A week of field trips!

Hey friends!

It's the start of yet another week!  How is that even possible?

Last week was a week that I was looking forward to, and dreading, all at the same time.  Jameson had TWO field trips last week, lasting a total of three days!  Talk about an unusual school week!

Tuesday, he had his Gifted class field trip. They went to the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham.

We weren't really sure what to expect, but by the time we left, we were huge fans of the museum!  The instructors, Brian and Brian, were fantastic with the kids! They all learned SO much (as well as the parents!).

We first took a tour through the history of flight.

An authentic German fighter plane.

One of Delta's very first planes. It only carried one passenger and was a crop duster!

An authentic fighter plane from the Vietnam era.

A replica of the second known generation of plane.

The kids getting to build their own glider.

My ham-of-a-son getting to sit in a real plane

Once we learned about this history of flight, the kids got to use a flight simulator and learned how to take off, fly, and land a plane!

There were a few successful landings and several landings on Interstates and through buildings. LOL  The kids had a blast!

Once we left the museum, we headed over to the McWayne Center to watch an Imax movie about the Monarch butterfly.  The movie was SO good and very interesting!

Posing in front of the McWayne Center.

Everyone wanted to get in on the act!

We all had a great time and learned a TON!

Then, on Thursday, the 4th grade had their yearly 4-H overnight (and 100% unplugged) field trip at the 4-H center near Wilsonville, AL.  Jameson was hesitant to go at first, but decided at the last minute that he wanted to go.  

ALL the kids that went! (Photo by Renee Stone)

Jameson and one of his best friends, Victoria. ( Photo by Renee Stone)

Jameson petting a SNAKE! (Photo by Renee Stone)

They got to learn a TON about nature. They waded through streams to try and catch different things in the water.  They learned about reptiles and also learned about using a GPS and how to tell directions without a GPS.  They learned a lot of very fun and USEFUL material!  

Even though he had a great time, he was very glad to get back home!

 

Jameson and his buddy, Hudson

Once he got home and told me all his stories, he didn't leave the couch for the rest of the night.

I don't know if Sweets (the cat) was happier to have Jameson home, or if Jameson was happier to be back home with Sweets!  LOL

We all had a blast last week, but I'm glad to say that it's behind us.  Now on to this week, and SPRING BREAK!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Attempt at a Friday Freebie! PEEPS!

Hey friends!  It's FRIDAY!

I hope all of you fared well through the storms earlier in the week.  We had tons of trees down in our neighborhood and in our town, but fortunately nobody was hurt.  Things can be replaced, people cannot!

Anyway, with Easter right around the corner, I've had several requests for my Peeps file that I did for Jameson's class last year.  

Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't think I could share anything that I created using my Silhouette software.  I've been playing around with some different programs and I think I may have figured it out!  I was able to share it via e-mail with one of my fabulous bloggie friends, and she said it worked!  YIPEE!

So, here is my first attempt to share a file.  You should be able to click on the photos, download them to your computer, and then print!  IF IT DOESN'T WORK FOR YOU, I honestly have NO IDEA how to change it or fix it.  SO SORRY!  I am a total computer idiot, so converting things is way above my head and thought process.

"You're one of my favorite Peeps" circle file:

Peeps S'mores label.

I attempted to share the PDF file, but Blogger doesn't recognize it as a file.

 I hope this works for everyone!

A new set of glasses around these parts

I feel like a horrible mother.

A few months ago, Chelsea had to go for a health physical.  While there, they asked to do a random eye test, where you read the letters that are on the wall.  Imagine my surprise and horror to learn that she couldn't even read the big "E" on the chart!  I could not believe Chelsea was having that much trouble seeing!

So, since that time, I've been trying to find an eye doctor that accepts her insurance.  Finally, Marty said he didn't care about insurance.  He wanted her to go to his eye doctor because they are always so nice to him.  They also have the machine that can pretty much tell you what your prescription needs to be, without strictly relying on the "Tell me which one is better....this one, or this one" type of test.  We felt this would be a better option for Chelsea because we aren't sure if she would be able to accurately convey what she needed to the doctor.

The exam went well and Chelsea did great!  She definitely needs glasses, but the doctor said "Don't worry mom, her vision isn't as bad as you think."  We think the initial problem was Chelsea not really being able to read the vision chart because of the letters.  Once this eye doctor changed to a picture chart, she did much better.

Chelsea picked out some really cute frames that she should have in a few days.  I think she's actually excited about getting glasses like Mommy and Daddy.  She's definitely come a LONG way from that 1 1/2 pound baby that had retinopathy of prematurity, which almost made her blind.

And the really crazy thing about all this, is that unbeknownst to us, the office did accept Chelsea's insurance!  

I'll make sure to let you all see her fabulous glasses once she gets them!

I haven't been slacking, I've been working!

Hey friends!  Long time, no talk too!

Yeah, so I only manged to get in one itty-bitty blog post last week.  So much for the whole "trying to better thing", right?  Oh well, hopefully y'all are still here, supporting all my laziness.  Thank you to all of you who have stood by me through my random postings!

Baseball/T-ball season is in full swing around here and that means everyone wants t-shirts! So, I've been working on orders like crazy, trying to finish everything on my list so I can have a clean slate going into baseball shirt season.  LOL  Here are a few things I've been working on:

This is for a wedding gift:

These two shirts are for a dear old friend (not in age, but in years we've known each other...lol) and her daughter.  I think they turned out really cute.

Split letter monogram on gold cardstock.  The gold is SO pretty! I definitely want to use this again!

These next two monograms are for a precious lady from California who saw these here on the blog!  Lacy has been awesome to work with and I am so happy with how these came together!

I just had to make something for myself.  I think this is hysterical!  Who doesn't love Grumpy Kitty?

And to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Jameson just HAD to design his own shirt.  So, here we go.  Si, a leprechaun hat, gold, and a Duck Dynasty logo.  What more do you need?

 

Oh yeah, there had to be a Si saying on the back:

Jameson said the shirt was "exactly like he saw it in his mind."  Well alrighty then.  LOL

I also have another monogram that I absolutely love, but it's for a special couple who are having a wedding shower this weekend.  The groom's mother asked me to make one for them as a surprise!

If anybody would like to order anything you've seen me make here on the blog, send me an e-mail at AlabamaSlackerMama@yahoo.com or robinandmarty1@yahoo.com and I'll try my best to get back to you as soon as I can.  Right now, orders are taking about 2-3 weeks because of the baseball shirts.  After I'm finished with those, I should be back to a quicker turn-around.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Our week consists of THREE DAYS of field trips!  Pray for us.  LOL

A few more finished orders!

Hey friends!

Thank you all for being so patient with me over the past few weeks! My computer issues continue from my last post.  You know the new-ish computer I bought to replace my old faithful?  Well that little beauty only lasted 24 HOURS before it completely died! I'm telling you, for those few days, every electronic device I touched flaked out on me!  It has been really frustrating, especially since I have orders to finish and blog posts to write!  Fortunately, I have a band-aid on my old faithful, and thankfully, it's made it through the weekend (except when I started trying to upload the final picture to this blog post....2 hours and multiple reboots later, the blog post is finally finished. So much for getting to bed at a decent time) 

I have managed to finish a few orders and it's working well enough to actually upload and edit some pictures.  I have a lot of cell phone pictures of the past several days I want to share with you, but am impatiently waiting for them to make it from my phone to my computer.  Another blog post for another day, I guess.  Since I can't get those photos to upload, I'll share a few projects I've finished over the past couple of days.

I love this super-cool reflective vinyl!  I tested it out on this last-minute shirt and am in LOVE with how shiny it is!

These are quickly becoming my favorite thing to make. They are shadow boxes with sequins inside.  I made these for the craft show I did back in November and have made several more since then.  They are SO fun to play with!

These are monthly onesie stickers.  I didn't have any way to package them, so I cut these cool holders to put them in.

<

Another one of my split-letter monograms. This is a different style than I usually do.  It just has the last name with no other names/dates on it. I really liked the way it turned out.

These are shirts the 4th grade teachers asked me to make.  The pictures don't do the pink color justice.  The color is a super-bright neon pink.

When I saw this, I knew a certain young man would HAVE to have one.

We just love that Duck Dynasty family!

Well, since this blog post almost killed my computer (and my sanity), I think I will call it a night!  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Still Slacking

Hey friends!

Yeah, I know...I posted last week about how I had been slow to write posts over the past few weeks.  As you all can tell, the slowness has continued.

SORRY!

I've been sick-as-a-dog since last week with some awful sinus-related stuff that has made me want to yank my eye out, cut my ear off, and pull every tooth in the right side of my face. I finally went to to the doctor on Monday and was given antibiotics, but it doesn't feel like they have kicked in at all. I'm hoping today is the day that things turn around...but it's not looking good, so far. I think absolute worst part of being sick has been calling in to work. Things are full-speed all the time at my office and I know it puts a huge burden on my co-workers to have to pick up my slack.  Trust me, I would MUCH rather be at work, than sitting here praying for my face to stop hurting!

I really need to stop complaining because there are SO MANY others that are suffering from FAR WORSE things...so the complaining ends here. (maybe)

In the midst of feeling bad, I've had about 20 orders that I've been trying to complete for several customers. Right in the middle of the designing, my computer decides to start freaking out. I thought I had it fixed with a system restore, but have found that to just be a band-aid for the problem. I ended up having to get a new-ish computer, and have been frantically trying to get all my files transferred  before my old computer bites the dust. I will lose my mind if I end up losing all of the things I've designed over the past year, including all of my current orders!  (AND, while I was typing this, I somehow managed to accidentally delete my notes on my phone that had a list of ALL of my current orders on it.  GRRRRR)

So, if you are waiting on something from me, I will get it done!  It just may take a few extra days to get it to you!

I hope you all are having a much better week!

Mama's Mumblings

Ummmm, yeah, it's Friday and I've only blogged once this week.  Sorry!  Have you ever had so much running around in your head that you just completely forget to do normal, routine things?  Yeah, that's where I've been this week.  Well actually, that's where I've been for the past few weeks.  I would say it will get better, but I'm not so sure it will!  HAHA!

 

-----------------------------------------

 

I had a blast Monday night when we threw a surprise Grandmother shower for one of my fellow nurses.  Daphne is expecting her first granddaughter in April, so we thought it would be nice to get some things together for her to keep at her house when the baby stays with her.

 

 

We had a wonderful time and the look on Daphne's face was priceless!

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Along with a few other parents and members of the PTA, I've been working on the BoxTops for Education for Jameson's school for the past couple of weeks.  I swear, it's insane how time consuming processing itty-bitty pieces of cardboard/plastic can be.

 In the end, we gathered up 12,270 BoxTops,  and at $0.10 each, that brings in $1,227.00 for our school! 
Save those BoxTops, folks!

 

------------------------------------------

 

It's been 2 weeks today, and I still LOVE my car!

 

 

 

It drives like a dream and gets much better gas mileage!  The only thing I don't like about it is I didn't realize how DIRTY the darker blue color gets!  Looks like the money I'll be saving in gas will be going to pay for car washes!  Marty tried to wash our car here, but our super-hard water left huge white spots all over it.  EEEEK!  Can't have that!

 

----------------------------------------

 

I've been working on several projects over the past few weeks.  Unfortunately, I haven't actually finished many of them.  It seems like I am always missing one little thing to finish everything off.  Here are a few things I have managed to finish, however:

 

 

(Pardon the lack of editing of the pictures....my computer WON'T LET ME DO ANYTHING!  GRRRR!)

-----------------------------------------

 

My computer has been acting super-weird for the past week.  It's been locking up and driving me insane!  This morning, it took 2 hours to actually be able to log in and type anything.  I thought it was my actual computer, but it seems that most of my problems are with FireFox.  Right now, I'm logged in through Internet Explorer and all seems to be working well.  I sure hope we don't end up having to spend our (tiny) tax refund on a new computer!

 

------------------------------------------

 

Chelsea and I are SUPER EXCITED that Breaking Dawn Part 2 comes out on DVD TOMORROW!!! 

 

 

I will be headed straight to the store first thing tomorrow to pick up our copies!

 

-----------------------------------------

 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

 

 

I wanted to make Jameson a shirt to wear today, but the school also decided to have picture day today, so no Dr. Seuss for him!  His eyes were closed (takes after his daddy and sister) in his Fall pictures, so I'm hoping we can get at least one decent school photo this year! 

 

---------------------------------------

 

Whew!

 

I think that's all I've got going on this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!