The Lily Pad

No, I dont' have a rash.  I have the itch that all Military Wives get, the itch to move.  It's kind of funny, moving is a huge pain in the rear but after you've been a Marine wife for long enough, you can feel it in your bones when you come up on 2 years in the same place and you start daydreaming about where you want to go next.  Sometimes you get to move, sometimes you don't.  Right now I have the itch.  I'm ready to head back to the East Coast.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it here but I can see us living there just as easily and happily and 2 years into living there I'll probably be ready for something else. Moving is so therapeutic and frustrating and may cause you to need therapy but I feel like it shakes up your life in way that nothing else can.  You have to decide what you really want to take with you and pack and unpack and get to eliminate a lot of junk from your life.  Then you get the fun and frustration of setting up a whole new house.  You live

Madelyn loves to color, and by loves I mean LOVES.  I would venture that it is her most favorite thing to do, we go through coloring books like we do toilet paper around here.  She usually colors pictures however she wants, whatever color she wants.  However, her daddy likes to color things the "right" colors and makes a point of this every time he is coloring with her. Friday night was the exception.  After an exceptionally long week of not being home before 8 or 9, Madelyn was in dire need of some Daddy time and asked him to color with her.  Daddy obliged but just did not have the energy to follow his own preset guidelines of coloring Woody the right colors.  I walked back into the kitchen to Madelyn yelling at me "Mommy!  Turn dat movie on!  Dose not the right colors! Turn dat movie on and show him! Him not blue and red!  Him wellow!" Chris looked at me with a "what the hell" on his face and all I could say was "You're the one that started

Jirp Jirp the snowman was built on Christmas Morn. With bottlecap eyes and an 80's cap and two arms made out of sticks. Jirp Jirp the snowman was not his first name but Madelyn knew that Idiot just didn't feel the same.    There must have been some magic in that 80's hat that day  cause he didn't melt as fast as he should and didn't go away. O' Jirp Jirp the snowman was as short as he could be then he melted away and Madelyn cried all day. Thumpity Thump Thump Thumpity Thump Thump Look at Jirp Jirp Go. **Yeah, I'm a little late for Christmas carols, but I couldn't resist sharing this masterpiece with you.  Plus show you M's lovely snowman.

I enjoy making, creating, sharing, and photographing projects that I have or am making however, I am not really good a following direction.  Sure, when it comes to knitting, I follow the pattern, and make what I'm supposed to but that's only part of the time.  I usually jump in without the right kind or amount of yarn and think that based on one line of direction that I can do it. Or if I don't like a certain element, I change it. When I cook (not bake, baking is very scientific and requires measurements) I read the recipe, see what it needs and usually just start dumping and tasting and dumping some more. I do follow some recipes to the letter, but I do far more dump and taste. Recipes are just starting points for me. I am a master at making things work. I am self taught on almost everything I've done and even if I did learn it somewhere else, I have tweaked it to suit the way my brain works. This causes problems because I look at things so differently than 95% of the

As a North Carolina native I am used to have seasons.  My life was mapped out by seasons.  Seasonal clothes were packed away and brought back out at appropriate times, there were very clearly spring/summer clothes and fall/winter clothes.  I knew what time of year it was by walking outside and feeling the temperature or smelling the air.  You can smell the seasons change in NC, you can feel it in your bones and you know there are things you're supposed to do in fall.  Like go to high school football games, get your flu shot, pull out your sweaters.  That first crisp morning of fall is the best thing ever.  The sun takes on an oranger glow, the leaves start looking like a beautiful painting, you feel the dryness in the air and you know what month it is. California has screwed me up.  I have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing seasonally.  In NC I know to start Christmas knitting at that first sign of fall crispness (don't judge, knitting is a cold weather craft).  In CA,

My bloggy friend Candace is having an awesome give away over on her blog. To give away some super things, and since I am coveting the chair bottle opener I am going to share with you some of my favorite things. Some of these are all time favorites and others are things I am just loving right now. Scentsy, AKA crack  I have about 20 scents, 4 warmers and scent profiles based on mood, season, or location.  Yeah, I might need some sort of support group. I don't have these yet, but I am in love with these cansiters.  Just think how happy my sugar and flour will be when they're all snuggly inside these sleek little canisters!  Frogs, I love them but I really LOVE frog art and figurines  (do these count as figurines?  I don't know, I love them though!)  Salt and Pepper Kettle Chips. Yum! Malabrigo yarn.  It's soft, it's yummy, it's full of hand dyed colorfullness that is a total pleasure to knit with and wear!  I'm not picky either with my malabrigo, I

Madelyn is at the ever lovely "why?" stage and apparently after 3 HUGE tantrums in 2 weeks, the tantrum stage.  On a completely unrelated note, anybody want to borrow a 3 year old for a month?  No?  Darn.  Anyway, she asks why for everything.  At Christmas she asked why her daddy was a boy and I told her because God made him that way (this is my new favorite answer btw) and my father in law asked her why she was a girl.  Her response?  "Because I sit down to pee." Sarcasm is also a new addition to our house and Madelyn's favorite new saying whenever I ask her to do something or tell her "no" is to say "Oh Man!".  My father took great delight in this during our visit and prompted the saying every chance he got.  After one very frustrating evening of Madelyn not listening to me, she and he were saying it after everything I said so I said "Dadaddy is gonna get you a spanking if you don't stop saying that."  Madelyn hurried up the