Kiddie Kandid's opened back up and my thoughts were confirmed by the lady working there, they were bought by Sears. There is ups and downs with that buy out. But, for today it was a plus. I got a package deal for 8 dollars. And because the lady knew us and we came so much with Lela she gave me the 40 dollar membership for free, which gives us 10% off every time we come and one free 8x10 every day, with no other purchase needed! So we'll be going a lot to get those free 8x10's! I am so happy she gave that to us. She said it would help her get her sitting quota as she knows when we get good deals we'll come a lot since we were there all the time with Lela till they closed.

We went to the park, and finally got to meet the manager of the park. I was beginning to think it was like the Wizard of Oz. We have never actually got to talk to him or see him till today! It's all been messages back and forth. He gave us plenty of parking passes for every one. And said he would like us to come on Friday to set up for the party if that was ok. And we were like oh yeah! That would be awesome. That way I'm not fretting the day of! And they have a big industrial fridge he said we could leave our food in for the party. I'm going to leave the ice cream, soda, and mints. The room is left locked, so they will all be safe. So it was all good news at the park today. *sigh of relief*

Was a hot one today. Had a good meeting. Most every one said they were coming to the baby shower. And Rene held Belle again through the meeting. She was a happy baby today!

Lela went with Vince's father to a family get together in upstate New York and every one was sure asking about her. We decided to go to meeting instead. And didn't want to have to hurry back for Vince to go to work tonight any way.

I put a beef roast in the crock pot last night so it was nice and ready when we got home today from meeting. Boy was that a relief to have dinner ready and waiting for us. I love the crock pot. So we had BBQ pulled beef sandwiches and watermelon. Yum.

Earlier this week a dear sister sent me a sample she got of my favorite caramel vanilla Maxwell House coffee. That was so sweet of her. It's so yummy!

Went around and bought a few last minute things for the shower. And we seen that Babies R Us's portrait studio is back. But, it looks like Sears may of bought it. They have changed the packages all up, and no more free photos for newborns. grr But, we're going to go and get Belle's photo taken tomorrow any way hopefully. We'll just get the 7.99 special. Which smells of Sears! haha But, that's ok, I like Sears photos for the price too.

I'm really happy with the plates we chose for the baby shower. I got some cheap (20 for 99 cents) solid pastel pink plates, and we're going to mix and match them with some slightly higher (20 for 2 dollars) baby whale plates that have a celery green back ground with polka dots. We went with solid pink cups from Party City-50 for like 4 dollars. So far, so good.

Went to Big Lots and bought the Orange Spice Latte by Maxwell House, I wasn't very happy with this flavor. I won't be buying it again. Oh well, at least I got it cheap from Big Lots and not full price at the grocery store.

Then we went to Walmart and the tortillas we needed to make pinwheels for the baby shower were on sale! YEAH!

We had lunch at Denny's (the only one in NYC!) and boy is the baked potato soup good! They had a special of all you can eat soup and salad for 6 dollars. It was very worth it. The salad was the best looking salad I've had out to eat for a long time. And the soup was amazingly good! We'll be getting that more often. We never ever buy Lela nor ourselves drinks while out to eat. But, Denny's had a soccer ball cup with crazy straws that Lela really wanted, and it was only 1.99 and with eating there being so cheap for NYC prices, we went ahead and splurged, she was happy all day long, and went on and on about how happy she was about her soccer ball cup, with two crazy straws!

And last but not least the heat broke, and it was a loverly day, absolutely beautiful. The perfect temperature for me, and just beautiful. I love days like today. So all in all we had a wonderful day.

Meanwhile, I've been trolling the net for more embroidery patterns as it's a addiction for me. And I found two projects for gifts for my grandmother, and sister. I'm going to make grandma a dog, just like her Annie dog, and I am thinking about making Amber a Russian doll, but I'm not positive yet, she loves cats. So I may go ahead and look for a cat to make her. But, the doll is so pretty.

So Hot!

Whew the heat is back and worse then ever! Vince was able to clean the filter of the AC it's helping a little bit. But, it's still awfully hot. I'll be pining away for winter till fall comes and brings relief from the summer heat. Fall is my favorite season, as it's furthest away from summer. I always dread the summer heat, since I had heat exhaustion when I was 8 years old, it's always made me ill since. So I'll be dreaming of wintry snow days till then.

Before meeting Lela kept thinking we might not go cause Vince and I weren't getting ready early enough for her. Even though it was plenty early enough! She kept crying and getting very upset that we might not go. Even though we re-assured her several times we were going. Poor baby has missed going to meetings all week. Because last weekend was the convention but Vince was working 8-4 so we couldn't go. We had already scheduled going to convention in July which is still the plan. Plus we want to go upstate to a smaller convention so it's not as stressful as the great big ones here in the city. So it's been a week and half since she's been to a meeting and she was sure wanting to make sure we got there! This is a good age!

Meeting was a sweet relief both spiritually and heat wise. Thankfully the AC was on at the hall tonight. It was a good meeting spiritually as well, I particularly liked the part in the Kingdom Ministry about pioneering. I can't wait till I can pioneer again. I'm thinking one year after I have our last child. I don't want to come on and off the pioneer list, and I know I won't be able to pioneer with a less then one year old at home. Till then I want to auxiliary pioneer as much as I can.

Rene held and fed Belle during meeting tonight. It was the first meeting I ever let some one else take one of our children during the meeting. But, I was sitting right in front of her. Still it was different, but nice. I sure hope we get a loving congregation that love us in Kansas, and that we can have some good life long friends in. I can't wait for the girls to get some friends. We have no children in our current congregation. I would also like to make a friend with children as well. So maybe we will.

And of course we had another song that was hard for us again tonight. Maybe one day we'll have these songs memorized as well as we had the songs in Sing Praises to Jehovah memorized. Lela doesn't care though, as long as we are singing she is happy. She loves to practice the songs at home as well. She's always begging me, and then saying just 3 more songs mom, ok 10 more songs mom? haha Gotta love her. I hope she will always like going to meetings and singing as much as she does now.


I finished making the invitations to Belle's baby shower, I think they came out cute. Hope every one liked them. Lela was happy and said now every one would be home safe and sound with a picture of Belle.

A Simple Woman's Daybook

I am thinking...I can't wait to see my sister and step mother next week!

I am thankful for...my husband, he helps me so much with the children and is a good father.

I am remembering...how little my grandma had materially growing up, yet loved her parents so much. If only children had that same love and respect for their parents as children did then.

I am hoping...my children grow up to love and serve Jehovah.

I am creating...a menu for the baby shower.

On my mind...how much I truly love my children.

Noticing that...there is fewer and fewer people I grew up knowing still alive. I miss so many of those people of my past. Wish they were still around for my children to know.

From the kitchen...pizza.

One of my favorite things...wide open spaces.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...my grandmother, her parents, two sisters and baby brother.

Ok I was so excited about Belle's first word, or so I thought! Come to find out, wouldn't you know it, she's been saying things to Vince! She said "hey", and "yeah". hmph, girls and their daddies! She also tries to wag her finger at Lela. As if she's thinking, now I know I seen this work for mommy and daddy to get her to do what you want, why isn't it working for me?

Lela got real sick last night and vomited three times in our bed. Poor baby. We gave her a bath and put her to bed, but this morning I woke up with her in our bed. And then she threw up again. This time she went to the bathroom. She felt a little feverish. But, now it doesn't seem like there is anything allowed to give a child her size. So I just pushed the liquids, and had her rest. I am going to try to get some kids emergenC to keep the in the house from now on for occasions such as this.

Belle was also up half the night, and I thought I wouldn't be able to stay awake today, but I did ok.

On good news, Vince's aunt Brenda, and cousins Justine and Jonathon were in town visiting grandma and grandpa Woodford, so we went and visited them tonight. I didn't think we would be able to with Lela feeling ill this morning and last night. But, by this evening she was pretty chipper and feeling much better so we took our chances. She did fine, and was wanting great grandpa to play tag with her! I really wanted to get over there and see them though. As Brenda's daughter Brandy and Vince grew up together almost as brother and sister more then cousins. And Brenda is always so generous to us with baby gifts. She's really sweet. Of course they liked seeing the kids too.

I just tasted the sugar free Suisse Mocha International instant coffee the other day. I love it! It's almost the same calories as the "diet" hot cocoa mixes, and half the calories as the sugar free hot cocoa mixes. I can't stand the diet mixes, I can tolerate the sugar free ones though. But, for half the calories, and a pretty good price, now that I found out Big Lots sells them for only 2 dollars each, I'm switching over! I'll be glad when we move closer to stores like Big Lots, they are so far away from where I live. I just stock up when we visit areas with them.

Word!

Oh my goodness! Belle said her first word today! Hi! She's such a sweet baby, gonna be just like Lela, a early talker! I'm so excited for her. I just love her to bits. Carol in Oregon sent her the cutest hand crocheted dress and hat, I can't wait for her to wear it to meeting. I think we all need to go see the movie Babies!

I also decided to browse my favorite embroider blogs yesterday and found two neat things.

First I found the coolest thread cabinet ever! And now I have to get one! It'll have to wait till we move, but it's the cabinet of my dreams. It's a antique reproduction. I'm quite sure Silver Dollar Cities, Ye Olde Stitching Post used to sell it and I wanted it then too. But, I was so young, I think my mom thought it was probably too much to spend on my craft. Well, I can't wait to be able to get one. I have seen them a few times online but always thought they were smaller then they actually are. I seen a photo of one in a woman's home, and can now see it's scale and see it would be perfect! Now I'm quite certain I recall seeing them at Silver Dollar City ages ago. I have a whole idea in my mind now. I want a thread/material/pattern dressser/cabinet. I'm going to draw it up and see how much it will cost Leeland to make for me. I want 6 small drawers for my floss, one deep drawer for my patterns, and three medium drawers for my material stash. I can't wait!

Secondly, one of my favorite bloggers I found out is from the Wichita, Kansas area. I always went to her blog for her embroidery patterns and never paid much attention to her writings or her pictures. When I was searching through the embroidery patterns though this time, I noticed some of the pictures looked so familiar. Till I came upon one just down the street from my mom's! Then I knew for sure with out a doubt she had to be from the Wichita area. So I went ahead and started reading her blog and sure enough she's from some where near Wichita, if not in Wichita. But, she takes photos all over Kansas, so I'm not sure exactly where in Kansas, but a lot of her photos are in or near Wichita. Kind of exciting. I sure can't wait to get back there so I can get in on some of the great finds she finds at Goodwill and estate sales! Especially embroidery transfers, and vintage books and toys. I love them! She's quite good at finding exactly the stuff I love. lol I hope some is left out there for me! lol

I also hear the painting of my new apartment is finished, now to get one of my brothers or sisters to send me some pictures of it!

The sun came out today. Summer is coming!

I was in the living room last night and was looking at the photos I have up. And noticed one of my Grandma Lela and Grandpa Ralph on their wedding day way back July 4th, 1936. I only printed it from a scan, and on just plain paper but it looks really good in a frame on the book case. Then I remembered I had it stored online in a account that will be closed any day! So I hurried and pulled it off the account and saved it again to my pc and uploaded it to photobucket. I don't have many pictures of my grandparents and very very few of grandpa especially. When I was sifting through the things I had uploaded in that account I found this poem that my great grandma (grandma Lela's mother) had wrote and sent to grandma when grandpa died in 1964 in a plane crash. It's always been a source of encouragement. I sure don't want to lose it. I can't wait till all of them are brought back to life and see these changes actually come about for mankind.

God Of Love

Oh God of love forgive, forgive

Teach us how to truly live

Regardless of our race or creed

Help us in our hour of need

Some day man may realize

All the earth and sea and sky

Belongs to God who made us all

The rich, the poor, the great and small

In our father's holy sight

No man is yellow, black or white

And peace on earth can not abound

Until we meet on common ground

And every man becomes a brother

And worships God and loves each other

Author~Ina Steel-Dixon

Had a long day. We took the girls to the Broadway Mall in Hicksville to let Lela play at the toddler indoor playground. Noticed Khol's is now doing Toy Story for their Kids Care program, hmm, not too into those books so much. They are cute. But, think I'll wait and see what the next series is. Then we went to Weight Watchers to see what their new treat bars were, and boy the red velvet cake looks good! But, awe they were closed! Will have to try again later. Then we did our grocery shopping, BJ's, Walmart and Stop & Shop. We listened to The Couple Next Door the whole time in the car, and boy is that one hilarious comedy. I want to go through the archives and see if there is a soap opera for me to get into. I never watch them on TV, have never seen one at all. But, I think a radio series one from the 1940's might be interesting. Now we're home again, home again jiggidy jog, it was a good day.

Belle has not been sleeping well at night the last few nights at all. *whew* I'm running on empty energy wise. My brothers and sisters are painting our new apartment. I can't wait to see it. I love my family!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

I am thinking...I'm exhausted.

I am thankful for...my family, having loving and caring parents.

I am remembering...the yummy Colombian meal we had for lunch, our first visit to Pollo Mario.

I am hoping...to be able to move very soon.

I am creating...a bread and butter kids kitchen towel.

On my mind...baby shower arrangements.

Noticing that...I love my children more every day.

From the kitchen...Colombian fajitas, and guacamole leftovers.

One of my favorite things...The country, big porches, with lazy rocking chairs.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...I can't wait till I have my own big comfy porch like this to sit out, sip my lemonade, and just watch the day pass by.