Whoops

Um, apparently I forgot to post about my consignment fun from last weekend. I have now been asked/reminded/scolded by four separate people. Yikes. My sincerest apologies.

But, yes, I did go to the Mamacents sale....which sadly was not in Bell county this season. But, that's okay. Truthfully, the Austin one is so ginormous that it is really fun to shop it. 

Got some awesome deals....and since I don't feel like dragging out the camera and digging through the closets (yeah, they are already washed and put away, too), here's a small sampling of what I found (courtesy of photos I grabbed online).

My FAVORITE....an L.L. Bean Barn Jacket for $12. 

Little man will look pretty cute in this one:

And in the spirit of warmth, a duplicate of this Tommy Hilfiger jacket (that I pulled this photo off of ebay which was listing it for $18) for $8. Woo. Since they were babies, I have had denim jackets for each of them...I think they go perfect with everything and are a must have for the El Rancho kids.

For some reason, I lost count and bought SIX rugby shirts. They were all great deals and can work for both dressing nice for church with some khaki cords or with a pair of jeans at a football game.

Along with these deals, I found a bunch of green items for Ellison events, lots of jeans and just a bunch of all around good deals. Even found a STACK of 10 Christian kids' books for $3...including a couple of Veggie Tales books! Woo, woo!

Usually at these sales, I try to break even (not spending more than I make on clothes that I consign), however, I barely consigned much this time. I was too eXhAuStEd and crazy busy with my business to prep clothes last week. So, I did the minimum amount, brought snacks for the volunteers which scored my early bird volunteer pass, and showed up and spent about six times what I made. Oh well....I now have a big tub of clothes that didn't make it in this year but will wait for fall 2010.

Cinco, Baby

I am a little behind in posting (what else is new, huh?)....but couldn't let the week get away without posting about our FIVE YEAR OLD!

When did I wake up and have this baby turn into a big kid? Our sweet, sweet Benjamin is such a delight and brings us more joy than we could imagine.

We started off the official birthday (the 22nd) with our traditional birthday cake breakfast.

 I love this look....like, "watch it, kid....this is my candle!"

Cupcakes taken to preschool....which almost got dropped in this photo.

It's always cool to have the first birthday of the year for your class.

We had Benjamin's robot party last Friday night at our church building.

Welcome, Robot Friends!

The Robot Tin Can Men....these were scattered about. We're about sick of canned green beans over here. We've eaten them for two weeks straight to save enough cans. Bleh.

Robots need hydration, too.

And nourishment.

My niece, Kelly, was kind enough to trade me some cuppy-cakes for a blog re-do! I think I got the better end of the deal, here! The girl can bake.

Robot Favors...LOVE to the Target Dollar Spot for all of the last minute Robot party stuff!

Yay for the Birthday Boy!

Really...it's been five years? Five?

I can hardly type this without tearing up! This is me with Beth & Baby Max....who departed this morning for Kansas until, gulp, February! Her hubs, Brian is deployed right now. I am going to miss this girl something crazy.

Grandparents enjoying the festivities.

The bounce house....which Benjamin thought was for keeps. Imagine the disappointment when InflatablesRUs showed up after the party to pack it up and take it back with them.

Party People

All in all...a fun birthday for Bennagins. Now, I better run and pick 'em up from preschool before my name is mud.

Eleven Days??

Wow....I've been quite a blog-slacker lately. It's been eleven days since I've posted. And it has been CRAZY busy around here. I'm not sure if my head is even screwed on right these days...I just can't find enough hours in the day. 

I am really excited about two new things on the horizon. And a little puzzled at the same time. I have recently been contracted by two separate people to do contract work for them. And the cool thing? It's work I am already doing...photo cards, bag tag designs, etc. This is truly a dream come true, but also a little overwhelming. At this point, I plan to keep Kristi's open and keep rolling out designs...especially blog designs since this is where I get the most business and I love it so much. What I am trying to decide is whether to keep my line of taggies going (I mean it's been active for all of two weeks) or use them as contract work and strictly sell through the business who contacted me. They would take care of the printing, packing and shipping, I would just design them (my favorite part of the process). The other person who has contacted me is an awesome photographer wanting me to help her with her own line of photo cards (along with some other cool stuff)...which brings me to the next dilemma. Where to go with the photo cards? I am really thinking to help streamline it, I may just do my digital deals for photo cards this year. Excuse my rambling while I type as I think, I was just curious to get any input from some of you sweet friends who have helped me launch this business adventure. What started as a fun side job is quickly turning into full-time craziness-- what an AWESOME problem to have, loving this! Let me know your thoughts....drop me an email if you know exactly what I should do!  : )

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We were super excited to have David's parents come for a visit last weekend.  It's always nice to see "Grandma & Grandpa Pecos". They arrived Friday evening and headed to the football game with us. The game got canceled due to lightning, good thing we were winning at the time!

Saturday, we headed to Salado for a little lunch and a little shopping. Grandma & Grandpa bought the boys the cutest vintage toys there...a wind-up robot for Benjamin and a wind-up train for Jonathan.

We hung out around the house for a bit Saturday afternoon while Jonathan took a long snooze. Grandma & Grandpa gave Benjamin his birthday presents-- a cool Dinosaur floor puzzle and an Atari game control with several of the vintage games on it. Benjamin (and Daddy) have a hard time staying off of the Atari!  

Saturday night, we headed over to the Market Heights center for supper at Cracker Barrel, cruising Barnes & Noble and frozen yogurt at YoYo's. Sunday, we headed to Belton for Bible class and church. We came home and threw turkey burgers on the grill before having to tell Grandma & Grandpa goodbye. We miss ya already!

Back to [Pre]School!

Today was a day of mixed emotions for this mama.  On the one hand, having an entire day to myself (twice a week!) is pretty great....got so much accomplished! On the other, leaving the boys at preschool, and not staying myself to teach, was a little sad, too. But it is really fun to be on this side of things. This year I'll get to go on the field trips with Benjamin's class, go to my boys' classes for Muffins with Mom, go to party days and be that fun mom who occasionally surprises someone with Chick-fil-A at school for lunch. I have been looking forward to this!  

A couple of my "Busy Bees" from last year are in Benjamin's Pre-K class...that's so cool to me to still see them all the time! And I got a few hugs from other Busy Bees as they scampered off to their new classrooms (weep, weep).

But, all in all....a really GREAT first day back!

September 1, 2009

Jonathan & Benjamin

First Day of School

Belton Christian Preschool

Jon Jon

Benjamin

This pic was taken last week at Meet the Teacher. 

This is Jonathan and his teacher Mrs. Amy.

He is a part of the "Delightful Ducks" class, hence Mrs. Amy's fun shoes!

This was Benjamin at the Meet the Teacher last week.

He is a part of Mrs. Mary's Enchanting Elephants.

The first thing Benjamin does when he gets to his class

 every day is mark the attendance chart.

Jonathan in his class this morning.

A great first day of school deserves a nice treat! 

We headed to Yoyo's for some "fro-yo".

 This was such a cool place! 

It just opened in Harker Heights a few months ago. 

I just love Belton Christian Preschool and feel so privileged to have, not only taught there last year, but have the boys there again this year. I am super excited about both of the boys' teachers this year-- both of whom also attend our church. I feel they are loved and nurtured every minute they are there. 

Mrs. Amy included in her Welcome Letter a sweet prayer that she will be praying every day over Jonathan's little class...it absolutely warmed my heart knowing that sweet Amy says these words for my child:

"Lord, you have made these children

as varied as the flowers of a garden.

You have blessed each one uniquely.

And each fragile, growing child

is infinitely precious in your sight.

You have trusted me to nurture them.

And blessed me with the joy of seeing them grow.

Lord, I teach in reverence to You."