A night at Home

It's an odd thing for me to find myself with an evening "off" as of late. I didn't have any transcription work tonite as the workload must be light with the upcoming holiday (for some reason hospitals don't get that much traffic during the hols) so I happily spent my time looking through my new cookbooks I got in the mail (thanks to my inlaws and a Barnes and Noble gift card).

I got The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl which turned out to be all I hoped for and more. There's recipes, oh yes, recipes, but also her lush and luscious photography and little side notes from Ree herself, which are always hilarious. Cannot wait to try out some of the new stuff in her book!

Also, I got How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking by Nigella Lawson. I heart her. I could look and listen to this woman for hours. She's funny, witty, self-effacing, and entirely too beautiful. She looks like a woman should look; she's not stick thin and she admits to sneaking snacks in the middle of the night. I heart her. I'm loving all the recipes so far and there's even a section for children's party's that I've gotten ideas for Sadie's party (woot!).

I've also been spending a lot of time with Posie Gets Cozy the last few days. Her blog is one of my secret and guilty pleasures. I covet her home and her beautiful sewing room. Her corgi and cat are adorable and funny as they love landing on her last crochet or sewing project. Her hubby is adorable and her look at life is refreshing.

That's just a little ditty from Chez Hez for today. Enjoy!!!

And here's a picture that makes me so happy for some reason (it's by artist Carl Larsson):

Summer 2009

It's so hard to believe that summer is almost to a close! But recently I had the privilege to be invited over to a friend's house so my girls could go swimming with hers. Here was the fun day to be had by all!



Jude says, "I make these look good."




This would be Hayley, Hannah, and Sadie farting around before the actual "picture" was taken.



Okay, now that's better. Hayley, Hannah, and Sadie.



Jude doing her own version of swimming: In a bucket. LOL!



This is my babiest baby (who turned 2 yesterday) with a huge diaper butt wanting so badly to get in the big pool, but trying to play it oh so cool and acted like she didn't. We got her in there for a few minutes with Leanne, but she was enjoying her little bucket pool much much more.

The girls had a great time and I got way too much sun even though I slathered the girls with sunscreen on and off. Way to go, Mom. :P

It was a great and much needed afternoon away. Thanks again, girls!

Life or something like it...

I know you're not supposed to make a blog post without pictures, but life has just been too nuts lately to upload anything to my computer from my camera. Although, in the time it took to write this post, I could have done just that. :P

My birthday is coming up on Wednesday, which always manages to cause a bit of navel gazing and this year is no exception. Just there is so much to be thankful for as of late. I'm still not working anywhere that is of any permanency, but I'm healthy and so are the kiddos and the hubby. There are ball games to go to, things to knit (and a very healthy stash of yarn to go thru), fireworks to look forward to, tomatoes growing on the vine, small handful of beans harvested, peppers on the vine, cucumbers growing, cabbage and broccoli growing, too, and just summertime to be relished in the best way I know how. So, I'm gonna set aside all the sad for a bit, cuz there's been a bit more than the fair share of it lately and just get back to enjoying the simple and the everyday'ness of life at Chez Hez. That's what it's all about, right?

Unemployed and entertained...

Well, due to unforseen circumstances, my job was discontinued last Friday. I honestly expected there to be a couple more weeks to a month left for me to work and was more than a bit shocked/taken aback when it happened, but we're muddling through. But, my lovely and darling step-daughter, Tara, took me to Starbucks after retrieving my stuff from work this morning as a belated mother's day prezzie and we hit Hobby Lobby. I had been hoping to try out a tutorial I saw which involved making Bandana Dresses (thanks to Trey and Lucy.) We found some Bandana's and coordinating ribbon and here we go!



These are the Bandanas we picked out (Pink for Sadie and purple for Jude - The checked ribbon is to go with the pink and the polka dots with the purple)



This project would not have been possible with out a kick ass Starbucks Drink (something to do with toffee chip mocha something or other....it was sinful)



Also there to help was my New Girl Elna.



This is my middle girl in the final product. Whatchoo think? Ain't it cute?!



And just another one of my girl cuz she's just so danged cute.

I'm hoping with some time off I'll get some projects done around this house and maybe share them with y'all. I've got another dress to finish and another bandana shirt/dress to make for my youngest gal tomorrow. Take care all!

Holy buckets!  I've spent the last 2 days doing all manner of things including, but not limited to:  

Shopping for legos with my son at Wal-Mart...on Saturday morning
Buying plants at Wal-Mart with 3 children in tow...on Saturday morning
Coming home and planting some of the plants in our ever popular container garden
Making a very lurvey t-shirt dress using Michael Grace's tutorial
Working on another block for a baby blanket that I'm making for a friend of the family who is having a little boy next month ala Country Cousins Blanket
Cleaning out our gawd-awful shed
Planting more plants in our raised garden and in our container garden


.....but in all wonderousness, Spring is finally here and I'm lovin' life. My outside "room" is just as wonderful as any of my inside rooms. The hostas look better right now than they did all of last year. My lillies are budding up and ready to go. Our hydrangeas are coming back along with our rhodedendrons. I look over at our bitty lilac and I think I can't wait to see that sucker in about 10 years. Little by little and bit by bit...we're making this place into ours...our home.

Just for Kris...

....here is the latest edition to the Fleming Family!




Arik & T-Bone

Arik & the pup mugging for the camera.  

more hugging & puppy love.  

Hope you enjoyed it!  I know T-bone and Arik did! :)

Well, it got Arik out of doing dishes for 10 minutes anyway.  

Home again, home again jiggity jig...

....goodness sakes!

We just got home from my Brother & sister-in-laws house! What would have normally taken us 5-1/2 to 6 hours took us the better part of 8 hours to achieve. We're home though...thankfully home. :)

Welcome to my Blog Party!

I'm pretty far down on that list, but if anyone makes it on over here I thought I'd give myself a quick introduction!

Hi, I'm Heather.

I'm a mother of 4: Tara 18, Arik (almost 11), Sadie 5, and Jude 1-1/2 years. My favorite job, first and foremost, is being a mom. I've been happily married for almost 10 years now to a wonderful man. In my spare time I like to read other blogs, knit, write, read, garden, and decorate our little home. I'm still a newbie to blogging over here, but I've had another online journal for the past 4 years and I hope I'll catch onto this new way of doing things soon!!

But, welcome, welcome, welcome!!!

Medical Transcription...it's what I do.

Well, the title of this post should give this post away big time.

But, in all sense of fairness, I thought I'd just say a little bit about what takes up the better part of most of my days.

Medical Transcription.

I've been doing this on and off for 10 years or so. I first started right after my eldest was born (now almost 11). It was at a large hospital here in Iowa. I had applied online for the position and they scooped me up because I could type fast and was an excellent speller. Woot! See, Grandma, those typing classes paid off. Anyway, I worked for the Radiology Department and enjoyed it quite a bit, but found that it was too far from home (the commute) and too far from my first baby.

Fast forward 10 years: I had been laid off from my office job that was 10 minutes from home and that I had been working at for the past 5 years. My mother-in-law's gal pal suggested doing transcription from home. I jumped at the chance. I was pregnant with our youngest (now 18-1/2 months) and went through all the rigamarole that included working from home. I did it for about 15 months. It was one of the toughest jobs I've ever done in all honesty. To work from home with 4 children at home and a husband and still trying to run a household was more than I could do at the time. There were nights that I was up at 3:00 a.m. typing away about ER visits and whatnot and dragging out huge dictionaries to look up words without trying to disturb my husband as our computer setup was in our bedroom. After that period of time, I was feeling not very good about our situation and myself. We weren't making much money from home due to lack of time/sleep/structure, etc.

So, here I am. Back working at "The Big Hospital". I enjoy it tremendously most days. There are a group of us that are dedicated completely to the Pediatrics Department and I love that. I feel that by documenting what is going on in their lives is helping in them in some small way. Oh, trust me, there are cases that break my heart and I have to get up and walk away from the keyboard for a few minutes and take a deep breath. But, overall, I like it.

In other news: I received my necklaces from Cora's Playground etsy shop owners,Home Studio; and melaniescrafts. I adore them! I also love that I could help in some small way with Cora's legacy. Bless her. Jess and Joel we are still praying for you and yours. <3

It's a welcome home of sorts...

...*sigh*

Tonight I got to go back to my Wednesday Night Knitting Club after a many month hiatus due to work situations and life in general getting in the way.  It's so nice to be greeted by people with hugs and great big grins and hearing "HEY!"  and know that it's a good kinda hey being directed your way.  It's a hey that translates into, "God, it's been a damn long time since I've seen you" kinda hey.  

Yeah.  

There was much munching on goodies (ala ritz chips, soft bake keebler cookies, and animal crackers) and showing off of projects.  One of the gals is now working on double pointed needles making mittens!  (for you non-knitters, double pointed needles to us newbies is like the first small mount everest to climb)  She is making these neon colored mittens and they so fit her and her personality.  Our teacher is the same old vivacious creature that she always is.  She even had time to start me off on a project (knitting stuffed cupcakes...they're so cute!  Don't judge me.).  We gossiped, we caught up, we smiled,  we sniffled, we drank pepsi and tea, and we talked.  

It was....great.  

Welcome to My World!

This is probably one of my most favorite pictures of my gang (minus the step-d).  Hi, my name is Heather and I blog.  I've had this blog sitting around yet unused for some time.  I've decided to give it a whirl due to much more time spent on google reader due to some really great blogs I've been introduced to (ie. Nester, The Macs, The Vintage Chica, and The Thrifty Decor Chick just to name a few).  So, I thought I'd make it over to this part of the world and introduce myself.  I'm a mother to 4:  My step-daughter, T, 18; our son, A, 10; our daughter, S, 5; and our youngest bambino, J, 18 months.  I live to be a mom.  I love being a mom.  It's the best and toughest job you'll ever love.  I also enjoy reading/writing.  I love to decorate my little abode with what catches my eye and hope to be doing more of that now that little J is growing more and more every day.  I also enjoy collecting recipes.  Whether I do anything with said recipes or not is a toss up, but I love looking at cookbooks and finding something that will work for my brood.  

So this is me saying Hi.  Hello and welcome to my world.  I hope you like it here...I do.