Samantha has graduated

My baby girl is no longer a baby girl. She graduated high school today. The ceremony was relatively quick and at times, emotional. I got through it without crying though..Imagine that!!!





Sam walking down the aisle to get her diploma

Me and Sam after the ceremony

Jamie, Sam and me after the ceremony

Austin and Sam after the ceremony

Congratulations baby girl....momma loves you!!

Been a while, my bad

Wow, hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since I've posted here. Sorry 'bout that. I have lots of pictures to show you.

On May 12 was Austin's 9th birthday. Here he is just before blowing out the candles.

This past weekend we went to Tyler State park. It was so much fun!

Here are Samantha and Austin having watery fun!

Sam, with the lake in the background, and Austin looking cute!

You know it was a good day when...........

And some bird pics.......
Inca Doves doing, I don't know what and a Scissor Tailed Flycatcher

I'm fascinated by this beautiful bird. It's a Painted Bunting. So pretty!!

I promise I won't wait to make my next post. With Samantha's graduation next weekend it will have a lot more pictures, I'm sure.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

To all of us out there that are mothers and that have mothers, I hope you have a fantastic day!! My children spoiled me with breakfast in bed and a lovely card...I feel loved....and to be honest, with them being teens I actually get a great breakfast now, not just a overflowing bowl of cereal!!

So HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM!!


My mom and my daughter

Life Adjustment

I know I have talked about losing weight before on my blog, don't know when know but just know I must have. I seem to acquire the resolve and then after a week or so I putter out. This time I've started something different that I'm hoping will stick.

First of all, it feels different this time. I feel like I'm ready to put the demons away that have contributed to my weight gain and get on with my life....never had that before.

The Biggest Loser....yes, a tv show is helping my resolve this time as well. I watched it all the time when it was on and kept saying 'if only I could get on that show, I know I could lose weight'. Ok, so why do I need to use that as an excuse? Good question!! I don't...that was silly. Instead I bought The Biggest Loser workout dvd and I've been using it....nearly every day for the last 2 weeks. I've also just bought The Biggest Loser Power Sculpt and am just waiting for it to come in. Let me tell ya, the workout dvd sure gets your blood going. I even walked a 15 minute mile last night...first time EVER...so I'm proud of myself!!

Also I found this great website (thank to DogwoodKari) that helps you track EVERYTHING. It's awesome. It's called SparkPeople and it fantastic! It really helps when you can see everything in front of you...it's sure helped me. I plan all my meals the day before now, that way it's a no brainer and I can make smarter decisions. Oh, by the way, if you decide to take a look at SparkPeople and you decide to join, look me up. My user name on there is...surprise...jchllm!

Anyway, I've lost a few pounds already and I feel like I'm finally getting things under control. It's about time!!

I hope y'all have a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

The Crochet Dude's Designs for Guys

Just a little advertisement here. Our favorite Crochet Dude, aka Drew Emborsky, has his very first solo crochet book coming out in the fall. You can preorder it now from Amazon by clicking on the picture...I know I did already.



I helped him out a bit with the book by crocheting something for him so I'm excited to see how it looks in print.
Congrats Drew! And I hope this book makes you rich rich rich!!! ;)

Doggie Sweaters going to be published....

With permission, I can show you the doggy sweaters I'm having published. I'm very proud of them, if I do say so myself. These will all be published in a book of Dog Clothing coming out in the fall 2008 by Annie's Attic.

First, here is what I called a 'Pet Pillow' and as you can see, it passed the test. I barely had enough time to get my camera and Romo was sleeping on it when I got back.


Here is the 'Doggy Football Jersey'. Of course it is in Dallas Cowboys colors and I just had to put my favorite player (Terrell Owens) number on the back of it!


Next is a sweater called 'Handy Dog Sweater'. It is handy because it has a detachable hood and pockets with velcro on the inside to carry those dog biscuits.


And last, but not least, is my favorite.... 'Dreamy Dog Sweater'. It has a detachable hood, booties and rhinestones galore. I just think it's so darned cute. I know I shouldn't toot my own horn, but hey, what the heck?




I will keep you posted and let you know when the book is coming out. Let me tell ya, to be just starting out like I am, to have these accepted has given me confidence to keep going. I'm excited!

Crochet to the rescue

Yup, it's storm season in Texas. There are 4 seasons here.....Summer, Fall, Winter and Storm Season. Right now, it's storm season.

The last few days we've been getting a lot of storms, but this morning we had a 'whopper'! As soon as it passed through, then the power went out. It was 6am. Time for dh to get ready for work and the kids to get ready for school. And when 2 of your kids are teenagers...mirror time is important.

No problem, I'll just get the candles. Ok, where are the candles? I found 1 candle. ONE stinkin' candle!!

So the boys go to the bus, fussing because they couldn't see anything but then 'the girl' gets up (dh drives her to school) and all H-E-double hockey sticks, breaks loose. NO LIGHTS? WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO LIGHTS? HOW AM I GOING TO GET READY?? All of a sudden a crochet hook popped into my head. Trish got me a lighted crochet hook for a swap a while back so I got it and gave it to my daughter. The little sucker actually lit things up quite well. When placed in front of a mirror it really lit things up. Whodathunkit? A crochet hook saved the day!

Of course, she more or less opened the door to leave and the power came back on. Too funny.

It's official!!

Well, I feel like I can actually clarify it.....dh says it's official....I'm a crochet designer!

I just got a call from my 'person' at Annie's Attic and they want 4 out of the 5 patterns I submitted for dogs. I'm so thrilled, you just can't imagine.

I would post pics but I haven't made them yet, just the schematics.

So, if you don't hear from me in a while, you'll know why. I'm crocheting my fingers off. I have until April 20th to get it ALL done.............. can you say 'overwhelmed'?

YAY ME!!!!!!

I am going to be published!

I'm so thrilled. I am going to have 2 of my patterns published in a book. My 2 Tea Cozy patterns (along with matching coasters) are going to be in a book called 1, 2, 3 Skeins to Crochet by Needleworks. I'm not sure when it is coming out as it is still in the stage of verifying patterns, but you can be sure I will let you know.

Here they are.....




And to think. This whole design thing started because I couldn't find an apple tea cozy anywhere. Well, cheers to my son for saying 'mom, just make one.' Easy as that, huh?

I am just so excited!

I miss her already

What a time we had when mom was here. She got in on her birthday 2-26-08 and stayed for a week.
Of course Sam was the first one to get to her with a big hug!
Here we are waiting for her bag. This was her very first flight and, can you believe it, her luggage was lost. However, they did deliver it to her the very next morning, so that was good.
We went shopping and my mom bought Sam her prom dress. Keep in mind this is not as good as it looks, or as good as it's going to look. Would you believe that THE dress was actually the cheapest and she can also wear this for graduation, so two birds with one stone. How often does that happen?? It looks great on her though.
I have more pics of her stay but Photobucket it co-operating right now!

We got some snow here this morning too. A lot of the Dallas area got a bunch yesterday but we got ours this morning. It's still cold and icy but it's going away.
Here's another pic. Now, if I remember correctly, this is why I DON'T live in Canada anymore. Don't like the snow. Oh well, I'm sure it will be more Texas like on the weekend....let's hope.