Just one of those days......

Well I don't like to be the kind of person who seems ungrateful for a full and blessed life but ya know there are just some days that get the best of ya and today is one of those days.

After a week and a half in the hospital, my mom came home today! Related: my mom came home today. And I'm grateful that she is well enough to return home but her demand is just too much sometimes. Most times I can handle it but today was just not a good day from the start. I'm so stressed over my youngest child and her inability to learn everyday things. I don't believe in corporal punishment. I believe in time outs and loss of privileges. But they just don't work on her and I'm lost. I just don't have the kind of patience required for her. I'm not that kind of mom. :( I hate saying that but I'm just not made that way. I want to help her but she just doesn't get it and worse just doesn't seem to care. She smiles and grins when she's in trouble and just continues with the bad behavior anyway. She's obsessed with cutting hair, her own and/or others as well as clothes. She's banned from using scissors at all now. I even had to tell the teacher because she cut her hair and clothes the first time during school. An appointment has been made with the childrens neuro development center so she will be evaluated but today is just one of those days that makes for a difficult day. And my mom coming home and being so demanding just doesn't help. On top of all that we are entertaining my family tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with my mom so I've been preparing for that as well. Cleaning, making pies, grocery shopping, final touches to gifts etc. I'm just exhausted and overwhelmed today and I don't like being cranky. I'm miserable and I want to scream and cry and be angry at the world. At the same time I feel ashamed for complaining. I know some people will read this who would give anything to have their mom to take care of instead of having lost her too soon to some disease or other death and there are 26 families right this very moment grieving for children taken too soon that would give anything to be dealing with a misbehaved child. But I am here now and I'm dealing with these things and unfortunately sometimes these things become overwhelming. And today is just one of those days.

Christmas

Well today was a fabulous day. The kiddos had an awesome day and they loved everything the got. Then Jay made an awesome banana pancake breakfast. Afterwards we went visit mom aka Grammy in the hospital. And we brought her presents and had our own little version of Christmas with her. This afternoon the kids went back to their dads and jay and I went down to my sisters for dinner. Jay got me this awesome Galaxy nexus 7 tablet and an Alex and ani bracelet just to name a couple items. He also got me a really nice heartfelt card which made me tingle. It makes me see how he really feels when he can't seem to put the words together himself. He made this Christmas so special for me and I know I'll never forget this very special day. I WIN !!!!!!! I am so very blessed to have found him and I will never forget that. Now I am going to slip into a nice deep sleep. Hopefully!
Goodnight and I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas.

Well.....

I know its been awhile....so much going on. Bazaar was horrible. Sold nothing. Not very many customers and the few were not really interested. :( very disappointing. I worked my butt off to prepare and had about $400 in avon product along with all my crochet pieces. :'(
Lots of crazy happenings at work. Nothing good of course just crappy politics really .
Had to bring my mom to the er by rescue last Tuesday.  She was having increasing didficulty breathing. Turns out she has lots of clusters of blood clots in her lungs. So they admitted her and shes been there on a heperin drip ever since. Doesnt look like she'll be sprung before Christmas. :'( :'( :'(
So its 12:19am on Christmas Eve now. :) and im super excited for Christmas.  This is year is going to be great. I have the love of my life to celebrate it with and my kiddos have finally had a fantastic season. It all started with Thanksgiving.  Which we hosted at our house and had my family here. It was awesome. Then we had the kids picture with Santa and we got our tree and decorated it and jay and I shopped and got the majority of out gifts bought early. Its been great. Jay has been the greatest thing thats ever happened to us. To me. I really am so lucky. I cant wait for him to open his gifts on Christmas morning too. :) im so excited. I feel like a little kid again. He even helped me make Christmas fudge tonight. Well im going to get back to working on this scarf for a very special someone, my niece.  
Merry Christmas!!!!! Im so excited. :)

Btw thats my baby girl all curled up on my foot stool while im crocheting.  :)

Slippers....

Finished Roberts camo slippers.  :) gotta get busy making more.  Gotta have stuff to sell at the bazaar.  Today I have a ton of Avon product to sort and prepare for my customers deliveries.  Already have a C24 order. Yay!! 

Only have time for another quicky

Well I voted!
The kiddos and I worked the pto bake sale for our school then I went to my polling location and was in and out in under 5 minutes.
My first official Avon order came in today. YAY!  super excited. I started sorting it tonight but looks like I'll be finishing tomorrow after I bring the kiddos to school.  Then I gotta work at 3. Jay and I gave the dog a bath tonight and now I'm soaked, freezing and smell like stinky dog. So I've gotta keep this one short tonight and go hop in the shower and get my jammies on. So goodnight all. 

Slippers

Okay this ones gonna be another short. I just wanted to post the pics of the slippers I've done so far today.  I just learned a super quick and easy slipper make. So I'm going to do a bunch and hopefully they will sell at the bazaar next month.  so let me know what you think of these. I also went and bought some camo yarn today to make boys/men's slippers.  These two pairs are for my girls and my boys are super excited to get the first camo style.  :) I'm really excited about this bazaar. My first ever.  Hoping I sell my stuff.  :)

Halloween and Such

Well Halloween was great. One of the best I've had in such a long time. I was very happy with my costume, Queen of the Nile. :) The kiddos looked great Alexa was a skeleton girl, Tyler was Spiderman, and Abby was Jesse the Cowgirl from Toy Story. :) My sister and her two daughters came trick or treating with us. My sister was a Clown, Maggie was a Zombie and Emily-Rose was a Banana! Jay and our awesome doggie Dudley came with us. I cannot believe how much candy these kids got. As for the trick or treaters that came to the house I'd say we had a lot. I bought 8 bags of candy and had only about 15 pieces of candy leftover. I havent had this much fun on Halloween in a long time. There are tons of people in this neighborhood. It was so nice to see so many other adults dressed up as well. I also finally have a yard to decorate. Next year will be better though. I plan to buy a whole lot more decorations. Maybe next year I'll do some kind of Halloween party the weekend before. Or something like that or can maybe use the basement or the garage. It would be so awesome.

Well it was back to work for me today and I actually got 2 more Avon orders and might be getting another by morning. Keeping my fingers crossed. :) Ya know for my first real order and hardly any direction from anyone I dont think I've done too bad. Gotta start somewhere right? Well I've started and hopefully I can make it something pretty good. I'm determined.

So tomorrow I have to make some phone calls and try to figure out a way to get my littles some assistance. They've had a very difficult year and alot of adjustments have been made and I can tell they are very confused. So I will make the phone calls and hope that I can get some appointments and get them back to feel a-ok.

Pretty tired now. Guess its time for me to hit the sack. Trying to destress and get organized. I'm looking forward to our first Christmas in the new house and as a new family unit but at the same time I'm dreading the amount of work Christmas brings with it.
Goodnight!

Shop my AVON store!

Shop my AVON store!: Here's a sneak peak at some of the latest products available at Avon. Be sure to click
Come on by lots of great Holiday stuff on sale. Plus all the fabulous skin care and makeup products. Take a look, see for yourself. Enjoy!!

Hurricane, communication and whatever else

Well we got hit with the hurricane here on the east coast yesterday but thankfully my family and friends have come through with very little damage.  My sister is still without power. But I'm sure they'll be up and running again soon. My other sister lives close to the beach and decided to move further inland to her in-laws for the duration. No news on her house yet. Keeping her in my prayers.
Some serious communication issues going around my house yesterday left me a little upset and angry so I didn't feel too much like blogging. I'd hate for my negative attitude to reflect here. I'm trying to move past the issues. Still pretty upset today but I'm not going to create a stir. It is what it is and apparently nothing I say or do is going to change it. Moving on.

Tomorrow is my favorite holiday Halloween. So Happy Halloween Eve everyone. I have my costume, gotta try it on later and make sure it all fits right. Kids costumes need some minor sewing alterations which I'll take care of today.  :) I can't wait to take them trick or treating.

Think I'll bake some cupcakes today and we can decorate them for Halloween. My sister and her family will be joining us for tricks or treats tomorrow. So happy and excited.

Hope everyone has a good Tuesday.

Hurricane Sandy

So scheduling at work has been crazy today.  So glad I'm off til Thursday after tonight. Really hoping this hurricane doesn't affect Halloween. My favorite holiday and the kids are excited. They've got their costumes all set. I still need to get one. Kinda leaning towards Elvira or a bar maid. :) we'll see what happens.

Made another Christmas stocking today. Working on another now. Really need to get moving forward on the kiddos blankets. I think I'm doing much better with these stockings though. Took a few practice runs but now I'm getting more consistent results.  So my goal is to have a decent stocking completed for each family member by Christmas time. I've got a shot. Maybe next year I can actually sell some at a bazaar or something. We'll see.

I'm thinking maybe I need to challenge myself more. So here's an idea, maybe each week Ill have to learn a new stitch and make something using it. Hmmm that could work I think. I've seen lots of great ideas out there. Going to think some more on that one.

Another day another dollar

So the scouting for food bag distribution was pretty good today. We have a new, bigger area to cover this year but I think we did a good job. Tyler did excellent for his first time out. He had so much energy and he was running from house to house slinging bags. :-)
Here's a pic of him and Jay. My oldest son doesn't like me taking pics of him and posting them on anything so unfortunately I dont have one of him today :( gosh he's a difficult 14 year old boy/man sometimes but I love him just the same.  After the scouting event we got a couple of those missed assignments done and he went to a friend's for a sleepover. Now I'm at work and was surprised to find another Avon order waiting for me. Yay!  Think I'll spend some time tomorrow setting up the basement area I spoke about. My first order should be arriving early in the week so I want to be setup so I can organize everything that comes.

Goodnight

Ok well my head is feeling a bit better. Thankfully! Still a dull throbbing but hopefully some sleep will help. Early morning tomorrow because it Scouting for Food Drive bag distribution for both my sons. Its a great event. For those who dont know what it is its when the Boy Scouts of America go around the neighborhoods and put empty plastic bags on household doors to be filled with canned and/or boxed goods then the following weekend they return and collect the full bags and bring them to the local firehouse where the older boy scouts pack them into boxes and load the boxes onto the delivery truck which then takes them all to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Its a great event and I love being a part of it. This will be my 5th year participating. I'm looking forward to it.
On another note I believe I will be getting another Avon order, this one from a male customer. :) See Avon really is for everybody. I'm mailing his brochure to him tomorrow. I am anxiously awaiting my first orders arrival. :)

Goonight!

Still....

Still have a migraine. :(
Went to the meeting with Roberts teachers. Wow what a fantastic team he has. Great people. He got a second chance given to him today and I will make sure he not only uses it but doesn't fall back again. He is so bright, he understands the material, hes just a super lazy, into video games, typical 14 year old boy that needs to do his homework. He's going to have a heck of  busy weekend. :-)
Did I mention I still have a terrible migraine?  Took 5 pain pills yesterday and they didn't even touch it. Woke up this morning with it still pounding away. I'm so nauseous. Going to lay down for awhile and see if I can't kick it. :(

Avon

I just submitted my first Avon order ever. :)
I'm so excited about this new venture. I am super nervous too. I want to make money while connecting people to great products. I've always liked Avon and I look forward to being an Independent Sales Rep for years to come. I'm still in the process of becoming organized. I'm thinking of taking a small space in the basement and making it my own little Avon hub. I'm thinking a small table or desk, a small bookcase with some nice baskets to keep my supplies, samples and demos and campaign brochures. I already have a small file box that we arent using right now so I can put all my Avon files in that. Would be a good place to sit and do my paperwork, sort my orders, plan my upcoming campaigns. And the kiddos can still play in the playroom where I can keep an eye on them. Maybe tomorrow if I have enough time before work and I've successfully kicked this migraine I will go down and pick a spot and get started.
Anybody have any good ideas or tips on getting organized, staying organized, and/or any business info I should know or look into? I believe a person can never have too much knowledge. And there is always something that you didnt think of that someone else has. :)
On that note its off to bed for me. Gotta get rid of this migraine.
Until tomorrow.....

Unproductive day

Well today was a horrible day. I woke with a migraine and it just won't quit today. I had to call out of work and I've been on the couch all day. Didn't get any crocheting done. Didn't get an Avon work done. No housework done. Barely made the rounds to pick the kiddos up from school. Several painkillers later and it's still killing me. This one is a bad one. Haven't had one this bad in awhile. So now the littles are in bed, waiting for Jay and Robert to return from boy scouts then I've got to go pick up moms prescriptions. Kinda worried about driving. Jay might need to drive. :(
Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with Roberts teacher team then its my turn to volunteer at the school store at the littles school. Hope this migraine goes away. Keeping my fingers crossed. Gotta work at 3 tomorrow.

Beginnings

I've always had a love of crafts. I learned to crochet a few years ago but only over the past couple of months have I really put more effort into it. I have now completed 4 Christmas stockings using the galaxy stitch. I had a little difficulty first but I think I'm getting the hang of it. My biggest problem is that I cannot read a pattern. I have watched a few youtube tutorials and have followed their instruction. I continue to try to read patterns hoping I will finally be able to at some point. I have several projects going right now including 4 afghans for the kids and more stockings. I have tried a couple of cable stitch caps but I think I might be using the wrong kind of yarn for that as I havent liked how they came out so I undid them.  Heres two of the stockings I've done so far. What do you think?

I was hoping someday to maybe sell some of these things as well but I think I need to get a little better and have a more consistent outcome of pieces.