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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Tap, tap...Is this thing on? (+ a trip to the neurologist)

Tap, tap...Is this thing on????  Anyone out there???

Seriously.  I can't believe how long it's been.  I'm going to try to be better about posting, but I make no promises.  What I do know is that I miss having a record of our days...but at the same time I struggle to find the words to type.  My life and my girls' lives all overlap and intertwine and I don't want to be the one to tell their story.  Or to use this space to vent about how HARD it is the parent this age and have them (or their friends) read my mama worries and struggles.  It's different when they're six, or seven or nine...but this middle school age?  Oy vay.

So here's a little something funny for your Sunday afternoon.  (Trust me, the funny is coming. I just have to give you a little back story first.)

I've had migraines for a few years now.  The kind where you have to pull your car over and vomit on the side of the road.

But they've increased in the past few months.  And then I had two that lasted multiple days within weeks of each other.  Unheard of, for me.  So I went to the immediate care when my regular doctor moonlights, and got shots.  But he wanted to send me for a CT Scan the next week just to make sure there wasn't anything more going on.  (CYA, people, CYA)

I didn't worry about or think anything more of it, went to the hospital, had the scan and went on my merry way.

My doctor called me 3 days later and told me that everything looked great BUT...

my frontal cortex was misshapen.  The shape of it was indicative of septo optic dysplasia, but that I had no other symptoms of this.  Since it was flagged, it felt like I needed to go to the neurologist.  Purely as a precaution.

Again, I didn't worry.  Didn't think any more of it.

I went to the neurologist this week.

Have I mentioned how I have a ridiculous sense of humor in inappropriate situations?  I do.  It's why Chris doesn't like going to serious places with me - like the doctor's office.

The nurse called me back and went through all the paperwork with me.

Then the nurse practitioner came in and did the full exam.  We were together for about 40 minutes.  I felt like we had bonded.

So when she said..
Nurse:  I'm going to finish filling out your chart.  Dr. Smith will be in in just a minute.
Me:  Dr. Smith?  Oh, no, I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Derek Shepard.  (with puzzled look on my face)
Nurse:  Oh. Um, we don't have a Der...Wait a second!

And then we erupted in laughter.

At the door, she turned around and said, "And Derek Shepard is a neuro surgeon,  not a neurologist!"

I could hear them all laughing hysterically at the nurses station.  I had a smug, my work here is done, feeling and wished I could have left right then.

The actual doctor came in, asked a whole lot of questions and went over a few things.

When my general practitioner said my frontal cortex was misshapen, what he meant to say was that there is no division between the left and right side of my brain.  Yep, that's right, I'm whole brained!

Exciting, right???  But also odd and now I have to have an MRI.

More than likely this isn't causing the migraines.  It would also have been something that I was born with and this is just a random finding.

However, I am using it ALL.THE.TIME. now!

Oh, I don't know if I can do the laundry, you now, my brain isn't divided.
You need me to pull books for you?  Not today.  My brain is misshapen.
Nope.  Can't do it.  No divider in my brain.

My MRI is coming up and I'll keep you posted.

Who would have thought?  Not me.  But then again, my brain is misshapen, so....


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Brickyard Buffalo

Hi, Friends!  Well, this has (apparently) been the lamest blogging summer ever.  Seriously.  BUT, if you are really ever missing me, you should follow me on Instagram - @ikeandco.  I am super good about instagramming.  (Is that a word?  I think it might just be!)

So, some pretty big news...

I'm having my first IKE & CO deal over at Brickyard Buffalo in the morning (9 MST, 11 EST)!  The girls there have been so wonderful to work with and I am really excited about being able to offer a great deal on some great IKE & CO pieces!  Yay!

There are a (really, really!) limited number of each item that I am offering, so if strikes your fancy, you should jump on it!

And just for a little hint....  ;)


Thursday, June 6, 2013

Trying to Keep Up

Time really does start racing past at an incredible speed the older you get. It's ridiculous, really.

What have we been up to? A whole lot of nothing, but still our days seem packed.

So the girls graduated from 5th grade. I have no idea how that happened. There are times when I love working in education (like right now, sitting at my kitchen table on a Thursday morning, drinking coffee, in my pajamas, blogging) but there are other times when I don't. Like it was hard for me to just let go and enjoy things of the girls the last few weeks of school instead of being with them and worrying about what was happening at my school. Ugh. Hopefully by the time they graduate from high school I'll have a better handle on these things.


The next morning, since it was kind of the first day of summer (for the kids anyway) I decided to have an egg hunt.  My children love egg hunts, do yours?  Every summer we brainstorm a list of things we want to do over the summer and after doing this for several years, I have found that our list tends to be about the same.  So, instead of a brainstorming session, I typed up the list, cut the activities into strips, hid the strips inside the eggs and then hid the eggs.  I called the kids down, handed them each a bag and told them they each had x number of eggs to find.  It was a pretty great thing, if you ask me.


 {Do you like how the list contains both running 50 miles and eating funnel cakes?  I think the two go hand in hand.}

The next week there was still work for us.  I gave a professional learning presentation with one of my favorite librarians.  And, I hit the road for a weekend away in NC. 

I stayed with this girl - Jessica - on Friday night.  We had such a great time and I hope we get to see each other again this summer.  She was the first friend that I made when we moved to Georgia when I was 8 years old.  My mom was unpacking our house and made me take a walk around the neighborhood.  Jessica and some other kids had a honeysuckle stand on the corner.  I had never even heard of honeysuckle, let alone seen it or tasted it!  So, that began our friendship.  Her family moved back to NC a few years later and we lost touch for a long time.  And then, when we found each other again we were AMAZED at how alike we were as adults!  Every time we see each other our toes are the same color.  Crazy.


On Saturday, I drove to Taylorsville, NC for Alison's baby shower.  I can't wait for those sweet twin girls to arrive!  It was also so good to see my old Blue Ridge Craft Weekend girls.  It really was like spending time with old friends.


I drove home on Sunday and spent the night drinking naughty Arnold Palmers with CB.  That's one of my favorite things to do...drinking with CB.  :)


On Monday we drove out to my parents' house so that the kids could officially open the pool.  The water was only 70 degrees, but they didn't care.


I tried to get a sweet picture of all three of them, but you can see how well that worked for me...


I finally completed this project:


I followed these directions and then spent an evening (after dance) watching Scandal and painting.  (Please know, I talked Chris into making the grid and circles for me, measuring and such is not really my thing.)

 We painted the front room.  Again, that we means Chris.  It's a minty white (parsnip by behr).  When the paint was barely dry and hung everything back on the wall.  I'm kind of in love.  Just so you know.  Also, three minutes after I took this picture, Chandler walked in the room, went, "Oooooohhhhhh, prettttyyyyyy!"  and then threw three pillows off the couch and laid down.  And the room hasn't looked this good since.


We've had lunches out....

And game days...

 {I think Casey was trying to talk to Chan out of the side of her mouth to tell her what to play...cheaters...}


And Quinn has had plenty of time in his underwear...


Yay for dinner with Molly!  How I love this girl...


And there are quite a few new things in the shop...  (you should head over there next)


We're heading into recital weekend and then onto a whirlwind vacay...a night in Nashville (yay, Pendergrass family!) and then onto Chicago for 4 days.  I then maybe things will slow down a bit.  Maybe.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Where I'm From

I was in JoBeth's class (almost 10 years ago) the first time I read Where I'm From.  We used it as a mentor text and wrote our own Where I'm From poems.  I remember writing about Stove Top Stuffing and chicory from my grandparent's back yard.  It was like a walk down memory lane - thinking about what really made you what you are.  The small things that are forever ingrained into you.

Today the girls brought home the Where I'm From poems that they wrote at school and Chris and I both teared up a little.  Ok, some of us may have teared up a lot.

Where I'm From
By Chandler Pendley

I am from the Roman plates in the dishwasher
from the tide detergent and lemon scented dusting cream kept in the lower cabinet
I am from the colorful rooms that are never depressing.  It smells like apple cinnamon during the holidays.
It sounds like the clank clank from my little brother playing with his toys
I am from the lambs ears, the flower bed
I am from the Italian food on Sundays and blue eyes
From Angie and Chris
I am from Saturday movie night and church on Sundays
from goofball and shake it honey,
I am from Oconee Street United Methodist Church,
when the choir fills the room with the most beautiful music.
I am from European ancestry
sausage and potatoes
The pathway that my grandparents put in their backyard and the way my mom makes her jewelry
from the photo box on the shelf in  my parents' closet, that holds stray pictures but not forgotten ones
I am from everything important to my family


Where I'm From
By Casey Pendley

I'm from thick, hardback books, from papermate pens and 5 star notebooks
I'm from the pots and pans in the unorganized cabinet that leave black smudges on fingertips
I'm from the bright yellow daisies and tiger lilies that dance in the spring breeze
I'm from family picture days and blue eyes
I'm from Chris and Angie
From don't let the bed bugs bite and give it all you got
from the people that sing to everything
I'm from glory to God in the highest and the children of God
I'm from Athens, GA, from salad and lima beans
from the love found in Italy and lettuce on people's heads
I'm from the dancer's feet with blisters and bumps and a girl that will never give up.

*******

Big sigh.  Tears.  Tomorrow is their last day in elementary school. 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Mom for the Win!

Every once in awhile I have a genius mom moment.  I was inspired by this post on Oh Hello Friend, and then tweaked it to fit what I wanted it for...

I pitched the idea to the girls - and miracle of miracles - they didn't shoot it down.


They made end of year gifts for their 5th Grade friends!  I walked them through Danielle's directions and then they had at it...I made a sample and they made the rest.  Instead of the bags (they had to make almost 60 of these) it was cheaper to just washi tape them to cardstock and save the time stamping the bags...if we were just doing a few of them, I think the bags are absolutely fabulous.  For the cards, I just set up a table in a word doc to give the girls cutting and folding lines. 

Admittedly, I am not the crafty mom when it comes to school things.  Store bought is just fine with me.  BUT, I do love a good (glitter free) craft that the girls can make on their own and this one was just screaming to be made in our house. 

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

I want to remember this...

I really cannot tell you how I wish I had started blogging earlier.  I wrote short stories from when the girls were little, but I wish I had blogged or had written more consistently.  I feel like there are so many things that I swore I would remember that I have long since forgotten...and I hate that.

So here's something I don't want to forget. My sweet son, age 4.  He goes through spells of wanting to talk on the phone and for the past couple of days he has been a talking machine.  Last night he went on and on and on with my mother...talking her ear off...and then it was his bedtime and so my mom offered to talk to him again tonight...to make the hanging up easier.  He agreed and promised to make a list (omg, how cute is that???) of all the things that he wanted to talk to her about on the phone.

So after school today he made the list.


He was going to lead with...
1.  I love Meme.
 ...because clearly that is the best way to start when you have rest of the list to go...
2.  Can he buy lots of games for her phone, including candy crush and chess?  (he calls it chest)
3.  Gardening - he just wants to plant some flowers 
4.  Cardboard Boxes - this one may have been my favorite...as he was talking to her he told her that he wanted to make a house out of cardboard boxes and that he was going to draw a picture of people of the box with a line through them so that everyone would know that the cardboard box was "no grown ups allowed"
5.  bubble baths - he wants to swim in Meme's bathtub with bubbles
6.  he also wants to play with balls - he had to write it twice because he messed up the L in the first ball
7. He wants to play tag outside.
8.  He also wants to play hide n go seek.

He went on to tell her that he wanted Phineas and Ferb macaroni and cheese and could they put flowers on the table because that makes things polite and pretty.

Big sigh.  I love that boy. 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Our church part III

I have struggled with how to write this part of the story.  For me, it is the part that I will hold most dear in my heart.

The beginning - waking up and facing the news, being pulled over by the cop, seeing it for the first time - was all done through the lens of my grown up eyes.  As unfathomable as the events were, I could still process them as an adult.  I could recognize the feeling of loss and grief.  I had been there before, they were familiar.

But this part, the part of telling our children, was what I dreaded most.

They've never experienced a loved one dying.  They've never experienced divorce.  And I am grateful for those things, but I also had no way of knowing what this news was going to be like for them.

I knew, throughout the day, that people in their school knew of the fire.  I was terrified of them hearing about it from someone other than us.

Our congregation had already established with we would have a service that evening in the yard across the street from the church and I wanted them to have that time together.

I picked them up from school and we sat on the bench under the tree out front.  Or I should say, Q and I sat on the bench.  The girls stood in front of me because they were terrified when I told them we needed to talk before leaving.

And so I just came right out with it...

....there was an accident...I don't know how it happened...or why...but last night there was a fire and our church burned....

Casey recognized and processed with words immediately and began sobbing.

Chandler stood there.  Frozen.  "What church?  What church burned?  Whose church?,"  she demanded.

Chan, Honey, our church.

Her chin quivered and her face crumpled and the tears began to flow down her cheeks.

Quinn wasn't really sure what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good.  He began a whining cry, almost like he was scared, scared that both of his sisters fell apart before him.

Do you want to see it?  
Do you want to go over there?

Casey immediately said yes, but Chandler shook her head.  No.  No, I don't want to see it.

But I explained that we had enough time to go there, take a few minutes by ourselves, then go out to eat and then come back for the service.

So we did.

I parked in the lot across the street.  We walked, holding hands, to the sidewalk and stared.  They all leaned into me and cried.  I held Quinn in my arms and the girls pressed their bodies to me.  I kissed their foreheads.

Everything will be ok.  We know that the church is not the Pastor and the church is not the building. The church is...

and Chandler, in a barely audible whisper, finished, "...the people.  The church is the people."

We stood for a minute longer.  Then we loaded back into the car and drove down Poplar where you could see so clearly into our beautiful sanctuary.  Where you could see the heart of the damage.  The fallen roof.  The broken windows.  The destruction.  Casey gasped just as I had and Chandler leaned her head on the window of the backseat and cried some more.

After dinner, we made our way to the yard of the old parsonage building where we all gathered together.  I was so glad to see my in-laws as we pulled in.  (Chris had to teach class that night.)  At the prayer gathering, people stood and shared stories of what the building meant to them, what they were going to miss most, etc.  It felt very much like something you would do when you lose a loved one.  Because that's what this building was - a loved one.

Chandler took the microphone and in front of our congregation with the backdrop of the burned out building, Chandler spoke of how she felt loved by everyone in that building.  That she remembered being baptized in first grade and how Pastor Lisa told her that God loved her and blessed her.  And Chan cried.

The next morning, the Athens Banner Herald published an article about it - with this picture on the front page of the paper...


...and my heart broke all over again.

Quinn has spoken of the fire almost everyday since it happened.  He continues to remind us that it will all be ok.  He tells us, "We will webuild."

And we will.  In the meantime, our church has become Oconee Street on Prince - meeting in the gymnasium of Young Harris Methodist Church.

The day the rebuilding begins (and the day that it ends) will all be bittersweet days in this journey. 

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Our church Part II

So before I move on, there's a piece of part I that I failed to mention.  So I'm mentioning it now.

It's true, Tuesday morning I spoke with my mom and cried on my way into Athens (highly unusual, its the wee hours of the morn when I'm driving to work), and I had left a few minutes early so that I would have time to stop by church on the way to work...the part that I left out was that I was also pulled over.

Gah!

For you locals, you know how 129 between I-85 and Athens always has cops on it?  How Arcade is known to be a speed trap?  Yeah, I know that too.  I mean really, I drive the road every.single.day.  It's not like it should've been a surprise. 

Here's how it happened.  I pulled onto 129, still talking to my mom, sobbing, and I had a one track mind - get to the church.  We spoke a few minutes more and then I hung up.  Right as I passed a state trooper sitting on the side of the road.  I watched in my rear view mirror as he pulled out after me.  I went ahead and moved to the right lane and began slowing down.  It was inevitable.  And you know how normally when a cop pulls out behind you you get that sinking feeling of dread - your heart starts to race and your arms feel tingly?  I didn't have any of that.

He flashed the blues, I pulled over, he walked up to the window, I rolled it down (still sobbing).  He took one look at me (his flashlight in hand, remember, it's still dark) and said "Everything ok here, ma'am?"

Um, no, everything is not alright.  *wailing*  I've had a really bad morning.  My church burned down.  It's the first morning of CRCT and I have 5th graders at home so I had to keep it together and I work in an elementary school and I just need to cry right now and get to work.  *deep breath, big gulping sobs*

"Can you get your license out for me so that I know who I'm talking to?"

*sniff, sniff* Yes.  *racking deep breath*

"Pendley?  Is that how you say that?"

*weep* Yeeeeessssss. *deep breath*

"You still live in Jefferson?"

Uh-huh.  *sobbing*

"Your church in Jefferson?"

*sobbing* Nooooooo.  I go to Oconee Street in Athens.  *sniff sniff*

"Oh, yeah, I saw that on the news.  Terrible.  Was anyone hurt?  Which school do you work at?"

*hiccup, deep breath*  No one was hurt.  I work at Gaines on the east side.  *sobbing*

And the conversation went on and on and on.  He went back to his car and ran my license and after a million years he came back to the window.

"Today I just gonna give you a warning.  However, I need you to slow down AND I need you to calm down before you pull back out onto the road.  Let's just keep it all in perspective - it's just a test and it's just a building."

*waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhwahhhh*

I kid you not, I started crying all over.  Such a man.  Didn't he know that I already knew that it was just a building and just a test?  But that I'm a woman and so I thought that (just a building, just a test) and then made the executive decision to cry about it anyway just to let it out and feel a little better?

Ugh.

So he made me sit there, taking some deep breaths, before I could pull back out.

And then I finished my drive into Athens.  And I stopped by the church with the firemen still out front.  I cried a whole lot more.  And I was late to work.

The end.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Our church part I

This week was one of those weeks that I just wasn't prepared for.  And, sadly, there wasn't anything that I could have done to prepare for it. 

Our church burned.

Even though days have passed, typing that sentence isn't any easier.

I don't talk a whole lot about church or God or my faith on this blog.  I recognize religion as being a hot button and kind of try to avoid it.  A lot of times I try to avoid it because it is something that I feel that I'm not good at.  I'm not good at religion.  I'm not good at organized religion.  I'm not good at Sunday School and committees and pot lucks and women's meetings.  I've tried. I'm just not.

I think my parents did a great job of raising me with faith.  They raised me with a belief in God and to have compassion for others and to be tolerant and kind and accepting.  I know that I got these qualities from both my mother and father even though I wasn't raised in a church.  I never really had a church home.  There were places that I visited.  Youth groups that I played softball with and went on vacations with...but I was never a member anywhere. 

I have never read all of the Bible.  It was fairly recently that I figured out that there were two Josephs...you know, Joseph and Mary and then Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Chris hates it when I call him that, but that's how I keep them straight).  I didn't know they were two separate people.

When Chris and I were engaged the ladies of his church wanted to throw us a wedding shower and I declined.  I didn't understand.  I had only met them maybe once or twice, why would they want to do that?  Truly, I just couldn't comprehend it. 

But Chris had grown up in his church.  His mother had started attending as a teenager.  His parents were married there and these sweet ladies had known Chris all his life.  They had helped raise him and shape him into the man he became.

But I didn't understand that then.

We attended with the girls irregularly. On the big holidays - Christmas and Easter - and a Sunday here and there.  Mainly because I like putting them in their smocked dresses and braiding their hair.

And then the sleepless nights began.  The nights when Casey couldn't go to sleep because she worried.  She worried that we were going to die and that she would never see us again.  And my sweet child had no idea, couldn't understand, the concept of Heaven, because she had never been to Sunday School. We had never talked about it.  And in that moment, Chris and I knew that we needed to make some changes.  If for nothing else, so that our girl could get some rest.

But this thing happened - I made friends, and Chris joined committees and taught Sunday School, I donated jewelry for silent auctions and volunteered at the soup kitchen and our children learned about God and Jesus and Heaven and the two Josephs.

For so many reasons, I began struggling with Church when I started my new job last year and I just couldn't go.  I would cry on the way into town.  And I stopped going, even while Chris continued to drive in and take our kids (to Sunday School and to acolyte and to, as Quinn calls it, "the place where we sing to God.")

I am, what you might call, not a very good church member.

But Tuesday morning when I checked my email and my eyes scanned a message from Pastor Lisa grieving over the loss of our historic sanctuary, I sank.  Chris and I did our best to hold it together that morning.  Our children were starting their first day of state testing and we knew that a church fire was not the way to start it.

I talked to my Mom on my ride into Athens.  I sobbed for that building that meant so much to my in-laws, to my husband, to my children and to myself.

I stopped by the church on my way to school.  The firemen were still there in their trucks out front.  And I snapped this picture and I laid my head on the steering wheel and cried.  I turned down the street next to the church and fell to pieces when I saw the destroyed sanctuary through the busted out windows.  The roof collapsed into the space that my children acolyte in.  The space where my girls stand over the giant floor vents in the summer to let the air conditioning poof out their skirts.  The space where my husband ran as a toddler and walked as a man and a husband and a father. The space wasn't there anymore.  It was gone.



 I stumbled upon this picture in the Athens Banner Herald that afternoon...


and all I could think of was this...


...and of the countless other pictures that have been taken on those steps...in that sanctuary...at that alter...and guess what?  Yep. I cried some more.

And now, I need to take a break from writing this...look for the conclusion over the weekend.  I have to go to bed.  Friday can't get here fast enough.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Some of my favorite people.

Some of my favorite people are people that I have met on the internets.  Here's how this all began...

1.  Last Feb I went to Blissdom...and I was looking for a roommate...the website said the check a certain hashtag on Twitter.  So I did.  And if you know me, you know that I pretty much never tweet.  I just don't get it.  But on that day, I visited the twitter.  And I found this super sweet girl, Alison.  We emailed.  We became friends.  We couldn't get the room thing worked out, but we met at Blissdom and then we stayed in touch through the spring.

2.  At the beginning of last summer, Alison and Lindsay, decided to plan a Blue Ridge Craft Weekend.  And Alison thought of me. 

3.  In September, I spent a wonderful weekend in the North Georgia Mountains with a fabulous group of ladies.  They encouraged me to take up instagram (so glad I did!).

4.  So many emails, texts, phone calls later...

I count these ladies as some of my closest friends.  And we had a girls' day on Sat!  Complete with lunch and dinner out, thrifting, antiquing, starbucks, a target trip and a stop at the dekalb farmer's market...

I loved seeing y'all and I started missing you on my drive home Saturday night...

{amy, me, heather, alison and lindsay}

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Glorious.

This past week was glorious.  You may think I'm being sarcastic (especially if you know me IRL), but really, I'm not. 

1. My mom's birthday weekend.  I think this year may have been one of the best.  Saturday night Chris made homemade enchilada's, black beans and avocado for dinner.  We spent the evening playing killer uno and laughing.  Sunday morning we lazed around in pajamas and then spur of the moment decided to drive into Athens and have lunch at Heirloom.  



 2.  After lunch we had an amazing photo shoot with our sweet friend, Abby.  The kids were great and in 26 minutes we had some fantastic shots and went on our merry way.

3. It was crazy warm this week.  Like, I painted my toes and broke out the sandals kind of warm.  And instantly I felt a million times better.  Incidentally, I matched my ears and my toes one day this week...with a pink/mint combo...pretty impressive, if you ask me. ;)

 4.  It was Spring Break at the dance studio.  So we didn't have to drive any crazy long distances after work this week and it was glorious.  Glorious, I tell you.

5.  Quinn got to spend some time planting in Doe Doe and Pop Pop's garden while the girls and I ate dinner street side at The Grit

Afterward, we headed over to my school's Spring Fling, where they won an assortment of bakery items from the cake walk and rode horses three times while I manned the nail polish booth.  It's important to be able to show your customers (two tickets, please) sample nails.


And, yes, my nails still look like that...two days later...

6.  For a super fabulous reason, I woke up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and made some delicious mini pistachio cakes.  It was lovely to have a quiet house to myself for an hour before anyone else woke up.



7.   Quinn and I spent some time snuggling this morning. I was finishing up my book, he was playing some super serious puzzle app on the ipad.


8. Chris made some AMAZING dinners this week.  And we had the first watermelon salad of the season.  Oh, how I love the watermelon salad.  And these potatoes - olive oil, garlic, rosemary - all smashed together.  Yeowzers.  This man can cook.  Amen.


Thursday, April 4, 2013

This Weekend

This weekend we're celebrating my Mom's birthday.  She's turning a number that I am not going to mention on this blog...although she is still younger than my dad...so there's that.

{we're also celebrating sweet Loralai's birthday, Chan has sewing class, and we're doing family pictures...you know my motto...go big or go home.  I'm kidding.  That's not my motto.  My motto is, "Plan as many things as possible in a weekend to procrastinate cleaning the bathrooms."  Because bathrooms can only be cleaned on the weekend.  Clearly.  I will not be scrubbing toilets on a Tuesday night.  Although if our weekends keep going this way, I might be scrubbing toilets on a Tuesday night.  Just sayin.}

Back to before...

We're celebrating my Mom's birthday.  We'll be eating chicken enchiladas and playing killer Uno Saturday night.

There are lots of things that I love about my mom...  I could give you a list of a million things, but I figure just a few will do...

1.  We have the kind of relationship where we talk everyday.  Most days we talk a few times a day.  Just to make sure that we've said everything that we needed to say.  Sometimes the girls do things and I pick up my phone just to call and apologize to my mother.  Because one day I hope the girls call me to apologize.

2.  She taught me the importance of being able to make a fabulous fried egg sandwich.  Life is better with egg sandwiches.

3.  When I take a picture of my son that looks like this...


...I can text it to her and write nothing more than, "He looks like Hobson, doesn't he?"  And she know exactly what I am talking about and responds with, "If I begin to die, please take this off my head.  This is not the way I wish to be remembered."  And then I fall over laughing.

Mom, I love you and I hope you have the happiest of birthdays.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Some Randomness...

So here's just some randomness...in case you need a little more of that in your life...


Have you seen my sweet Battle of the Books winner?  The competition was last week (clearly I'm a little late on this blog post).  In the 2nd round, my school's team (the five sweet kids that I coached) went up against my daughter's team.  It was kind of like Sophie's Choice.  But Chan's team won that round, went on to the finals and brought the trophies home!  They were amazing.  Truly.  And Chan really needed this win. 



Last week I was sort of back on track with salads for lunch.  We need a better eating plan in this house.  My shorts from last summer don't fit, so we're working on Operation Angie Doesn't Wear Jeans in 90 Degree Heat.  That's all I'm asking for people.



I bought this sampler pattern from the fabulous Pam G last Spring and I finally finished it over Spring Break.  This year.  It really probably only took about 3 weeks, working on it in the evenings, to get it done...it was the part where I put it down for 11 months that really held things up.  I found the frame at Michaels for $8 and I love it....even though it isn't cut right to put a mat in it and Chris had to use the nail gun + duct tape to make it secure enough to hang.  None of which you can see from the front, so it's a-ok in my book.

So....this is what Ike does around mile 2 for fun when Chris or I are on the treadmill.  Drops his toys onto the belt.  They then go sailing off into the wall behind the treadmill, he runs back to pick them up and he starts all over again.  I think I could win some money on Funniest Home Videos with this one.


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Chicken Enchiladas


A few weeks ago I read Meg's post on enchiladas and knew that we had to make them...only a little differently.  Chris hates sour cream and so we had to mix it up a little...and if I were a food blogger I would take a picture of the ingredients.  And the steps.  But I'm not, so this is it...

What we made this with...

1 Rotisserie Chicken from Publix (mojo)
1 kinda big container of queso (in the dairy section, not the chip aisle...somewhat of a more authentic feeling brand)
1 package of flour shells (medium size)
1 can of rotel

On the side...

1 can of seasoned black beans
1 ripe avocado (chopped)

What we did...

Chris shredded the chicken (I have a hard time handling meat) (you can laugh)
We heated up the queso.
We dumped the rotel in with the warm queso.
We mixed in 1 cup of the queso/rotel with the chicken.
Spread a thin layer of queso on the bottom of a 9x13 glass pan
Fill and roll the shells with chicken mixture.
Line them up in the glass pan
Pour the rest of the queso/rotel on top of the enchiladas
Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 to 30 min

Is this dish good for you?  Um, that would be a no.  We made two enchiladas with refried beans for our vegetarian and EVERYONE loved dinner.  And in our house, we call that a success.



Saturday, March 23, 2013

My poor boy



My poor boy had a rough week.  Dental surgery.  Final count...2 teeth pulled + metal spacers put in their place (stitches), 1 crown, 8 cavities filled.  Ugh.

There were a slew of reasons...one of the main ones being that he has dairy induced reflux - milk makes him vomit and he would swish it around, damaging his teeth, and then the other offenders - juice, chocolate milk (before we realized it was the trigger), too long with a pacifier, not being as diligent about brushing teeth as we should be... We do have two other children that do not have.a.single.cavity.

Do I sound like I am defensive?  Like I'm giving a billion reasons for something terrible?

Because none of these things are his fault and yet he had to go through all of this.

And while talking about it to a friend in the lobby of the school, a parent turned to their child and said, "See?  And THAT is why you need make sure you brush."

I don't want my kid to be that poster child.

Why is parenting so hard?  Anybody have the answer for that one?

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Catching Up

Whew!  I cannot believe that it is already the middle of March...the Ides are just around the corner!

I keep waiting to feel like we're in a routine at home and I think now that it is March I should just give up on it and give in to the fact that a real routine isn't going to happen for us.  Which is what has made blogging so much harder for me...no routine.  No bueno, no bueno.

We're relishing in the time change - such an automatic good mood maker for me.  When people ask why we still switch the clocks I always want to answer "to put a smile on my face."  Because it does.  Seriously.  It is also a wonderful thing that the time change coincides with our Spring Break.  Double good mood maker!

We spend the weekend cleaning the house.  I think I could be awesome at the 40 bags in 40 days challenge.  It is amazing to me how much stuff we accumulate.  I also worked on some new shop things...



And then these... {don't they remind you of skittles...taste the rainbow???}  I also listed them as one pair and then listings (with discounts) for pick 3 or pick 6.  Fun!



 On Monday we surprised the kids with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in NC.  We went last spring break and it was wonderful...so going again was kind of a no brainer for us.   This year, Q was tall enough to ride all of the water rides except the biggest one (which I don't like anyway) so it was more of a work out for Chris and I (he had to ride with an adult).  The stairs to get on the water slides?  OMG.  It got to a point where every step was a punishment.  Seriously.

I do apologize for the blog being so neglected lately.  Ugh. 
BUT, follow me on instagram!  @ikeandco  ...  I am a much more reliable instagrammer.  :)

I also wrote a guest post here.  Just in case you need a little more reading material.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Hello, there!

March!  It's lovely to see you and I am so glad that you are here!

At work I seem to have quite a few big things going on in March - Read Across America, Battle of the Books, a storyteller visit AND Book Fair.  Oh, and did I mention that our Spring Break is the week after next?  

Today I was able to cross one thing off my list - Read Across America.  Whew!  I partnered with our local high school (they have a fabulous librarian!  and some super great English teachers!) and had almost 100 high school students come over to be guest readers in my PreK thru 5th grade classes.  This was our second year doing this - it went better than it did last year - and I already have lots of ideas about how to make it even better next year!  Yay!

We have some fun plans this weekend - seeing awesome friends (our best man at our wedding, and his super lovely and sweet wife! a date night for us!  kids spending the night with grandparents!), Chandler has work in a youth art show at UGA, I am having some antiquing time with a new friend, AND we're getting ready for Spring Break.  

We're on Spring Break with the University, so it is an early one.  We've decided to surprise the children (so if you know us, please keep it on the down low!) with a couple of days at Great Wolf Lodge in Concord/Charlotte.  We went last year and it was a.maz.ing.  Seriously.  And the kids ask to go back every three days.  They have no idea.  And we're not telling them until the day we leave.  Eek!  I.cannot.wait.  

Annnnndddddd, in case you haven't seen...I have a new line of bracelets in the shop.  I made 4 for myself a month and a half ago and I am in love with them.  So dainty and wonderful.  Some days I wear just one, some day I wear all four.  I also added a couple new necklaces to accompany them...