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. :)