Busy, busy...

The holiday season hit me like a Mack truck. Before I realized it, I was going crazy trying to get things done. I had gifts to purchase, boutique orders to fill, travel plans to make, and things to look forward to and plan after the holidays. So, yeah, it was like I got caught up in a tornado with one kid in each arm and no clue how to hold on to anything else.

My sibs and I with my mom and her sister.

I did manage to get through my list of Christmas gifts. Of course, since this year we took our first ever family pictures, those became the gifts for many of our family members. I also had a few gifts that I made by hand like a scarf for a friend, slippers for a friend's kiddo, and earrings for my sister. We actually were able to go up to Dallas and have Christmas with my family which was awesome and my mom was crazy giddy about it since all my brothers and sisters were there and all my mom's grandkids. The weekend after Christmas, Taran's parents came to visit so we had a second Christmas celebration, complete with turkey dinner. I was giddy to have a real Christmas celebration at our home. Since the past couple of years we haven't been able to go anywhere, we didn't do a whole lot and it felt just like any other day to me. Not this year! It was fantastic!

Just before Christmas, I had a diaper cake I was working on. It was a huge challenge since I had to hand make many of the items on it. The gamer/geek/StarCraft theme doesn't lend itself easily to diaper cake making due to the sheer lack of available baby items of that theme so my only choice was to not fill the request for the theme, do a shabby job incorporating random stuff, or make it myself for a clean cohesive theme related cake. I picked the last option since I'm not all about putting forth half efforts on these. In the end it turned out great, but it was crazy time consuming at a very busy time of year. I managed though and I couldn't be more proud of the end result.

Nursery set for one of the mamas.
My first rag quilt. It came out awesome!
I was so proud of myself!

Just after Christmas some of the moms in my mommy group threw a baby shower for two moms that were expecting babies. I had to hurry to get gifts together for these mamas. Since both were cloth diapering mamas, I couldn't very well do a traditional diaper cake which is my stand-by gift, so I opted to make each mama a set of nursery items including a blanket, blocks, hat, and burp cloth. I put them together in cakes for them. They turned out adorable. The extra kicker was that I was able to use a lot of materials I already had (with a few new ones) so I cleared out some of my craft purchases which have been taking up space on our dining room table. Yay!

During that time period, I also had an order for two pairs of shoes, my first shipped order for my baby boutique! Super exciting! Shortly after the baby shower, I had an order for another diaper cake which I had to get to my friend in less than a week. Fortunately, this theme was much easier, but so incredibly cute and I was super excited to make this cake too!

Speaking of all that with my boutique, I reached over 100 fans on Facebook. I decided to hold a drawing for a discount on a next order as well as an auction. I put several items from my inventory in the auction and added a few more new things that I made up recently like burp cloths, crocheted hair clips, and a baby beanie. I wanted a good variety in the auction which turned out great. Several items sold which is also super exciting. Next time I run and auction, because I'm sure I will, I'm going to do some more publicity so that hopefully I get a few more bids and sales.

You'd think that after all that, things were slowing down for me, but no. Last week alone, we had appointments for August, Simon (the cat), and Noah. August is 9 mo old! I can't believe it. His appointment went well and we got a good report, so to speak. Simon had his appointment Thursday and he also is doing well. Noah went to the ENT for a recheck on his tubes on Friday. One tube is out, the other is in place; everything looks good.

In my spare time (really? That exists?), I've been working on shortening my stack of "to read" magazines. I've also been working on a few crochet projects like some plush veggies and other ideas for hair clips for the boutique.

As if I didn't have enough to do, I've taken on this need to clean obsessively. I think it's a mix of having family come into town and an urge to watch the show "Hoarders" that is putting me into clean-up overdrive. My house is cleaner than it's been in a long time. And even after the in-laws left, I've lost a bit of momentum, but I've still done some of that nitty gritty detail cleaning that we all like to put off like wiping down the cabinets and cleaning the appliances and baseboards.

Ok, well, this blog post is WAY too long. It actually was written over a couple of days and now I need to go bake cookies!

Merry Christmas and political correctness

This year I've received a stream of emails and seen a number of Facebook posts about how people are annoyed at the phrase "Happy Holidays." Over the years, it seems that the issue of using the phrase is reaching a volatile state. I think using phrases like "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" probably started out as a way to combine the end of year holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas and New Year's and just wish happiness to people and their families throughout this time of year. Then, I suppose, people perhaps were becoming offended by the phrase Merry Christmas and therefore other people in an effort to show respect to those who perhaps don't celebrate Christmas switched to using these generic well wishing phrases in hopes to keep peace. This is all, of course, merely my own speculation. In any case, it seems that now using a phrase such as "happy holidays" is now considered politically correct. And of course, as a result, devout Christians are in an uproar. That begins the stream of emails and Facebook posts about how you should always wish somebody "Merry Christmas" otherwise you're not a real Christian.

It's all ridiculous really, Christian or not. The fact of the matter is that Christmas in and of itself is, in fact, a national holiday. It doesn't matter how you celebrate it or if you celebrate it, it still doesn't change the fact that it's a national holiday. Being that it's a national holiday wishing somebody "Merry Christmas" should be as mundane as wishing them "Happy Thanksgiving." I'm not sure what genius it was that decided that it's more politically correct to say "Happy Holidays" but honestly – it's ridiculous. Christmas is sanctioned by the government therefore "Christmas" it is, and whether or not somebody chooses to celebrate the national holiday it's still just as politically correct to say "Merry Christmas" to them. Yes I'm Christian. Yes, I celebrate Christmas. Yes, I recognize it for the origin as a celebration of Christ's birth. I can always wish someone a Merry Christmas keeping in mind my personal views and celebration of it; however, given the fact that country recognizes this holiday I never feel any hesitation to wish somebody a Merry Christmas, even if they're not Christian, even if they don't celebrate the holiday. I'm still well within my right and just as respectful and certainly just as politically correct for wishing them a Merry Christmas.

My birthday "vacation"

Not sure when the last time I posted was. I could look it up. But that would take effort.

It's been a lot of the same ol' play dates, boring days, and whatnot. Certainly some days are more interesting than others. The point is, that recently our day to day activity is pretty routine and nothing out of the ordinary.

On my husband's most recent time off from the rig we decided to take a trip to Texarkana to visit some family since we haven't been there in about a year. The trip went fairly well but I have to admit Taran was right. We definitely had to separate the boys. Noah decided to start pestering August when he got a little bit bored in the car. August certainly doesn't like extended stays in his car seat so after the early trip nap wore off it was a little more difficult and we had to take a couple of stops. All in all I can't really complain too much. A five hour car trip with two boys and only two stops? It was pretty good all things considered.

The weekend was spent going from place to place visiting various members of Taran's family. Taran, of course, helped with some projects such as helping to chain up his grandfather's truck trailer and working to make his parents Internet easier to access. We also took several opportunities to visit his great aunt who was recently moved to a home.

So in the title I mentioned my birthday. Where does my birthday come in? Well it just so happens that the Saturday of our trip happened to land on my birthday. Luckily it was just another day and just treated as part of our trip for the most part. I am slightly bitter about my birthday. It's not the aging thing. I've decided that I'm going to stay 25 until I'm 55 to get senior citizen discounts before that 25 is the only decent age to be. My birthday angst just comes from years and years of constant disappointments. I look forward to my birthday and something always goes wrong to make it either a basic letdown or something nearing the end of the world. At least for birthday person. In any case, aside from the handful of well wishes, the phone calls from my family, and the slightly embarrassing song and dance routine at a restaurant (which at least resulted in some pie, so I suppose that's acceptable) my birthday went primarily unnoticed. This, in my mind, makes for a good birthday. Taran's grandmother also took me shopping to find a birthday present. I think I slightly disappointed her because I didn't get something fun and exciting. I got something I needed: a new belt and a new pair of jeans. They may be boring and run-of-the-mill; but, I desperately needed them so I'm happy I got them.

The trip back was pretty much as could be expected. We headed out just after lunch so that we could take advantage of naptime in the car. Both boy slept for a decent amount of the trip. We took two stops after they woke up making for a good ride home.

So that's the tale of our most recent adventure. Who knows when I'll get back on to share the next exciting chapter of the Endsley's life. I'll try to make sure to let you know when something cool happens.

Wow, where does the time go?

So, it's been crazy. I can't remember the last time I updated or what all has happened since then. I suppose I could go check, but that would take effort, so I'll just update the latest. That's enough for several blogs in and of itself, but I'll try to be brief. The abridged version if you will.

So, a couple of weekends ago, Taran and I attended a wedding of a college friend and former roommate of Taran's. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was tons of fun. It's been a while since I had that much fun at a wedding. But then, it's been a while since I've been to a wedding. Of course, hubs looked fantastic in his tux too (he was a groomsman), so I really can't complain. Noah slept through the entire ceremony (he'd had a long day) but was tearing it up on the dance floor. He had a blast!

The weekend of the wedding was also the weekend of an annual craft fair I work with my mom. It was a bit hectic getting everything to coordinate and Taran was so wonderful trying to accommodate my ability to work the show. It put a damper on his plans to help with pre and post wedding stuff but it all worked out in the end. The show went well. Much better than last year, but I still came home with way more inventory than I would have liked. I sold several of my dream catchers with was a huge surprise to me since I usually don't sell many of those at all. I only sold a few baby items, a buggy and a pair of shoes, which was a bit upsetting but I think next year I will need to bring more small items.

On the flip side, the great weekend came with its price. Taran got sick and was under the weather during the latter part of the weekend. August also picked up the bug too so he was sick for a few days but at least he wasn't feeling horrible - he still was alert and had his overall happy attitude. I got sick a couple days ago. Not fun. It took me out. Now I get why Taran felt so horrible. I tried to help him out how I could and let him get rest, but if he felt nearly as bad as I did, I didn't do enough.

In happier news August continues those happy but terrifying baby developments. He's now crawling like a pro and has moved on to working on pulling up. He also now officially has eight teeth. As always he's as happy as can be, but he does get upset if he crawls himself into a corner or wanders off someplace he's unfamiliar with like Noah's room. He gets all fussy, but I think it's adorable.

Noah is doing his thing. His speech is improving and he's putting three words together occasionally. Taran has been working on numbers with him (I have too, but to a lesser extent) and he seems to be picking those up well. He'll randomly start counting but gets the number out of order. He's trying though.

That's it on our front. I'm still working on figuring out Thanksgiving and dreading the impending Christmas craziness as we plan, decorate, and work on gifts. Some of that is in the works, but mostly in our head and in discussions, nothing physical yet. Yikes! Hopefully I can get back on my feet soon (as I'm still kinda recovering from my "illness") and get to work on that soon.

I'm Going Crazy...

Well, there are some that would argue that I'm already there, but whatever.

We've come to the end of our car search. Kinda. The search is over, the new car has yet to be obtained. Taran has officially completed the paperwork for our new minivan. Now, it's a matter of the dealership actually acquiring it so that we can trade in our current vehicle. That means that sometime next week (hopefully) I'll be officially inducted into the "soccer mom" club. It took a long time for Taran to convince me that a minivan was the best idea for us. I hate it, I truly do, but there really are no other options. Nothing else is big enough, gives us enough storage space, has rear air for the kids and enough room for their car seats, gets decent gas mileage (relative to size), and isn't a giant boat. So, minivan it is. It'll be good for us, just not my ego.

I've spent the past couple of days at home which has been bad for my sanity. Assuming I had any to begin with. I've got some crazy cabin fever and I am in desperate need of a girls' night out. I think the last time I had one was when Noah was about 5 mo. old. The kids are seriously wearing on me. I keep convincing myself that the few hours I get in the evening after Noah has gone to bed will refresh me, but it's not enough, especially considering that August doesn't necessarily sleep at the same time. Usually by the end of the day I'm so exhausted that I just want to veg and in vegging, I don't really appreciate the free time I have. And that's if I let myself veg and I'm not occupied by laundry or dishes or who knows what else that needs to get done around the house.

On a happier note, I have been keeping myself occupied with my crafts. I've finally finished all the shoes that I had official orders for. I also recently completed a cloth diaper cake (for display only) and a Halloween cake (also for display only). They were fun. I got to try some new things I hadn't done before and it was awesome to work out new tricks. I have many more projects prepped and ready to work on, I just haven't gotten around to doing that (and in many cases, I haven't had the energy).

Tomorrow I have my annual eye exam (not excited) and later in the week I have my regular mommy meeting and a meeting for the mommy foundation. Maybe with things to keep me occupied the week will go by faster. Next weekend my in-laws are going to be here, so that means a lot of cleaning on my part. It's nice when they are here, but I really don't like the pre-company prep. That part is never fun. Oh well. At least it forces me to clean on a semi-regular basis so that can't be all bad.

Busy, busy, busy...

I feel like I say that a lot, "busy, busy, busy," but it seems like that has been the case lately. Despite the fact that I've been getting an extra hour of awake time thanks to the boys transitioning from (or is it to?) Daylight Savings Time about a month early. I still feel like the days are passing me by before I know where they went. As a result, I'm feeling less productive as nap time and bedtime result in true "down time" for me. And by down, I mean almost catatonic. Ok, not really, but it's like I switch to lazy mode where I get very little done and just veg in front of the TV or read.

Our awake time seems to take us various places in an attempt to get Noah a release for his insane amounts of energy. I'm not convinced that tiring him out makes him behave better. Sometimes he just gets wired and whiney. Sometimes it works, other times, there is no change. Oh well. So that means parks and play dates which wear me out too since I spend a large portion of the time disciplining or playing with Noah - not the easiest task with a baby strapped to you, but I'm not about to leave him in a stroller while I tend to (or chase for several yards) his brother. It'd be nice if Taran was able to join us all the time (1 to 1 is a much better ratio than 2 to 1), but he comes when he can.

To add to the normal hustle and bustle, we've been squeezing in the continued mini-van hunt. Not easy working with Taran's hectic work schedule. I think we settled on one, but we have to wait until the dealer finds what we are looking for. I had no idea new cars were in such limited supply. I guess it makes sense, but never having had a new car, I just figured the manufacturers had a stash of the cars and you only had to order them if you wanted upgrades and whatnot. I was wrong.

My crafts have gone a bit by the wayside. Ok, I guess not really. I've been working on a bunch of shoe orders so the personal projects and the extra products I wanted to make for my baby boutique have been put aside. I may pick that up again though since I'm between orders and waiting on details for orders from a few people, so maybe I'll get productive on my own stuff. That means not vegging, but it's hard to move off of a comfy couch after a busy day. Such is life.

Where was I ten years ago?

It seems the thing to do to write up where you were and what you were doing ten years ago today when you heard the news of the planes crashing in to the World Trade Center, so I'm jumping on the band-wagon. Here is what I remember from that day.

I was in lab, I'm not sure which, but it may have been organic chemistry. I remember my lab partner was really stressed out and he was talking about possibly getting sent out. He was in the reserves and it was just the beginning of the semester, but he was thinking he wouldn't be able to get a refund on his tuition and certainly couldn't get credit if he left mid-semester. I had to learn from him that a plane crashed into the first tower. Class must have ended pretty soon thereafter because I remember going immediately to my dorm room and turning on the news. As I watched the coverage of the first crash, I witnessed on the live feed that was showing video coverage of the first plane, the second plane coming in and crashing into the second tower. I was in shock. I continued to watch the coverage. I remember they kept showing the video of the plane coming in over and over. Several cameras were set on the tower after the first crash so the second one had several views. Continued coverage described the fall of the towers and the crashes at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

I remember that at first, people thought that the first plane had lost control. No one seemed to know what was going on. Over the next several days I heard about terrorist attacks, Bin Ladin, and Al Queda as the events were explained. We learned that on the last plane, the passengers fought back and it had missed it's intended target. It was a confusing and upsetting time. Clean-up continued for what seemed like forever. The Ross Volunteers, and organization out of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets was sent out to help in the efforts.

Not long after, the next Aggie football game displayed an overwhelming view of Red, White, and Blue in the stands as Aggies showed up at the game supporting their country. An amazing view, I only wish I had been there.

I don't remember a ton of what happened closely thereafter. My lab partner did not get sent out. He was able to finish the semester. I also remember, that a friend of mine who was in the Marines got his clearance acceptance delayed because his paperwork was in the Pentagon. It's the big things and the quirky things you remember, not the little ones, I suppose.