Pyles of Clutter

Tessa at the Talent Show

Ahhh. She did great.

Coming up for air

Well, it's that time of year. Crazy end of the year time. Crazy end of dance time. Crazy beginning and get that fundraising done for drill team time. You know. Crazy.

In addition to all the normal crazy, I've added in camp time. I've been thinking about and planning my Senseless with Susan time, and I think I've got it pretty well decided but now I have to put together all the props and so on to have it completely ready. No big deal. Just one more thing.

It's recital next week. Crazy recital time. We've been getting lots of people ready to register for next year, get their tickets, and all that stuff. Yesterday was picture day. 225-ish students all there at the same time means crazy beans going on. I was there at about 3:15 and I left around 8:10. Long day at the studio. And I worked tonight. And I work tomorrow. My second home....

And then there's the silent auction to organize. I can't believe that by this time next week, I need to have it all ready to go. Sheesh. I better start getting stuff put together! I'll be sending out another email telling people to get with it! I need your stuff already!

We've got a great fundraiser this weekend at graduation! We are selling flower bouquets for the graduates. Nice huh? It's a neat little fundraiser, but it does involve sitting down at graduation during the whole thing. Which doesn't thrill me. But what are you going to do? Everyone has to take their turn.... and I still need to print off some tags for that. Yikes! I better get on that!

And there's the thing where I need to get graduation gifts ready to go. I'm doing crock pots again, (Shhh, don't tell anyone!) and I still need to print off the recipes to go with it. I'd really like to get these out to the graduates on time this year, so I better get that together.

Tomorrow, I've got the great task of sitting through a 2 hour elementary grade school talent show that Tess will be singing in. I know this is a bad attitude, but what am I going to do with myself for two hours when I'll just keep thinking about all the stuff I need to be doing at home? I'm really going to have to see what I can do there. I'm not sure I have anything, but I'm sure going to try.

I'm so behind in my house work. And other stuff. Really, I'm just running in crisis mode right now. But it should be much better after next week.

Man, I hope next week is better than this week. If not, someone's going to have to dig me out of the mess of my house.

Tessa on Tuesday--Artist edition

For no apparent reason, which is generally the case, my dad bought Tessa an easel to put in her room. It sat out in the garage for a couple of months until Zoey moved out of the room and it was hers, all hers! Then there was some room for the easel and we set it up, along with all the other artistic materials she could possibly ever want.

This was my first great picture from her:

In case you can't read that, it says, Happy (early) Mother's Day.

She made this for me in February.  

Here's a little close up of this magnificent sign:

How do you like my hair?  Isn't that just a great rendition?  With the little pokey up parts?  ;)

Tessa also decided to have a drawing for a great prize!  There were three people in her drawing, me, Terry, and Zoey.  All the rest of you losers lost out!  ;)

Guess who won?!  This girl!  I won first prize in the drawing of the Pyle house.  This was my prize:

I will proudly display this on my wall.  

Is it humid today?

People.  I laughed right out loud when I saw this....  For a long time....

Today I saw....

Today I saw this guy, looking really tough with his mohawk helmet, and leather gloves. 

And an orange safety vest. 

Riding a scooter that wasn't capable of going over 30 mph. 

But his license plate cover had USMC on it. 

What do you think?  A marine? 

;)

Wishes

Here we go....

So today I was watching a Monk episode where an old prospector hides gold by melting it down and turning it into ink.  Then he proceeds to write and write and write and write and write somemore.  997 journals later, he has used all the gold, 6 million dollars worth, all by writing nonsense. 

I wish all my journals would make that much money for me.  I mean, I write a lot of nonsense. 

;)

If wishes were fishes, we'd all have food. 

Short stuff...

Fifteen minute run down....

**Please warm weather, come back for the weekend.  Please.

**Where has my motivation gone?  I've been missing it about a week now.

**It is definitely wedding season.  Two receptions last weekend, two coming up in the next couple weeks, and many more to come.

**I've been on a recorded TV jag lately.  But somewhere in there, I watched a movie that had all music from the composer Grieg.  I love his music.  I mean, I really LOVE his music. 

**I need to go to the store so badly, but I am having the hardest time making myself go.  I just keep waiting for someone else to do it.

**Meg was home for the weekend.  well, really she's been here about a week.  It was so great to have her here.  When she's here, it feels like she never left.  She just slips right back into the routine.  I love that.  And her.

**AJ was home for the weekend also, but really only for Saturday.  He came to the garage sale that I was at, and visited with me.  I loved to have him there!

**AJ came home for a funeral.  A friend's of his had a baby die, and the funeral was on Saturday.  It was good to have so many friends there together again, being supportive. 

**Our garage sale was a huge success!!  We did very well, and I was so glad!

**Wow, am I tired!  Don't you hate when you feel like it should be Friday already, and it's only Wednesday?  Well, I felt like this yesterday, which is even worse.

**I've been rereading my blog.  I just finished my first year.  I feel like I was so much funnier then.  Maybe that's not true, but it sure seems like it.

**Holy cow!  We only have 13 more days of school!!  How can that be?  But I'm ready.  I truly am.

**And with my last minute, let me say, can you believe that Donald Driver won DWTS??  I never would have thought he could beat out either William or Katherine.  I just thought people would vote for them instead! 

See You Tomorrow!

Today

Today....
I woke up at 4:30 to the sound of pouring rain. I settled into my covers and let the sound wash over my senses. I drifted in and out until 5:30 when I made the decision that it was probably going to be raining in a half hour and I wasn't going to be running. Then I texted Christina, turned off my alarm, and snuggled up to Terry.

Today...
I started the laundry like I always do. I always start Monday with washing sheets and today was no exception. I put them in the dryer then put in towels to wash. When the dryer signaled it was done, I transferred the towels and put in another load. Soon I heard a high pitch noise coming ominously from the dryer. Sure enough, my dryer was no longer drying. No, it's drying, but it isn't tumbling. If I were really resourceful, I would try to fix it myself, but I'm not so I went to the laundromat with all my wet clothes. I do love having all my clothes dry in about a half hour. Clothes dried, and folded, in the presence of total strangers.

Today...
Gloried in having a small house. I started cleaning my house at 7:30 and was done by 9:30. I swept, mopped, and vacuumed. I did dishes, wiped counters and cupboards. I dusted and watered plants and cleaned the fish tank. I scrubbed the bathroom! I cleaned my room and made all the beds with fresh sheets. Plus more but you get the point. When your house is small, it's going to be fast.

And that was my day...

More crafty fun!

I made some more cards this week.  I love to be crafty! 

My inspiration was this:

I got this from Simply Stamped.

Here's my version:

 

As you can see, not too mch the same.  You know, creativity is a funny thing.  I love it!  I can take anything, look at it, put it through my brain for awhile, and come up with something else that may, or may not, be similar to what I started with.  I think that's just fun. 

Here is my other inspiration:

This is from Ashleypaul Etsy Shop

Here is my version:

 

I'm loving it!

In the shady spot...

Here's a funny story.  It's about Tess, but just so you know, it's not Tuesday.  It's still Thursday.  I just don't want you to be confused at all. 

Ahem.

So. Tessa came home the other day and said, "Today, I started teaching ____ the gospel."  Um, this startled me a little because, really, it's Tess.  Who knows what she's 'teaching'.  And it gets better. 

So I ask, "What were you teaching her?"  Tess says, "Well, I started with two stories, Noah and the Resurrection."  Noah and the resurrection?  What is the correlation there?  Anyway, Tess goes on to say, "____ was  a little worried about the resurrection, thinking that she might have to die too, but I told her, we don't all have to die that way. "  Oh good.  "And then we talked about prayer and I was teaching her the position."  The position??  "Yea, like bow your head and stuff."  So where were you teaching all this great stuff?  "We were on the playground, at recess, in the shady spot."  Well, that's great.  Interesting. 

Oh, Tessa.  Way to go!  Way to be a great missionary!

Too bad she didn't get that from me.  I'm the worst ever at sharing the gospel.  I love the gospel!  I love the scriptures!  I know that living by God's laws will only bring happiness and peace in your life!  And yet.....  I have the hardest time expressing that.  It's definitely something I need to work on and pray for the strength to do.  Unlike, my uninhibited 9 year old, that just says, let's talk about the gospel today!  So humbling.  So amazing.  I really have some work to do.