Melisa's Life

So me and saige went to the store today and as we are waiting in line me and the guy in front of me spot a $20 bill. We asked everyone around us and no one claimed it. He handed it to saige and told her to go do something fun with it.
Then we went to the redbox and when it was our turn the man who had just finished punched in a coupon for us for a free movie. It was crazy.

We redid the kids room as their main Christmas present. I really like how it turned out. I still need to finish the valances to go on top of the other curtains, but we got the rest done. It's been busy around here with the holidays. We have family staying at our house and we hosted Chris's dad's Christmas last Saturday. Here's a link to a video of Saige's reaction, it's awesome....and here's some pics.

You're supposed to bold the things that you've done in your life. So here it is:
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland /world
8. Climbed a mountain(It sure wasn't Mt. Everest, but it was a mountain, just a small one.)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David-not in person
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant-I bought a homeless man lunch
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling-both
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Go to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie-my brother made it, but it still counts right?
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating ewwww
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life-helped my friend that was drowning
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

1. Where is your cell phone? my pocket
2. Where is your significant other? home with the kids
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? amazing
5. Your father? fun
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? college
9. The room your in? work reception area
10. Your hobby? creating things
11. Your fear? losing loved ones
12. Where do you want to be in six years? a college graduate
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you’re not? full of energy
15. One of your wish list items? a hair cut
16. Where you grew up? utah
17. The last thing you did? put a feeding tube in a cat
18. What are you wearing? scrubs
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? rat terriers and a kitty
21. Your computer? mac
22. Your mood? tired, unmotivated
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? subaru
25. Something you’re not wearing? a coat
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? good
28. Love someone? lots of someones
29. Your favorite color? many
30. When is the last time you laughed? Just now with Crystal
31. Last time you cried? last week

This, in my opinion, is disgusting. That's all I'm going to say.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081218/koddities/oddity_burger_king_flame

I've been really busy stocking my store for Christmas shoppers and finding new things to make. I posted on my other blog. click here.

Check it out! :) Make sure to enter the drawing!

I took K in for his well check today and thought I'd write an update. The dr says he's doing great. I always get anxious when I make these appointments. I even started having NICU flashbacks that brought me to tears. I don't know why I do this, there is no reason for it. He is totally healthy and growing great. He is going through a do it myself phase and has started hitting a little bit and throwing things. I give him appropriate things to throw, have him give sister hugs multiple times a day because he hurt her. He tried to lift her up a few days ago and then was pushing her around while she was sitting on one of his toys. We have really been working with him because we don't want him to become a bully. He really is a sweet boy, it's not like he is just running around making everyone cry, he is just testing us I guess.
S is learning a ton. She knows how to write her name, mom, dad and kade and a few other small words. She can sound out pretty much anything and I can just tell her a letter now and she will write it. She loves school but complains that her friends don't listen. My kids love books and love to read which I think is awesome. Chris is a much better teacher than I am. He has taught her so much including all the planets. Right now they are reading about how mountains are made.
I am doing much better this week. I came down with a really bad case of strep last week. It was horrible. Luckily I got on meds quick and was able to host Thanksgiving dinner at our house. The business is going really well. My "black friday" sale went really well. I wish I had more time to stock my store. Most things I do are customs. I have made pretty much all our Christmas. I still have a few things to do and some things I would like to do if I have time. I have been trading with other really talented moms a lot. I have been able to get a lot of really cool things. I need to post some pics. They deserve some free advertising :) I have done quite a bit of Christmas shopping that way.
Chris has started vjing, which basically is where he takes clips of video, cuts parts out and layers them together. It's hard for me to explain, but it's really cool. He needs to make a video so I can post it. He had a gig last week at the dance club at the Gateway the night I was really sick. He said it went great. I wish I could have gone. Thank goodness for my mom. She took the kids to dinner so I could sleep. That's what we have been up to lately.

Lately there has been a lot of bad news in my family. It has been hard for me to deal with it. Things I never thought my family would have to deal with again are happening. I never wanted any of us to have to go through what my parents went through, but it's happening. My grandma is in surgery today for a cancerous lump. She is so stubborn. She wouldn't tell anyone what time her appointment was. I love you grandma. You'll be in my thoughts all day.

Last night I was tucking Kade in and he kept looking at me and saying "Go?", "Go?" I said, "yes, mommy has to go." He said "uh oh." Then I said, "do you want me to stay?" He said "uh huh" How do you say no to that? So I laid down on the floor next to his crib and right when he would start to close his eyes, they would fly open and he would look down to make sure I was still there.

I have been overwhelmed lately. Orders seem to come in waves, people needing their hair done comes in waves, why is that? It always seems to happen all at once. I don't want anyone to feel like you are burdening me to do your hair, I don't mind at all, I just wish things would even out. I got a huge list of orders done last week(I still have 2 more waiting for me) and I have 6 packages sitting next to me waiting to go in the mailbox. I decided to dedicate 2 days a week to shipping, it has made things a lot less complicated. I came up with a new way to organize all the orders that come in, which has helped a lot. I also have Chris's whole family coming to my house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. All of this and this morning I wake up to a horrible sore throat and I feel totally weak. This sucks, I can't get sick right now. My house is messy, but at least I don't have to worry about the business part of things. All I need to do is get my sorry butt off this chair and walk to the mailbox. I just needed to whine for a minute.

I'm having a Black Friday sale in my store. Here's a link. There will be free for shipping lottos, buy one get one free and discount codes good for this friday and saturday. I encourage you all to buy homemade this Christmas. There are a lot of talented work at home moms that need support. 90% of our Christmas this year will be homemade. Hyenacart.com and etsy.com are 2 great sites to find things homemade. Ok, I'm done.
I also am participating in a giveaway week on a work-at-home mom's blog. She will be giving away things all next week. Mine will be toward the end of the week. I'm giving away a diaper cover embroidered with Minnie Mouse. For more info, click here.

I found a woman who designs store sites for hyenacart, the site who hosts my store. We did a trade for a couple of outfits for her boys. I bought the royalties to some pics, told her what I had in mind and she sent me what she had so far. I totally love it! I couldn't have asked for better. It's like she could see what I had in my head. She says she's not quite done...I don't know what else needs to be done, but she's the pro. Anyway, here's a link.

My new great nephew, that's right, my niece gave birth last night to a healthy baby boy! He is 7 lbs 4 oz and 20 in long. Welcome to the world Kash!

I have been meaning to post this and haven't gotten around to it. November is prematurity awareness month. This is something that is very important to me. The top photo is my baby boy born 3 1/2 weeks early, the bottom photo is my nephew, born 3 months early. If you have a chance to donate to the March of Dimes please do. I'm the crazy person that starts crying if a cashier asks if I want to donate. All I can do is nod my head. Hopefully we can help find a way to keep these babies go full term.

I just registered Saige for kindergarten. Aaaaaah! Here is the school she will hopefully be attending. http://syracuseartsacademy.org/

I read this on my neighbor's blog this morning and had to share it.

"Oh, and now you can see how much we've talked to our 4-year-old about politics. Today, I overheard Malia's friend, Saige, asking her if she knew who our new president was going to be. "no, who?" was Malia's response..."Barack Obama" said Saige, followed by an immediate giggle by Malia and ..."that's funny his name has bum in it." I laughed for a good 10 minutes. Maybe you had to be there."

I started a new craft blog. You can check it out here.

So, we put an offer on a house, they came back with something ridiculous and we didn't want to fight with them over it, so we rejected it. We had someone interested in our house, scheduled them to come on Saturday. After working for a week putting doors in, doing the baseboards and trim around the doors, patching drywall, painting, cleaning and making it look like no one lives here, they don't show up. It got us thinking. When we move, we want that to be it. We want that house to be the one our kids grow up and move out of. These houses in our price range aren't it. I started thinking about things and how I need to be grateful for what I have. We are comfortable here. Saige has tons of friends and we just got the house done. I want to stay and enjoy it for a while. So, we decided we're going to stay. I'm going to go back to school next year when Saige starts kindergarten. This is something I've been waiting for ever since she was born. We're going to save up and put in a fence and a dog door, do some painting and put in a ceiling fan in the kids room. I feel really peaceful about this decision.

I decided to dress up the kids and take some pics of them. It wasn't the best lighting, but they turned out cute anyway.

I did it. I posted an ad for our house on ksl.com. Here's a link. We found a home we really like in east layton. It's something about the same size we have now, but the basement isn't completely finished, so we can start all over again...haha. Really, it's something we can make our own. Our only problem with it is that there is carpet in the kitchen and bathroom. Who does that?! We would most likely put laminate in on the floor with the kitchen and living room.

I have had an idea in my head of the perfect purse. I have never been able to find this purse no matter how many stores I go in. I decided to just make it. This is the closest I have ever come to having my perfect purse.

I've been tagged by Jenn
8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. Simpsons
2. The Office
3. That's it
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Training Table
2. Olive Garden
3. Cafe Rio
4. Robintino's
5. The sushi place in layton
6. Shanghai
7. Mimi's Cafe
8. The pancake house in Sugarhouse

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Watched a movie with Chris at the hotel
2. took the movies back
3. Took my mom shopping for her birthday
4. Went to Zach's birthday party
5. Preschool work
6. Did diaper laundry
7. gave the kids a bath
8. Watched a movie with Saige on the air mattress

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Christmas
2. Thanksgiving
3. Halloween
4. Buying a house
5. Going on vacation with friends next year
6. Snowboarding
7. Watching my kids grow
8. My own yard where gardeners don't slice my vegetables with their equipment

8 things I love about fall:
1. Hot Chocolate
2. Warm sweaters
3. The fireplace
4. colors
5. Cooler days
6. Rain
7. Halloween
8. The decorations

8 things on my wish list:
1. A house
2. a deck
3. a serger
4. more money, ha
5. Lots of things for the kids
6. more time to make everything I want to
7. more patience
8. relaxation

I tag...I have no idea

Adidas pants and a tie dye. He's definitely Chris's...lol

My sister offered us a room in Mesquite this next weekend and we were going to do it, but I would have had to take Friday off and we can't afford to do both. Then I remembered that my mom gets Columbus Day off. So we decided to let the kids sleep at grandma's house and go out, just the two of us.
We walked around the gateway for a while and went to Happy Sumo for dinner. Yummy sushi!!
This was our 2nd stay at the Anniversary Inn. If you haven't been, you should go! It is definitely worth the money. It's so nice there. I love the atmosphere, the sparkling cider chilling for you, the cheesecake and breakfast in bed. There were hidden animals in our room to find too. The shower was in the elephant's mouth, our bed was in a loft and there was even a rock waterfall. The only other times we have done something like this was when I was pregnant, so this was a nice change.

We woke up to a LOT of snow this morning. It's still coming down at 2 pm. It's crazy. Ryu took two steps out this morning and then ran back to bed. Saige loves it and has made a snowman already and Kade doesn't know what to think. He keeps pointing at it and saying "wow"

I finished this set, so I thought I'd post another pic.
This is for someone else I know :) You'll probably see this, but act surprised when I give it to you, ok? It was actually really easy and only took me and Saige about 30 minutes. And yes, the diapers are usable.
Socks and undies for the kids

My mom asked me if I would tie dye some sheets so she could make some curtains for her toy room. Since I don't need any excuse to tie dye, of course I said yes and searched the house looking for anything white I thought needed some color.
I used a swirl dye technique on these diapers. I really love the orange ones!! I think this is my new favorite way to dye.


This was my attempt at a peace sign, but I think it looks more like skeleton jack...

What is his name? Chris
How long did you date? About 2 1/2 years
How old is he? A year and 2 months older than me
Who eats more? He does, now that I'm not pregnant
Who said I love you first? He did. Graduation night
Who is taller? He is
Who can sing better? I don't know, I'm the wrong person to ask.
Who is smarter? He is,
Who does the laundry? Me most of the time. He does it too though.
How long have you been together? Going on 10 years.
Who pays the bills? I do...
Who sleeps on the right side? I do...
Who mows the lawn? The gardeners :)
Who cooks dinner? Depends on who worked that day.
Who drives? We fight over it.
Who is more stubborn? Me
Who kissed who first? He did. He kind of grabbed me.
Who asked who out first? He did. He thought I stood him up the first time, but I really didn't! He asked me out again...to the opera
Who proposed? Technically Circe...he planned it though...on Christmas Eve
Who has more friends? We have the same friends
Who is more sensitive? Me by far
Who has more siblings? It's equal, if you count half siblings

For the past two days, Kade has been walking around yelling "One, two, three!" Then he sings the alphabet song to the letter "G."

I found this pattern for making shoes and decided to try it. This is the second pair I have made. I made some for Kade that have sea creatures on them. It's not too hard and they are really cute. I'm in the middle of making Saige some out of fleece. I'm thinking of buying some soft leather clothes at the DI to make some out of that.

This is a custom order I just got done with. People love this print. I ran out of it for a while, but I found some more last week and bought a bunch.

I decided to do an auction at my online store to get more people looking. It ended with no bids :( I then decided did a "featured listing." Basically, it's an ad that comes up when you pull up the main site. It's up for 24 hrs. I took better pics of the skirt and tried again. 2 hrs later, it had a bid :) Today, it has 3! Yay! The featured listing has been so worth it. I had 6 shoppers online a minute ago! Here's a link to the auction.

It went something like this:

K: "Hi"
Me: "Hi"
K: cries
Me: "What do you want?"
K: walks over to his booster chair at the table and says "Up"
Me: "You're hungry?"
K: "yeah"
I go get him a cereal bar and bring it to him and he says "please"
Me: "Say open please"
K: "open please"
I open it for him and he runs away with it. This is so much better than him screaming and me trying to guess what he wants.
Yesterday, he learned 2 new words: puppy and open. He even pointed at a dog and said "see puppy"

I bet you read that title and think I'm the meanest or the craziest person alive. Haha...last week, we all went for a walk to the library to pick up a book I put on hold. Circe has bad discs in her back that cause her a lot of pain. On the way home, she started stopping us and walking stiff. There was no way I was going to carry her, so I put her in the basket underneath the stroller. She wasn't sure about it at first, but then she laid down and totally didn't care. We're afraid she won't ever go on walks again after this.