christmas

so the holidays are finally over. my husband worked overtime christmas eve night and all day on christmas. so, we had our family christmas on sunday. our kids are little, so they don't care when christmas is, just so long as it comes. we were able to do something that very few people will ever be able to say they have done: we had dinner at the fire station christmas night. there is something so comforting about being surrounded by other women and children who are living the same life i am. i don't know about other fire departments, but the two i have experience with have both been very family oriented. loved hanging out with all the fire families at the station.
a few days ago i went through my oldest two children's drawers. i found a few things that i knew would be perfect to "recycle". i cut off a pair of my son's old jeans, added some cute fabric and came up with this skirt.













then i cut up two shirts and a pair of pants to make this cozy scarf. i told my son we would go to the store and get some material to make him a scraf.








in other news, i stuck to my goal of maintaining my weight for the holiday season. now it's really time to kick it into gear and lose these extra 10 lbs.
wish me luck!

flamingo toes giveaway

go to http://www.flamingotoes.com to check out her latest giveaway. she also has great tutorials (especially for jewelery).

no kids for 3 days

tomorrow 3 of the 4 kids are headed down to grandma's!!!! is it wrong that i am so, so, so excited? i love my kids, but 3 days without them (bonus: hubby is home the whole time) is the best christmas gift i could have right now. baby #4 is such a good baby, but he has added a huge amount of stress to my life. i feel like i'm always a step behind on everything, and this small break will do me wonders. we also have some fun events planned over the next few days. tomorrow night is the c shift work party. for $50 i'm expecting some dang good food. then friday night we are having a murder mystery party with some friends. should be good times. i've also been working on some different holiday crafts. when i get the next one finished i will post pictures.

those extra 10 lbs

alright, so we all know the holidays (basically halloween through christmas) are not the best time to try to lose weight. especially not those extra 10 baby weight lbs. so, i'm not going to try. what i am going to do is try to maintain my current weight and then after the holidays really start kicking my booty back into shape. as motivation for myself, i'm going to periodically post my diet (as in the food i eat, not as in trying to eat healthy) and exercise routines. yikes! out there for anyone to see! i took a small break from my yoga routine to post this. since it's still early, i haven't had breakfast yet, but i'm planning on yogurt and toast. alright, wish me luck.

yesterday was one of those days

so, yesterday we decided to put up all our christmas decor. fun for the kids, not so much for me. up until 2 years ago i absolutely loved decorating for different holidays. but 2 years ago baby #3 was added and this year #4 was added, and now, the thought of adding even one more bit of chaos into my life sends me over the edge. so, i spent part of yesterday nearing a major freak out; rolling on the ground and praying that the mess would magically disappear. i guess i was hoping santa would send his elves to lend a mother a hand.
thankfully, i have a wonderful husband who, even though it took him awhile, stepped in and took over dinner and the kids. i guess he could tell by my yelling that it was time for me to take a break before i broke. ahh, how nice it was to finally take a shower at 5:00pm and get all the nasty, early morning, gym junk off.
so now our house is festive and i have to admit i'm glad. i've been thinking of different wreaths and center pieces i can make. not to mention christmas is my absolute favorite time to bake and experiment in the kitchen. like tonight i made an "apple upside-down spice cake". delicious on it's on, but will be fabulous with some homemade caramel sauce poured over it.
today has been much better than yesterday, even though hubby is at work. i took my famous fudge to church for the sunday school class i teach. had all the kids begging for more and asking for the recipe. this is a recipe handed down from my grandma and in order for my mom to give it to me i had to promise on my life to never give it out. i even had to refuse it to my mother-in-law. yikes! thankfully she is a very understanding woman.

dad in action!

so, the department was on holiday schedule today, meaning we could go see dad at the station. while we were there, the guys got a call for a fire alarm. it turned out to only be a broken sprinkler system. they have had a lot of those lately, as well as car accidents. we live in a very cold area. we have lows in the negatives.
anyway, the kids were able to see dad in action as he suited up in his turnouts and hopped on the truck. it's always fun to see him doing his job. there is just a certain excitement in his eyes as he's running to the firetruck. it makes me realize that even though he sometimes has to miss out on holidays and he moved me to a state i can honestly say i never wanted to live in and the pay isn't great, we made the right decision for him to follow this dream. how could i ever want him sitting behind a desk when running in to fires is obviously so much more fun for him? he really has found his perfect job.

Holidays with a fireman

we are now coming up on the hardest time of year for any fireman's family. the holidays. don't get me wrong, i love the holidays. my favorite holiday is thanksgiving. and we are spending it with my fabulous in-laws this year.
the only problem is, that unlike most professions, fireman don't get a day off just to give thanks or open present with their children. we are lucky because my husband has thanksgiving off this year. unfortunately, he also works christmas (3 out of the next 4 christmas' actually).
thankfully, santa loves fireman and makes special trips just for them. we are celebrating christmas eve and christmas day on the 26 and 27. i'm not to upset about this. hopefully we will be able to spend some time at the fire station on christmas day. i remember celebrating many holidays on different days while growing up. one of the advantages of having a dad who was a fireman is that i understood (or at least thought i did) exactly what we were getting into when my husband suddenly, after 3 years of marriage, announced that he wanted to be a fireman.
as the kids get older and have more activities, birthdays and holidays missed, it will be harder and harder to get them to understand that sometimes dad just can't be there. of course they will get used to it, but that doesn't mean that sometimes it wouldn't just be nice to have dad there for everything important.
so, for tomorrow, i will just be glad to have my husband sitting beside me. i will just be thankful for everything he is there for, and i will continue to pray for God to allow him to be there for many years to come.
to all the families who will be eating dinner without their fathers tomorrow:
thank you and God bless.

silhouette giveaways!

there are several blogs giving away silhouette machines right now.
http://www.infarrantlycreative.net
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com
http://wearethatfamily.com

http://karaspartyideas.blogspot.com

Things that have kept me busy

So today I thought I'd post some of the projects that have been keeping me busy lately.
I've made pillows, fall decorations, and even a skirt (gasp!) with no pattern. Granted, none of these projects have a professional flare, but still, I'm pretty proud of myself for even trying some of these things. The skirt even has an invisible zipper. I bought myself an invisible zipper foot yesterday and it was actually pretty easy to use. One year ago, I would never have even attempted a zipper. This isn't bragging, but one of the things I really like about myself right now is that I willing to try new things. I find out what is needed to do something and I do it.
(side note: if you've never heard of a book called "It's Just my Nature" you should get it and read it. I'm not totally sold on everything in the book, but I do think it has some good explanations of why people act the way they do.)
So, back to the projects.

Easy Dollar Store crafts. The tray is an old picture frame from the D.I. I spray painted it and then. Rubbed a stain over it to give it a more distressed look.







Pillow I covered. My first attempt at gathering material.










I really like my pear and bird pillow.












Fun, fall, pumpkins.










A pillow for my daughter's bed. She loves pink and her name starts with an "A".









And, finally my skirt. Remember, I had no pattern and I really didn't know what I was doing. I'm not quite finished with it. I need to put some sort of embellishment on skirt and then I will be done.

This is a good day

Right now I'm listening to my daughter sing "the itsy, bitsy spider" and my two oldest boys play. The baby is in his swing and in 2 1/2 hours we get to go to church. i just finished redoing some pillows for my couch and I have more designs planned for tomorrow. Hubby will be at work, so I'll need to find something to keep me busy (like 4 kids 5 and under don't keep me busy enough).
Some days the most ordinary things are what bring me the most joy. Today is definatly one of those days. we've had a busy weekend with friends over for dinner friday night, a murder mystery party yesterday, and dinner at a friend's house to night. Tomorrow I will once again send my husband off to work with a prayer in my heart that he will return home to us safe and sound.
Good days build up my reserves to help me make it through those days when all I want to do is lay down on the ground, kick my feet, roll around, and scream. A little something I've learned from my kids. ;)

Top 10

So hubby's response to reading my first blog, "I didn't think it was so hard being married to me." Uh, oh. Not exactly the response I was looking for. So today, the top ten reasons why being a fireman's wife rocks.
#10: his work schedule (who wouldn't want their husband to have 6 out 9 days off?)
#9: the firehouse is the best and easiest field trip for children (especially his own)
#8: those plastic fire hat they give to the kids provide hours of entertainment.
#7: I always have access to EMS.
#6: the nights he's working I get to count cereal as dinner.
#5: Since (I say this with love and affection) fireman never really grow up, he is a fantastic dad b/c he relates so well with the kids.
#4: Sweet overtime pay.
#3: Honestly, truly, I love the smell of a firehouse.
#2: Thanks to his physically demanding job, I have a sexy man to look at.
and the #1 reason being married to a fireman rocks.....

#1: HELLO!!! I get to be married to a FIREMAN! What women doesn't dream about that?


After the hubs got home I realized I forgot the most important reason being a fireman's wife rocks. When he got home he'd just finished 8 hours of fighting a fire downtown. My kids can honestly say that their dad is a hero. Love ya, honey.

The Beginning

You would think that growing up the daughter of a fireman (yes a fireman, not a fire fighter) I would have come fully equipped to be the wife of a fireman. Unfortunately, the two situations are nothing alike. And equally unfortunate, there is no hand book on either one.
In the two years since my husband was hired on as a full time fireman, I have learned many things. One, to take joy in the moments we have together. Two, that as easy as it would be to make my children the center of my world, that is not healthy to my marriage. Three, it does no good to be jealous of my husband's "other" family. And four, in order to stay sane, I have had to find things that are my own. I have had to expand my comfort zone to include new people and activities. I try to learn about and create new things. Currently I am teaching myself to sew. I search other blogs for new craft ideas almost daily. While I would not consider myself incredibly creative, I do try to push my imagination in different directions.
This blog is one more way I am trying to explore new things. Hopefully I can learn and teach at the same time.