Long Time, No Blog!

I have been totally missing from the blogosphere lately! I haven't been blogging or even reading blogs. Chalk it up to being busy at work, feeling a bit down, tired, whatever! Anyway, I'm back!

But, I have been meaning to blog about Lil' Kay's birthday party! He turned 5 at the beginning of May. He wanted a dinosaur bowling party. The party was lots of fun, although he and his friend Laney didn't bowl nearly as much as we adults did! They were more interested in running back to the party room to check out the cake. And what a cake it was! My parents live half a block away from the absolutely best cakemaker in the whole world! She's been making cakes for us for years. She made my wedding cake and my sister's and my brother's. She made a welcome home cake for my brother when he returned from Iraq. (It had tanks and "sand" on it!!)

I called her up and asked her for a dinosaur cake. She asked if I wanted one shaped like a dinosaur. I told her it didn't matter. Whatever she came up with would be great. When my mom walked into the bowling alley carrying this cake, I was blown away! It has a freakin' volcano on it! And palm trees!! Everything was edible except the plastic dinosaur figures. The trees were made out of giant pretzel sticks and frosting. The volcano was cake and lots of frosting. So, so cool! Lil' Kay couldn't stop looking at it! He didn't end up eating much of the cake, but he loved those palm trees!

So, there's a quick update from my corner of the world. I've got more silly 5 year old stories coming! That kid says the funniest things! (And, guess what! I sewed something!!)

New Friends

This evening, after work, we were all out in the yard working various projects. Mr. Kay was mowing the lawn, and I was adding some English ivy to my topiary pots. Lil' Kay was hunting toads.

I love having toads in my yard. When I was a kid, we used to catch them and try to keep them as pets. That never really worked out, because they always escaped from their shoebox condos. I still get a kick out of finding the little creatures, plus they eat bugs, so they're great to have around!

These two are our newest friends. The top one is Sally. I am totally enamored with her, because of her talent in camouflage. Look how well she blends with that tree trunk. She's quite confident in her ability to be undetectable. She would hardly move unless it looked like we actually intended to touch her. Quite serene, this little toad.

Sam, on the other hand, was a bit more jumpy. (Get it? Jumpy? insert groan) His nerves were probably due to the fact that he had just been chased from his hidey hole by a roaring lawnmower. He hung out in our flower bed for a bit, but hopped away as soon as no one was looking. I had a hard time getting a picture of his face. He kept turning around everytime I got close to him with the camera!

Aren't they cute? I'm just totally amazed that two totally different looking toads are living in the same yard. You'd think you'd just get the same kinds of toads.

Anyone ever had one of those little toad house things? Do they really use them? If so, I might need one!

I did it!

I did it! I took the plunge last night and cut my hair short! I also added a bit of color. My new haircolor is caramel-walnut-brandy. Doesn't that sound yummy? I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out. I have a long standing fear of short hair that goes way back to the fourth grade. When I called my sister and told her that I was going short, she was a bit nervous. My hair is quite fine and very, very straight. No matter what you do to it, it will be flat. Fortunately, this style is just that. straight and flat. She was quite happy with the results, too.

I let her wax my eyebrows, too. I kind of think she takes a bit of pleasure in causing her big sis that kind of pain. I always wait too long between waxings, so it's kind of a big job. They always look soooo much better when it's over, though!

So, now that I have this fabulous new hairdo, I'm thinking I deserve new glasses, too. I'd love to go back to my contacts, but they cause me too much grief. My eyes are just too dry to tolerate them for very long. So, maybe some sexy new specs are in order. Heck, I'm due for a pair courtesy of our insurance company!

So, the big plan or the weekend is Lil' Kay's 5th birthday party! He actually turns 5 today, but we're celebrating with a dinosaur bowling party on Saturday. This morning, he didn't want to wake up, even though Daddy was singing "Happy Birthday" quite loudly. Finally, Dad said, "I can't believe you don't want to open your present!" Lil' Kay stumbled out of bed, all bleary-eyed and said, "Gotta open presents," in a very zombie-like manner. We're going to Applebee's for supper tonight, so they can sing and bring him free dessert.

Big step

Last night I was reading through my copy of the May issue of Real Simple, and found this adorable haircut. Now, I haven't had my hair any shorter than the bottom of my ears since I was in the fourth grade. I'm a little nervous, but I think I can pull this off. Besides, I'm 31 and married. Who am I trying to impress? It's only hair. It will grow back. I'll just keep repeating that to myself as my sister begins cutting this evening. By the way, my sister is a licensed cosmotologist who owns her own salon, so she does know what she's doing. I'm also going to do an all-over color to darken my hair just a bit and give it some oomph.

I'm really excited, but I'm also afraid I might cry. My sister says she won't do it if I'm going to cry. (Having your younger sister as your stylist is great, except that she tends to yell at me and doesn't care if she pulls my hair! I'm kidding. Sort of.) I'll try to take some before and after pictures and let you know how it goes!

Busy, busy!

I admit that I have been totally MIA in the blogosphere lately! That's because I have been busy, busy, busy. Look at what we did to our house! Don't the topiaries look amazing! I think they are my Mother's Day present. I'm really excited, because after living in our church/house for over 9 years, it's starting to look like a house!

This weekend is the biggest, hugest, most ginormous garage sale in the universe. We've been working very hard to get rid of all the stuff that we don't really need or use. We've gone through our house, our basement and our storage unit. Every few days, we take another load of stuff to my parents' house for the sale. The other night I walked into their garage and took a look at the wall of boxes that is our stuff. Oh my gosh. I cannot believe how much stuff we have collected over the almost 10 years we've been married. The scariest part about looking at that wall was knowing that my sister hasn't even brought over her stuff for the garage sale. I don't know how we are going to get it all put out on Saturday morning OR where we will put it all. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow!

How I spent my weekend

Let me preface this blog entry by saying that Mr. Kay and I are plant-stupid. We have absolutely minimal experience when it comes to landscaping and growing plants. We have lived in our house for almost ten years, but have never done anything with the yard, other than throwing down some grass seed and hoping for the best. Most years, I will buy some colorful annuals and plant them in a large pot on our front porch. They usually last until the end of June when I get tired of watering them, it stops raining and the Kansas July sun burns them to a crisp.

Over the last year and a half, we have painted and re-roofed our house. It looks wonderful, now, so we felt inspired to add a teeny bit of landscaping. We ventured out on Saturday evening to a nearby nursery and after wondering around looking at the variety of plans and listening to a young man speak plant Greek to us, we finally chose a few victims, I mean plants, and brought them home.

After church on Sunday, we went to our big box store and bought some plastic edging, weed paper, plant food and potting soil. Then we came home and set to work. And when I say work, I mean the kind of back breaking work where you sweat profusely, even though it's not an extremely hot day. I'll be honest. I am not an outdoors kind of girl. I prefer air conditioning and shade. But I hung in there, and I'm pretty proud of what we accomplished. After we started turning over the dirt, we did get a little worried and "invited" my parents to come give us a hand. I'm glad we did. It made us a bit more confident to have the voice of experience helping us out. And, we learned a few things.

So, what did we plant? I'm not really sure. There are a couple of forsythia bushes, two dogwood bushes, some spirea, a couple lillies, some hostas and some pretty little ground cover plants with blue and purple flowers. The real question is what will survive? My mom wondered if we were planting things a bit too closely together. I assured her that it was fine, because we are counting on about half of them dying. I'm just being realistic, here.

Being a total klutz, there was no way that I could escape this adventure without an injury. I have a lovely scraped bruise on the back of my right calf. As I was putting my foot on the top of my spade to force it into the ground, I slipped and scraped the back of my leg against the top of the spade. Thank goodness I was wearing jeans, but boy did it hurt. It got worse in the evening, and I can still feel it everytime I step down on that leg. I was surprised at how black and blue it isn't. As much as it hurts, it seems like it should be more colorful. I suspect the bruise goes pretty deep. I really should not be allowed to use tools. I'm a danger to myself.

I'm sure the folks in our small town and wondering what is up with us! First paint, then a new roof and now landscaping? It's about time! We'll see how long it lasts!

EtsyBloggers Featured Seller

This month's featured Etsy Blogger is StormyDesigns. Because I am hard pressed to make snakes out of play-dough, I am absolutely amazed at what talented artists can accomplish using simple polymer clay.
StormyDesigns creates absolutely stunning jewelry and other home accessories out of polymer clay. I am completely enamored with this necklace and earrings set. I love how the leaves shimmer!Being a Kansas girl, I can't help but love this little bowl with its beautifully shaded sunflowers.And, check out the detail on this seahorse necklace! Isn't this fantastic! Look at the seashell clasp! How clever is that? Seriously. It would be like wearing a work of art around your neck!