Monthly Archives: September 2010

….What Am I Doing?

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Has it really been two weeks since I last posted?
UGH.
The last couple weeks have been so insane. They leave me wondering, where in the world is my head and more more importantly…
What am I doing?!?
See, I have been so busy. I wish I could explain what “so busy” means. I think its easier to just say that than explain. I’m sure people wonder what in the world it is that I really DO do during the days?
Well, to be honest, its a lot of email returning, preparing spreadsheets for my sewing team, ordering supplies, driving supplies across town to sewing team members, etsy relisting, designing {if I’m lucky} and then lots of needs tended to by my kids who seem to interrupt me every 10 mins. That last part makes a 3 hour day stretch into 6 hours.
But really, it doesn’t matter what I do. Because it means nothing.
What DOES mean something are all the really, truly, important things I have missed in life.

To my dear friend who is having an IVF procedure done this week…I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you. I will call you tomorrow. I am praying for you. I know God has it all under control.

To my other dear friend who found out she has gestational diabetes…yeah. I’m a loser. I know. I had to find out about it through facebook. Very sad and depressing. But think of how skinny you’ll be by the time this is all over! ha.

To my sister who I haven’t called in days and days. I love you. Don’t hate me. I promise I am still here.

To my husband whose 30th birthday is coming up this Friday: I haven’t forgotten. Even though you think I have. I love you so much. You make me smile. And you’re pretty much the most handsome man alive.

Photo by good friend, Scott Andrew Photography. 



Anyway, enough of that.

So where have I been? Well, I’ve been to our church’s ladies retreat where I had an Evy’s Tree booth. It was super fun, I stayed with two wonderful friends and we stayed up until we were cross eyed and reminisced. There is something so wonderful about good friends. My booth also looked really cute too, thanks to my dad building a great little rack for me, my husband making me an adorable sign and my most exciting thing about the package was those darling little owls from the the etsy shop aprilfoss.

Please excuse these horrible pictures…first these were taken at night with hardly any light and we weren’t exactly finished setting up, but second, I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE MY MAC’S PHOTOSHOP!!! whew…just when I thought my mac and I became friends. :(

I shared my booth with my dear, dear friend Monica. The one who makes all the brooches for my hoodies. She is AWESOME. If you like her stuff, check out her shop The Mrs. Darcy.

The rack my dad worked very extra hard on!!

Then the next weekend Brandon and I flew to Madison Wisconsin to take part in Brian and Sarah’s wedding. Brian is Brandon’s cousin and is such a great guy. He works with us on our youth staff and Sarah is such a sweetie. Since Sarah is from Madison the wedding was there, and boy was it fun! Brandon helped with the officiating and the entire wedding was just stunning. For the first time in probably over a year I attended the wedding with a, get this, PURSE instead of my diaper bag. Yup you heard me right. I took my cute little black DKNY handbag that I bought while I was working for Donna Karan in college. It is about the size of wallet. I was so proud of myself that I managed to fit everything in it when while we were walking out of the door of the hotel to the wedding I gasped…

“Where am I going to put my camera?!?”
Yeah.

So basically, since my husband was unwilling to carry the camera and I was unwilling to give up my one night with no kids and no giant bag in tow, I got no pictures. :( I actually regret it a bit now, but my dear friend Kate had her tiny camera and as soon as she can find the cord she has promised me pictures. So hurry up dear Kate with that cord.

I have no pictures, but what I do have is this.

That is a jar of Strawberry Raspberry Jam made by Sarah’s Grandma Jo and I have that jam because THAT was the wedding favor. Is that not cool or what? Seriously, the wedding was INCREDIBLE, and did I mention it was at the beautiful University of Wisconsin, Madison? Such a gorgeous historic place. Anyway, the jam went to good use on my toast the first morning we were back. I LOVE jam! Thank you Brian and Sarah, it was such a SPECIAL gift!

Ok, and before I move on from the Wisconsin trip…I have to tell you all one thing:
I got left in Denver.
Yes, that is true. I was stranded in the Denver airport for over 5 hours ALL BY MYSELF. The short story is United oversold our flight to Madison and Brandon and I got bumped. I was madder than a hornet and seriously could have taken someone out but I refrained.
Anyway, they managed to get Brandon on a flight to Milwaukee, but they only had one seat, so he jumped on the flight, rented a car and drove like a maniac to be at the rehearsal dinner on Friday.

I missed the rehearsal and had the privilege of wandering the Denver International Airport for FIVE FULL HOURS. Thankfully they have good shopping in that airport and I bought lots of junk I didn’t need. I also spent a good hour of that time sitting in the Brookstone chair and talking to the sales associate.

Hopefully you can hear the frustration in my voice.
Needless to say United felt very sorry for me and gave us $800 in travel vouchers and we flew home first class. I guess I can forgive them. SIGH.

Ok, last but not least. Jake and Evy.

They have started washing eachother’s hair in the bath. It is BEYOND cute. I just adore it.
And my little man…

He woke up the other morn and had dressed himself {in that horrid skull tee that I HATE and keep trying to give away, but somehow it always ends up back in his drawer} and came into our room with his suitcase all packed {with toys of course}, his blocks ready to go and his lunchpail {also packed with toys}.  He woke us up and said, “Ok, I’m ready to go to Auntie Pammy’s house. Can you call her and tell her I’m coming?” When I asked him how he was was getting there he informed me, “You are taking me to the airport and I am getting on a big plane and Auntie Pammy will pick me up.”

Apparently the two hour drive to my sisters warrants a “big plane”. Hmmm…
I did call my sister and tell her to look for a little boy with bags full of toys on her doorstep soon. :)

But here’s the the funny part…

He is REALLY into a backwards stage. Where he feels everything must go on backwards. This morning he put his jeans on backwards and stuck his sword through the loop. I think he felt it was appropriate for his costume, although what exactly he was supposed to be I have NO IDEA?!? Ha.
He even put his undies on backwards!! haha. Yes, this is the front view….

And the back view! ha.

Seriously, this kid is a crack up!!
Ok, I’m sorry this post is getting so long, but if you have read my blog at all, you probably know I am famous for that, so why break the record now…but I wanted to just share with you one picture from my Evy’s Tree photo shoot. It’s of my family and I LOVE it. Although you can’t see our faces, I just really love the whole feel of it. What do you think?

If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the shoot, click HERE

And in closing, I just want to leave with you a Scripture that has been crossing through my mind constantly the last couple of weeks. Mainly because I feel SO TIRED and SO OVERWORKED and wondering how in the world I can keep going and do all that I need to do….It helps me remember that the Lord is here holding my hand. That HE is charge. That this crazy life is HIS purpose for me {at least for now :) }. Thank you Lord for promising to finish the work for me. It helps me breathe a little sigh of relief that I am not doing this on my own.


“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6

Love you all!!
xoxo

P.S. Just wanted you all to know that this post took me THREE WHOLE DAYS to complete. No joke. I blame my Mac. And my life. But mainly my Mac. :)

Clean Garage

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Ok, am we the only family that cleans their garage and then all of a sudden its packed to the gills again?!?
Seriously, how does that happen?
Oh wait, I know how that happens…my dad keeps bringing boxes and boxes of hand-me-downs over and I take them because I feel horrible hearing, “This is your Nannie’s favorite _________{fill in the blank}, and if you don’t take it I’m going to give it to the Goodwill”.
Right.
So right around the time when my giant order form American Apparel arrived and I came home from L.A. with a living room full of material, my parents came over for a visit. I did not intentionally do this, but I didn’t clean up my living room and Brandon was parking outside of the garage only because the living room was housing my stash of material and the garage my American Apparel boxes.
My parents were not pleased, to say the least. Which was probably a good thing since my garage was so full thanks to them. Ha.
So my dad promptly arrived on my doorstep two days later with a bunch of racks for the garage and an empty trunk to take some of the boxes back to Santa Rosa with him. He also promised to help me go through all the boxes he had brought and try to find a proper place for them.
THANK GOD. I think Brandon felt like he had died and gone to Heaven.
So after 48 hours of almost non- stop working…
The looks of exhaustion! HA!!! Sorry, but this picture is blackmail, is it not?!?
And of course my little man, the crazy person he is….
I wish I had thought to take before pictures. I was so stressed moving things that I never got the chance. But trust me…it was BAD. You can kinda get the idea from the above pictures. Stuff EVERYWHERE.
But here is the final result, all personal items, extra clothing and tools along the South wall
And my American Apparel wall on the East…with one very happy dad and an annoyed husband who would love for me to stop taking pictures. HA. Again, blackmail. haha. :)
Finally I get a happy face from the handsome man.
So there you have it. A clean, organized garage. But what to do with the 5 new American Apparel boxes I got yesterday?!? oh boy! :)
xoxo

Labor Day Weekend, 2010

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First, I’m a loser.
Today is Jeff’s, my older brother, birthday and of course I kept telling myself to call him and I got interrupted about a million times and its just now 10 PM, I am sitting down and thinking and here I remembered…I didn’t call Jeff!!!! ACK.
Too late now, he’s one of those hit the hay early kinda guys.
sheesh.
I’ll have to call tomorrow. Better late than never, I guess…Oh wait, that’s my motto! ha.
UGH.
Anyway, how was your labor day?!?
Despite the fact that I didn’t get to go to Florida with Brandon, mine turned out just fine. :) I mentioned on Saturday that I decided to take the kids to my parents. That was a good decision, as they had a blast and I enjoyed getting some much needed rest.
My mom just returned from Englad where she was there visiting her family and the kids hadn’t seen her for several weeks, if not a month. They were so excited to see her! She brought back all kinds of goodies from England {*ahem* Gollywogs, Elisha! ha} and the kids were in Heaven. Also, my dad’s cousin Shelby, his wife Joyce and their son Steve were up for the weekend from Southern California.
My dad and Shelby own and operate a vintage midget racecar. Its so adorable and if you follow Evy’s Tree at all, you know that the race
car inspired a little boys hoodie called “The Ronnie”. The Ronnie will be making a comeback this winter, with a little special twist, I hope! Anyway, it has special meaning and I hope to tell you all about it sometime soon. But for now, here is the racecar, Jake, my Dad and then Shelby {on the far right}. They are cousins, not brothers, but don’t they look like twins?!? These pictures were taken in front of my parent’s guest cottage.
Please forgive my little man in his PJ’s. When we woke up that morning, the property was filled with that WONDERFUL thick morning fog that Sonoma County gets so I quickly bundled my kids up and started out for a walk in the fog. We didn’t get very far as my dad and Shelby were out working on the midget and I couldn’t tear Jake away. He was so excited he had on his Ronnie hoodie, so I ran back inside to get the camera and by that point, the beautiful fog was gone. :( I was kinda bummed I didn’t get my chilly walk.
Anyway, ignore the PJ’s is the point there. Ha.
So our walk…we took a hike down the hill and down my parent’s driveway, which is lined with Kendall Jackson vines.
This is from the driveway looking back up at my parent’s house. So beautiful. Notice the “baby grapes” as Jake calls them. It’s almost time for harvest. Harvest time is so wonderful, you can almost smell the grapes in the air.
I would venture to say the majority of vineyards are cared for by migrant workers. Sonoma and Napa Counties have a very large influx of workers who are here strickly to work on the vines. Most land owners allow the migrant workers to grow a lovely garden somewhere on the property, and as long as the owners get some of the fruits of it, the workers can plant and grow pretty much whatever they want. These corn were planted by the migrant workers who oversee these beautiful vines. The garden is filled with tomatoes, squash, onions, etc. Jake was so excited to see corn grown right by the driveway.
The property that my parents live on was once a giant ranch {over 600 acres} that was entirely at one point a cattle ranch. It was called the Jamison Farm and was farmed by the Jamison family. The property goes back to the late 1800 and is one of the oldest farms in the area of Santa Rosa where my parents live. My dad bought the ranch from the original owners over 15 years ago and has since subdivided the land, handing portions over to the Kendall Jackson company. This barn is one of the older barns {there are several original on the property, but I don’t think this one is} and was on the homestead of the property…it is just gorgeous. Some old vines grow up the side.
And of course, true to his oppositional ways lately, I ask Jake for a picture and this is what I get…
Much better this time
On Saturday night, I took the kids over to my dear, dear friend Heidi’s house. Jake LOVES her kids. In fact, he tells everyone he is going to marry Emma Love, Heidi’s daughter. Here are the three musketeers…and Evy in the background, bless her heart. ha.
And Emma with her little brother Jude {who is a walking miracle, more on that someday} and Evy.
All day Saturday, my dad worked on building me a rack to hang my hoodies on for our Ladies Retreat that is coming up this weekend. I have a booth and I needed a rack, so of course, instead of buying one, we build one! yikes…that was a lot of work. ha. I’ll get some pictures of the finished product this weekend.
Bless my Dad’s heart, I love him.
And on Sunday night, it was hotter than a pistol and perfect weather for a swim. Acutally, my dad doesn’t believe in heating the pool {no joke, he doesn’t believe in air conditioning either, I know, crazy} so I didn’t brave the fridgid water, but Jake and my dad did, and it was so cute. My dad was pretending to be an alligator that was eating Jake up and they had so much fun.
It actually brought tears to my eyes as I remember being Jake’s age and my dad doing the same thing. He always had those big hands that would pop out of the water and scare the life out of you. ha.
The view from my parent’s pool, seriously stunning.
And again, they could not have had more fun.
Well, that was my exciting weekend. Despite missing Brandon terribly, we had a wonderful time. I hope you all did too.
xoxo

Hello World…

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….Is anybody out there?
Whoa momma…TWO WEEKS WITHOUT A POST.
Uh yeah, I’ve been busy. Amazingly. So much so that I hate myself sometimes, ha. Have you ever been there? Where you wonder how in the world you got yourself into all the things you are doing and how in the world can you get yourself out?
I have so much to blog about, to keep record of. But I am at my parents and my computer won’t hook up to the internet, so I am typing on hers, hence no pics so the long blog posts will have to come later. Here is a little nutshell:
1. Do you remember me mentioning {not sure if it was on this blog or Evy’s Tree} that I received my largest order of American Apparel hoodies about two weeks ago? Well, I did. It was insane. Seriously. About 15 boxes littered my house. My wonderful husband and my dad spent two days reorganizing the garage so they would fit. I can’t wait to show you all the pictures.
2. So Jake LOVED his first day of school. Hated his second. Cried like a baby and wouldn’t let go of me. The teacher had to peel him off my legs. So depressing. Same with the third day. But by the fourth day, he was a pro. THANK GOD. Anyway, pics to come of that as well.
3.  My Evy’s Tree photo shoot. Oh wow, what a day. To read more about it click here. That whole things seriously kicked me in the toushy. But I can’t wait to see the pics!
4. I got a new laptop! My desktop is ancient and with all the online work I was doing, I figured I better invest in something good. So I got a Mac. No sure how I feel about that yet- although I do miss my PC, I have to say, that little MacBook is pretty cool. Why do I feel like a traitor?
5. Several months back Brandon was asked to speak at a college age conference in Orlando, Florida. I was so excited because we went to Orlando for our honeymoon and we thought how fun it would be if I went with him and then we spent a couple days in Disneyworld. We bought the tickets, had it all planned but then I COULD NOT find childcare for the kiddos on Thursday and Friday. And my life has been so busy…in fact, I will be out of town the next two weekends, so if I went to Florida, then that would be THREE weekends away from kiddos. I felt like a horrible mom. So on Wednesday, the day before we were supposed to leave, I canceled my ticket. 
Kinda sad. 
But I feel right. I hope I’m not the only parent who has canceled an amazing trip for the kids? Anyway, Brandon is in Florida and I miss him! :( I am sure he is doing an outstanding job. Wish I could have heard him speak.
6. Jake has hit an oppositional stage in life. What I mean by that is he fights me on EVERYTHING. Is this normal? Any experienced parents want to offer a word of advice? He gets super angry whenever I try to tell him what to do and just becomes so difficult, argues with you, etc. ugh. HELP! 
7. So I literally have been working on Evy’s Tree from sun up to sun down. I wonder how in the world there can be so much to do, but my list just grows every day. My dad likes to remind me {almost daily} that growing a little business is super hard work and I work harder now than I ever have. 
FABULOUS.
All this work has made me forget a couple things, and the main one is, plucking my eyebrows! Yes, I know that’s crazy, but when I got here to my parents and looked in my mom’s massive magnifying mirror, you know the one with all the lights, I about died when I saw my eyebrows had grown a forest. Why hadn’t anyone told me? I have probably been walking around that way for weeks! 
SHEESH.
I also got a good face picking in while staring in that mirror. Darn mirror! Anyway, here’s my eyebrows. Looking MUCH better, although my poor skin took a beating last night tonight. ha.
Well, I guess that is it for now. I am going to take the kids for an exploring walk. My parents property is beautiful and is blanketed by a thick heavy layer of coastal fog. We’re all going to be bundled up while looking for wildlife. ha. Thank God. It’s like a furnace back home!
Happy Labor day weekend to everyone!
Oh PS…yesterday was my younger brother’s , Brad, birthday. And on Tuesday is my older brother’s birthday, Jeff. Happy birthday to the two old men! 
xoxo