TTT: Season 3, Episode 19

1. It's 10:00 am. And I'm sitting in bed, feet propped up, hair wet from a nice, hot shower, TV playing in the background...and no, not any kiddie cartoons! And I just got back got back from a morning stroll with my little guy down at the River Walk! I'm here in San Antonio visiting Mark at his work conference without the "big kids" for just a short twenty-four hour trip. But man, even twenty-four hours can make a huge difference when it comes to feeling refreshed! Back on the home-front I've been taking care of munchkins and sewing during every spare moment as I try to finish up all of my orders before we leave for the beach. But here, I'm just taking time to relax, unwind and breathe! Grant and I drove over here yesterday afternoon and had a fun evening with Mark on the River Walk. We ate steaks, walked and walked and walked, and even got ice cream. I was a little worried about how Grant would do since I knew we'd be up past his usual 8:00 bedtime, but he was a champ! Maybe he's just enjoying all of the exclusive attention from Mom and Dad! He and I are hanging out a while longer to enjoy lunch with Mark and then we'll head back to The Woodlands to go fetch the big boys from Pinkie's house. From what I hear, they're having a ball too!

2. But back to all of the sewing. It's probably a good thing that Mark has been holed up here in San Antonio for the week. 'Cause I've been sewing like a mad woman! I don't like to sew when Mark is at home...I feel like that's our time to be together as a family. So really, I may cut fabric while we watch a movie, or respond to messages on the computer, but I try not to actually sew after the kids have gone to bed. But this week, with Mark gone, I've been in overdrive trying to get all of my outstanding orders done before we leave for a week at the beach. I don't think I've been at a status of zero outstanding orders since Grant was born! And I think it will feel nice to start back up from zero. 'Cause sometimes the always growing, never ending list or orders gets a bit daunting. Sometimes you just have to take a break and start from square one! But that being said, it's also giving me time to digest a few aspects of my little business. To wrap my mind around what it is and where it's going. I always just saw myself as being a stay-at-home mom, but clearly I'm a small business owner now too. Kind of a cool feeling!

3. When we moved down to The Woodlands and looked for houses I had several "musts" on my house hunting list. Things like four bedrooms, a kitchen that opens to the family room, more windows and more space for the kids stuff. I certainly got all of that and more in our new house. But there have been a few things about our house that I've discovered over the past year that will definitely go on the things-to-look-for-in-our-next-house list. One of them being the kitchen dining area. For as big of a kitchen as we have, the area where the table goes is tiny! The main limiting factor is the back door. It's placed on the wall where if we have a table that fully fills up the dining area, you can't open the door! That being said, we've been in need of a new table and chairs for a long time. We inherited my family's childhood dining set when my mom inherited her childhood dining set. (after my Popo died) At the time, we were happy to have it because our existing set was cafe' (bar stool) height and Kolbe was sitting in a high chair and close to transitioning to a booster seat. No so easy for little ones to get up and down! The table and chairs we got from my parents worked great for the past few years...and the twenty some odd years prior...but let's face it: they've taken a beating between a total of seven boys and one girl, countless moves, and more. The legs on the chair were falling apart. The ladder backs were splintering, the table top was completely warped. Not to mention the massive layer of grime on all of it! But with our tiny eating area, it would be really crazy for us to invest in our dream set of table and chairs, knowing it wouldn't fit. And crazy for us to spend a ton on a set that we'd eventually want to replace as the kids get bigger. So I've been scouring the local craigslist, keeping my eyes out for a nice, quality set that would actually fit in our dining area and not break the bank. And I finally found it! It came home to stay with our family on Tuesday, thanks to a lot of help from my dad and his truck. To me, the kitchen and the table are the heart of the home. Like a place instead of an object. And I'm sure this new little place in our home is sure to hold many, many memories in the years to come.

The new dining set! (you can't see it, but the door is just the the right. Grr!)

The boys getting a talking-to before Dada left for the week (they were running around doing major shenanigans just before he left!)

Rudy working on filling his shopping cart

The guys decided that all of their toy cars needed to be washed so we had a huge car wash in the kitchen sink

Isn't this guy pitiful! He cries every single time I put him in his booster chair...and then proceeds to pig out!