We have finally been up to so craftiness around here!  My girls are attending the North American Irish Dance Championships next week.  One of the Moms had the idea of each girl creating "spirit" stuff for a team mate-my kids each made a poster and a banner.  My youngest wanted to do a pennant, so I helped her create the basic shape, and let her use my Slice for the letters.  My oldest wanted to go all out Irish, so she picked the shamrock shape for her banner.  They both turned out great!  I love it that they are old enough to do these things (mostly) on their own, and I love it that they enjoy doing crafty things.  Maybe their crafty endeavors will turn out more successful than their Mother when they are adults!




My youngest is actually not feeling very well.  She's better today than yesterday, but still kind of coughy and ick.  When they had their regional Championships back in November, she was actually running a fever the day of their solos.  She still qualified, but has declined to dance her solos or Nationals.  She will only be dancing team stuff with her sister.

There is a Mom of one of the girls on the team who had reallllllly cute shirts made.  They turned out wonderful!  But I wanted to make them shirts too, and I did that tonight (with a little help from my Mom, the Crafty Queen).

She had the computer paper where you print out the shirt (IN REVERSE.  Didn't get that the first time), then iron on the image.  I bought cheapo white shirts from Tar-jay and followed the directions religiously.  They turned out really well.  I will make sure to get a picture of the girls before practice tomorrow morning.  I kind of feel bad that I didn't make a few more for their favorite friends on the team, but I really didn't want to make 12!

We are literally living in an Inferno.  My state has something like 13 fires going?  One is less than 15 miles from my house.  The air quality is pretty good most of the times, but some days it's bad enough to keep us inside.  The temperature itself is downright hellish.  103 degrees????  I moved here to escape that kind of heat in AZ!  I sure hope something changes soon.  There was some rain here in our town tonight, but it didn't reach our house.  I sure hope it hit the fire!

We have been doing a lot of this:

Because really what else can you do in this unbearable heat? 
And we have been doing a TON of this:

http://youtu.be/Eu4I_1dglEE

My girls are the two in their school uniforms.  I love it when they dance together-I think they look like book ends.  We are all about dance right now.  They will be dancing at the North American Championship Nationals next week, so they are dancing a million hours a week.  CRAZY STUFF.

In other news, I have to share my wonderful Find of the Week-this is again from Home Goods.  I was in with a friend while our kids were at the movies (with her Grandmother!), and I found this.  We had to leave in a hurry, but not before I snagged this baby!  I love it!  What is it exactly?  Mmmmm, not sure.  But I love stars, and it fits so well with the 4th of July theme.
I think that's it for around here for now.  Except that we have a new catfish addition to our tank.  Pie has named him Lamar.  Not sure if I can get a picture of Lamar any time soon, but he's really cute and little.

Today was really really hot again!  99 I think.  And I haven't been able to much of anything crafty lately which makes me sad.  I did cook some non-bake cookies (which were good but so loaded with bad stuff!), and they didn't form quite right.

Mostly I've been doing not fun stuff.  Yesterday the girls and I were loaded up in the car, pulling out of the driveway, when I immediately noticed that somthing wasn't right.  Flat tire.  Husband was at work, it was 98, and I can barely lift the tires for my jeep, let alone change one. :/  My husband has a pickup from 1992 that he only uses for hauling stuff; I generally avoid driving it because it is not automatic (!!!), and I have terrible trouble putting it into reverse.  But I decided that since it was miserably hot, the girls and I were dressed and sunscreened for the pool....to the pool we would go!  It was a little freaky-the truck immediately went into reverse, but I think it died at the end of our driveway about 4 times.  The girls then declared me "brave" (which I loved), and off we went!  The car did fine until we got to a very busy intersection where I have to make a left turn.  I stalled out on my very fast arrow, but was fine after that.  I weenied out and parked at the end of the street so I wouldn't have to put it in reverse to get home, and had a smooth ride home until I stalled out yet again at the entrance to our driveway!

Here is the truck that got us to and from the pool.  My girls lovingly refer to it as "Clunky Junky" because it rattles and sounds, well, old and junky! (Sorry husband!)  They also said that we were Redneck Women when we were driving it. 

The last wonderful fun, not so pleasant thing that has been taking up lots of time, was what I woke up to this morning (have pictures but will totally spare the blog).  Skid marks on my carpet, right around my bed.  I have 3 cats with long hair, and from time to time, a "hanger on-er" getst stuck in my cats' britches.  I am not certain who the culprit was, although it's usually my girls' cat Puff.  Puff is a very easy going, lazy Himalayan/Ragdoll cross breed.  He really is a sweet cat, and they can do most anything with him.  Exhibit A: 

I steam cleaned for about 1/2 hour to remove these unpleasantries, but now that the carpet has dried, I'm not sure they are fully gone. :(  That is not something that you want partially there, so I may get husband and his full industrial strength steam cleaner to attack tomorrow.  The girls and I are going to the state north of us for a show.  Outside.  In the heat.  Supposed to be 101.

Today was hot.  Really hot.  As in broke a record-so-damn hot.  We took the girls to the pool today, my oldest brought a friend, and the littlest met a friend.  We were there for 3 hours with my friend who won't get in the water (boooo!) and it was HOT.  I-hate-summer hot.  It is so draining to just be outside in this-luckily we found shade, and it wasn't so bad if you didn't move.  But if you did-HOT.  Reminded me of the seven years that we spent in Arizona!  We arrived home to find our house 83 degrees on the lower floor, and much hotter upstairs.  Husband came home and checked out the unit, only to find it frozen.  So we had to turn that off for a while, and let it thaw out.  We will have to bring someone in to check things out for sure!  Husband felt really bad that the house was warm, so he decided around 9:00 to take the kids out for ice cream.  Oldest's friend was not hungry, and couldn't understand how anyone could be at this hour!  While out I found out that she normally goes to bed at 9, which  isn't too surprising since she has to be at swim team at 7.  I felt really bad.  This child (and her family) will probably put us on the crazy list after this. :(

Tomorrow is my Daddy's bday!  So nice that we are all close by and can celebrate together.  I got him a funny sign that says, "I'm retired.  Stop asking me to do things!"  HA!

I have some things more related to the blog that I am looking forward to writing about, but I wanted to just do a regular update too.  I have to go to court on Weds. :(  Not looking forward to that at all!  I had a fender bender in early May that was my fault-the other driver had no damage at all to their car, and my damage was $1,500, but he called the police and I got a ticket.

Oh well!  Is it officially summer yet?

Find of the Week

Today's Find of the Week:

I am a frequent shopper of many places-Home Goods, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, JoAnnes, etc.  I have decided to feature a Find of the Week since these places never disappoint.

This week I am happy to show my find from Home Goods-this wonderful happy colander!   Did I need a colander? (Heck no)  But how can I resist this lovely item in such a happy shade of turquoise/blue?  My kitchen is very nicely decorated in neutrals, and little pops of color like this make for nice surprises.  I would love to find a way to show this off, but I wouldn't want to keep it on my counter tops.  I do have some space above the cabinets, but that would likely make this a permanent decoration since it's up so high.  I also have an antique colander that was my Grandmother's that I would love to display, but not sure how to display it.  Hmmmmm.  By the way, this beauty cost $9.99-maybe not the best deal per se, but what a nice find for my kitchen.

And (BONUS), I found this little sink scrubber chicken for my Mom for less than $5!

Failed attempt at Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Banana Bread

Today I was in the mood to cook! The fires are really bad outside, and I didn't feel right taking two girls with mild asthma swimming. So we stayed home all day, they played, and I cooked! I had no interruptions-dance class was cancelled due to the air quality, and I didn't have to pick up anyone from school. One of the things that I have been dying to make is Reese's peanut butter cups banana bread (from cookiesandcups.com). I have a standby recipe for banana bread that I absolutely love, and this recipe closely resembles it. However, I have had a few problems in the past with over cooking it. I found that I have to just take it out at exactly one hour regardless of how the bread looks. Otherwise, it is overcooked and dry. :( So I applied the same logic to this recipe. The result? Maybe not a total failure! It did taste really good! I took it out after an hour and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then, I attempted to do what I normally do with banana bread. I dump it out onto a plate, then flip it over to cool. When I did this, it fell apart into 3 big pieces. I attempted to get a spatula and try to piece it back together-then it really fell apart! I ended up taking a clean cooled loaf pan and throwing it back in. Aside from my family laughing at my ugly dessert, they did enjoy it. If I were planning to attend a party or having my relatives over like last weekend, I would have been devastated. No way I could have served it. (Kind of reminds me of my attempt at making brownie pops-similar issues!) But since we were just hanging out at home, we'll call it a save.