The GIANT Robot!!!

One of the crafts for VBS is a robot the size of a cereal box, which is actually really, really cute!!! So, I decided that in addition to our black tulle outer space, sparkling silver stars, white USA spaceships and rocket signs, that we needed a GIANT robot!

And that's exactly what I created Sunday afternoon. And I had sooooo much fun doing it!!!! :)

Start with several boxes for a body and arms...

Add a few necessary pieces...and...

What do you know?? A giant robot!!

Want to see more photos and details or make one of your own - click here for more!!

Vacation Bible School - Operation Space

The last couple of months I've been working on crafts (I'm the craft director) for Vacation Bible School at church. Our theme is Operation Space and learning about the Bible and His creation. VBS is the third week of July (yep, right after two weeks of camp!), so I've had to get all my crafts, decorations and supplies done and ready before I leave this weekend. A challenge for sure, but I'm just about 10 minutes away from being done!

I'm using one corner of the fellowship hall for our craft area and have been trying to develop a plan for an outer space themed area. After multiple sketches and trial & errors, I decided to block off a 20' area with black tulle.

My plan is to use my photo/quilt background stands and rods to drape tulle to create a wall and ceiling. I started out with a basic plan of the stands and string to hang up the tulle. And then when that didn't work, I went to Dad for ideas. He is making a couple of wooden stands to use and then cutting pvc pipe to connect them and hold the tulle. Magnificent!! I can ALWAYS come up with the ideas and then Dad has to figure out how to make them work! :)

After the black tulle is draped, I have stars and spaceships to hang from the ceiling and wall to create a space area. Sounds cool, doesn't it?? Hopefully all will work as planned when it comes to decorating the church in 2 1/2 weeks.

Oh, wait!!! That's not all!!! Erinn (one of the gals helping me with crafts) and I went to the Learning Center (gotta love that place!) and created signs as well!!! Just take a peek at the entrance and exit signs - I'm sooooo excited!!!!

Entrance!!

Exit!

I still need to add red crepe paper to the end of each rocket to add some more flair, but aren't they cute?!?! We are hoping to part the black tulle for a tunnel effect and putting these signs up to enter in and exit out.

In my sketches, it works beautifully and in real life, hopefully it will fantastic!!!

Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas - Yummy!!!

I found this recipe for chicken enchiladas and cheese (everything is better with cheese!) a couple months ago and I've already made it a couple times. It's quick, easy and very yummy!!

Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup picante sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack & Colby cheese (can use other cheeses as well)
6 flour tortillas
1 small tomato, chopped (opt.)
1 green onion, sliced (opt.)

Stir the coup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder in a medium bowl. Stir one cup picante sauce mixture with the chicken and cheese in another large bowl.

Divide the chicken mixture among the tortillas. Roll up the tortillas and place them seamside down in an 11"x 8" shallow baking dish. Pour the remaining picante sauce mixture over the filled tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil if needed.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling. Top with the tomato and onion and sprinkle with more cheese.

It's time for a bath!

I've been trying to figure out the best way to combat the hair my cats leave on my bed and chair, so I googled, "how to keep cats from shedding?". One of the search results: give them a bath.

Yeah, sure! Actually the concept of giving cats a bath is not a new one to me. In the summer time when we had Rascal, he would get a bath about once a month because his long hair just caught everything. He finally learned to tolerate it and just sat in the tub, looking at you with those pitiful blue eyes.

Skittles and Scamper are another story. I really didn't think it would be that bad, considering that I took Sissie (my cat before Skittles) a bath and while she didn't like it, she didn't resist me. Note to myself to remember in the future: Skittles is much more hyper, stubborn and playful than Sissie and her kitten, Scamper, is just like her.

I figured Scamper would be worse than Skittles, so I started with her. The poor thing thought I was drowning her the way she screamed in addition to Skittles howling on the other side of the bathtub door. But I managed to get her wet, washed with shampoo and rinsed off with me just barely getting wet and no scratches.

One down and one to go!

Skittles was a terror! As soon as I grabbed her and stepped into the tub, she started clawing up my shoulder with HUGE black eyes focused on ME! I managed to get her paw down in the 3" bath of water and that was it. With her howling and Scamper screaming on the other side of the door like she herself was getting another bath, I could not get her back into the water.


After trying to get that hysterical cat back in the water several times, I ended up soaking wet and displaying some rather large scratch marks. If I would have let her, I think she would have scaled the bathtub wall!

I finally threw Scamper out of the bathroom since her racket was not helping the situation one bit and ended up sticking Skittles in the sink, got her wet, shampooed and rinsed off. Finally.

I dried both of them off and in 30 minutes time, they were both happy and content. They don't carry grudges for long! ;)

Spring Cleaning: The kitchen, utility room & bathroom

I've been wanting to tackle these rooms, especially the kitchen for quite a while. Krissa and Jena both took things from my cabinets when they moved, so it's time to do some resorting.

Kitchen:
X basic cleaning
X organize it
X wash & sort cabinets
X clean fridge
X defrost freezer
X clean oven
X clean microwave
X clean dishwasher
X dust/Windex skylight
X find home for new crockpot
X organize cookbook shelf
X sort recipes

You can't ever have TOO many cookbooks!

But they did need sorted and organized - much better!

And I found a home for my new crockpot!

Shelves, closets and every drawer and cabinet are clean and organized!

I think the cat and dog treat supply is ample! ;)

When I can't, God can!

Circumstances happen that I have no control over and can't change, even though I try with all my ability, but God can help me to accept the fact that I just can't do it all on my own.

Areas of my life I want to change and improve are impossible to do on my own, but God can give me the strength when I continually seem to fail.

Decisions can put me at a loss of knowing what to do, but God can give me the wisdom to make the correct choice.

The important thing is that I continually rely on Him!

...even when I can't change what I want to,

...even when I repeatedly fall short of the mark,

...even when I have no clue what to do,

He does! And I just need to trust and rest in him!

photo from allposters.com

Moving Jena to Oklahoma City

Written on Wednesday, May 20th...

After much packing and planning, Jena has finally moved to Oklahoma City and is she ever so excited!!! Too much excitement!!! :)

We took a van-load of stuff and packed Jena's car and headed south on Monday. After lugging all her stuff up two flights of stairs into her apartment, darting from furniture store to furniture store to find the perfect bedroom set and a couple short nights, she's moved and we're home.

You can see pics here - these are the ones I took while Dad and I were there.

Then, Jena has pics on her blog here - these are the updated ones with walls painted, furniture moved in and looks more like "home".

I know, it's been a little while....

....since I've written anything here and no, it's not a lack of things going on....it's the fact that there's not been enough time in the last 10 days to actually finish a single post!

For some reason everything came all at one time, even though I was planning otherwise (like that's a surprise!). Last week we moved Jena to OK City (pics to come!), followed by several things I had to have completed and ready for a Vacation Bible School meeting (oh....I've got fun pics on that too!).

Then I had to finish up some camp memory work and lessons (I know, it's not here til July, but I had to get stuff in early for the staff books). And then in and amongst those things, I was trying to finish my spring cleaning, plus I spent one day at Grandma's washing her windows. So much for getting my spring cleaning done by the 20th...it's still not complete.

After finishing several sewing projects for customers and time spent hunting down fabric for several future projects for customers, I finally was able to stitch a design on a quilt block I needed to do last night. And what do you know - I stitched it in the wrong color. Not because I threaded the wrong color, but merely because the colors were not grouped correctly.

I gave up.

I want to bed.

Today has started off to be much better.

Sometime, I think the issue is that I set unrealistic goals.

And now that Scamper has quit jumping up onto my lap and on my keyboard - btw, I already deleted her keystrokes in this post - I can finally "Publish"!

Last Kid's Klub of the year + BBQ!

Last Wednesday was the last day of Kid's Klub for this school year! The kids did a wonderful job of memorizing the books of the Bible and 10 Commandments! We had a year-end BBQ and the night couldn't be complete without WATER! For the kids, anyway! :)

In addition to that, Lori from church made a cake for Jena and I since she was moving and my birthday was Saturday. That was a fun and sweet surprise!! :)

Here's a few pics and you can see more by clicking here.

Spring Cleaning: The dining room

The dining room is just about the easiest (and smallest!) room to clean, if you don't take everything out of the china cabinet and clean it too. And it was more than time for a complete cleaning job - yes, one that takes each item out, cleans it and puts it back in an organized fashion. :)

But it's finished!

Dinning room:
X basic cleaning
X organize it
X resort china cabinet & drawers
X sort tablecloths
wall decorations

What a mess!

Not only is it clean, but organized in
symmetrical fashion, so the dishes
for the most part are balanced.

Wonderful!

Spring Cleaning: The family room

The family room is always a big job, but I can say it's now done! Some of the items on my list will have to wait, but the majority of it is finished!

Here's my check-off list:

Family room:
X basic cleaning
X organize it
X rearrange furniture
bookcase decorations
tabletop decorations
picture window curtains
burgundy lampshades
change decor above fireplace
X sort DVDs/videos
X prune potted plants
X change water in piano

Entryway - ahhh...so nice!

Once I get all my patriotic decor out, I'll change
the spring decor above the fireplace.

So wonderful!!

Spring Cleaning: The hall closets

Ah, yes - the hall closets. Can't forget about those small, but disorganized areas!

Hall & closets:
X basic cleaning (see below)
X organize it (see below)
X sort blankets/sheets/towels
X put candles & scents on closet shelf
family photos for walls

One of these days, I'm planning to hang family photos on one of the walls in the hall. I'd like to do some new photos of our family to put there, so it could be a while til I get that done. Especially since both my sisters are moving! :)

"Before"

Quite the mess!

"After"

Much better!

Spring Cleaning: The guest bedroom

This room was a breeze since I had already cleaned the majority of it a couple months ago, so I just did a quick touch-up in some areas and cleaned the outside windows.

Here's my checkoff list:

Guest room:
X basic cleaning
X organize it
X decide on quilt/stitch pillows
stitch curtains
X hang up blinds
decorations/stand/lamp
X move Jena's stuff downstairs


Then to decide what quilt to put on the bed.....

Burgundy & Ivory (Jena thinks this quilt is hers)

Yellow & Purple

Old-fashioned looking pink

I was planning on doing the pink, but after putting all three quilts on the bed, I am leaning toward the burgundy & ivory. The burgundy quilt and purple quilt have more color to them which brightens up the white walls.

So, I'm still not sure....and I can't do curtains or a bedskirt until I make a decision on the quilt.

More pics of my babies!

How is it that Skittles and Scamper always look the cutest when I'm trying to clean and involved in something? When I'm ready and waiting with a camera, they never seem to cooperate. I couldn't resist and stopped for a moment to shoot a few pics!

Btw - After a rough week, Skittles is doing well since her surgery. Thankfully she seems to be back to her normal, playful self. :)

The baby is almost as big as mama!

They still love each other and sleep together!

Poor baby - she gets kissed 100 million times a day!

I'm a sweet kitty! :)

Me too! :)

Her shaved paw looks so funny where her IV was last week!

Spring Cleaning: The schoolroom

The schoolroom will always be the schoolroom, even though none of us are still in school. Just like Krissa and Jena's room will always be called such, even though they are moving out.

I really wasn't looking forward to tackling this room, because it was such a mess as you can see by the photo below. Part of it is because Jena has some of her stuff in there and then I have Sunday School, Kid's Klub and camp items everywhere.

But anyway, clean it I did. I still would like to spend more time organizing and sorting my SS and camp material. I keep stationary, Bible books, craft ideas and other things in the desk, so I really need to go through that at some point. But it's ok for now and much better than before.

Here's my checkoff list:

Schoolroom:
X basic cleaning (see below)
X organize it (see below)
X rearrange furniture
X sort SS & Kid's Klub material
X move Krissa's stuff downstairs
X new clock

Spring Cleaning: Main bathroom

The main bathroom upstairs we cleaned and painted last November, so it wasn't too difficult to tackle this time. I do have fabric for curtains (which I totally love!), so maybe next month I can get those stitched. Hopefully.

Main bathroom:
X basic cleaning
X organize it
stitch new curtains
wall decorations

Signs that Spring is here to stay!

blooming lilac bushes

flipflops

green grass & blue skies

luscious flowers

a good roll in the dirt

Dad working outside with Lady taking in the sun nearby