Weekend :)

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Remember why we are celebrating!

We will BBQ tomorrow, after I go help my mom make some bandana dresses (pictures to follow). Yes, we are kind of talking again. Only about crafts and kids. :/

I'm hoping to find a parade to go to on Monday, so I can show off the girls in their red, white, and blue tutus!!

Anybody have any plans?

Giveaways

I've recently entered a few giveaways, just wanted to share!! They are all still going on, and one of them is MINE, so check them out!!

1

2 (I just purchased a soap from this shop.)

3

4

5 (LOVE this one..)

6

7

8 Of course my tutus are cuter but I like her flowers. :)

And this one is mine!!

Today. :)

Today has been interesting. Second day of summer break and the kids are BORED OUT OF THEIR MINDS! I thought I'd get a week-long break in before I started doing their schoolwork with them and stuff. Now, I'm not so sure. :/ They played outside a bit today but they can't do that every day. It's hot and gross and they get all muddy lol.

I am going to California the second week of July to meet a potential IM (intended mother, I'm hoping to be a surrogate for her). There, we will sign the contract and set up a bank account with both of our names. We are thinking about doing a semi-anonymous blog to track our journey. What do you think? Good idea? Would it be interesting enough to read? One blog for both of us, or should we share one? I'd love any input.

I am thinking about getting rid of my ETSY shop. I could put it on vacation for a while and see if I still do alright on my website. It's just too much to run both. But people could still check and see my feedback is 100%. Though, most of my income has been from Etsy sales. So, ugh. Hard choice, but I'm not getting rid of the .com because it's too perty. I just put a new layout up on it, Click here and let me know what you think.

Hope everyone is enjoying this miserably hot summer. Blah.

Slight Disappointment

I didn't get to do the 5K today. I'm not TOO terribly upset about it because I know it would've been hard, but I still wish I could've done it. :/ A friend asked me to babysit at the last minute so I watched her little one last night until.. I don't even know what time in the morning. He was a good kid.. just laid around the whole time really. Was very relaxing. :)

I bought some jeans at Fashion Bug yesterday for $5. They were the "right fit" jeans that were originally over $30! I bought the "short" style and cut them into capris. Then I used the bottoms of the jeans to make an outfit for Grace. I'll be posting pictures and a mini-tutorial (it's pretty self explanatory) some time this week.

We have a photo shoot on Wednesday, so I'm preparing for that... I'm adding the "Pinkalicious" and "Purplicious" tutus to my tutu line. Pretty exciting stuff going on lately, been doing well on my website and etsy. I've been networking with a lot of other boutiques which has been nice, because sometimes I want cute things for my girls that I don't have to make! :) I've also found some FAKE boutiques.. ones that import things from China and say they made the stuff themselves. I called them ALL out on Facebook (not by name of course) and the guilty parties, sure enough, showed their faces! They came out right away and started saying I was "lazy and jealous" of their "success". The one boutique had BOTH owners on my page calling me all kinds of names. It made them look very guilty.. especially since it said "EVERYTHING 100% HAND MADE" and you could TELL the wings were ordered wholesale (as well as MANY other items). Now they have changed their website to say "MOST" of their items are hand made. That makes me pretty happy! Well, I'd be happier if they didn't have 76% feedback on their first etsy page.. they deleted it and made a new one.. so now nobody even KNOWS how shady they are. :/ But, baby steps!

My first 5K

My first 5K was supposed to be June 12th for the Komen (Breast Cancer) race. However, I'm really getting nervous about it so I decided to do another 5K first! There is a 5K at the St. Louis Zoo this Sunday that I'm going to do! I have been having a LOT of soreness in my knees lately but I'm hoping I can do a walk/jog mix. If not, it'll have to be a walk/crawl mix... lol.

Wish me luck, pray for good weather, and remember to check back for pictures!! :) I'm also doing another 5K (Sweat for the Vets) on June 5th. My mom is a veteran so I asked her if she wanted to do it with me (even though we aren't really speaking to each other) and she said yes. So, maybe this will be a good thing. I'm so excited.

Today's Playlist

Def Leopard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Salt N Peppa - Shoop
Alanis Morisette - You Oughta Know
B52s - Love Shack
Miley Cyrus - The Climb
Lady Gaga - Telephone
Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way
Hanson - Mmmbop
Casting Crowns - Does Anybody Hear Her?
Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God
D4L - Shake That Laffy Taffy
Casting Crowns - Praise You In This Storm
Elvis Presley - All Shook Up
George Thorogood - Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job
Casting Crowns - Who Am I?
Guns N Roses - Paradise City
High School Musical - Breaking Free
Chingy - Right Thurr
Jordin Sparks - Battlefield
Josh Turner - Long Black Train
Matchbox 20 - Unwell
Mariah Carey - We Belong Together
Michael Jackson - Black or White
Natalie Grant - Held
N'Sync - Bye Bye Bye
Owl City - Fireflies

Can't believe I'm admitting some of these LOL. This will be a weekly thing. I'm going to add Rachel's too once I get the chance to sit down with her. Just one way you guys can get to know her a little better! :)

Another giveaway

Sorry for all the posts, but here's another awesome set of giveaways on one of my favorite blogs ever.

http://kryssiruss.blogspot.com/2010/05/meridane-designs-review-and-giveaway.html

http://kryssiruss.blogspot.com/2010/05/stickeryou-review-and-giveaway.html

http://kryssiruss.blogspot.com/2010/05/inspired-by-finn-review-and-giveawy.html and you can visit Inspired by Finn as well if you click HERE -- I really really really wanna win this one!!

Giveaway!

http://kryssiruss.blogspot.com/2010/05/unique-gifts-for-women-review-giveaway.html

This is the best giveaway I think I've seen in a LONG time! :)

Monday!!!

Friday is Jenelle's last day of school, so I have all week to get a homeschooling schedule together for her. I was considering the possibility of HSing her next year, but have decided against it for many reasons.

1. Jenelle wants to "protect" Gracelynn while she is at school. In reality, they probably won't see each other except for on the bus, but it will make them both feel more secure.

2. We want to move to California within the next 1.5 - 2 years. If that's the case, Sapphire will go to school when she is 5 not when she is almost 6, like here in Missouri. If I HS Jenelle, and then send Sapphire and Grace, I will have a kid at home still and then can't go back to school and/or work, which is a goal of mine.

3. Rachel is very against homeschooling, she didn't like it when we did it last year, and though she has "agreed" to join me with HSing, she isn't too happy about it.

4. I will have more free time to work, go to school, and/or work on the business(es) if the kids are in school. I can still supplement after school or on the weekends, or in the summer like we are doing now.

Gracelynn has been teaching Sapphire a lot. During the time they are supposed to be playing in their room, Gracelynn is "quizzing" Sapphire almost constantly. She asks her about body parts, colors, numbers, shapes, etc. It's absolutely adorable! :) Also, they LOVE puzzles and are awesome at them. So they have been doing a lot of those this past week. They're still learning, just not in the traditional way like we usually do.

On a side note, I wanted to share some good news with my readers/friends. Now it's not a for SURE thing so I'm trying not to get too excited, but it's already too late for that! :) I started talking to a woman from California. Her name is Erin, she's single, and looking for a surrogate. I was *NOT* planning on doing another surrogacy for a single IP, but I truly think she's "the one". I'm beyond excited.. like, I really can't contain it! I have talked to Rachel about it, and she understands I might have to fly to CA once (or twice, including the birth) by myself... hopefully, though, we can find a sitter for the girls so she can come with me. I am, of course, getting ahead of myself.. we aren't even "matched" for sure, but I really think Erin and I are on the same page. It's weird how strong of a connection you can feel through emails, ya know? It's just crazy.

She is going to look into insurance this week, and then we will be working on a contract and lawyers and stuff. So please keep us in your thoughts, prayers, or whatever else you do (I know some dance naked in the forest.. go for it!:) ), because I really want this to work out if it's meant to be. Thanks. :)

Craft show!

I'm headed to my first craft fair today!

If you're local, it's at the Richmond Heights Community Center at the intersection of HWY 40 and Hanley. If you mapquest "Richmond Heights Community Center" in Maplewood, MO, you will get directions.

It's storming (figures! lol), but we will survive. Thank God I have containers for most of my stuff.

Wish me luck!

My wife's artwork

Rachel recently started space painting. I thought now would be the perfect time to share, since her etsy shop will be open next week! :)

Please check out her FB page and leave her some love. Spray paint art is underappreciated, but I want her to know we all believe she is an artist! Thanks!

THE SPACEYARD

Also if you have any idea how to ship these things .. let me know. We have to figure that out before we open her shop! I really want to avoid rolling them up. Maybe like a document mailer? But they're HUGE.. like 22x28.. How does one ship artwork usually?

thespaceyard.etsy.com

Just a sample of her work.. there are more pics on her FB page.

Arch

I forgot to post this earlier! We went to the Arch on Saturday! It was the first time for all of us. I was scared. to. death. No joke. But I had to stay calm because the girls were kind of nervous... weren't sure if they should be scared or not... so I didn't show even a tiny bit of fear. I almost threw up because of how nervous I was lmao! But we survived. I almost changed my mind when we walked up to it and saw it was SWAYING in the wind! This 630ft tall, 630ft wide, man made monument was swaying in the freaking wind. Yeah.



WOW look at all those steps!!



They made it!





You want me to get in THAT? Yes.. that is the tram you ride in to get to the top of this thing!



Someone wasn't so sure about it at first...



But she got excited really fast!







View from the top! Yes, that's Bush Stadium! Home of the ST LOUIS CARDINALS! WOOT!



I almost forgot, this was one of my goals!!! YAY! :)







Then we rolled down the hill, made letters in the grass, and got to see a horse! Yay! (No clue how I got so lucky, but there are NO pictures of me rolling down the hill! hehe)

Homeschool Monday

So, I think we skipped this post last week. I do apologize! Just been crazy super busy. :)

Jenelle's last day of public school is the 21st. We will start full force when she is done. She just created a Dinosaur Project and posted about it on her blog (click the link, leave her some love!). We are going to take a break until then because she really is NOT in school mode this week. She has LOTS of work to do at school, so I'm not going to have her overloaded by doing more at home.

As for me, I'm learning Spanish. My dream, for as long as I can remember, has been to move to California. If I want to get a decent job, I need to know Spanish. Even if we don't make it to Cali, knowing Spanish is always a good thing. We might make it to Oregon instead. Who knows. But we will be packing up and moving across country some time in the future! :) We are SO done with Missouri.

The two younger girls are working on colors, shapes, and writing practice. We will start our schedule when Nell is out of school. Right now they are playing with oval shapes (left over animal Easter eggs), pretending they are an army. :) Later, we will go for a walk. I've been slacking on my SHRED so I have to get moving. The 5K walk is in 33 days! EEK! I did walk a mile the other day. Thought I was gonna die. Haha, no, it wasn't that bad.

The girls also like pretending they are doctors. They dress their bears and stuff up. It's cute. I never understood the "unschooling" approach, so I've never tried it. But I'm beginning to see that if they want to learn... they will do it all on their own. :) The girls are teaching themselves (and each other) more than I could with any book. :)

We will probably take the first week and do crafts.. the kids will not shut up about doing more projects. They're obsessed lol. Wonder why.

DIY t-shirt vest thing..

So Jenelle wanted to make a vest thing out of a shirt. I don't care for it, but she loves it.. so I'm sharing it. :)

Also, before I get started, please check out this blog. I was featured. :)

First, you take a t-shirt (can be long sleeves), and you lay it flat. (Took the pics after the fact, so the shirt is actually already cut in this picture.)



Then, you cut the sleeves and the collar/neckline off. You can experiment with different neckline cuts. Ours was plain because we were just doing it for fun. You want to use a fitted t-shirt. This one was too big.


Then, you want to cut the front portion in half. Don't cut through the back of the shirt. ONLY the front. Cut it all the way up. Try to make the line as straight as possible. Or heck, maybe cut it in a zig zag for fun. We haven't tried that yet. :)




Then, you can wear it as a vest or you can tie it in the front. Again, use a fitted shirt or it will look kind of sloppy like this one. This is a great time to stock up on fitted tees from yard sales for under $1 each! Kids love this kind of project.



A fitted shirt underneath would have worked best as well. But I think you get the idea! :)

Walked a mile!

So, yesterday, I wrapped Sapphire on my back, and then Grace and Rach walked behind/beside us. The plan was to walk a mile. I made it 1/4 of a mile and wanted to go home! lol So I decided the ONLY way to get myself to walk a mile is to have Rach drop me off a mile from the house, and I would HAVE to walk home.

We went grocery shopping this morning.. I wore my ankle weights, and we walked around for about an hour. It was a slow pace, and stop and go, so it didn't really "count". On the way home, she dropped me off at Walgreen's and I walked all the way home. I forgot that my ankle weights were still on! My shins were ON FIRE after about 2 minutes!! UGH! I think it took me like 18 minutes to walk the mile. About 1/4 of it was on the sidewalk and then the rest was through grass, dirt, etc. It was rough! I put the weights on my wrists after a little bit. I didn't have any music or anything to take my mind off the pain of my legs! It was brutal. But I made it.

Sooo, I made it. Now to do that 5 times a week!! And then to do it even farther away! Later, I am going to do the SHRED.. might be a chicken and do Level 1. We'll see. :)

Made it.

Made it through Level 3 again today. I OWN YOU, JILLIAN! Bwahahaha.

Check out this giveaway, while I'm recovering from this SHRED.

5K! WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

So, I just signed up for a 5K.

No, seriously. I just signed up for a 5K.

Me, Sadie. The one who can't do the SHRED (20 minutes) without cursing.

The one who can't jump rope for 2 minutes without feeling like she is gonna die.

Yeah, I just did it.

It's the Race for the Cure (breast cancer) in St. Louis.

Here is the email they suggested I send out.. I don't want donations from you guys I just wanted to show you I'm really doing it!!!

I'm so scared. I hope someone will join me. There are supposed to be 70,000 participants! SEVENTY THOUSAND! OMG! Someone slap me. haha

This should help me get ready.



Dear Friends and Family,
I am so excited to tell you that I have accepted the challenge to do more in the fight against breast cancer by participating in the Friends for the Cure Pledge Program. On Saturday, June 12, 2010, I will be participating in the 2010 Komen St. Louis Race For the Cure® Locally Presented by Wells Fargo Advisors! I am sending this e-mail to ask you to help me raise funds to support the valuable work done by the St. Louis Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
I have set a personal goal to raise $100. So, I need your help! Whatever you can give will be greatly appreciated! Remember: Every dollar makes an impact!
One of the reasons that I support the Race for the Cure is that 75% of all funds raised stay right here in the St. Louis area! With our help, the St. Louis Affiliate can fund vital breast cancer education, screening, research and treatment programs. The remaining 25% supports the national search for a cure. Your tax-deductible contribution will fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities in the St. Louis area.
Please join me in the fight by pledging in support of my participation in the Race. It is easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message or you can visit my Friends for the Cure Pledge page by going to www.komenstlouis.org/race and searching for me (Sadie Lankford) as a participant. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below.
I truly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress. Thank you so much for your support in the fight against breast cancer! Every step counts!
Sincerely,
Sadie Lankford
To make a Pledge online, go to www.komenstlouis.org/race.
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Please vote. :)

Okay I've never entered a photo contest and I'm really not even sure how it works, or when the voting ends, but I figure it's Friday because it's called "this week's cutie contest" or something like that. So, please oh please go vote for my Gracie Lou! You just have to "LIKE" the page, and then comment on her picture "VOTE". You could also leave other words like how oh-so-pretty she is and how she looks gorgeous like her momma.. haha.

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=119387871407937#!/photo.php?pid=320158&id=119387871407937

Thanks!

Fail.

We attempted Level 2 on the Shred last night. Major fail. I couldn't do many of the moves for very long because I have bad knees and OMG that level is MURDER on your knees. Mine were popping and twisting and all kinds of icky stuff. I tried to stick it out, but it about killed me. I did alright during the second circuit but considering I can't really do a FULL push-up yet, it was pointless to even try Level 2. Back to Level 1 today.

I've lost 4.4lbs this week, though!!! This low-carb stuff is not fun. But I'm doing it. I'm actually READY to lose weight this time! My pants are also BIG on me. They fall off if I take just a few steps! YAY!! I'm hoping to re-measure today, after I find my measuring device.. wherever it went.....

And only one of the weight loss bloggers sent an email this week, ARYA! She has lost 2 pounds this week! Congrats, Arya!! We are proud of you! So far she's lost a total of 10.5lbs! 60.5lbs to go. I know that seems like a lot, but you'll get there!

Win.

So I usually don't post this kind of stuff here but I wanted to let y'all know I'm doing a monthly giveaway on Facebook starting this month!

I currently have 287 "FANS" (or LIKERS? lol).

Become a fan/ like my page, and you will automatically be entered into the drawing EVERY month.

Make a post on my wall and get an extra entry.

Refer a friend and get an extra entry.

Prize will be announced on the 15th of every month.

Winner will be announced before the 30th of every month.

HERE IS MY PAGE.

I will no longer be doing giveaways anywhere but FB. So please "like" my page so you can be included!!

Weekend

I've been doing good on the shred. I missed Day 5, because the kids lost my DVD and by the time I was ready to do it they were in bed. So I made them find it, and did it in the morning yesterday. After skipping a day, I had to take a few (3 second) breaks in the first circuit. After that, I was fine.

I have a craft show I'm going to on May 15th. Our apartment is filled with the stuff I'm going to sell there. I ordered a bunch of pettiskirts, flower-petal-filled tutus, real bug necklaces, bows, flowers, and more... thankfully I haven't had to MAKE the stuff. I want to bring a few tutus that I made obviously, but it's an 8 foot table so I'm not sure how much will fit LOL.

As of yesterday, I've lost almost 4lbs this week. This low-carb is no joke, though. Ugh. Especially when you're craving chocolate. I bought some extra dark chocolate because it only had 8 carbs. I had to spit it out. It was disgusting. So I got a Twix Peanut Butter that had 23 carbs. WAY less than all the others, but not quite as satisfying as .. say.. a Reeses lol. I could've had half of any other candybar but I wanted a whole one. I need chocolate this week.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have wonderful things planned for this blog in the near future!