party with his friend who also has a May birthday and we decided on bowling! His class this year is 10 boys so we invited his class and just a hand full of their other mutual friends. It was so cute and fun, but CRAZY!! And now we are coming upon the week of birthdays. Jeff's is Friday, triplet nieces & nephew Sunday + Mother's Day, Garrison's is Monday, our 8 yr anniversary is Tuesday and Browder's is on the 25th. Worse than Christmas!

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I have gotten little done since last week (the story of my life)! I did monogram a t-shirt for Garrison yesterday, did 1 bag today and am now working on a t-shirt. I'm thinking tomorrow may be sewing marathon!? And next week is the last week of school, so the embroidery will certainly take on a leisurely pace as I have all 3 kids at home until mid-June!! I'm looking forward to not having to be anywhere every morning. I guess it's time to start working on my tan for the pool??

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This morning was my last Starbucks session for a while too I think! :( BTW I didn't get a SB all weekend until we were headed home. We stopped to eat at Zaxby's in Newnan and there happened to be a SB right next door. I got a tall Frap and it wasn't that good. But... I got a grande yesterday and it WAS good! I thought the stomach bug had cured me! Today was my weekly meeting so I got another one and again, good! Our weekly meetings are like therapy! There is nothing like being able to sit and relax and laugh and talk to your friends over a frappacino!! Today I sat with a few of my friends and my mom was in town so she was at the next table with her friend!! I was scoping the place out looking for a good spot they could install a playground - good idea huh?