Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Above is a picture of the cupcakes that I made for the Halloween party we went to. (The Icing tastes like ice cream) My Cousin Angie and her husband Scott hosted an awesome Halloween party for the second year in a row. They had Games for the kids and we had some delicious food!

My Costume :)

This year I did not take the girls downtown on Friday like I normally do. Last year it was not a good experience for us. It was too crowded, lots of rude people. People getting in front of you in line and it took 2 hours and the girls got about 25 pieces of candy which mostly consisted of dum dum drops and various candies they didn't care to eat. I've never taken my girls house to house. It makes me nervous but I'm seriously considering it for next year. I did take them to the Mall on Saturday evening and they got a bit of candy and it wasn't crowded and full of rudeness.

Ashley was a Cowgirl for Halloween

Abbey was Snow White :)

The Girls Trick or Treating the mall.

We did have a lot of fun this Halloween it was my first time to dress in costume in a lot of years. I'm looking forward to next year! Now I'll share some pics of the other costumes from the party.

My Sister (Grim Reaper?)

My Mom - The Vampire

The Boobs (Lena and Shauna)

Lane The Joker

Scott the Mad Scientist

Aunt Connie and Uncle Larry

Hope you had a great Halloween :)

Ashley's 9th Birthday !

This year instead of a traditional invite everyone kind of birthday party, Ashley chose a slumber party. She was allowed to chose 4 friends for the night :) L to R Claire, Ashley, Maddie & Madelynn. (Aren't they adorable?)

We had Cupcakes, Ice Cream & Punch, With Family and a few Friends.

Of course we had some Gifts!

It's all about Justin Beiber these days ya know?


We had pillow fights, movies and lots of giggling and laughter.. oh And Jake took them for a cruise in his "Go Cart" :)

I think she had a great time! She wants another Slumber party next year :)

The Girls Room

I know I haven't blogged in way too long. The thought of a huge long post turns me sour right now and I have so many things I want to share on here, So maybe one or two things at a time is how we'll go with it for now. As a matter of fact I have a huge post that I started and might finish someday or maybe not.

Lot's going on in and out of the Goodman house these days. Major kitchen redo and De - cluttering in all rooms. Each room is getting a day of the week to be worked on now. Today was the girls room. I did not take a before picture. Mostly because I might have broken my neck getting in there to take and picture and because I would have been too embarrassed to share it. This picture isn't great taken on the phone. I'm a total neat freak and I sure to some the room was just fine but It was driving me crazy and since the girls share a room they had WAAAAAY to many toys in there. Took me four hours! With a tinsy bit of help sorting from Hubs. I think we hauled off several trash bags of stuff and some bigger items as well. Glad it's gone and all is tidy in the pink bedroom for today :)


The house is quiet now as Ash is gone for the evening with her Daddy and Jake is at work. Just Abs and me and we're a quiet couple of gals when left home alone :)

Until next time . . .

Hot Summer!

The Oklahoma heat is awful this Summer. It was pretty awful last Summer but every Summer it seems to just get worse. It's simply too hot to do anything outside during the day unless it's something that you have to do. With both kids at home right now, it makes for a bit of a challenge some-days but overall they haven't been too bad considering the amount of time we've spent shacked up together :) I am looking forward to school starting though!

Okie dokie what's been going on around here...

Homestead

You may or may not remember the Guinea Pig Situation we had. We had bought Ashley a Guinea Pig for Christmas from a local Pet Shop. We named her Lucy and noticed she was putting on a bit of weight and 3 months later she had babies grr . . so we took all of the babies but one back to the pet shop, making darn sure they were both female! Up until now they have been in one big cage and getting along fine. But as of late the Momma has been picking on the baby a bit so we had to separate them into different cages. Thank goodness we'd picked up a Guinea Cage at a garage sale a few months back so we didn't have to get a new one. They seem fine in their own cages and even seem a bit happier :)


Nothing else new with the house. Our hot water heater is on the fritz yet again. The pilot light won't stay lit so we keep having to light it to warm water for dishes and showers until we can get it fixed. As much trouble as we've had with it, we're tempted to by a new one.. but the price tag is so heavy!

Jake did get the brakes on our van changed. I'm so proud of him, His first time doing so and he did it all by himself :)

Family



My Mom had her first 3 month Check-up. They did a pet scan and everything is still clear. No cancer this time. We're back in 3 months for another check-up. She seems to be getting back to her normal self slowly. Her Neuropathy doesn't seem nearly as bad now, So hopefully it's on the path to getting better.

Back in June on the 16th to be precise my Darlin hubs had a Birthday. He turned 33. I think he had a good birthday. His gift of choice was a Dell Mini which he seems to be enjoying. For his Cake he requested a regular white cake with Chocolate whipped icing. So that's what I made for him!


We celebrated my Sister's 33 birthday Just a few days ago. We bought her a few Necklace, earring and ring jewelry sets and She wanted a chocolate cake with purple icing so I made sure that was what she got. Happy Birthday Sis :)


Jake is back to work full time at Michelin. Sadly they never could find what was bothering his shoulder so they moved him to a different area of the plant where he wouldn't be using his shoulder. He seems to like this work much better. The hours are very different from what they were in the other area he worked in. But we're happy he's back to work.

Next week it will be time to enroll Ashley in school. She will be a 2nd grader this year! I pray she get's a good teacher that can work well with her. She struggles a lot it seems. She's been keeping herself busy this summer watching episodes of The Adventures of Sarah Jane (Dr. Who spin off) and playing My Sims on the Wii. A little reading now and then per Mom's request.

Sadly Abbey did not get into the Headstart program I'd enrolled her in. They had more apps than they had room for. I was really hoping to get her started in school early but it wasn't meant to be. Next year she can start at the regular head start.

Ashley, Abbey and myself have started attending church. We've been visting the First United Methodist church and attending their Contemporary service called Epic. The girls attended their Childrens church this past Sunday and they seemed to really enjoy it. I was glad. Soon we'll give the Sunday school classes a try.

Knitting & Crafts

There has been a lot of knitting going on around here for sure. What better to do when everything is clean and your stuck indoors right?

I did finish my Revontuli Shawl. First lace piece, first shawl and first time blocking for me. I'm happy with the way it turned out. Waiting for cooler weather to wear it the first time.


Awhile ago I knit a baby blanket for the new baby in the family this pattern is from the Creative Knitting Magazine The pattern was called Key Lime Baby Blanket, named after the original colors but of course I knit it in white and pink for a baby girl :)




I also finished up a Cabled Hat. Not sure who this one is for, I'm thinking of trying to sell it actually. But it is cute on Ashley. This one is Sarah's Cabled Hat... there is errata for this pattern if you should decide to knit it :)




I've also been working on some Dishcloths for my kitchen. I only had a few hand made ones and the other ones are in bad shape and need to find a different purpose. Both of these I sorta made up. One came from a stitch dictionary I have.


OTN's I have my sweater, a cabled sock pattern (a first for me), another dishcloth, a cowl and my table runner still. Abbey brought her mitts in from last winter yesterday and they are too small so I've been itching to knit her some mitts but I don't have any extra wool in the house so they'll have to wait until I do.

I've had the sewing itch lately. I finally made room on my craft desk in the dinning room to leave my sewing machine sitting out on it so I could get more use of it. I've been making a few bags here and there. Mostly using tutorial's from blogs and You Tube. Right now I have bought the stuff to make me some new hot pads. I need them desperately.

A bag for Ashley's Knitting Loom.



Project bag for me.. complete with lining and zipper even!



another knitting project bag for me :)



Cooking/Baking

Even though it's been too hot, we still have to eat. I have been wanting to make some bread so bad. But I keep putting it off. I have posted some new recipes on my recipe blog though. If you want to check those out.

Beef N Black Bean Taco Bake
Best Easy Beef N Broccoli Stir Fry

I have a few other new ones I need to get posted in the next week.

I guess that's it for this time.. so until next time . . .

Fourth of July!

We had a really good fourth of July weekend this year. We were invited to a celebration at Jim & Donna's house. Everytime we're invited to their home we always have such a great time & this time was no different. There is always good food, good conversation and always something fun for the kids to do. I made homemade cookies to take and some canned green tomato Relish that my friend Sis had given to me. Donna and Jim fried fish that Jim had caught I believe it was bass? and Donna made the best hushpuppies I have ever eaten (ya didn't leave without that recipe!) Lot's of sides and everything was so delicious!

Donna had some fourth of July goodies for the kids (& adults) to dress up in for pictures!



When it was dark enough we had an awesome fireworks show that Scott put on for us!


We had the best time and Abbey even cried when we had to leave :)

Until next time . . .

Since March!

I mean really, How long should one girl put off posting a blog entry? Definitely not this long! Well, anyway I'm back, hoping to post a bit more often :)

Where shall we begin . . .

Homestead

Not much productive going on around homestead. There is a massive list of things we NEED to be doing but aren't. I tried planting some flowers on the porch and even got some seeds started for bell peppers, and tomatoes but all have failed, The flowers got roasted on the porch, It was a combination of the Oklahoma Heat sneaking up on us and me not watering them properly. The seeds I'd planted with big plans of transplanting them to either the ground or bigger containers. But that never happened and like the flowers they roasted as well :( I'm disappointed, I should have taken better care of all and now I'm SO jealous of everyone who has successfully grown veggies so far. There were a lot of other things going on so maybe I expected too much of myself. Maybe I will try next year or maybe I can do something still this year but I don't know.

Yesterday Jake and I went through and organized our movie collection and got rid of ones we didn't want anymore and made a master list so we know what we do have without digging through the cabinet for them.

We also finally got our bedding on our bed that we'd bought at Ikea way back in february! Now I need to get some curtains in there that match and get some decor hung in there. It really needs to be painted in there too eventually.


I also found a cute little house shaped shelf at a garage sale for $2. It was brown and I brought it home and spray painted it black and hung it in the dinning room. It works out perfect for my cherished teddies which was what I was hoping to use it for.


Things we need to do: I have some shelves I need to spray paint for the bedroom, make or buy curtains for bedroom, clean out clutter from behind door in bedroom, de-clutter the girls room again, major things are new floor in dinning room or rug and painting kitchen (been dreaming about this one forever) also want to paint the dinning room table and chairs to match since they don't.

Family

Mom has a Dr.'s appointment at the end of the month after she has a pet scan. I'm praying that the cancer has stayed away. Her health hasn't been so great. She's been having trouble with Neuropathy in her feet. The Dr. got her on meds for that and it helps a little but she just can't stand on her feet for too long or they start to swell.

Jake (hubs) has been off work an on work-mans comp for several months now. I can't even remember when they put him on it. At Michelin if your on light duty for more than 90 days they put you on WC. We made the necessary cut backs on some bills and aren't feeling the financial crunch too badly, which we're thankful for. The scary part is that the two Dr.'s he's been to haven't found anything wrong. So now we're playing the waiting game on them to tell us what is next.

Ashley finished up summer school a few weeks ago. She is finally washing her hair and showering good enough for me not to have to stand over her while she's in there. Thank goodness! I was beginning to think it was never going to happen. She did finish her preemie hat that she was knitting on her knitting loom. Her first ever loomed project! So excited. For a summer project I let her pick out some yarn and she has started her a beach bag.



Abbey is getting taller and more clever everyday. She goes potty completely by herself now and dresses herself. I signed her up for the 3 year old program at Chickasaw head-start I'm hoping she get's in. I've been told they have a waiting list.

As a family we've started to get a bit healthier. I've added more veggies and fruits to our meal times and snacks and we've started to walk together as a family in the evening. We really enjoy that. We also bought the "Just Dance" game for the wii and we've been having a bit of fun playing that.

Last month we also had Day Camp with CampFire. It was a fun day! The kids got to do archery, nature, build bug houses, and make ice cream in a bag. We had a good turn out. It was a hot day!


Knitting

WIP (On the Needles) right now I have a Shawl, my first one ever. I've heard that until you block a shawl you can't really tell how pretty they are going to be. I hope mine turns out nicely. I also have a table runner for our dinning room table going and a sweater for me called Margot :)

The Shawl I'm knitting is Revontuli


The sweater I'm knitting for myself is Margot.


OTN (off the needles) I just finished up a pair of socks for a very dear friend of mines birthday. several weeks ago I'd finished up a pair of socks for myself. A scarf for my Mom, Bella Mittens for Ashley and a log cabin dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting and a hat for the girls.

My Socks were a plain vanilla sock pattern knit on 3mm and knit up in some hand dyed sock yarn that was given to me by a friend.

The pattern I used for Mom's scarf is one I bought at Gourmet yarn co.


Dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting Book




Bella's Mittens is a pattern a lady designed to replicate the mittens worn by bella in the movie Twilight.
The hat I knit for the girls was the pattern Chevron

Not sure what projects I have coming up, I'm itching to start another pair of socks and knit more dishcloths.

Well I guess that about covers it for this time.
Thank you for stopping by &

Until Next time . . .