Emery's 5&10

*Ok, WHY is blogger so frustrating sometimes?! I had to do this post three times to get it to work...and i had to just put it back like I usually do. I was trying to be more creative...it squashed my creativity... :-p Oh well.

I think my kids are almost all better! Hopefully I will get to see them soon. I haven't been away from them for this long since my baby was born and they went to FL while Wendy was on maternity leave! (They were gone even longer that time, but still...)

Since I had nothing planned for today, I just wandered a bit. Went to a couple antique stores (another post about that later...) and then headed to Emery's.

This store amuses me. It's old. It's filled with random stuff. And I mean random. And it's not so much filled as it is stuffed. Someone needs to come and do a store makeover on it, but then it might not amuse me quite so much. :) I keep meaning to take Michael here because I think he would appreciate the randomness as much as I do...but since I never remember, i snapped a few pics while I was wandering through today.

This is the first thing you see when you walk through the door. Stuffed. All the way to the back and in between. If you could see this picture larger (why can't we have LARGER pictures on blogger??), you could see all the bajillions of items in this picture alone!

Birdhouses hanging from the ceiling. And a ton more randomness. You never know what you're gonna find!

HA! These are awesome! They're just rubber bands...in the shape of people! If they didn't cost $7 I would have been tempted to get them. Just because. But seeing as how you can get like 100 rubber bands for $1 at the dollar store...I moved on. :)

Aren't these just some of the coolest piggy banks you've ever seen?? You "feed" the dinosaur a coin and watch him "swallow" it - all the way down to his piggy bank tummy! There is a flower one too behind it. Cool.

Hey, Michael - need a hat for your history class? :)

Oooh, looved this section! All the color!! It's a little early for Christmas stuff though, sheesh!

And I loved these adorable little tables too! If I had my own house - and kids - I would put them in a playroom. :) The pink/white/red stripey one makes me think of the Candy Land game. :)

Hey, Rebekah - so these were essentially just pillow cases decorated all cute. How easy would those be to make? And actually, I think a simpler version would be cuter. I can imagine it would be so fun to be a child and have that on your chair for your birthday. :)

These birthday hats were just so fun and sparkly! I started to think..hmm...we have a birthday coming up later this month.... Then I looked at the price. $34. Um. No thanks. :}

Michael, you may have already found this store...if you haven't, we need to go sometime soon. It cracks me up. :)

chicken soup

Well. My kids are sick. Still.

They came home from vacation a week ago and two of them and their daddy were sick. By Thursday, the third one was sick. And as of yesterday they were still sick and their mom was starting to get it. We're pretty positive it's the flu. All the symptoms are there. Wendy says she's never done so much laundry! And that the kids have zero energy - not even enough to read a book! Now that's sick! My kids love books! I picked up some groceries for them last night and left them in the garage for them. Wendy says I don't even want to so much as bring them to the door! Yikes.

So on my grocery run, I picked up a couple little things for the kids. Not much - but getting them in colored paper bags (that I already had) makes anything more fun. Just a can of chicken noodle soup that has noodles in the shapes of characters. Disney princesses for my oldest, Dora for my middle child, and Sponge Bob for the baby. And a get well card with a sheet of stickers. With sparkles. Sparkles make anyone feel at least a tiny bit better. :)

On a different note, check out what Rebekah has added to her etsy store!

Hand-made paper beads! So adorable! And look at all the color! Color is a happy thing. So is this necklace. So go check out her store! :)

congratulations, dad!

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of my dad working at Y-12! He is a hard worker and I think everyone at the plant knows his name (but really, how many people do you find with our last name...) :). He is the one they call when they can't fix something. And he always fixes it. (It's what dad's are supposed to do, right?) :) My brother and I took him some happy balloons and mom made a toast (sparkling cider was the drink of choice) and then we went out for a late lunch at Red Robins. Love that place. :)

He got to pick a gift from Y-12 for his 25 years of service.

He's an engineer.

Engineers are known to be very practical.

He wanted the leather globe but didn't know where he'd put it.

So he chose a suitcase instead.

Yup. That's my dad! :)

busy

I have been busy the past couple weeks at my craft table. (It's really my dining table...but when you live alone and also have a huge counter/bar at the kitchen...it turns into a craft table.)

My kids were on vacation last week and came home sick. They've been sick all week. :-p So now I haven't seen them in two whole weeks! Poor kiddos. But thankfully, their mommy stayed home with them all this week. Thankfully, because since I hadn't been around them in a week, it's given me a chance to stay away from their germs so that I don't have to get sick. (Thanks Wendy!!) And thankfully, because I know that while my kids love me a lot, there's just something about having Mom around when you're sick.

So while they are recovering, I have been crafting. On a project. It's gonna be cool. I'm excited about it and can't wait to blog about it.

But it'll have to wait a little while longer. It's not quite ready yet. I'm missing one important piece. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in the next week or so! Until then...you'll just have to wonder... :)

remember.

This picture is from earlier this summer. We were at the playground with an abundance of dandylions to blow. :)

Just a story I want to remember.

A couple weeks ago, we were upstairs playing in the girls room and I was sprawled on the bed once again being served many fantastic new recipes from the girls' pretend kitchen. My baby climbed onto the bed...and then onto me and pressed his face up against mine and nuzzled my cheek. I thought he was going to give me a kiss but he didn't. Just kept nuzzling my cheek..temple...cheek.

"What're you doing, silly??"

(Deep breath in and a little sigh...) "Just smelling." :)

(Eyebrows raised, laughing a little...) "Smelling?? Well, what do I smell like?"

(Another deep breath.) "Cheeeeese!!"

In a little boy's world, smelling like cheese is a compliment.

I hope.

:)

a walk in the park

Waiting.

Brother or sister?

What to do to fill the time?

A long-ago promised photoshoot for my sweet little sister!

Every girl should be made to feel super special once in a while. :)

We started at the UT gardens...

Next, the fountains down at the World's Fair Park...

She's so cute. :}

Then, some Gelato to cool off...

So many choices! It's good they let you pick a couple flavors even in a small! :)

Off to around Market Square...

I love red. And water. And you. :)

Now that's a smile! :)

It was beginning to rain...she figured she was going to get wet anyways...

so she ran through! It was cooold!

Happy.

As we drove to pick up the cake (if you don't know about the cake, scroll down to the post below...), the sky looked like this - only worse, really. Don't worry, she took this, I didn't. :}

However, as we left Leah's house, the sun was back in full force and I mentioned that I bet there was a rainbow around somewhere...

Sure enough, there was! It was even more brilliant than here - and was a complete arch. We followed it all the way back across town and remembered the promise behind why it shimmered in the sky.

One of Lauren's favorite songs says, "I had the best day with you today."

Yup.

True.

:)

it's a...

Most of you who read my blog know by now who Lauren is and that we have sort of adopted eachother as big/little sister. Well, Lauren and her family are adopting (for real :) a baby that will be born in December! :) They are very excited about this new addition and can't wait to bring the baby home. Lauren's mom, Catrina, takes the birthmom to her doctors appointments and today was The Big Day - when they got to find out if the baby is a girl or a boy! Catrina and Reegan thought it would be a girl while Lauren, Josh, and Steve thought it would be a boy.

I picked Lauren up from her homeschool co-op classes and we hung out for the afternoon (more about that in the next post) and waited for time to meet her family and close friends at Outback for the big reveal. We asked my good friend, Leah, who makes beautiful cakes, to make a cake for us for the occasion. The plan was that Leah would make two cakes - one pink on the inside and one blue on the inside. Catrina called Leah as soon as she found out the news and Leah had the right cake ready when lauren and I got there to pick it up. No one - not me, not Lauren, not even Lauren's dad - knew what the color inside the cake was going to be until Catrina cut into it tonight! :) It was a lot of fun to find out this way - we kind of stole the idea from the TLC show "18 Kids and Counting".... :) So, without further ado.........

Lauren and the very cute teddybear cake that Leah made. :)

Reegan, Lauren, and Josh closing their eyes as Catrina cuts the cake...

It's a....... (drum roll please...!)

boy!!!!!

I know...Josh looks beyond thrilled! Heehee! He really is excited about it - he's just too cool to show it here.... :} Lauren is WAY excited and will make the best in-house babysitter/big sister ever!

I am so excited for them and am loving watching them go through this process. I will continue to pray that God will direct this whole thing to His glory and that in December, Baby Boy Beck (no name just yet :) will come home safe and sound! I can't wait to meet him! :)