oh the many thoughts in my head!

where to begin, seems i have had lots going on but not enough of any one thing to post about. first of all, i ordered the homeschool supplies! oh but the butterflies were going in my stomach! first when i notified the school they could give gracie's spot away next year, and then ordering the supplies, were definete "no going back now" moments! ahhhhhh! but i feel very strongly that God has brought us to this point, and so like the saying goes, He will also bring us through it! lol

i think i have secured gracie flute lessons starting in june, so one of the things she was upset she was gonna miss out on from public school has been knocked off the list. so excited to see if she does as well with that, as frankie has with his piano. hopefully she will practice her flute more than he practices his piano though! i was able to pick up a nice flute in great condition last year at a garage sale for $20 and now only have to pay $10 for her lessons!

Most recently (no none of this will probably be in order because my mind does not flow in order) i have thought we needed to add some more recipes into our biweekly menus. my friend jenifer had given me this recipe for italian chicken which i thought was wonderful. posted about it on fb and found out EVERYONE except ME had been using this recipe forever! lol then i discovered it was in a tast of home cookbook! ha! well that got me to looking through recipe books for new ideas, but i always am fearful to try them for fear of wasting all the ingredients if we don't like it. so i decided to hold a "recipe tasting party". i'm gonna have everyone bring their favorite recipe, be it appetizer, main course or desert or a recipe they have never made but thought it sounded good, to this party, along with several copies of the recipe. that way we can all try new recipes without making so many ourselves. i am reallllllllly hoping for a good turn out and good recipes! i mean, what more can you ask for, free food and good company!

on yet another front, i started reading my granny's diaries again. she kept a diary ever day of her life since she was 18. i currently just finished 1942 and am starting in 1943. she also has yearbooks from 1919, 1920 (the year she was born) and 1938, why she had the earlier ones i am not sure, but they sure are fun to look through! anyway, it has renewed my motivation to get back to keeping my own daily journal. especially for things i want to remember but may not be sooo appropriate for on here! lol so far i have kept at it for 13 days! a new record! lol

mailed my mother in law's quilt to her. i am very pleased with how it turned out. she called 2 days in a row to tell me how much she enjoyed it and that it made her feel like chris' dad was back with her. she had gotten rid of the majority of his things last july when he passed. she had forgotten she gave me his shirts to make the quilt with, so she was very pleased to see the quilt. she said she slept better than she had in a long time with that quilt! that alone was worth all the time put in, but then she called back a few days later to tell me she had taken it downstairs (she lives at an assisted living place) to show her friends. she said they all were looking it over and loved it. i laughed and said, well tell them not to look too closesly cuz it's far from perfect. she said, no they did look closely and couldn't get over all the work put in. i said, how many of them had cataracts!? lol she laughed and said all of them! lol then she said they were all asking her if i could make one for them! she told them she didnt' think i had enough squares left over, they said, they would go around collecting them! lol just to hear her laugh and joke and carry on again, now THAT made it really worth it!

well that's all for now folks, i have lots more going on, but the yard and garden are enough for a whole new post! good night for now!

Let's get organized

a very short but funny blog. so i asked frankie to put the clean towels away in the linen closet. well gracie said she would do it for him (shocker i know!) well she decided she wanted to organize the bathroom. so when i got up this morning, this is what i found..

valentine's day 2010

ok, let me specify up front, i don't usually decorate for valentine's, st.patrick's day or easter, simply because, i was tired of getting stuff up at the last minute and then having to take it back down. however, i also must fess up, when i watched an episode of jon and kate plust 8, it did seem like so much fun for the kids and she really didn't do that much in the way of decorating. so when out shopping with my friend, i saw a packet of v-day decorations, all in one thing, for $10 smackaroos! ok, i thought, i can do THAT! and i got each family member a little "love" to wake up to. again, maintaining it all in the dinning room. most people's kitchens are their center of activity, well my kitchen is too small, so the dinning room is ours.

Gracie got a picture framed thing i made for her of hunter beans, plus a valentine's day waterglobe (as we have started a new tradition of collecting water globes, some chocolates and a card from nana and a card from gran and grandad.

Frankie got his globe, his cards, and a mini pot of flowers to grow, some aqua globes that he has wanted for a long time and some andes mints (since most boxed chocolates have nuts!) and

chris got a card from me with a gamestop gift card and some of his favorite chocolates taped on top. the kids got me a little box of chocolates and we all enjoyed some krispy kreme doughnuts. all in all, it was fun, easy and i loved that i could take down the decorations the next day and put them back in thier little package for next year! now that's what i call decorating! i may even decorate for easter at this rate!

Gracie's Birthday Details

Gracie's Birthday~~


Well let me tell you, every year on her birthday, it snows, and it did not disappoint this year! it started snowing that evening and continued well into the night. i know because i spent the middle of the night decorating and wrapping cuz she went to bed so late! i did discover a neat setting on the camera though that allowed me to take some cool pics of it coming down at night! by morning i could barely open the door, and yes those are still christmas lights on the railing, and no they still are not down yet! ha!

every year the night before their birthday, i deocorate the dinning room so when they wake up their special day begins right away. i love their reactions when they wake up but it's not like they dont' know what's gonna happen. these decorations usually stay up for the week, partly so it stays special for that long and partly because i dont' feel like taking them down. but then valentines comes around so i have to.









Shh! sleeping beauty is resting! i had to decorate very quietly as she decided to sleep out on the couch that night!




gracie wanted a dog cake, but the only ones we could find were little kid dogs like blues clues, so my friend suggested a picture of a dog scanned on, which immediately broought to mind the pic of gracie and hunter. what a neat idea! marsh did an incredible job! i only wished i knew they would use color and i would have asked for blue as that is her favorite color.












she had asked for many many things for her birthday, so i narrowed the list down and got her the dog magazines she wanted, a camera (so she would leave ours alone), a "bop it", and hula hoop to get her off her duff , and a wii game, that i though would get her off her duff but it's not exactly a move around one, more of a sit and controller one, and not a good one at that! (wish you could take those back!) she also got lots of money from family that she is spending very carefully!








now looking back at those gifts, almost a month later, she had definetly played with the hula hoop, a little bit with the bop it (however frankie finds it great fun!) hasn't hardly looked at the magazines, and takes her camera with her whenever she remembers it. however the money has given her great pleasure in spending, she has been pretty smart and wise, which i am thankful for. she certainly is growing up.

Yesterday

ok now that i have my tribute about gracie, i can dish a short blog about yesterday, when she did not think me so wonderful. first let me tell you, i had been running from the time i dropped the kids off at school at 7:40 until later that evening. anyway, i sent gracie to school, knowing i would likely have to go back for her. so i got all her birthday shopping done, going back and forth up us31 since the stores all opened at different hours. i searched and searched for the right gifts for her. i finally get her picked up, and we had to go pick up chris at the airport. now anyone that knows me, knows, i hate driving to the airport, i am not a fan of driving on the interstate period, or leaving my safe little southside! so i was nervous anyway! i also was sporting my new glasses so i could see the signs better, but they were seeming weird, had a hard time focusing with them. soooo as we get closer and i am trying to concentrate and white knuckling it the whole time, there is miss chatty cathy, chirp, chirp, chirping. i said grace, i need you to be quiet, i hate this drive......quiet for about 1 minute, seriously, i think she is incapable of being quiet, "why don't you like this, why are you nervous, it makes me nervous too" etc..... so i said again, gracie.....shhhh! getting closer and needing to watch signs, "mom did you know trees put off oxygen, and the more trees cut down, the less oxygen" gracie....please..... "mom do you think flowers and grass put off oxygen too, like trees? " i find myself actually trying to decide the answer and about miss a lane i needed to be in!! i said grace, realllllly, i can' t think about that right...."mom you need to go there! (pointing her arm across my face) it says garage!" ok MAYBE i would have seen the sign if i had not been thinking about if flowers and grass put off oxygen or not! so luckily, thanks to grace, we find our way there and she says, " your gonna let dad drive home right?"

so fast forward, we went back to the school to pick up frankie from choir practice. chris goes in to get him and she is trying to climb up front and i am yelling at her to stay in the back, she finally heads back to the back, in the process, she bends her finger backward and hollars and starts to cry....now you mothers all know the difference between an i am seriously hurt cry and an, ouch that smarts and i am mad cry. hers was the latter. so i said, see you should have listened to me, to which her shocked reply was "WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU!!!!" i said one with a child who should have listened to me! so much for mom of the year.....maybe mommy dearest!

My little girl

My little girl is turning 9 tommorow! so i decided to take the time to look back at all her birthdays and see how she has grown!


Grace Ellain Toth came into this world on Feb. 6, 2001. Planned C-section, we picked that date because that was my great grandmother, Grace's birthday. We were scheduled to go in first thing that morning, but due to a lady who was having triplets needing to go first, we got bumped to the afternoon. Well, no food for me, meant no food for her, so when she came out, she was MAD!!! And she let us all know it. The nurse said, " I know your going to nurse her, but can we go ahead and give her a bottle to calm her down"!!! lol i was not even off the operating table yet! lol She came in at 6# 1/2 oz, and 18" long. But she did not stay little long.....

1 year old!Gracie shared her birthday month with her beloved Bumpa. She was actually "due" on his birthday, but was not able to last that long. but we often would go back to ohio in feb to celebrate their birthday's together. She was his only grandaughter, and he enjoyed her so much.







2 yrs old! Ever the fashioniesta, my darling daugher turned two in incredible style! lol she got a package of barretts for one of her presents and she had to have every single one displayed in her beautiful hair! Even though you hear rumors of the terrible twos, i must say, she had not really hit them. she was still a darling little girl!






By the time she turned 3, i would say the diva in her had shown itself! it took a little more time and work to bring out the darling in her! but it was totally worth it when we did. she was very into being a little lady, we started wearing our pearl necklace that we never wanted to take off, we became aware of how cute we could look in cutesy outfits and we knew when we were being adored! however, we did not start off the day looking like a princess!








along came the big 4! note we are still wearing our pearls, i believe we had to get a second set cuz the first set was worn so often they finally broke, so grandma debbie got us a new set. miss grace was very into wearing dresses and tights at this point. we are still very much a girl and very much into jewelry, make-up drawing and since birth, talking!!! what fun mama has buying clothes for her little doll!



Half a decade! We celebrated year 5 with a little dress up party. she had many of her princess friends come and one little prince. she was the perfect little hostess with the mostess. she was very polite and had alot of fun. she started kindergarten later that year after 2 years in preschool, where she was able to be a peer model in the same rise class frankie had gone to at RPE.





Age 6! i really think this is the year she stared looking older. she had us cut off her looonnngg hair that was down past her little tush! she was realllly into clothes at this point. mom had to be pretty thrifty to keep up with the demand! lol which is why, for the longest time she thought "clearance" was a store! she would say, oh mom got this at the clearance. :-) we started having a bit more of a temper around now. a little more moody. mommy started back to work later that year and she did not appreciate the lack of me not always being there whenever she wanted. however she was still my baby, and always will be.

7 years old? where has the time gone? she grew her bangs out, boy was that a process! but i was torn between if i liked it or not. definetely like her hair long. she is more dramatic than ever. concerning herself with boys more and who is popular and who isn't. all things i wish she wouldn't worry about at this young of an age. mom and family had a hard time with mom not being available 24/7 so i started working from home. everyone was much happier. she has learned how to spell very well, and shows great promise in her drawing skills. i think she could possibly be an author one day and draw her own illustrations. she is very talented. she has a heart that can melt you, but she can be meaner than a snake if the mood strikes her. but overall, i'm very proud of who she is trying to become.




i have no pictures of her 8th birthday because, she was sick. so we rescheduled her birthday party for the following week and guess what....she was sick again. so we decided not to try having it in the middle of winter as everyone kept getting sick. however some really sweet friends brought her presents over anyway and made her get well cards. after that we decided we would only have parties on the milestone birthdays, like 13 and 16 etc... but she has never complained about it. if given enough time she is really good about rolling with the punches. every year i see her striving and trying to become a lady of excellence. i see her faith in God growing stronger every year and her decision making maturing. she still has her mama's temper but we BOTH are working on that. she is still my chatty cathy, but i love alot of what she has to say, her thoughts, her ideas, and sometimes just a silly comment or observation! but basically, i am soo glad she is mine, and that God blessed me with my little girl. i have learned alot of who I am, good and bad by watching her, and hopefully the two of us can both grow into wonderful women one day! gracie girl, i love you with all my heart! happy birthday doodlebug!

Strike while the iron is hot....

ok here is a short one, but one that must be for the record.....sunday morning, we are all trying to get ready for church. healthy or not, sunday's we have cinnamon rolls, i want it to be a sweet tradition, that they look forward to on sunday's. so i had made the rolls, made sure the kids were getting ready, chris had gotten his shower and turned my curling iron on for me, took my shower, was putting on the umpteenth top, and deciding i still didn't like the way it looked. frankie has been playing with that stupid simon! he has recently been able to get him out and let him stand on his hand, his head etc.... well simon decided to fly into the bathroom and stand on something up high. frankie climbed up to get him and did not pay attention to the curling iron that had been on for atleast 30 min on the counter. he slid his foot over and....well you can imagine the rest..... so here we sat, none of us ready to go, with 20 min before we have to leave, my hair wet as can be, and we are having to doctor up this foot and decide if he can wear a shoe or not and if we can make it for sunday school, or should one of us stay home and baby his foot...etc... anytime things like this happen on a sunday, i always think about years ago when my friend jill said, it seems like satan is always working hard to cause problems before you go to church, arguments, or whatever, so you are not thinking about what you should when you get to church! so i always try to keep that in mind and refocus. refocus we did, AND we were able to leave for sunday school (albeit with wet hair) and get there right on time! frankie ended up fine, and went in a slipper on one foot but was running and playing by the time church had ended, so i am glad we did not let it keep us from going.

**another side note, isn't it funny the things from your past that stick with you, that at the time, you don't realize you will refer back to over and over. makes you wonder what things from now and in the future will stick with you and your kids!