It's Long.

Grammy, I am so sorry that my computer skills have been lacking lately... I'm certainly not trying to ignore you (or any of my other faithful readers)!!!  I will try to remember what has happened since early August, when I last posted... has it really been that long???  I will start with all the house projects, well, at least the ones I took pictures of!

Our oven stopped working... turned out... blah, blah, blah, I honestly don't remember.  But, I do know that it was a common problem and that J just had to reconnect the wires in the back.  We pulled out too much of the stove to start with so it ended up being more work, but it's fixed now!

Our front lights didn't work and this one was hanging by it's wires :(

So, we replaced them.  Yes, Mom (because I know you'll notice), this is actually the light on the other side of the door... sorry I wasn't consistent in my picture taking... we did replace both sides!

So, J removed the box from around these lights in the kitchen when we first moved it.  But, while he was off for two weeks, he replaced the old fluorescents with....

Six, canned lights, a new island light (not pictured), and...

... a new, over-the-sink light.  He also painted the ceiling and...

...the bathroom walls and ceiling!!!

Mid September, I painted the brown accent walls and the other walls in a creamish color, and found out I was pregnant again! That is really the main reason I have not updated a thing... I spent a lot of time either napping or laying on the couch because I was tired and didn't feel good... lets just say everyone was fed, bathed, clothed and beyond that...

At some point, TW shot his first squirrel (we had him eat it for dinner)... this is in the house category because...

... he mounted this to his bedroom wall (boys).

Last month we took a trip to Iowa and returned with our friend, Mr. Deerhead.

Okay, out of the house category, and back to August... somebody had their 2nd birthday!

And J's mom visited (so did his brother and sister-in-law)... we were visiting Fort Caroline in this picture!

And now a school picture (sorry these are so... random).  We (the triplets) learned the letter B, which, of course, involves making butter.  We tried shaping it, we failed, but they didn't care.

One afternoon, the kids decided to enlarge the holes Mamie has been digging.  Just a note, TW is sitting, not standing, in the hole.

They were filthy.

I don't think this was right after the digging episode, but, the boys decided, for some reason, to water the cement around the pool.  Mom, that's the pool net.

And, with amazing speed, we have caught up to the last month!  Mid November, the girls and Smaug got an "icky cold".  Smaug ended up with pneumonia.  Fortunately, paranoid Mama took him to the ER in time to catch the ickiness in it's early stages, and he did not need to stay in the hospital, unlike his older sister.

The very next week, I had my first doctors appointment.  Not surprisingly (don't read that wrong, we were praying for a different outcome, but after our history, we are no longer astonished beyond belief), our little baby had no heartbeat.  This time, however, we caught it just a day or so later, rather than weeks.  I was 10 weeks along at that point.  That night, J called his dad with the news.  He had news of his own... both J's step mom and J's grandpa had been taken to the ER (separately) and ended up in adjoining ER rooms.  Grandpa was admitted to the hospital.  

Next morning (Friday), I had surgery.  Given two failed attempts using medication, I opted for this route.  Sunday, we got a call that Grandpa had passed away.  Monday, we headed to Iowa.

Funerals are not always happy occasions, there were a lot of tears, and for me the tears were coming for all different reasons all at the same time.  But, despite the sadness, the kids found some time to tackle their grandpa.

And hang out with their uncles and extended cousins.

And pose with their first cousins, on J's mom's side...

... and J's dad's side.

The memorial was in Iowa, but the burial was in Missouri, so we had a seven hour journey south, some of the kids took naps, in their crooked hats (reminds me of my dad) ;)

The weather during the funeral temperatures were not optimal.  Uncle D made the speech short, and sweet :)

And, since we were a mere 4 hours from Little Rock, we had to visit our friends :)

Upon our return, we had one week to get ready for daddy's deployment and celebrate Thanksgiving.  I can't remember what we were making here, but TW wanted to take a picture!

Sunday after Thanksgiving came, and it was time to take Daddy to the airport to fly away for a really long time :(

So, the rest of these pictures show what we have done in the past week... we had some friends over to decorate gingerbread houses...

... and went to our co-op Christmas party...

... and Daddy's work party.  They had shaved ice there from the day before... the kids thought it was great... it was 80 degrees.

Today, we went to the post office and grocery store (woo hoo)...

So, now you are all up to snuff.  I'm sorry we didn't stop to see you Grammy, we didn't even drive through a corner of Alabama either direction :(  J will be back in the summer, so maybe... Love you!

In Other News:  J... Mr. E broke the silverware drawer (that do-hickey in the back that holds the bar up that it slides along) this morning when he was emptying the dishwasher... it needs to be J-rigged.  Also, Smaug has figured out that he can unlock the front door (and open it) whenever he feels like it.  This was helpful when I wanted to him let Bing in, but, I may need to put in one of those hotel latches there too... and then bolt all chairs and stools to the floor permanently! 

How To: Wall Decal (Version 1)

Last week, I posted a new picture of my wall art above my front door.  A friend requested I explain how I did it ;)  I have seen a few different methods, so here is how I did it (I do have plans to try method #2 at a later date)!!!

I have now done three wall decals... one for the bathroom (please no comments on "mansees" TW was helping me and I didn't realize the mistake until J kidded me) :)

One above the door...

And one in the girls room... I took pictures of the process for y'all!

1) Supplies:  clear contact paper, scissors, tape measure, paint pens (I use the Sharpie brand from the craft store), scotch tape, a cool feather pen that your son made at VBS, a good smelling candle for ambiance, and a big drink.  Also, I used my big clear quilting ruler thingy later, but didn't remember to put it in the photo.

2) Have a blank hunk of wall to place your decal.

3) Decide on what you want to say or have pictured.  Place this in some sort of document program (I used Word) so you can play around with the size and font.  Just keep in mind you will be tracing this, so unless you use a fine tipped pen, try not to get too fancy :)  You may need to print a few times to get the size right.  It helps to pre-measure your space too... this is the time consuming part, I just wing it most of the time *wink*  Print out your final product. Note, you must drink your entire drink within the first 5 minutes of working on this project :)

4)  Return to cozy, clean, workspace

5) Cut out strips of contact paper that are wide tall enough to cover your words/picture.

6) Tape (on the very edge) your contact paper (shiny side up) to your word/picture.

7) Trace your word (I chose a brown outline with a very fine tipped paint pen).

8) Color in your word (I used medium tip this time).

9) Repeat... hide papers from children, then scatter them out for the photo at the end.  This paint dries pretty quickly, but still...

10) Remove contact paper from print outs.  Trace around letters on the paper side of the contact paper.  This is not necessary if you have a steady cutting hand... I do it so that when I cut, if I get distracted, I have a line to follow.  Cut out words.

11) Repeat for all letters.  For my bathroom one, I just cut around the whole paragraph :)

12)  Conduct mass calculations.  I measured the length of each word, and added 2 inches in between. (which was the distance (approximately) that Word used as spacing).  I divided this entire length by 2 to find the center.  Then I found the center of my wall space so that everything would be hunky dory.

13) Place words on the wall starting in the center and working out.  I use my quilting measure thingy because I can stick the words to the board and do my 2 inch spacing at once.  I can also use it to even things out horizontally.  Since J had already leveled out the brown stripes in the girls room, I just went 3 inches above that.  Above the door, I went 5 inches.  The paragraph... well, I had to actually draw lines on the wall to get things level... this is the annoying part.  Anyway, you just stick the letters up :)

See... 3 inches above the stripe.  I do want you to notice that somewhere the period at the end of the sentence got lost (meaning, I just plain forgot to copy it)... I haven't decided yet if I will add a period when I get around it or call it my "humble square" (my reminder to remain humble and not overly proud of my work) and be done with it.  Laziness is leaning towards the later.

So, there it is, my very first how to, or instructable or tutorial or whatever you want to call it :)  Enjoy, oh, and if you do something on your own, I would love to see it... I have lots of wall space I need to fill!!!