God is good....

Last night, God called for my precious Uncle Eddie. Although we are all very sad that he is no longer with us, we are comforted in knowing that he finally has relief from his pain, and that he has joined his mother, father, and sister rejoicing in heaven.

Arrangements are pending and most of us are still in a shocked and numb state. From diagnosis to death was approximately 6 weeks with the last 2.5 on hospice.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and well wishes.

On a more positive note, our pool has arrived. We are currently trying to get it all set up. And our family vacation starts Thursday, with trips to the Silly Symphony, Medieval Times, Lego Land, The Vintage Railroad, Great Wolf Lodge, and the Grapevine Sea Aquarium. We are excited to leave!!!!

Sad news

I haven't been crafting and blogging as much because, unfortunately, last month my uncle was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. It was not just localized to the pancreas, but was also in his liver, stomach, bone, and blood. ( This is him above with my first son.)

He was put on hospice almost three weeks ago, and it has been so long. No one expected it to be this long or this painful. I have been with several people who have passed with various cancers, but this has by far been the absolute worst. He is in excruciating pain...even if you just touch his toe. It has been the biggest struggle just to get him comfortable and peacefully sleeping. Even though he had hospice, the medication they were giving him just wouldn't work. We were running out of options. They wouldn't do an IV, and if we put him in a hospice room at the nursing home, he wouldn't get an IV. If we put him in the hospital, hospice would drop him, the hospital would start running a battery of tests, and may or may not provide him with enough medication to completely sedate him....which was what he was wanting.

Yesterday, we called the ambulance and made the decision to put him in the hospital. Although once we got there, they didn't have a room, and they doctor said they may not admit him, last night it all worked out. He was admitted and put on a pain pump that we had to push every 10 minutes round the clock.

My family is so exhausted, so defeated, so stressed, and argumentative. We all just desperately want him comfortable and released from his pain. God bless my friends during this time who have really helped! Thanks to my friend Crystal and her mother, who came to the hospital late last night to pray with my family. Thanks to my friend, Carmela, who will be watching my children today while I go take my shift at the hospital. Thanks to all my other family and friends for their kind words and faithful prayers. We can see the end and are comforted that my uncle will be with his mother and father soon.

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

The time has come....

Josh's truck is rapidly losing steam.

Oh boy, this truck has served him well, yet I cringe when I think of buying a new vehicle. His truck is almost 11 years old, as 80K+ miles on it, and has had several things break and be repaired...all by my newly handy hubby.

But seriously folks...car shopping ranks right up there with random root canals, the cheese grater thing they use on your feet during a pedicure, and that oh-so-fun-yearly visit with your gyno.

I despise car shopping, loan hunting, deal signing...it just makes me cringe.

But we have known for several months that his truck is in need of a replacement. Where are the Transformers when you need them? They are virtually indestructible!!

So the hunt begins. We need to look forward to the future...cargo space, towing capacity, all that stuff that I am not very interested in. I like the interior shiny thingies, the radio, and the paint color. Yes, I am a girl.

Thank you Lord that Josh's block is very shorthanded because this allows him a great deal of overtime at the moment. Anyone who is a shift-working family can relate. There have been long stretches of time with no overtime...and those times can be rough. So when the overtime comes, it is a blessing. It gives us a chance to pay extra, save more, and have some fun.

And so the hunt begins. A truck is in our near future. Hopefully we can get something a week or so after we return from vacation. Praying for the right deal!!!!!!

Winner, winner, enchilada dinner...

Yes, I am a winner, and yes I want enchiladas. But I am dieting. Again. I know. Ugh.

Guess what I won from Ginger at this super cool blog...

SHRINKY DINKS!!!!!!

Yes, my friend. I have been instantly whisked via mental DeLorean back to 1986. Back to a simpler time and place. Back to my mom's harvest gold and avocado green kitchen, to the little orange kids' table and chairs that I used to sit at and painstakingly color in Smurf Shrinky Dinks.

I thought I was the coolest kid on the block...

And now, I am the winner of the new Shrinky Dinks Monster Lab by Creativity for Kids.

Haven't told the boys yet, because I want it to be a surprise when it arrives in the mail. You better guarantee that we will be ripping into it immediately to start coloring and shrinking.!!!

Thank you so much Ginger for making me a winner!!!!

4th of July layer cake

Hello, Betty!!!

This was the easiest cake and it is perfect for kids to help with. My youngest son is obsessed with food, cooking, baking, eating...anything culinary...and loved helping me with this one.

Here is what you need:

• one box Betty Crocker white cake mix
• veggie oil
• 3 egg whites
• water
• red and blue food coloring
• 1 can fluffy white frosting
• red, white, and blue sprinkles or jimmies (we used jimmies)

Prepare your cake mix as directed on the box. Once mixed, divide it into three bowls: 1 with red food coloring, 1 with blue food coloring, and 1 left as is.

Grease your bundt pan well and pour in the bowl of red cake mix. Follow that with the white, and then the blue. Don't mix the colors together, just layer them for the best effect.

Bake as directed...mine came out perfect in a 350 degree oven for 41 minutes.

After baking, let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, and then turn it out to be cooled for another 30 minutes.

Divide the icing into three bowls and microwave each for about 7 seconds until drizzly. Add red coloring to one, blue coloring to another, and leave the final one white. Drizzle over the top of the cake in layers and top with sprinkles or jimmies.

The kids went crazy for all the drops, mixing, drizzling, and jimmy sprinkling. I don't really think I can even take credit for making this cake because the boys did a lot of it.

Happy 4th of July everyone. Please be safe and enjoy your weekend!!!

Monogram cake caddy

It's true...I still don't have a Silhouette.

I know, I know. It is a sad state of affairs, but when you are given lemons...you make a lemonberry slushy. ( Have you ever had one of those from Sonic? You MUST go get one...or the cream-slush version. TO DIE FOR!!!)

We are having a 4th of July party at my in-laws home this weekend, and I am bringing the cake....Cake to be posted later.

And while I would love to have a beautiful vinyl monogram cut out and placed elegantly on my cake caddy, it's not in the cards for me right now. Maybe at Christmas it will be. Hint, hint Santa Baby....

I Googled "monogram A" and found a very simple, thin, perfect example of what I was looking for....

printed it out and taped it to the underside of the caddy lid.

After tracing it with a Sharpie, I think it looks pretty good. Not bad for free, right?!

Don't look too close or you will see the cake I made inside of it :) You can wait one more day, for sure....

We ordered it!

After months of hard work and saving, we are finally able to purchase a pool! Not a beautiful in ground pool, but a way cool, rock our worlds above ground pool!!!

So here it is...

The pool was on a spectacular Independence Day Sale at Target for over $400 less than Sears or Academy. We just couldn't pass up a deal that good. And the bonus is, it didn't come with the filtration system. I know, most of you would be looking for a package deal, but almost all of the package deal pools came with a sand filtration system, which we did not want. So we picked out the low maintenence salt water filtration system at Academy and purchased the rectangular pool from Target.

Hopefully it will be here by next weekend and we can get it up and running. Supposedly, the only prep we need to do is some sand leveling and two people can put the pool together in 1 hour. Well, we shall see, but it can't be that hard, right? Famous last words.

I have visions of building a deck around it, with a stair case and lattice walls to cover the support pipes. It will be put next to our cement patio, so my ideal would be to have a little cabana style covering over it that moves right into the deck...something like this....

We have the same teardrop shaped cement pad in our backyard.

Oh my Cristal dreams on a generic HEB brand beer budget......