Ready to Meet Little Brother!

When a friend of mine found out that she was having a little boy this time around, she called me and asked if I could make new shirts for the girls. You may recall this set of onesies I made for her girls before baby girl two came along. Of course I accepted and we talked about what she wanted. We found the blue shirts at Wal-mart and then she picked out the fabric to go with it.

Little boy tried to come early on her and she posted on her Facebook page about being in the hospital with contractions. I told him that he wasn’t allowed to come yet because I hadn’t finished the shirts yet and I was out of town!! Lucky for me, he listened! It was probably a good thing too because he was going to be a bit early. When I got back home, I got to work on the shirts for his big sisters and the onesie for him.

Big Sister Shirts and Little Brother Onesie

They all turned out great and their momma loves them. So now baby boy can feel free to show up anytime. And by now I’m sure his mom would be thrilled! Can’t wait to meet the new little addition and see everybody in their matching shirts!

 

Warrior Dash Weekend

This past weekend we went camping…and ran the Warrior Dash! First we got to camp a day before the race and explored a little bit.

Hanging out with Big Monkey along the Suwannee River.

We found the river and the one geocache in the park. There are lots of trails and we were a bit sad that there was only one cache to find. (If we lived closer, we’d add some more caches to the park.)

Saturday morning we got up and moving to head over to the race. We were in the second wave (10:30) but wanted to get there early enough to get checked in and get our stuff back to the car. On our drive down it was POURING rain. We got to check in and it started to clear up, but we were already soaked.

Our 'Before' shot...not actually dirty yet, but soaking wet from the downpour!

We had a little bit of time to just hang out, use the porta potty farm and get ready for the fun. It had stopped raining until just before our wave was going to start and then the clouds opened up again and POURED. The clock counted down and the flames went off and our group started moving towards the starting line. I wasn’t too concerned with the rain…it just seemed like another obstacle. The only problem with the pouring rain was that it just kept making my glasses hard to see out of! We went through a trail in the trees and it was quite tight getting everybody through so we were just crawling along for parts of it. The pouring rain and the loud thunder and bright lightning was an interesting additional mix to the course. People were hollering and running faster because of the lightning. I told the people around me that God was just taking a picture of the event. I think that’s what I was trying to convince myself so I wouldn’t be concerned with being a forest with all that lightning going on!

Once we got through the trail part of the run, things spread out a bit more and we made our way to the obstacles. I had been concerned mostly with the obstacles over the run but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When I was about halfway through the race, I missed a section of the run because I was following everyone in front of me…who also missed it. We saw a big arrow and headed the way it said, then we noticed people were joining us and we could see obstacles we hadn’t done. By the time we figured out we had completely missed something it was too far to try and get back to it. Plus we were being told that the obstacles had been closed because a girl broke her ankle going down the fireman pole. (This turned out to be half true. A girl did break her ankle, but they didn’t close the obstacles completely.) I am sad I missed some of the obstacles but hopefully we’ll do the race again sometime and I’ll be sure to get to everything.

When I came down the a-frame cargo net, I noticed my friends D, M and N going up it. Then I really knew I missed a lot…because for me to catch up to them was impossible in the real world. We all finished up by jumping over the fire and going into the mud pit. It was a LOT of fun and I would do it again.

The 'After' Shot! Muddy and wet but happy!

When we finished the race, we grabbed some water and granola and watched for the other people in our group to finish too. Once everybody was done, we got in line to take our picture with the cool set up Warrior Dash had provided for a great photo op.

Almost everyone in our group. D got cut out of my picture....sorry D!

Part of our group decided to stick around for the party for a bit while the others hung out for a little while before heading back to camp to clean up. Every one (of age) gets a free beer for turning in their timing chip (Great idea to get their timing chips back!) so we turned in our chips for some beer. In addition to our free beer, we all got a medal for finishing, a t-shirt and a fuzzy warrior helmet! We went to the car to put on dry, cleaner clothing and got our chairs so we could hang out and enjoy the event. It was crazy! People watching at its finest level…I cannot even begin to explain it! Big Monkey and I shared a big turkey leg for lunch. The waves were getting close to being done and the awards ceremony and costume and beard contests were going to be starting in a little while when the skies opened up again. We decided that was enough for us and we packed it up and headed back to camp. I wish we had tracked the distance from the car to the event and back. We made that walk at least three times and it was quite a walk!

Once we got back to camp, we got cleaned up and just hung out, enjoying everyone’s company. It was nice that Big Monkey and I didn’t have to worry about dogs or kids like we normally do (Thanks GrandMom for watching all of them!). We just relaxed and had a great time.

Here’s the short of the Warrior Dash Experience-

• The folks who put the event on-Red Frog Events-know what they are doing. I was impressed with how well everything went.

• The only suggestion I have would be to make the waves every 15 minutes with half as many people. That might help with the bottleneck in the trail section and the time spent waiting for the people in front of you to do an obstacle. (I don’t know that my idea would solve those problems though.)

• We had a great time and would do the race again. Even with the rain and lightning!

If you are interested in knowing more about Warrior Dash, check them out here! There are no more Florida races this year but plenty of races in other states and even other countries! (Oh and they don’t know I’m writing this…I’m just letting you know about our experience!)

Lobster Love!

I have this friend….and he has this sister….who is now also my friend. Funny, I’ve known her, at least of her, for a long time, but we’ve never really hung out or chatted. She lives clear across the country, but thanks to blogs and a few (just a few) similarities, we are now real life friends too. She has this great husband and amazing little girl. They came to visit their family and invited us to come hang out with them while they were here. They took us with them to Animal Kingdom. The littles loved it. My Little Monkey and Little Monkette became fast friends with her little one. Little Monkey has asked if we can go to her house (I showed him a map and told him, maybe one day.).

I had planned to make her little one a dress earlier in the year and mail it, but it never got done…so I made it my mission to have it done by the time they got here for their visit. I also wanted to make something for her Momma K, which meant I couldn’t leave her Daddy C out either! But what on earth do you sew for a grown man?!?! I decided on a bowtie. K and C are eclectic and it is so fun (I hope you know I do mean this in a good way!). I thought Daddy C would love a fun bowtie. (Thankfully I was right, though he did have to learn how to tie it!) I made a matching headband for Momma K.

Sweet Love!

I made the little one a pillowcase dress and a headband to share with Momma K. I love how everything turned out and that they loved the gifts as well. (In fact, Momma K has asked for more headbands! I better get on that!)

Thanks to Momma K and Daddy C and little one for letting us hang out with you while you were here! I wish you lived here so we could hang out more often!!

Little Monkey, Goofy and Little Monkette

Cookie Decorating Day

At the beginning of December, Little Monkey had some friends over to have a cookie decorating day. We met one of the other families at a PKU event and another family online through Facebook. Turns out one of the families lives about 15 minutes down the road from us. We were very excited to all get together and decorate cookies and let the kids play.

We talked to our dietician and she was able to get us connected to a person at Cambrooke who generously sent us some wheat starch that we need to make the cookies. Wheat starch is the one odd ball ingredient in the cookie recipe and it isn’t cheap. We were thrilled that Cambrooke was happy to send us some for our little party.

Before the party we cooked up a bunch of cookies, decorated for Christmas and made aprons for each little guest. We also planned to make some cookies once the guests arrived so that we could show them the recipe. Little Monkey decided that we needed a sign in the yard so that people would know where to park. Mimi tried to convince him that wasn’t necessary but he wouldn’t give up. They ended up making a sign and putting it on the back of my car. While making that sign, they also made two signs for the door. Little Monkey did all the writing and then hung them up. Apparently this special animal tape was all he could find.

Welcome!

We set up two tables for cookie decorating but ended up only needing one. We used the other to collect all the finished cookies. We laid out all the aprons for the guests, but Little Monkey decided that just their first initial wouldn’t be enough. So he labeled each apron with their names too!

Appliqued aprons for the guests.

Once all the little chefs arrived, we had some pku friendly foods for everybody to eat. Once their bellies were filled up on good stuff, we got to the fun part! We pulled out all the cookies and lots of icing and some phe free decorations and let the kids go at it. It was a fun crazy time with lots of icing covered fingers and candies and cookies being eaten.

Concentrating on decorating cookies!

Even Little Monkette had fun decorating cookies (and eating them).

As cookies were decorated, we moved them over to the other table to make room for more decorating. Each family had their own section and we filled up some cute storage buckets with all their creations and more undecorated cookies to take home. We’ve been enjoying snacking on our cookies for most of the month. Amazingly, the cookies keep pretty well. We also took a plate of cookies to Little Monkey’s nurse and deitician. They shared the cookies with the office and everyone was surprised at how yummy the cookies tasted. (Lo pro foods have a bad rep for not tasting too great.)

A small collection of the decorated cookies!

A great time was had by everyone and we hope to have another cooking day in the new year. Our deitician has also asked us to consider putting together an event for our entire clinic (pku patients and families) next year. By the time Christmas comes around, the new Nemours Hospital should be open and they are going to have a big teaching kitchen that we could use to hold our event!

 

The Trampoline

Back in August, Big Monkey texted me saying, “Hey, do we want a trampoline?” My first thought was no. I didn’t know where we would really put it and if it would be a good idea with Little Monkey and Little Monkette. Then I asked, “How much?” I was surprised when Big Monkey told me it was free, we just had to pick it up. His friend had it at his house and didn’t want it any more.  Does he know me well or what!?!?! I’m all about free stuff and knew the kids would love it since they loved going to the trampoline place. I gave in and we got it.

The kids ask to jump almost every day. It is great for getting some extra energy out of them too! I am surprised by how much Little Monkette loves it but she thinks it is so fun! We have to give the kids separate times to jump but they are pretty good about sharing it.

Little Monkette jumping

 

Little Monkey jumping

Thanks to friends for thinking of us! We love using your old toys! (Especially FREE ones!!!)

Jean Skirt Makeover!

My friend D, from church, wore this rather short skirt to church one day. I talked to her and her mom and we decided to add some ruffles to the bottom to help add some length to the skirt.

Plain Skirt

Since D likes FSU (Although I don’t know why!) I decided to use FSU fabric to transform her skirt. Along the bottom of the front and the back, I put some pleated ruffles across it. Then on the front there were those two worn hole sections. I cut a piece of FSU fabric and sewed them behind it. So once the hole is really opened up, you’ll see the matching FSU fabric and not her legs!

FSU Skirt! Front

FSU Skirt Back

This project took me way too long to do but I was happy to make it for her and now she has a fun FSU skirt that is a little bit longer. I also found some invisible thread to use on this project to help make the seam lines less obvious. You can see where the line is in these photos but not as obvious as if I had used white thread. D liked how it turned out too (even better!).

I am sharing this post at:

Birthday Present

Our friends’ daughter recently turned one and we were invited to her party. I knew I wanted to make her something as her present but I wasn’t sure what. I headed to Target and found some shirts and shorts on clearance! Perfect! I loved the pink and yellow together and grabbed an extra pair of denim shorts too.

I decided on a pink and yellow flower applique. I searched online for a flower shape I liked and printed out a template. For the pink shirt, I made the flower yellow with a pink center and then the opposite for the yellow shorts! I love how they turned out!

Flower Outfit

With the second pair of shorts, I put the same small flower applique in the corner. A matching, but not exactly the same, set of clothes for the birthday girl! Thanks to the clearance rack all three pieces cost about $7 total. The fabric I used came from my scraps!

Flower Outfit II

The birthday girl and her mom loved the new pieces for her wardrobe!

I will be sharing this post at:

 

Freedom Four Miler

After we ran the Stop, Drop and Run 5k, my friend D tried to convince me that the Freedom Four Miler on the 4th of July wouldn’t be too bad. It was earlier in the day and ONLY .9 miles more than the 5k. I wasn’t convinced that I could do four miles but eventually, after being harassed about the race and the fact that I would be out of town during another 5k they would do, I decided to do the four miler. I kept training and gave it a go. I had never even run four miles before the Freedom Four Miler.

The night before the race, the kids, Big Monkey and I headed up to spend the night at D’s house since the race was much closer to their house than ours and we had a 7:30am start time. We were up by 6am to eat, change and get in the car. The littles did better than I expected them to. We put Little Monkette in the stroller at the race and she and Little Monkey hung out with D’s kids that weren’t running in the race. I gave Little Monkey the camera so he could get some pictures. This race he only took five pictures total! (The last race he probably took about 20 pictures.)

We somehow ended up starting the race at the very back of the pack (maybe 300 people total). I ran the entire first mile (at just over an 11 minute mile pace), plus a little bit more. Then I started doing a little bit of walking, running, walking, running, until I finished. I was very excited to see a homeowner spraying water across the road just after the three mile mark. I ran straight through it. It felt great! As i was approaching the finish, D and her son Z were waiting for me and they both ran me in to the very last turn before the finish line. I finished with an official time of 47:12 for the four miles. My tracker showed I only ran 3.9 miles but D’s tracker showed she ran 4.1 miles. Who knows, all I know is that I finished! I am happy with that. No awards for our group this time around but that’s okay. I came in 10th in my age group and I’m just happy that I made it to the end and wasn’t last!

Approaching the last turn...

Unfortunately, when you give the camera to the five year old, you are likely to get out of focus, blurry pictures!

Going to the finish line!!

Now D is trying to convince me that a 10k is not that much more than four miles…but I’m not convinced yet! We are all registered for the Warrior Dash in March 2012 though (3.09 miles with obstacles!).

Stop, Drop and Run 5k

For some strange reason, my friend D thought it would be a great idea for us to run a 5k. I was not as thrilled about the idea but we finally did decide to register for the run. We ended up running with four other people (three of D’s kids and another friend, K). Since the run was in Ocala and Big Monkey was going to be working, we had a sleepover at D’s house. It got us much closer to the race, so we only had to be up at 6:15 instead of probably leaving at 6:15.

Our group before the race K, me, D, Z, M and D

Stop, Drop and Run was a benefit run with Marion County Fire Rescue’s Union. They have two families within their department that are fighting cancer. It was also in memory of another family member that had passed away because of cancer. This run was the first 5k benefit run they were holding. Overall it went very smoothly and we will likely do it again next year if they have it. The only way to make it better would be to start the run earlier in the day (It was scheduled to start at 8:30 and didn’t start until 8:45 and it was getting hotter and hotter by the minute.) and to have more water on hand at the various water stations.

We all started out the race together but VERY quickly separated out mostly. D’s daughter (also a D) ran with me most of the time. We ran the entire first K and then some but then started walking and then running. I honestly should have been able to beat he but I let the heat and my brain get to me….and I came in last out of our group. Four of our six group members placed either first or second in their age group (once again, not me…I was 14th for my age group). I tracked my run on my phone with Endomondo. According to it, I finished the 5k in 39:08 but that also included me crossing the finish line, walking through the ropes and then over to the side to throw up. (Bummer but I think it was the Gatorade I drank mid-race because that was all they had by the time I got there and I needed something.) My offical time was posted but I honestly don’t remember what it was. No matter what though, even the 39:08 was a personal best for me, so I was happy with that. (Updated: I was able to look it up online! My official race finish time was 38:32!)

Little Monkey took this picture of me after I was crossing the finish line.

The Pink Heals fire truck and police car were there (along with a handful of local fire trucks). Little Monkey loved the trucks and took many pictures of them while waiting on us to cross the finish line! There was a three legged dog that ran the race with his owner (and beat me in of course) as well as a firefighter in full bunker gear running on his air tank (until it ran out of air). He finished the race with all the gear and the air pack on too (he also beat me).

Little Monkey with the Pink Heals Fire Truck

Everyone in our group that ran! Me, K, Z, D, M and D.

D has almost convinced us to do a four mile run on the 4th of July. We’ll see if we sign up for that one! Another friend, J and his wife L, has convinced all of us to do the Warrior Dash next March. Should be crazy and dirty but so far we have eight people agreeing to do it so we’ll have a good group!

Quick Flower Hair Clip

Saturday night I was able to go out and celebrate my best friend still being 29…for a few more days. He is the last of our group of friends to break the big 3-0. After trying on multiple outfits and discovering I really do need to lose at least 15 pounds to fit back into many of my outfits, I found a dress and decided to wear my hair half up/half down, like I do a lot. I decided to make a quick rosette flower clip that would match (not perfectly but look good) with my dress.

From broken clip to.....

I grabbed some scrap fabric and cut it in long strips. Then I tied a knot in the end and started wrapping and twisting the fabric around the knotted center. Every few wraps I would add some hot glue (Dries faster than the fabric glue). I ended up making three fabric rosettes and glued them to an old hair clip that was broken. (I had planned to hot glue it back together but this was a better idea.) I love how it turned out and will probably try and make some more. Tons of fabric/color options for these clips!

Fun flowered clip!

This isn’t the best picture, but here is a shot in my hair….and it really is darker like in the above photo.

Clip in my hair.

For dinner, my best friend decided on a Turkish restaurant for his party. There was a belly dancer there and we really couldn’t figure out how she was managing to do what she was. I was always bouncing around in my seat and near the end of dinner she came over and hand me go belly dance with her! It was SO embarrassing but very funny. It was captured on video…but I don’t think you need to see that just yet…..maybe one day.

I am sharing this post at: