Just a quick post to thank all of you for listening, commiserating, lending a helping hand (Mom & Dad!), supporting, buying, and just plain being here for me this year. It means a lot to me. I’m also so very thankful for all the new friends I’ve made via this blog and the store this year. It’s so nice to know there are more of us out there in the world and in the Fox Valley. I’d love to name each and every one of you by name and say what you mean to me but I’m sure to forget someone and then I’d feel like a bewb.

Another thing that I am grateful for is my life. Growing up I dreamed of traveling, living in a big city, having glamorous friends, eating fancy food and other “worldly” things. My dreams have mellowed over the years. I no longer dream of a Manhattan penthouse and nights out on the town. But I’m so thankful that even though I live a moderate lifestyle, I’ve had many opportunities to “live the high life.” Here is a meme I found today that illustrates that:

Bold the things you have done, strike out what you will never do:

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (Marlette Red Raiders marching and concert band!)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (One time in a cemetery with a college beau and many years later with Sarah in our backyard.)
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain (Mt. Katahdin in Maine!)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo (Not well!)
11. Bungee jumped - (But I did jump off a 40 ft. cliff into a Minnesota lake!)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child -
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping - (one of the benefits of owning your own pool!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run - (me + hand eye coordination + athletic ability = not likely)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors - (not specifically but I know that there had to be some Wood, Boyne, Doyle or Swailes ancestors from Scotland and England so I’m going to count this one)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - (this is a toughy. As almost everyone, it is easy to always want more but most of the time I do realize that we have more than we really need.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing - (I’d love to but I have fear of heights issues)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke - (again not well!)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - 9even though it was so foggy the visibility was zero!)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - (as a leader not a scout!)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - (Steve brings me flowers all the time. Plus the freaky stalker guy at the mall back in the day that sent me a dozen roses that I “thought” were from Steve until I called Steve to thank him and they weren’t!)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma - (used to be a regular donor but anemia and other weird issues have kept me from donating lately. )
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial - (not in Washington DC but I have visited his tomb in Springfield, IL)
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London - (been to London but didn’t have time to go stand around in a huge crowd to see this, we did see the ravens at the Tower of London.)
77. Broken a bone - (I think I have freakishly strong bones, I was kicked in the chest by a horse, fell out of a loft bed in college and had two nasty snow/ice accidents with nothing more than bad bruises.)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible - (TWICE! Once with my mother, we made it our New Year’s Resolution (I think we may have only done the NT) and again in college when I took Religion:OT & Religion: NT)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life - does donating blood count?
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake - 9but I have swam in at least two of the Great Lakes!)
97. Been involved in a law suit - I did take someone to Small Claims Court in college after she “lost” my bicycle that I loaned her to ride to the bar on a Saturday night.
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee - AND bit by a chipmunk! How many people can say that?
100. Rode an elephant

 
Last week Emma sketched out what she wanted her Halloween costume to look like. She decided she wanted to be a fairy but not a “Disney Princess Fairy”. More like a Woodland Sprite kind of fairy.

She came into the store with me today and on our way we stopped at Joann’s (yes, even I still shop there on occassion!) for materials. We found this metallic stretchy fabric that looked like magical tree bark or something. I added three colors (black,brown and tan) shimmery tulle and some dark olive green cotton knit and we had the makings of a Woodland Fairy costume.

Going by her vision and sketch plus a few ideas of my own this is what we came up with today. The gathered tulle and petals didn’t have enough give to fit over her head so I had to come up with a way to close up an open back. I refuse to put zippers in Halloween costumes so I decided to make loops and lace up the back of the bodice with black satin ribbon. This left the problem of the “hospital gown effect” in the back of the skirt. I solved that by making one more green petal and hand sewing it to one side of the skirt and putting a hook and eye closure on the other side. She also plans to wear a pair of black stretch velvet gymnastic shorts under it on Halloween.

It was a lot of fun working together on this project and coming up with an original design. This will probably be the last Halloween costume I’ll get to make for one of my girls so I had to go out with a bang!

Yesterday was our 19th Anniversary!

It really doesn’t seem like all that long but when I look at so many people around us I realize that it is a pretty big accomplishment in this day and age. We don’t have a magic formula. It is really quite simple. Don’t break up. I’ve quit and given up on a lot of things in my life, but our family and marriage isn’t one of them. Not to say it has been a perfect, blissful, fairytale ride for 20 years. Far from it. We just made a promise to ourselves, each other, our children and our families and we stuck to our commitment and when the going got rough, we knuckled down and got through it.

If I had to make a list of the things that have helped us stick it out and overcome the rough spots it would be:
1) Maintain a sense of humor. Inside jokes, humbling teasing and many other forms of goofiness make life easier in general. Be sure to laugh at yourself most of all.
 
2) Make time for each other. Go on vacations or just out to dinner together. Sometimes all it takes is a cocktail and conversation at the end of the day to feel reconnected. This has gotten easier as the girls have gotten older. Back when they were little we still made the effort to get a sitter or send them to Grandma’s or my sister’s for a weekend so we could be together.

3) Make your family a priority. This one is similar to #2 but in this one we include the girls. We’ve always put a priority on family time. Sometimes it is a big family trip somewhere and others it is just a game of Scrabble or mutually agreed upon movie. We’ve made a point of teaching our girls that family comes first, friends may come and go, but you’ll be sisters forever. It is much easier being a cohesive family unit when everyone is getting along. When the bitching and squabbling start, we know it is time for some forced family fun!

5) Make time to be alone. Personal time and space is just as important as time together. When the girls were little and I was with them 24/7 and Steve was on the road for work for days at a time, my need for alone time was tremendous. If I hadn’t been able to get away to my craft room or go for a walk by myself regularly, I would’ve cracked. There were times that I did crack but Steve helped put the pieces back together and we learned this lesson.

5) Go to bed mad. I know this is counter to the old wives’ tales but hear me out. Sometimes when you are tired and angry prolonging the argument and to continue to try to get your point across just isn’t worth it. Most of the time, a good night’s sleep and a fresh perspective is all that is needed. Just be sure to take the time when both parties are rested and calmed down to revisit the issue and resolve it or it will rear its ugly head at another time and in another form.