Diaper Cake

Here is my first attempt at a diaper cake. It is for a baby shower I am helping hostess for some friends. I have seen diaper cakes where all the diapers were rolled and rubber banded individually. I thought that would hinder the use of the diapers, since mommies are usually working with one hand! I just rubber banded the diapers in a general round shape instead. Since it is a boy I wanted to minimize the "frou frou" and stick to a clean design. I almost forgot...the cost for this gift: $25.00. This includes diapers, snuggle blanket bear, baby socks (2nd pair is tucked into cake), wood decor and ribbon.

Weekend in Pictures...and Words

Fall festival did not disappoint! It was another fun year with our friends and family. I got all my cakes, cupcakes and pies finished for the cake walk...and in the end no one in my family won one dessert! Clyde did buy a raspberry cheesecake at the pie auction, so we still brought home sweets. Our concession stand made some money, but by the time we cleaned the dishes and school kitchen we were too tired to count the money. The money goes to the class fund, so that in their 11th grade year they can host the prom for the seniors. They will do more community fund raisers and their senior year they will take a trip (or split the cash among the class for college expenses). It's a tradition! Another tradition is the 3rd and 4th grade class ring toss; where the kids toss hoops onto 20 oz soda bottles and win the soda. A mom suggested that next year we provide rain coats for opening the cokes. Later the teacher told me the Dawson came to class dragging his 6-pack of sodas behind him and that 2 sodas were no longer on the plastic rings...hmmm, I wonder whose sodas spewed!

This year at Fall Festival we had a new face painting booth:

Another fun new booth was, "Decorate your own cupcake":
Saturday Blake had practice for National 4H Family and Consumers Science Contest, which will be held in Denver in January. We decided since we were in town that we would go to First Baptist Church Fall Carnival. We had never been and it was a blast! There were games, food and door prizes for the adults. We won a gift certificate for a family size pasta from Pizza H*ut. So, we ordered some pizzas and our pasta and headed home to Trick or Treat at some of our generous neighbors. So many of them look forward to our coming by because they never have visitors. I loved it this year that when we got to a friends house they told the kids that they wondered where they were (we ran later than usual because of the carnival). How sweet is that?

It's pretty astonishing to me that we visit less than 10 houses and come home with this:

Shaylee plans to do an "I spy" with this picture:

A Busy House is a Happy House

We must be very, very happy! This time of year really is my favorite, it is the beginning of what I like to call "family season". It is when we take time out to really visit and be with our families and friends.

Tomorrow night is our annual Fall Festival at school, when all of the community gathers for a night of old-fashioned carnival style games and family bingo! This year Blake's 10th grade class is in charge of the concession stand. We will be serving barbecue brisket on a bun, hot dogs, nachos, Frito pie and homemade desserts. All of the classes at our school are very small (the largest being 12 students, which is 5-6th grades combined), so every family has a big role in making sure the Fall Festival is a success. I will be bringing many desserts for the concession and cake walk! I started making the desserts last night. I baked a chocolate cake, 12 jumbo red velvet cupcakes and a brownie to make brownie pizza. My kids weren't too happy about not partaking in the goodies, but I did let them lick several spoons/bowls, etc. This reminds me of a school paper I recently found in Dawson's desk. It had a writing prompt that said, "My House..." and he wrote, "smells like food." This mama's pride did swell.

Hopefully tonight I can finish all of my baking, because I need to be at the school right after work tomorrow for set up. Today is the costume parade at school. The elementary students dress up and parade onto the school stage, it is so cute! Then the senior class gives every child an award and some candy; the awards are silly, "the roughest toughest cowboy" or "the most fair sparkly princess". While the kids wait for the awards they get to tell silly/dumb home made (hehe) jokes, usually something about what the skeleton said to the mummy!

Such good times, such sweet memories.

He Really Knows Me

On my drive to work this morning I was thinking about really knowing people, or for that matter, really knowing myself. Probably a result of too much Face*Book and seeing people's lives in clips of perfection. It brought a memory to mind from a long time ago...

I was a curious and exploring girl of about 11. One afternoon I climbed the ladder into our attic. It was a mystical place where you had to consider every step. I had been there before, but my curiosity wasn't strong enough to battle spider webs and dusty breaths, so in the past I escaped as quickly as I'd arrived. This time was different, especially after I'd spotted the trunk. It was wooden, covered in embossed silvery tin and it was very old. The lid creaked as I unhinged the latch and carefully lifted the lid. No amount of dragging would take me away this time. Inside was another world, one I did not know existed;one before me, but I quickly discovered that my parents had been there before. There were old dimly colored photographs, a stack of white scalloped-edge wedding napkins imprinted with a date in gold lettering, a shiny silver cigarette lighter and a stack of opened letters neatly stacked and tied with a satin purple ribbon. Some items were curious like the lighter,my dad had never been a smoker, and the date on the napkins wasn't my parents wedding anniversary. Hmmm. After I placed everything safely back in it's place in the trunk I gingerly stepped back down the ladder. I had a new mission: to find out who's trunk was in our attic! Of course, this meant admitting to my mama that I had been in the attic "snooping", but surely she wouldn't mind my discovery of this treasure. I went to her and explained all my magnificent finds, first the lighter, to whom did it belong? She shared with me that while my daddy was in Vietnam he had started smoking and that the lighter was my daddy's from back then, but that he quit "cold turkey" when they met, because he knew my mama didn't like that habit. Well then what about those fancy napkins, with the peculiar date? That's when my mama told me that she and daddy had planned a huge gala of a wedding, complete with setting a date and buying the imprinted napkins. Then my daddy, who had recently gotten home from Vietnam, found a job out of state. This meant my mama and daddy would be apart for a while until the wedding and they couldn't stand that thought, so they just got married. No fancy wedding, no big cake, no need for all those napkins. That explains those people I don't know in the picture with you and daddy and a preacher with a Bible. What about those letters tied with purple ribbon? They were all the correspondence between my mama and daddy from the first day they met until they married. I found out the trunk and all it's contents were indeed ours, including the dried carnation corsage and the college prom picture of my mama with some other guy.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
and see if [there be any] wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24

Where We Wash Part 2-ish

Here are just a few pictures of the headway we are making on our home. First the shower that I finally finished grouting this weekend. The next step is for Clyde to install shower doors. The tub I tiled/grouted in the same bathroom. The next step is to install a bead board tub skirt.And finally, my laundry room sink, all installed. This came from my grandparents ranch house...in which they never had running water! My grandmother had a plastic tub that she put in the sink bowl where she washed dishes with water hauled in from the windmill and heated on the stove. I am overwhelmed at the goodness of our God and his provision of strength. I only dreamed we would get to this point in our house building. There were days that I thought we couldn't do anymore. Clyde ordered all of the trim today-1/4 mile of floor trim. We press on.

Pictures from ENM State Fair

Macey Update

Thanks for praying for Macey. She has really been feeling better the last couple of days. We did go ahead and take her for a second opinion, to a bone-joint specialist. We found out that she has Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome: it is an overuse syndrome related to excessive stress and minor alignment abnormalities usually in the knee joint and kneecap. In Macey's case her kneecaps go to the outside of her knee slightly when her legs are bent; which until today I never noticed. She started playing volleyball this year, which aggravated her knees and in turn caused issues with her ankles too (tendinitis). Finally, her body screamed "enough" through pain and nausea. The good news is this can be treated with physical therapy and use of knee braces during physical activity. I am so thankful for a bright and astute doctor that knew exactly what was going on.

Life in the Country Lane

I have been having some major "argh" (yes, the piratey version) with my computer connection speed at work and home. It is driving me crazy! Is the net on fall break or what?

I am hoping to post some pictures soon, if they will load. The kids showed goats at the Eastern NM State Fair last week. We didn't do well with placings, but I got some cute pics! We had a fun time hanging with the kids, they got to swim in the hotel pool and we got some yummy eats at the fair; including the infamous turkey leg (which admittedly looks so gross) which my daughter loves and some awesome super nachos. We also toured the exhibit barns and saw all the classic fun fair entries: a beautiful wedding cake, 4H cookies and biscuits, jams and jellies, gorgeous paintings and photos by local artists and lots of other eye candy!

This week I've had the "excitement" of having a sicky girl. What started last Friday as a "little pain" in Macey's, who is 11, knee has developed into bad pain in her knees and ankles along with some nausea. She will walk some, but when the pain starts she either crawls or just lies down. We've taken her to the doctor twice; including getting blood and other tests (CBC,SED rate, strep culture) which all came back normal. Still waiting on a stomach virus test. The doctor really thinks she is experiencing severe growing pains. Which is not something either Clyde or I recall experiencing ourselves. We are thinking seriously about a second opinion, but are "iffy" with all the normal test results. So pray for her and for her mama and daddy to have wisdom.

Sometimes life goes by too fast and I know that days, like those at the fair, will be ones I remember fondly. Other times life creeps, like when your children are sick, and there isn't an easy answer. No matter what, it is obvious that I am not in charge, which I know is a good thing.