The New, Improved Smile

Yesterday was a big day for Matthew, my younger son. It was the day he got his braces off, something he has had for 2.5 years.

Here is the "mouth" before all the metal was put in. You gotta love all those spaces and overlapping teeth...

The mouth before all the metal.

With Metal

Without Metal

Nice and straight...definitely worth the investment :)

Until next time...remember,

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

Another holiday in the books

It is Tuesday already, hard to believe that it has been almost a week since my last post. But things got a little busy here as we got closer to the weekend, which I spent in *The Store* assisting with all the chocolate dipping that needed to be done for all the arrangements that were ordered for the Easter weekend. Over 300 pineapple bunnies were dipped in chocolate, along with strawberries, apples and bananas over the weekend.

This was one of the more popular arrangements that we created over the weekend, but most were ordered with 1/2 of the strawberries dipped in chocolate too. I am sure that there were a lot of beautiful Easter brunch buffets :) Now it is time to gear up for Mother's Day!!!

Yesterday the boys had the day off of school - which was nice because I used it as a "catch up" day...got caught up on the laundry, got caught up on my exercise, got caught up on my napping and the boys got caught up on their homework they had during the long weekend. In addition, Matthew (younger son) got phase 1 of his braces on - just on the top teeth right now. They are planning to put braces on the bottom in about 6 months for they are waiting for the rest of his baby teeth to come out. By the evening, he was getting a little soreness and I am sure today when he wakes up his mouth will be a little uncomfortable. I remember those days, but at least he only has the top ones to deal with right now. But I am sure that there will be a lot of macaroni-n-cheese and chocolate milk shakes made over the next few days as his teeth begin to move.

Today it is back to the routine of school-work-afterschool track practices-evening hockey practices. Which sounds good to me right now.

On the stitching front...I got some more done on Family Sampler while sitting in the ortho office yesterday. It was enough time to get the strawberry row completed and move down to the Alphabet. I will get a little more done and then post a progress photo later in the week. I need to start looking for an ornament idea to stitch for Angela in the Ornament Swap group. She is the May recipient. I started looking through the Christmas issues of all the stitching magazines, but nothing jumped out at me yet. I will look a little more in hopes to start this weekend.

Three more days until the royal wedding...I am planning to get up and watch it, are you?

Well...take care my friends, time to go and get ready to really start the day! Until next time...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often

Lisa

Finally Friday...but wish that it didn't come so fast

First...I would like to say "Thank you" to all the Anniversary Well Wishes. DH and I didn't do anything special that day to celebrate, but we did acknowledge the milestone with special thoughts of our life together. As tacky as this sounds...he sent me a very special email recounting our life together and what it means to him. I was reading it while getting the boys ready for hockey and tears were developing in my eyes. Matthew looked over and asked why I was crying...I told him that I loved his father and he loved me. Matthew looked at me and said, "ok, whatever." Kids...got to love them :)

Well, we find ourselves at Friday - the last official day of the spring break (yes, we do have the weekend ahead of us, but I really don't consider that part of spring break). I did enjoy the time home with the kids...even though we still had evenings with hockey to run to. I did enjoy the opportunity to sleep in...but did jump out of bed this morning to get back into the routine as we do have some early morning things to attend to. 

Yes, it is Friday - which brings us the first day of Matthew's State Hockey Finals. His first game is today at 11am, but he has to be down in San Jose around 9:45am for warm-ups and stretching out. Yesterday I ironed on the letter "A" on his jerseys, for he has been chosen to be one of the assistant captains of his team - a special role. I wish the kids good luck! Go Tri-Valley Blue Devils Squirt A team...go Matthew!

Yes, it is Friday - which brings us to the day that Robert gets braces put on. I will be taking him to the ortho this morning (thus, missing Matthew's first state final's game); what a way to end Spring Break, huh? Well, this should have been done earlier...like way back in August so that we would have had most of the expense taken care of before DH was done with his current job (that is a subject for another post at another time).

And, yes, it is Friday - a day to show off some of my stitching to my blog friends. First up...I head from Lisa V, as she received the ornament I sent to her (Ornament Swap). Here is what I made for her:

I knew that she like snowmen and Prairie Schooler designs...so I stitched up this guy, using the colors it called for and Lakeside Linen (might be 32ct). I added a little Krienk Blending Filament to the snowflakes to put a little glitter on them...and then a little red flower button on the snowman's hat. It was a fun one to stitch up and finish.

Next, an update to my Mary Wigham...

I finished the flower motif (the one with a stem in GAST grape leaf and flowers in GAST berry cobbler) without frogging the little error and then went onto the squirrel motif and the little motifs around the squirrel. I am waiting to stitch the initial as per the pattern, because I am thinking about personalizing it with the initials of my family and maybe even the birth dates...but I want to finish stitching all the motifs first.

The squirrel area stitched up pretty quickly...so, I started the last motif on the top right-hand corner (not in either photo) - hoping to finish that this weekend before I have to put MW into hibernation on Monday. Monday is the day that I need to start kitting up two exchanges - Lizzie Kate and the Seasonal Exchange - for the upcoming trip to Washington D.C. I am going as a chaperon for Robert's 8th grade class. We leave next Wednesday at 3am in the morning...and I have a little organizing I need to do for that as soon as the weekend is over.

That is the Friday update, my blogging friends. This evening we are planning a Family dinner, something that we haven't done in awhile - thought it would be nice to grill up some meat and sit down as a way to end a relaxing spring break as well as have a little celebration of our Anniversary, a celebration of Robert's awesome 3rd quarter report card, a celebration of Matthew's hockey teams advance to state finals and just a celebration of what our life is - wonderfully blessed. 

I wish you a very happy Friday and may it be blessed with love, family and friends! Lisa