Sir Monkeyshines Funkybutt

About a year ago, my older sister asked me to make her a blue sock monkey, which I did.  She loved him and hugged him and named him Sir Monkeyshines Funkybutt, or Shiney Hiney for short.  Being a dork runs in the family.

Well, I'm not the world's greatest at hand sewing, so she had to give him back for some arm surgery.  She also gave me about 1/4 of a yard of this gold fabric and requested a pair of pants for Shiney Hiney.  She moved off to Oklahoma, I forgot about my sewing machine for months upon months, and Shiney Hiney took up residence in a dark corner of my neglected sewing shelf in the closet.

My sister is in Arkansas for a few days and asked me about Shiney Hiney.  I admitted to forgetting all about fixing him and making his pants.  So, this morning, I set about taking care of it before we went out there to visit.  I dug out the gold fabric and made a quick draft of a pair of tiny gold pants.  It's a good thing he's a stuffed toy, or else I would have never sqeezed him into his new skin-tight pants, but I did.



I was just so amused with myself and this monkey.  I posted a picture on Facebook for her and mentioned that I thought he needed some chest hair.  Just joking.  But then... oh, but then I remembered this black furry fabric I have had laying around.  I couldn't help myself.  I snipped a corner off of the fabric and this happened...



I thought I'd never stop laughing.  That's about the time Bill woke up and he just gave me that "Did I really marry you?" look and poured a cup of coffee.

The gold around his neck was supposed to be a gold chain, but it looked stupid.  However, the little piece of fabric I cut it from just happened to look just like a cape after I had cut the little circle out and Isabelle slipped it over his head.  I don't have a good picture of that, but it just perfected it.  The gold pants, the gold cape, the chest hair.  Sir Monkeyshines Funkybutt was complete (oh, and I sewed his arm back on).  

I did actually do a little sewing over the past week, so I'll show that off as well.



Isabelle is modelling a red dragonfly paper bag-waisted skirt.  I added a drawstring belt so that Olivia The Skinny can cinch it up a little more should she want to wear it.



Zoe is modelling a purple dragonfly halter dress.  It reminds me of an apron.  If I make another one, I will adjust the neckline so that it's a little less apron-like.



And, finally, Isabelle is modelling a very rock-and-roll looking maxi sundress.  This was made for Olivia, but she declined to wear it.  We actually ended up taking the front ties and tying them in a halter fashion and tucking the back straps into the dress.  I thought it looked better.  

Isabelle has picked out more fabric wanting another dress, but I really am not sure when I'll get around to it.  We'll just have to wait and see.  I need to really focus on keeping the house tidy this week, getting back into the workout groove again, and eating better.  Those are my priorities.  If anything else happens, it's a bonus.

Necessity is the mother of invention

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day!

We went to visit my Mom.  I made sure to take a picture...



And a photo of me and my kids.  They were less cooperative that my Mom.  =)



While we were there, my sister and I were talking about how it would be nice to do a 10k race between our 5k and the half-marathon in October.  But, summer is a very slow race season.  I only know of one 10k between now and then, and it's a little sooner than I'd be ready for a 10k.  Plus, when I looked at it, it looked like the 10k was full, not to mention expensive.  

It's not like we HAVE to do a 10k, but it would be a nice addition to our accomplishments, you know?

I had to just force my run in yesterday.  It meant the girls were up later than usual, but I needed to do it - for the training and for my mental well-being.  I've just been in a mood lately that I can't shake.  But when I run, I feel better.  I never really thought running would do any more than any other activities I've done exercise-wise, but it really does.  

I went to the track, because it was close and because I was just going to get my 2 miles in and be done, no extra walking other than warm up and cool down.  Pressed for time, you know...  I don't particularly enjoy the track.  Running in circles is kind of boring.  But it wasn't bad.  I ran 2 miles in about 26-27 minutes.  I'm not really sure exactly.  I walked a lap, ran 8, walked a lap.  I focused on distance instead of time since it was easier to track.

As I ran, I had this idea.  I've seen a few virtual 5ks lately.  I'm planning on taking part in one in July, and I believe one in June, but it hasn't been officially announced yet.  So I thought.... well, why not do a virtual 10k?

I know there are 3 of us doing this half-marathon, possibly 4.  It would be a good mid-way goal in our training.  I have discovered quite a few internet running friends the past few months.  There might be other people interested, you know?  Even if it's just me and my sister, though, it will be fun.

So, I'm planning a Crayon Bomb Virtual 10k for sometime in August.  I'm pretty excited about this.  We even have an idea for a cute, cheap, cheesy medal =)  Because that's the main goal of races, right... the swag!

I'll be sure to post the details here, in case any of you guys want to participate. 

Today's Antics

(I really need to write these down more often, because I'm going to torture the girls with the retelling of all these stories at some point)

Our kids usually wake up before us and as long as they're locked out of the kitchen, they just sit and watch TV until they get hungry for breakfast and come wake us up.  There's not an awful lot of mischief that they get into as long as the kitchen is off limits.  Unfortunately, silly Mom left a ball of yarn out.  I don't know why.... I know if I do that I'll be chasing it all over the house trying to rescue it and reball it.  It was sparkly red sport yarn, something I don't really plan on using ever again, so I guess it just wasn't important to me. 

This morning, I woke up suddenly when I heard Olivia in the hallway (their bedroom is directly across from ours) saying "ooooh, Isabelle, Mommy is going to be so mad  at you."  Needless to say, I was out of bed quicker than lightning.  I looked into their room and saw an enormous web of red, sparkly yarn stretched out between the bunk beds.  I would have taken a picture, but their room was such a mess I would have been embarrassed to show it.  I asked her why she did it, of course.  "Because I wanted a web in our room."  Of course.  That makes perfect sense.

So I snipped and untangled and threw the yarn away while they cleaned their room. 

I had to do my grocery shopping today, and while I was out I got them some Skittles.  I don't usually get them candy when I go, but for some reason while I was in line I remembered how my little sister and I used to get so excited when my parents went to the store and would bring us home candy.  So I just had to.  They sat down to watch Ponyo for the 124th time this week with their candy and I washed dishes while Bill watched youtube videos about farming.  How he can sit there and watch videos about people filling up huge bags of grain is beyond me.  He was practically raised in a dairy barn, though, so I guess it's like watching home videos or something.

Again, Olivia sounded the alarm.  What I heard was "Zoe scraped the skin off of her nose."  And then she brought Zoe in with what looked like blood on her face.  I wasn't sure how that could happen, but these are my children.  However, what she actually had said was, "Zoe stuck a Skittle up her nose."  The red running down her face wasn't blood, but red colored snot.  She had managed to get the red one out (don't ask what she did with it, but you can guess, I'm sure) but she still had a green one lodged in the other nostril.  I was too relieved that she wasn't bleeding to really panic, I just thought "Great, we're going to have to go to the ER to get a Skittle removed from her nose."  Bill managed to get it out... luckily they're too big to go too far up.  Isabelle's nostrils were green, so I'm sure she started it.  That child.

Needless to say, I probably won't be buying them candy out of nostalgia for quite a while.  And Olivia just couldn't understand why I avoided the green Skittles when she offered me some.

Oh, but that wasn't the last of today's installment of their endless quest of turning my hair gray.   I threw all three in the tub at once tonight to save time and went to fold clothes.  I know some people would gasp that I would leave my kids alone in the tub, and I probably shouldn't, but not for safety reasons.  They're sneaky.  They have mastered the art of soundlessly leaving the tub and reentering without me hearing them, even when I'm on the other side of the wall.  Today they dumped an entire bottle of grape bubble bath in the tub.  Olivia's not allowed bubble baths because she gets UTIs from it, so that was bad enough.  I heard a plunk and went to investigate and saw them dunking Curious George in the tub.  Then as I was getting them washed up to get them out before they could get in more trouble, I found a Wild Thing in the bubbles too.  It's not easy to get bubbles out of a Wild Thing's fur, let me tell you.  They got a ride in the dryer for a while between loads of laundry tonight.  Poor things.

They smell all nice and grape-y now though.

 

#10 - Take a family portrait every 6 months

My baby is 15 months old and we have only had one family portrait made. I don't really want to go to WalMart or Sears and I can't really afford a professional photographer. So we wait until we have an occasion to all be dressed nicely and have someone take our picture informally.





I found out a few weeks ago that a guy at church was offering to do free family photos on Easter. Awesome. I made the girls' Easter dresses and was stoked about them... I coached Bill all morning to practice smiling... I was so excited. We were going to get a new, even better family portrait. I just knew it.

OK. So I'm not going to blow this up to put on the wall. The old one will suffice for another 6 months or so.

My husband swears he is smiling. Do you see even a hint of a smile? No. You do not. He's a liar. He even looks like this in our wedding pictures. Completely miserable. One day, our kids are going to look at all our family pictures and wonder, "Why didn't Daddy ever look happy? Was he that miserable to be with us?" That's OK, because I look happy at least. Not that you can really see me that well...

Next, let's look at Zoe. Do you notice her bare feet? Yes, I got them all dressed up for Easter and forgot to put shoes on the baby. I was so embarrassed.

And my darling, demon possessed Olivia... She was happy and smiling until the moment we mentioned taking a picture. Then she shrivelled up and we're pretty lucky that I managed to keep her dress down because she was flailing about for a while.

One day I will have a nice family portrait. I might have to hire actors to stand in for my family, but I will have a nice family portrait.