Let's Roll...er!

We've been so sacked with craft projects, it's been crazy around here! Trying to fit them into our generally overbooked routine, as well as my need to get my continuing ed done by the end of the month for my pharm tech license, has been a harsh reality, but i have to say that the crafts have come along quite nicely.

Neice's b/d gift of homemade felt iced sugar cookies with sprinkles specially designed by Nona and myself with a handmade apron from our friend, Kim the Soap Lady.

The party favours are almost done:

14 Freezer paper stenciled tee's for Nona's 7th b/d roller-bash.

(the boys' shirt have black skates and a flat top on the skate--looking a little more manly that way.)

And with all the general routines, late nights, and preparations for grandparents visits and Nona's b/d, you can imagine that when this time rolls around every evening...

(view of the Green River Valley from our living room)

you can betcha that we look a little something like this.

Thank goodness the party is this Sunday!
Then we can rest up for Thanksgiving preps. And the CE. Most of the sites i used two years ago have gone the way of the dodo--anything free is hard to come by these days. If anyone knows of some good free health care CE sites besides PowerPak, could you pass them along in the comments section of this post? Thanks!

All Soul's Day

Prayers today are offered for our beloved family who have made the journey to Heaven before us.

Deac. Anthony J. Mactutis

Uncle Joe Horton

Donald Johansen

Virginia Whitfield

Paul and Glenna Neal

Dorothy V. Johansen (and her husband, Christian, not pictured)

Anthony and Josephine Mactutis (newlyweds in the picture)

My Nonny (great grandma)

Great Grandpa Whitfield
Hans-Jergen Brode (my German Dad since i was an exchange student in their family)
Also those not pictured:
Babies Hannah and Christian and our dear friend, Grace P.

All's Saints Day

Just a few of our family's beloved saints we are thankful for today:

Mother Mary

St. Patrick

St. Anthony


St. Valentine

St. Padre Pio

St. Michael

St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Philomena

and a new one we've been becoming inspired by...

St. Damien of Molokai

We look forward to the day when we will be able to add Bl. Theresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II to our list of favourite saints!!

Happy Halloween!

Our last soccer game was this morning. As you can see, the field and it's surroundings set the stage for a eerie start to the morning.

These trees belong to one of the only urban farms left in Des Moines. They have a few horses there that we've seen during the games. I am super surprised that anyone would keep animals like that there, because the planes come in to SeaTac Airport right over the top of them.

Sure is beautiful though!

Kinda reminds me of this:

from our honeymoon to Ireland in 2001.

Bunratty Castle

And thanks to Grandma's mad sewing skills, she made dreams come true for Ri this year:

"The Fairy Grandmother" made this costume for our little Nonarella!

Hope you all have a Halloween filled with more treats than tricks, and a blessed All Saint's Day.

Candy Corn

Ri has this cute stuffed candy corn that tells jokes when you squeeze it.

This is one of our favourites, we hope you like it too.

What's a monster's favourite state? North Scare-olina.

Bah dump bump, chssshhh.

The Cat's Out of the Bag

What do you get when you mix a cute little Halloween print with some broadcloth, a sheet of felt, and a few letter buttons? A darling little Halloween bag, that's what! Perhaps it's more accurate to to title this post as "The Cat's on the Bag".

A few posts ago, i mentioned my To Do list for the remainder of the month. On that To Do was an adorable little bag like this one by a very talented Western WA sewer, who graciously posted her tutourial on her blog.

Here they are...join me in a photo-documented fashion show sporting Nona's new t'n't bag.

It can be worn cat-side out.

And when one's eyes tire of looking at the caution yellow, it can be inverted to show off all it's orangy goodness.

Parents and children alike will love to use this bag for more than just goodie collecting--i can hear the comments you'll get now from errands to the library, grocer, toy store....anywhere --with such a sporty sack. "Oh, look at that, Martha, isn't she so seasonally hip with her cute bag!"

Another handy way to use this bag,

just incase you still haven't found a costume in time to go out T'n'Ting:

You can wear it on your head!

Insta-costume!

Okay, okay, so that last part there was a little Charlie Brown-ie-ish, and yes, if a grown adult showed up on your door like this, you'd probably give them a rock. (Hey, this costume's 10X better than the one i heard about from the Deacon at our church last night--last year, he had a 12 year old show up on his doorstep on Halloween all decked out in a sweet looking suit and when he asked what the kid was supposed to be, he replied, "A hired assassin." Obviously the kid knocked on the wrong house for candy, eh?) Seriously though, catching the scene with CB donning his "wholy ghost" costume is really the only reason we adults still watch the It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown cartoon. :o)

Frankly, i'm amazed that the bags actually turned out, under my leadership. Let's just say i have a love/hate relationship with sewing for now. Someday, i hope to be more advanced and clever at the ol' machine sewing. Thanks to Allison of Cluck. Cluck. Sew. for making this sewing achievement possible with her easy-to-follow tutourial!

More Tricks Than Treats

Hoping you all had a great weekend this past weekend.

I can't believe it's almost Halloween. Where did the rest of October go?


And i really don't want to believe that the rainy season is on us, especially with the potential flooding.


Today we are homebound...and not just sticking around the home, but stuck in the house. It's raining so hard that i think our chickens are going to have to find a way to survive yet another day inside the coop, or else they'd be swimming in the front yard. :o)


It's just one of those days where you need a little something in your morning coffee. Where you feel like if you donned every article of clothing that you own, you still wouldn't be warm enough (my dad refers to these days as the days when you need to "bring in the brass monkey".) :o) Where the computer has every intention of finding new ways to drive you batty. Where you wish God had blessed your child with just an ounce of concentration this morning, instead of 3 pounds of excuses about why she can't do 2 math problems this morning in less than an hour. Where, quite honestly, you'd just love it if you could just yell "DO OVER!" and everyone would just crawl right back into bed and sleep for another 8 hours. :o)



Har-rumph!



I have managed to get a little done today so far.


One of the numerous piles has been eliminated from the living room. And a few papers have been recycled from the dining room/school room. Word of advice for anyone homeschooling: the dining room can be a great place for your school, just that the dining room table is probably not the best work area. For the same reasons why a designated craft desk, or even better a whole room, is much better than trying to get craft projects done between meals. :o)


While cashing in on "me" time this morning, before Ri woke up, i finished a Halloween project.


We decorated the mantle.


I've managed not to fill up the kitchen sink with dirty dishes (per usual) before lunchtime!



Hooray me!



Since, as i mentioned above, our computer is on the fritz, the blogposts here may be a bit sketchy, but i will take pictures and have updates as this crazy contraption allows.

And if you don't hear from me by next weekend, i hope you and your families have a truly wonderful Halloween, filled with lots of cute litle goblins of the not so scary kind knocking on your door. :o)