Pyles of Clutter

Tessa on Tuesday--Artist edition

For no apparent reason, which is generally the case, my dad bought Tessa an easel to put in her room. It sat out in the garage for a couple of months until Zoey moved out of the room and it was hers, all hers! Then there was some room for the easel and we set it up, along with all the other artistic materials she could possibly ever want.

This was my first great picture from her:

In case you can't read that, it says, Happy (early) Mother's Day.

She made this for me in February.  

Here's a little close up of this magnificent sign:

How do you like my hair?  Isn't that just a great rendition?  With the little pokey up parts?  ;)

Tessa also decided to have a drawing for a great prize!  There were three people in her drawing, me, Terry, and Zoey.  All the rest of you losers lost out!  ;)

Guess who won?!  This girl!  I won first prize in the drawing of the Pyle house.  This was my prize:

I will proudly display this on my wall.  

Is it humid today?

People.  I laughed right out loud when I saw this....  For a long time....

Today I saw....

Today I saw this guy, looking really tough with his mohawk helmet, and leather gloves. 

And an orange safety vest. 

Riding a scooter that wasn't capable of going over 30 mph. 

But his license plate cover had USMC on it. 

What do you think?  A marine? 

;)

Wishes

Here we go....

So today I was watching a Monk episode where an old prospector hides gold by melting it down and turning it into ink.  Then he proceeds to write and write and write and write and write somemore.  997 journals later, he has used all the gold, 6 million dollars worth, all by writing nonsense. 

I wish all my journals would make that much money for me.  I mean, I write a lot of nonsense. 

;)

If wishes were fishes, we'd all have food. 

Short stuff...

Fifteen minute run down....

**Please warm weather, come back for the weekend.  Please.

**Where has my motivation gone?  I've been missing it about a week now.

**It is definitely wedding season.  Two receptions last weekend, two coming up in the next couple weeks, and many more to come.

**I've been on a recorded TV jag lately.  But somewhere in there, I watched a movie that had all music from the composer Grieg.  I love his music.  I mean, I really LOVE his music. 

**I need to go to the store so badly, but I am having the hardest time making myself go.  I just keep waiting for someone else to do it.

**Meg was home for the weekend.  well, really she's been here about a week.  It was so great to have her here.  When she's here, it feels like she never left.  She just slips right back into the routine.  I love that.  And her.

**AJ was home for the weekend also, but really only for Saturday.  He came to the garage sale that I was at, and visited with me.  I loved to have him there!

**AJ came home for a funeral.  A friend's of his had a baby die, and the funeral was on Saturday.  It was good to have so many friends there together again, being supportive. 

**Our garage sale was a huge success!!  We did very well, and I was so glad!

**Wow, am I tired!  Don't you hate when you feel like it should be Friday already, and it's only Wednesday?  Well, I felt like this yesterday, which is even worse.

**I've been rereading my blog.  I just finished my first year.  I feel like I was so much funnier then.  Maybe that's not true, but it sure seems like it.

**Holy cow!  We only have 13 more days of school!!  How can that be?  But I'm ready.  I truly am.

**And with my last minute, let me say, can you believe that Donald Driver won DWTS??  I never would have thought he could beat out either William or Katherine.  I just thought people would vote for them instead! 

See You Tomorrow!

Today

Today....
I woke up at 4:30 to the sound of pouring rain. I settled into my covers and let the sound wash over my senses. I drifted in and out until 5:30 when I made the decision that it was probably going to be raining in a half hour and I wasn't going to be running. Then I texted Christina, turned off my alarm, and snuggled up to Terry.

Today...
I started the laundry like I always do. I always start Monday with washing sheets and today was no exception. I put them in the dryer then put in towels to wash. When the dryer signaled it was done, I transferred the towels and put in another load. Soon I heard a high pitch noise coming ominously from the dryer. Sure enough, my dryer was no longer drying. No, it's drying, but it isn't tumbling. If I were really resourceful, I would try to fix it myself, but I'm not so I went to the laundromat with all my wet clothes. I do love having all my clothes dry in about a half hour. Clothes dried, and folded, in the presence of total strangers.

Today...
Gloried in having a small house. I started cleaning my house at 7:30 and was done by 9:30. I swept, mopped, and vacuumed. I did dishes, wiped counters and cupboards. I dusted and watered plants and cleaned the fish tank. I scrubbed the bathroom! I cleaned my room and made all the beds with fresh sheets. Plus more but you get the point. When your house is small, it's going to be fast.

And that was my day...

More crafty fun!

I made some more cards this week.  I love to be crafty! 

My inspiration was this:

I got this from Simply Stamped.

Here's my version:

 

As you can see, not too mch the same.  You know, creativity is a funny thing.  I love it!  I can take anything, look at it, put it through my brain for awhile, and come up with something else that may, or may not, be similar to what I started with.  I think that's just fun. 

Here is my other inspiration:

This is from Ashleypaul Etsy Shop

Here is my version:

 

I'm loving it!

In the shady spot...

Here's a funny story.  It's about Tess, but just so you know, it's not Tuesday.  It's still Thursday.  I just don't want you to be confused at all. 

Ahem.

So. Tessa came home the other day and said, "Today, I started teaching ____ the gospel."  Um, this startled me a little because, really, it's Tess.  Who knows what she's 'teaching'.  And it gets better. 

So I ask, "What were you teaching her?"  Tess says, "Well, I started with two stories, Noah and the Resurrection."  Noah and the resurrection?  What is the correlation there?  Anyway, Tess goes on to say, "____ was  a little worried about the resurrection, thinking that she might have to die too, but I told her, we don't all have to die that way. "  Oh good.  "And then we talked about prayer and I was teaching her the position."  The position??  "Yea, like bow your head and stuff."  So where were you teaching all this great stuff?  "We were on the playground, at recess, in the shady spot."  Well, that's great.  Interesting. 

Oh, Tessa.  Way to go!  Way to be a great missionary!

Too bad she didn't get that from me.  I'm the worst ever at sharing the gospel.  I love the gospel!  I love the scriptures!  I know that living by God's laws will only bring happiness and peace in your life!  And yet.....  I have the hardest time expressing that.  It's definitely something I need to work on and pray for the strength to do.  Unlike, my uninhibited 9 year old, that just says, let's talk about the gospel today!  So humbling.  So amazing.  I really have some work to do. 

So. What are ya doin'?

So.  Generally, I like to pretend that no one reads my blog, and it's really more like a journal for me, and then someone will say to me, "You know, I was reading your blog and ....."  It always takes me back a little bit!  First, that someone really is reading my blog, and second, that they had a thought about my randomness.  It can be a little startling.  ;)

I bought a bunch of Baker's Twine to do stuff with, and I'm finding the thing that I really want to do with it is just look at it.  It's just so pretty sitting on my desk, not doing anything but looking very happy.  I can see some cards in my head using it, and I also think there's a couple of crafty projects in their future, but over all I just like looking at it.  *happy sigh*

Honestly, I'm just so tired of having headaches.  At least two or three days of the week I have headaches that pretty much debilitate me.  Seriously.  It has gotten so irritating that I've made doctor's appts to have all my bloodwork, and so on done.  I'm just tired of being out of it.

The dalmation fish finally died. RIP Dolly.

I've been going through all my clothes, all of Tessa's stuff, and the horror that is the garage getting stuff for our big Drill team garage sale!  Not that I have any great stuff to sell, but it's always nice when you can get a little bit out of it.  I look at stuff and see what I paid for it, and you're getting it for $1.  If you think about that too much, you go a little crazy.  Really. 

So come to our Drill team garage sale and car wash.  Saturday, TG Studio on Gibby Road, 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  Be there and spend some money on all my good junk!  ;)

I bought some new movies the other day.  Nothing new about that.  And I haven't even had a chance to watch them yet.  I must schedule my time better!  I love to watch movies!!  I've been trying since it came out to go see "The Avengers."  But first, I had to see Thor, so I would know who the bad guy was, and then I've been hoping to get Terry to go with me.  So far, he's been just a little bit busy to go see any movies.  Bummer.  It might have to be a Redbox for us.  I did, however, get him to go see Hunger Games with me, which was a must.  Although I love the story, the premise of children killing each other, is just a little hard on my heart.  I'm working my way through the third book Mockingjay right now.  I had to take a break from it.

Is it true?  I heard that the sno shack opens today!!  SNO SHACK!!  I love sno cones.  Truly. 

Remember how I was in this super productive mode last week, and now I'm struggling to get any little thing done?  Yea, awesome.  I did get some of my fundraising stuff done, and also found some fun stuff to do for Senseless with Susan.  Oh people!  Bring on the fun!  I'm excited to go to camp now!  The girls have no idea what is waiting for them!

We are ready for the pool to open next weekend!  Who's with me?! 

In the next six weeks, I am jam packed with stuff to do.  Like activities that have to be attended, etc.  Sometimes, it becomes just a little overwhelming, and then I have to tell myself, just one day at a time, one event at a time.  I can do this.  Sheesh.

This is one of my favorite quotes right now:

"Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven.  But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come."  ~Jeffrey R. Holland. 

Til tomorrow.

Love,

me.

Further evidence that Tessa is basically raising herself....

This last weekend, we had our competition at the Great Wolf Lodge in Centrailia.  This competition was not ideal in that you had to pay to go watch your dancer.  I'm a cheap person, people.  Terry has seen all of Zoey's dances, and will see them again at Spring Fest, and at recital.  I'm not paying $20 for him to see them in a ballroom setting, trying to see passed the lady's huge head in front of you.  (No offense to the lady sitting in front of me.)  Consequently, he was on Tessa duty.  Which means they sat in the indoor waterpark all day, he on his Ipad doing work, and her, wandering aimlessly from one pool to the next, making friends willy-nilly.  It's her gift.  And our curse.  Sometimes, honestly, she scares me.  

At one point, we had a friend of ours come up and tell us that Tessa in the wave pool was scaring her.  It was scaring me too.  The wave pool was about 5 feet deep at one end.  Tessa is not five feet tall.  So every once in awhile, I would go to find her and tell her, stay in the shallow end, and she would reply, but there aren't any of the good waves there!  Our friend was telling us that she saw Tessa dogpaddling in the deep end through the waves, barely keeping her head above the water, and when she asked if Tess was doing okay, Tess was like, I'm doing great! See!  My head's above water. 

Well, that's a pretty low standard, now isn't it?  

At any rate, after she had been in the pool for about 7 hours, I told Terry he HAD to take her out of there.  It was time to dry out a little. 

He thought she was doing great, just keeping her head above water.  

;)