From Super Mom to Couch Queen

So it has been a little while since I have blogged because I got the great idea to start doing Craft Fairs.  If you have met me or been to a party of mine I NEED NEEEEEDD NEEEEEEEDDDD a creative outlet in life.  I will seriously explode if I can't be crafty.  However, this comes with an opposite side that people may not be aware of my other persona...the Queen of the Couch.  When I am done with a party or planning I sit on the couch for hours scrolling through Pinterest or just doing nothing.  I am not going to lie...it is pretty amazing.  Doing nothing is very refreshing.

I guess that I have just been reading a ton of posts giving crap to the "Super Mom".  I think what people need to do is accept the kind of person that they are.  We are all blessed in different ways and I think we lose sight of being ourselves.  The craze to be "Super Mom" is part of a lot of women trying to figure out who they are.  I don't think it is bad to make custom valentines or to go by and grab a pack of store bought.  At the end of the day were you happy with your choice?  Then good.  I think the point is that you need to be happy with your choice.  If doing over the top crafts is not your thing, then figure out what is.  There may not be a website dedicated to your passion...yet!

And maybe you haven't found that thing that you love to do yet.  So, try a few things out.  If they are not a good fit for you then kick the art supplies or cookbook or kick boxing gloves to the curb and move on.  I deal emotionally with feeling like a failure because I am a huge ball of insecurity.  It is amazing how moving half way across the U.S. has kind of freed me up to be OK with not being everything.

Seriously...I have gone out in public without make-up on lately.  I haven't done that since I was like 13.  I just stopped caring about what strangers thought of me.  God made me beautiful (and not in a conceded way) and he wants me to be OK with that person.  Because anything else means I am ashamed of the person that he made me to be.  Like today I took a BMI scale thing at the gym that told me I was obese.  At first I was pissed and embarrassed (partly because I took it with my new friend who is a hottie after a c-section 6 weeks ago) but then I was like F*c% that.  I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  The scripture reference may not be correct, but I know that God did not make a mistake with me.

I love being crafty, but I am not the best at the everyday things, like reading to my son or taking him to the park.  I feel most times like I suck at the day to day.  This is why I put so much extra effort into the big events like over the top birthdays or Halloween parties.  It is my thing.  But when we got here I tried cooking.  I always hated cooking and felt like it was a chore that needed to get done.  Frozen food in the oven was my idea of a home cooked meal.  Any night I don't go through the drive-thru was a home cooked meal.  But I tried something new and liked it a lot.  Cooking was fun all of a sudden.  Ms. Evilia would be so freaking proud of me.

I assume that none of you have "arrived" yet in life.  We are ever changing over the years.  Its like allergies, they change every 7 years, so why do we get so surprised when something doesn't make us happy anymore or we grow and evolve as people.  I am having fun figuring out the things that make me happy...you should too!

Mason goes to School

I can not tell you how excited I was to get a chance to do all of the cool mom stuff associated with your child starting school.  I have always been preparing for everyone else's children to start their new classrooms that I never got (or pre-planned) that stuff for Mason.  Honestly, I was lucky I remembered to get a photo each time of him in a new outfit.  So, this blog post is for my Bubbers and his first day of school.

We traveled to target last week for new school clothes, which is a day trip to Oklahoma City.  It was nice to leave Enid for the day, but we also realized there are much smaller towns we could have ended up.  We have been reviewing everything from school and watching LeapFrog on Netflix because my child is a visual learner.  We did our interview about Mason at this age and he made me tear up with some of his answers.  Photo shoot this morning, and then we were off to school.

Interview:

Mason at age 3…Vance Air Force Base Child Development Center

Teacher: Ms. Raven

Favorite color: Green

Favorite foods: Fishies and Corn Dogs

Favorite person: My dog Minnie

Other favorite people: Mommy, & Daddy

Favorite Song: Soft Kitty

Favorite thing to do: Scribble on the paper

Favorite thing to wear: Pilot clothes so I can go to work with my daddy

Favorite Friend: Mayhew and Stephen

New friend at Vance: Parker

Favorite toy: Ninja Turtles and their bad guys

Favorite thing to do with Mommy: Watch movies at movie theater

Favorite thing to do with Daddy: Kick him in the leg...fighting

Favorite thing to do at Vance AFB: The park and the BX

Favorite movie: Ninja Turtle Movies

Favorite TV Show: Super Hero Squad

Favorite place to visit: The Bergendahl’s

Favorite book: No David and Animal books

Favorite trip: The Mickey Cruise

Worst day ever: When daddy goes away to school

Something that makes you happy: When daddy comes back home

What I’m most thankful for: For Jesus

My favorite drink: Lots of juice

What I want to do at preschool: Maybe tape boxes

What are you nervous about: But I just don’t want to do my letters

What are you scared of: Monsters

When I was a baby. I: Say googoo gaga

What I want to be when I grow up: One of the Super Squad

 And first day pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm gonna be in a craft show

So on Saturday I was able to attend a craft fair hosted by the Officer's Wives of Vance AFB.  IT was really nice and honestly reminded me of home a little bit.  Linda (mil) and I usually went to these this time of year with Grandma Ruth and all the other Hottel women who were in town.  It is amazing that no matter where you go, these events seem to be very similar.  Well, with the blazing exception of all the red state stuff was not wolfpack, but for OSU and all the orange was not Campbell, but OU.  It was nice to not see any blue teams in the crowd though (mwhahaha, wolfpack family).


I love walking around craft fairs.  It always makes me feel more creative and helps me see some crafting from a new angle.  However, if you are not the proud mother of a little girl...these things can be a bit depressing.  I am always so shocked that no one has come up with a cute idea to sell to mothers of boys.  Surely I am not the only one to have thought this.  One day I will have my Kyrie, and she will be decked out in a tutu and handcrafted bow daily, but until then I am trying to rock my little boy out in the cool stuff.

So, I though "Oh well" and moved on to look for items to buy the family for Christmas.  We found some cute Oklahoma special items that we bought for presents.  I hope you guys like it because all the stuff is locally made in Enid, OK under the tree this year.

Well, we walked out to our car after the show was over and there was a flyer on my car.  Apparently there is a a big craft show in Fairview, OK the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I was just shooting off at the mouth at Reid (which I do ALL THE TIME) and talking about all the cute things I could make to sell and how I would rock a booth if I had one and about how I could sell my adoption bags and how cute my booth would be (run on sentence necessary because I talk like that to him) when he told me that we had a little extra money from doing the move ourselves that he would let me invest into items to buy and have my own booth.  WHAT?  So, I don't do anything slowly...within minutes I had contacted the vendor contact and booked a booth, then online to buy some items for my boys shirts and items for boys that I knew where to buy at DISCOUNT to sell.  I had a packaging design in place within the hour and a booth design sketched out.  In case you didn't know this about the Hottel family, we don't do anything slowly...when we see a door open we dive head first into it because those are the times we are forced to rely fully on God and not ourselves.

So here I am with Reid going to Flight school on Wednesday and Mason and I are going to be crafting up a storm while he is gone.  We are going to create a booth display in the house and start making and adding items until the shop is complete.  I am so excited.  This is my moment to take my 5 talents that the Lord has given me and invest them to see a greater return.  We could easily slide that money over to savings for Kyrie and not think again about it, or I could invest it into these items and hopefully see a greater return that will allow us to pursue adopting our daughter that much sooner.

I am ecstatic, a.) I have something to keep me busy, b.) I am being active in pursuing my daughter to be brought home, c.) I am doing something to add to my families income/savings, and d.) I am getting to be creative, which I so desperately need on a regular basis.

So, once this craft fair is over, I have so many fun items that will be hitting the Etsy shop.  Let's hope that my Silhouette can hold up to what is in store for it, because I will be utilizing all of it's functions.  Seriously, Kayti thank you for introducing me to this crafting mecca that is the Silhouette.  So watch out mama's of little boys...there will be something for you very soon.

Ready to adopt again

So I have been working the last few weeks to prepare for our next adoption.  I think (KNOW) that this adoption is going to be very different than the last one.  Mainly because we cashed out our savings for Mason and I am no longer working.  So I  am getting creative.

• Etsy ~ I have created some birthday invitations on my shop to sell.  I miss the event planning part of my life, so hopefully I can help people plan from afar and get all the party ideas out of my head.
• T-shirt ~ Tracy and I spent a lot of time planning out the perfect t-shirt to raise funds and I think I have finally found it.  We decided to do one based on "The Red Thread" book concept.  I will be printing these soon, but trying to get an idea of interest before I start printing since I will be doing it one at a time on my Yudu screen printer.  

• Yard Sale ~ Military wives are organized, and luckily they have their own yard sale facebook site.  We have been getting rid of the stuff we don't need, like Reid's old suits for work.
• Saving ~ which goes without saying for an adoptive parent.

So, now comes confession time.  I ripped my heart open last night looking at the Rainbow Kids website and photo listings.  I always knew that Mason and his adoption was special and would never be duplicated.  He was healthy, and perfect, and bonded like a dream. Well, last night I opened myself up to HOW different the next adoption might be.  I was encouraged (unknown to her) by my friend Lisa and started looking at children with special needs.  I realized how simple a thing can be in the US that causes a child to be labeled as special needs in the US.  So many illnesses that are treated regularly in the US by a simple doctors visit or out patient operation.  Adoption is the only means these kids will receive what they so desperately need.  Yes medicine, but also a home and parents to hold them and let them know it will be OK and that together they can overcome.  So I am searching and praying and seeking God's will.  This adoption may not look like I had originally thought (because let's be honest adoption NEVER does) and so I am opening myself up to the journey.  A special needs child may mean that things are sped up exponentially, so my creativity is going to need to hyper drive.   

Happy Halloween

I must start out by saying thank you Peggy Lee Mead (mommy) for teaching me to sew all of those years ago.  She always wanted me to have skills that I could fall back on if I needed to.  Well, I have gotten to use those skills for awesomeness instead.  Mason asked if he could be a Ninja Turtle for Halloween this year.  This was over 2 months ago when Reid was still away.  When I called him with costume themes, as soon as he heard the word Ninja Turtle he interrupted saying "YES, YES, WE'RE DOING THAT".  Reid is in love with the fact that Mason likes the things that he liked as a kid.

So I started researching every TMNT outfit they had.  I was so discouraged that the kids costumes were so intricate, the women's ones were shining beacons of sparkly fabric, and the men's costumes were tight green leotards.  I hate the idea of looking lame, and use my family as an excuse to do joint costumes.  Well, I was determined now that since I knew how to sew, that I was going to make the most kick ass Ninja Turtle costumes ever.

 I made a shell to fit each person/dog

Then stitched them up and detailed them, 

because Raphael had to have his cut in his shell or people would talk about us.   

They turned out amazing after a few weeks of work.  My boys were amazing.

Michaelangelo

Raphael

Donatello

Leonardo

Mason had so much fun Trick-Or-Treating.  We were part of an amazing community tonight.

Finally got a family shot of Donny, Mikey, Splinter, Leo, and Raph!

Then the most important part of the night...the candy

We dumped it out for the boy to see his spoils

He was so excited that this was all for him

When Reid was a kid he used to sort all of the candy out, so he taught Mason the same thing.

And then to finish the night out, these Turtles had a cowabunga pizza party!

I am so lucky that my boys play along with me and seem to enjoy this as much as I do.  Happy Halloween!

TRACYPALOOZA

It is with a sad heart that I write this post...for the first time in 28 years, I am forced to celebrate TRACYPALOOZA from afar.

In our family you don't just get a day for your birthday celebration because it is too hard to fit all of the celebrating that we want to do into just a day.  Each family member gets an opening ceremonies, many events during the week, and then 7 to 8 days later closing ceremonies.  Everyone does this right?  Oh, it's just us...well schedule a family meeting and change that, because seriously you have no idea what you are missing.  A whole week where you call the shots, and a special holiday name:

• Tracy ~ TRACYPALOOZA
• Lauren ~ NORISTOCK

This is the part where Reid reminds me that it is literally just Tracy and I that do this and no one else in our family gets this treatment.

So in honor of celebrating Tracy from afar, here is an homage of some of our celebrations.  I really wish I could say they are just from Halloween, but if you have met us...you know that just isn't true:

 

   
 

And then we have ONE, yes one of this years costumes:


We also decorated our house for our first ever Halloween decorating contest.  Now, we don't want to win 1st place, because we thought 2nd places prize was better:

 Our Zombie Spider

 My boys...can not believe what Reid does for me, especially last minute

 Me and our zombie

and the whole decor...Mason LOVED doing the ketchup hands on the door

he was licking his hands when he was done

 So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY....AND MANY MORE TRACYPALOOZA'S

If we win the house decorating contest we will split the Wings To Go giftcard with you, because then you have to come to Oklahoma to do so :-)