Welcome to the country

A lot has happened for me. A lot. I got a divorce. I fell in love. I moved out of Florida.

I'm bringing this blog back to it's craft basics. I have a new blog where I write about my adventures moving to a farm in the country. That blog is Welcome to the Country.

I will write soon with cards and other creations but for now view this cute card:

Mega May

Brian took the boys fishing while I was recovering from the surgery last month. Calvin caught this horridly ugly Toad Fish. He was so mega super proud. Stephen caught a crab but it got away before we got a pic. This is on the fishing pier near our house. We just walk on over. Love that. 

I got new business materials. (actually in April, but with being on drugs and stuff I didn't get to enjoy them until May.)

 Stephen went to the specialist about his possibly having Asthma. He does. Because it is triggered by environmental factors they did this environmental allergy test. Stephen is allergic to EVERYTHING. This was just a few minutes into the test, they got a LOT worse. So we have an inhaler, two types of daily meds, a log of how he is breathing, all sorts of stuffs. Crazy. My poor Stephen is always the one with this weird health stuff. :(

 Jake developed a "hot spot". It was after I gave him his flea meds. This is the second time. The Dr swears the flea meds wouldn't cause this but whatever, twice now... He did switch his stuff for me. We are still battling this wound by the way. He won't leave it alone. It is WAY better than in this pic, but still not all the way better.

 I made this huge shark balloon for the Dr when I had my 2 week surgery checkup. She loved it.

 Ethan's birthday is in April. He said (AGAIN) that all he really wanted was a turtle. In a moment of weekness I looked on Craigslist. Someone was selling a Mississippi Map Turtle, with a full setup for $50. Stephen happened to have $50 from HIS birthday money, so he bought his brother the turtle. Her name is Leela and she is actually a lovely creature. She is full of personality and funny. She seems to really like Ethan. I still think turtles make stupid pets, but she is bringing him a ton of joy.

Once a month local entertainers have a get together. This month it was at our house. I tried face painting for the first time: 

 For my birthday we went to the most amazing restaurant. It's called Checker Bar B Q. But it's not Bar B Q, it's seafood. Fresh real seafood. All you can eat, then you get to take home leftovers. This guy in the pic is Art the owner/chef. The place looks like a dump, is in a sketchy area and has the very best food I've ever had. YUMMY!

In May Ethan had surgery. He had a mega huge planters wart. They had to put him under and cut it out. It was HUGE. Like a dime size that you could see, then it tappers down under the skin like a carrot. It was about an inch long. In his tiny foot. The recovery for that is a mess. We can't get the foot wet for like 4 weeks. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to keep a 7 year old's foot clean and dry for a month? Impossible. Ridiculous to even ask.
My friend Laura was in town for a few days, so she came over, and a few other friends Lindley and Jill came too. Everyone brought their kids. A ton of kids. Calvin got his in the head with the tree swing. He got a HUGE lump. Ouch! Actually the whole gathering was a mess. Calvin got hit with a swing, Ethan Frailey (Jill's son) had some foot injury that involved X-rays and swelling, Deal (Laura's youngest) had a huge flesh wound on his leg. Lindley's kids were healthy at least.

 I saw some amazing pictures of ombre hair on the net and decided to dye my tips pink. I LOVE IT. So me! Pretty good response. Either everyone is used to me doing weird things with my hair or they actually like it. Never can tell.

 At the end of my we surprised the kids. They had no idea on Thursday when we picked them up from Art Class and Martial Arts that we would get right on the highway to go camping! And not only camping, but camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campgrounds! And not only that with our friends the McGary's! We didn't tell them what we were doing until we got off the highway at the Disney exit. Had to tell them then so they wouldn't think we were going to Disney. It was a blast. I highly recommend it. Mostly because they had a great pool with a slide and a splash thing for kids and such. But it was also the cleanest campsite I've ever been to. The bathrooms, everything, sooooo clean. So Disney.

 Every night they do a movie, a character greet and a camp fire. Here is Calvin meeting Dale.

 Calvin also did a pony ride. he LOVED IT. Adorable.

 Ethan was supposed to be keeping his foot dry. And I took him to a water park. I am afraid to admit this, but I let him get wet. I had brought the dressing stuff for in case. I figured this was in case. I let him swim for a while, then he had to prop it up and dry it all out. Should have been fine but when I redressed it, I put the dressing on way too tight. Gave him an abrasion on the TOP of his foot. Because I'm an awesome mom like that. Sigh. He was happy though. It was crazy hot that day.

 Calvin's adorable prune feet. He went down that huge waterslide about 50 times.

 Kallie was NOT a fan of Dale the giant Chipmunk. Lindley and I have a theory that kids think these characters are going to be small like they look on the show. Then they appear all huge and it messes the kids up. Also how cute does Lindley look, days into camping, no shower, no hair stuffs, no makeup. Not fair!

 This is funny. Calvin ran into Kallie and she fell down. She cried, Calvin said he was sorry. She didn't stop crying. Calvin is crying here because he thought Kallie should not be hurt anymore because he said sorry. Then Jayda (Kallie's little sister) started crying too! All the babies were crying. It was pitiful. Lindley and I had a hard time not laughing at them.

And here are some balloons I made: 

 This Minnie Mouse was for a HUGE party I did. I was shocked at the scale of the party. It was awesome. Well over 100 people at a 2 year old's birthday. Overwhelming a bit, but everyone was super nice and I just made simple stuff and all went well. :) I LOVE my job.

About April

April was another busy month. We started the month with a trip to my dad and step mom's house. We visited and went to her work's huge Easter activity. They rented out a baseball stadium. I suggested the party would be better with a balloon artist! It was! They ended up getting me and 5 other twisters, plus 5 face painters. I had a line for the entire 5 hours. It was a blast, but I was quite sore the next day. 

There was also an appearance from the Easter Bunny and a cool petting zoo. Ethan loves turtles so imagine his joy to get to pet this tortoise. 

We also went to the Fort Lauderdale Temple Open House. It was just beautiful. Everyone is invited to Open Houses, so we bought the kids and my Dad and Step-Mom. Going to the Temple is hard work so we got some frozen yogurt after. 

During Spring Break we had a beach day. It was not super hot yet, but still fun. Stephen found a dead jellyfish and had to play with it. (well really just pose with it. 

 Of course Ethan had to pose with it as well.

 Calvin played with is buddies including the deliciously chunky Jayda. Nom Nom.

 Look at this little girl's cheeks!

 Stephen was still rocking his long hair then. It was such a cool look. So cool he had to pose a bit. Besides these poses he spent the entire time boogie boarding. I don't know how he had the energy, we were there for a while.

 Stephen had his 9th birthday party this month too. He did a Pokemon theme. He wanted a plain cake though, so that's what he got. He and Ethan made up some Pokemon party games and the kids played those, they watched some Pokemon on TV and ate. OH we bought WAY too many pizzas, so I gave every family a whole entire pizza when they left. Now that's a fun party favor. :) How cute was this invitation, made to look like a Pokemon card.

 I made some cool balloons:

 I loved this Cat in the Hat. I made it for the school when I did a school show. I also made one for a party, but the party got cancelled at the last minute. I didn't really mind. More time with the family! (Sorta minded, but telling myself that makes me feel better.)

 I also had surgery in April. Hysterectomy. It was brutal. I had no idea it was going to HURT so much. The recovery was pretty quick though. (technically I'm not recovered yet as of June 6th, but I FEEL fine, so I'm counting it) I don't do well on codeine based drugs and that was the only thing that took care of the pain for a few days. It was awful. I have the weird reaction where I cannot sleep on them. So I got tireder and tireder then would have weird fitful sleep. When I wasn't on it I was in mega pain. Just gross. Anyhow after about 4 days on that I just threw it out. Had a few days of icky pain, then started to feel better. In case you are burdened with curiosity about why someone as young as me would have such a surgery: I needed it. We tried 3 other options first and they were not successful. I already feel better. I didn't want more kids, I'm super happy with my three. That wasn't an issue at all. Also I have this weird heart condition and my cardiologist doesn't want me to get pregnant again anyhow. Which is fine, cuz I didn't want to anyhow. LOL. But really it was not something me and my Dr rushed into, but something we have been dealing with for over 10 years. And now, problem is solved. So that's good. I got a ton of help during recovery. Here are pics of Calvin playing at friend's houses, someone took him every day for a week for me. I also had meals for a week. It was awesome. OH and some of my friends can REALLY COOK. Just wow.

Madness in March

March was a fun filled month. Busy too. It's always busy really. 

Here are all the books Stephen had read between Christmas and the end of February. Just a few...  

 My azaleas bloomed! They are my most favorite flower. We have a bunch. We didn't know what color they were going to be. Fun!

 This tiny balloon went through the laundry. Dryer and all. Weird. I also started my new business website www.jacksonvilleballoonanimals.com. Check it out!

 Ethan can officially ride a bike! It's hard for my kids to master this.

 Calvin dancing in the driveway.

 I love this intense picture of Stephen.

 My boys! Love.

 Brian holding boards for a board break-a-thon at the Martial Arts School

 See these letters? They are all from kids who had been bullying Stephen this year. The teachers found out and made them all write apologies. Some were really heartfelt. My poor kids. :( Always with this stuff. Had I written this post IN March I'd have had a lot more anger about this. But somehow it did work! Stephen said everyone treated him much better after this. I would not have expected that at all. He did expect it. He has so much faith in people.

 Stephen getting his yellow belt at Martial Arts. He is working so hard there. He is stronger, more confident, has better balance. It's pretty much awesome. Expensive, but totally worth it. Such a great community.

 I made Stephen a little Stephen balloon. It had a white belt, then we took that belt off and put this black belt on. He loved it.