February already!

Oh my where did the time go? This winter is going by fast which is fine with me since I have the gardening itch...smiling. Lately, I have been doing some projects for ME, which I rarely do and I have done some things I am so proud of. First I made some aprons...I haven't sewn on a sewing machine since 7th grade...hehehe. So, this was very rewarding for me and I am posting some pics of them. If anyone wants the know-how just ask and you shall receive...smiling.

Here is the one I particulary wanted to do because we have an accent wall in the kitchen that is merlot red.

This next one was an extra one but turned out beautifully. I can't wait to use them!

The next couple of projects I need to take photos of and then I will post...Well, here is to me and my endeavors...hehhee. Good night!

Here at last...

It has been far too long since I blogged, it really is my diary to myself. This has been a great year and a sad year, the beginning started out losing a dear friend and just a week ago lost another dear friend. Makes you realize how short life is, how we don't know how long we have before we go to be with God. I just wish they would find a cure for cancer....

Life has been crazy busy this year, it seems more so than past years. Vanessa turned 3 in October and Hayden turns 6 in March. Amazing how fast they grow and yet it happens quicker than we want but it is exciting at the same time. Watching them discover themselves, what they like, who they are, what makes them laugh, what makes them mad...it is such a joy for me to share with them.

My life seems to be changing also, well...not my life persay but...me...smiling. I'm growing in certain ways, more confident, not so afraid, challenging myself and re-discovering old talents and finding new ones. I'm making so many things by hand now and getting many compliments. I also have taken a new liking to canning and preserving, growing all my vegetables, getting all my fruit from farms...I make delicious blueberry sweet cherry jam and yummy peach jam. My husband and I are always making new recipes and trying things we see on the food network.

Facebook has aloud me to reconnect with old friends and for friends to find me, it is so exciting. I have 300 true friends on there. I can't wait for spring I have two classmates coming to stay and visit, whom I have been dying to get in touch with...I will not let them slip away again....

I'm still working on my children's book, I need to find an illustrator now. I would do it myself but just do not have the kind of time it would require for me to put everything into it. I want it to be a joint effort also. Maybe get someone new and exciting some recognition. Oprah ends her show in 2010, I have to hurry if I want to be on!!;)

Well, it is late and I should go for now but will try to write at least once a week from now on...just put what I am up to and jot down some thoughts. Looking forward to tomorrow and spending some quality time with my children, just playing and having fun....that is the BEST!

It's been awhile but I'm still here

Let's see, it is February 2009 and life has zipped past these last few months. It started in October basically with my daughter's 2nd birthday. Then holidays, traveling, packing, another holiday, moving, birthdays and unpacking....WOW! Crazy I know but we are in our new home and it is beautiful and huge and I call it my grown up home...hahaha. This is our third house and each one gets bigger but this hopefully is the ONE. The one that the kids grow up in and move out of.

I decided to stop selling Tastefully Simple and also next year I will NOT be on the steering committee at MOPS. I have so much going on with the kids and Hayden is doing more activities now. I need to still go to MOPS but just as a mom and sit back, relax and enjoy myself. As far as TS, I don't have the time for it anymore. But, I am thankful I did it, it got me out meeting new people when we were new in town 5 years ago. I have made many new friends and it was fun while I did it.

Brian is so busy with work and in this crazy time of ups and downs with the market, he is doing just fine. But, he works hard and earns everything he does and gets. We are going to Hawaii again in July. I am so excited I could scream. This time it is a different island and it should be another adventure. Hawaii is so breathtaking and I could very easily live there.

Vanessa is getting so big and she is just so precious. She really is a love bug like her brother and they love each other like I have never seen siblings love one another. He protects her and acts like her dad and she giggles at him and kisses and hugs him. He is her idol and she is his...well...baby sister! It really is such a special bond they have, I love watching them.

Not too much more going on. I'm ready for spring. I want to ride my new bike and sit on my HUGE front porch. I just can't wait for warm weather. There are so many friends coming to visit this summer too so I am super excited. We are throwing a house warming party in spring also. That should be a lot of fun!

I'll write soon again. Goodnight!

The year is almost over

Well, it has been a really long time since I wrote and I thought maybe today was the day. I had a great Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania, it was so nice to see family and friends. It also was a very sad one for me for I saw my dear friend whom is dying. She hugged me so tightly and cried and I felt so helpless. I wanted to just hold her forever. I hated closing the door and leaving, I hate that, that particular day was probably the last I will see her and what I hate most is that realization.

I will cherish that day forever....

The year is almost over and I really can't wait for 2009. I'm hoping it will bring not so much sickness, tears and death. I know it is a part of life but 2008 was bittersweet. My friend Jeanie dying is still something that plagues me, the not knowing what happened is so mind-boggling. On the good side, we bought our new home. Such a joyous occasion, to buy the house we plan to be in for a long, long time. A new home, also, with Corian counters, walk in closets and after we finish the basement, 3200 sq ft of living space. I will have that front porch I have wanted FOREVER with rocking chairs and tables. Big back yard with woods where I can chase the kids. I can't wait for that day......yet, I still think to myself, I can surely wait for the day my friend passes away......

a bittersweet 2008....


Well, today is December 1st and I'm counting down until Christmas. I just love this holiday season and the excitement my children feel. It will be our last one in our current house. We have packed up so much stuff and jeesh, you don't know how much "stuff " you have until you really start packing. Luckily, we packed up half the house in July. I think we will get our tree today or tomorrow and I really love at night watching T.V. and having just the tree lights on. It makes me so snuggly and want to drink hot chocolate. One of those small things, beautiful thing, I never take for granted.

I wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and may you have many, many blessings.

The Unexpected Joys

Here is my list for the last 3 months, these are just a few, I'm sure there is many more:

Vanessa peeing and pooping on the potty
Vanessa knowing and saying letters and numbers when I show her flash cards
Hayden and Vanessa singing beautifully
Hayden and Vanessa reading 20 books a day
Vanessa doing things at the playground her brother wouldn't have done at her age
Hayden and Vanessa unloading the entire dishwasher (except knives) everyday.
Hayden cleaning his room every week.
Vanessa doing her share helping.
Hayden helping make meals for families, whom we take to, who just had a new baby
Hayden helping Dad make salsa, doing almost all of the chopping
Hayden painting two pieces of fence at the library
Hayden painting a dinosaur egg and his work hanging up downtown
Hayden making a completely edible bird feeder
Vanessa naming all of her body parts
Vanessa playing house and being a "mommy" to her babies
Vanessa getting her first Barbie and not ripping her head off...not that she does that but I didn't know what she would do..hahaha
Hayden donating money to the Children's Museum
Hayden giving a gift to Miss Larson for her classroom
Hayden giving a complete stranger one of his dad's business cards...there is a great story behind this one!
Hayden and Vanessa eating breakfast watching Little Einsteins...she leans her head on his shoulder and he leans his head on her head. It was one of the most precious moments I ever saw! They stayed that way the entire show...

Summer memories in the Madl household.
Good Day!

Heartache

Wow, summer is almost over...isn't that weird? It seems it just started. So much is happening in our lives right now between grieving over lost friends and illnesses, finding a new home and selling our home now. I do feel a little overwhelmed but I'm hanging in there and just taking it one day at a time. This is a happy time in my life but yet inside I am really hurting. I have a friend who has passed away, another one that I never got to say goodbye to. Then one who has cancer and not a good kind. Everyday, I have to stop and cry at least once. Thoughts of Tina and my uncle Jeff come to surface also, pain is just breaking my heart.

My friend Dee, who has found out she has cancer is my best friend's mom. Dee was the other "mom" in my life all through school. I can't remember when I first met her because Gigi and I have been friends for so long it just seems like forever. I'm really trying so hard to be strong for Gigi but I'm breaking down inside. I knew "someday" we would experience issues with our parents and even death but not yet...not this soon.

On the flip side of things, we found a house, we are putting ours up for sale on Saturday and kids are having a blast in Pennsylvania but my heart is just aching and aching. Nothing seems as important to me, well, at least not as important. My family is important, that's not what I'm saying. But house buying and selling seems so superficial when I have a friend who died and one who is dying. My grieving hasn't exactly stopped from Tina. I can still think about her and start sobbing.

I guess I wrote this entry as a journal writing and feeling the need to write what I am feeling. My heart is going to ache fo a long time.....a very long time.

Having Summertime Fun!

We have been having fun for sometime now but lately, we have just been having some great funny moments. I asked Hayden what he wants to be when he grows up and he told me a policeman. I said "Really?" and he said "yes, a policeman". So, I just had to write that in his journal, his first career choice at 4 years old...hehehe...I thought it was great. Maybe our gift of giving teachings have paved the way to where he wants to help others. Whatever it is, I'm so proud of him anyways.

The funny thing right now is he will ask me something like, what are we having for dinner? So I tell him and his answer is "nice..." and he says it like a smooth teenager...hehehe...He says it now ALL the time after anything, it is hilarious. I don't even know where he picked it up but it comes across like someone who would say "sweet!"...hehehe. He is such a funny kid.

Today we went to the children's museum and made a natural bird nest feeder. It was really cool and the kids had a blast. I had to peel them out of there and then we took daddy for lunch. They love that. Ludington is very happening right now, it's busy, the streets are loaded and it just makes me want to play the Beach Boys and drive around...hehe. We went and saw Reo Speedwagon and they were fantastic. We all danced and the kids loved it. Tomorrow is the parade, which is the best parade of Ludington, in my opinion and then another concert with fireworks.

Saturday is a beach day with family, food and fun and Sunday is church and the art fair. I am so excited to sing this week, we have some lovely songs. The gal I sing with told me she would really love to hear me do some solos, so I am thinking about it...I told her to ask me in a couple of months. My confidence is definitely building, I sing now with no nerves at all but I'm also on stage with other people. The youth pastor who leads the band said I sounded beautiful tonight at rehearsal and that made me feel really good. At my art council meeting, they found out I sing and jotted that down so I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into but hopefully it is a musical or theatre...That would be awesome!!

So, summer is buzzing by and we are having a great time...I haven't exercised in months and it really doesn't matter at this point, kids are first and my top priority...I'm having too much fun and LOVING it!! Something happened when we went away to Boyne Mountain for my husband's regional. I had soooo many people coming up to me and saying how awesome I looked and how they really look forward to seeing me each year and one even came up and said I'm a star, that everyone loves me...It was the weirdest thing because it wasn't just one or two...it was like 13 different people!! Then some even made comments to my husband about how much they love me and I'm so beautiful....okay, you don't understand, I lack serious confidence and have terrible self-esteem so for this to happen to me was mind blowing...

My hubby said everyone loves you, you have that personality and you glow and you are so beautiful....breathes....All I can say is, it made my entire year...I got showered with an unbelievable amount of compliments and I'm still in shock from it...I swear I'm not bragging, I'm just sharing an exciting time for me and I'm so happy I could burst!

So, back to my kids, enough about me....I have fantastic news!!! Hayden is going to be donating money to the children's museum and his preschool teacher works there during the summer so I was telling her today about his gift of giving project we are working on. She wants me to call her a few days before he hand delivers the money and she is having the newspaper come and take pics of him!! I am sooooooooooooo excited for him!!!

Having Summertime fun!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!
Happy 4th of July!!!