{ teenager }

When I woke up this morning, my whole world changed.

My son is now a teenager.  There is no turning back; we've officially entered into a new phase of life.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  These are uncharted waters we're venturing into.

Happy birthday, my boy!  I love you so much!

{ 3 precious days }

In just 3 precious days, I will wake up and be the mother of a teenager.

I am freaking out a little bit, here.

Someone hold my hand and tell me it's going to be ok, please....

{ Feeling like Supermom }

Remember that post last week about relaxing over the weekend?  Well, believe it or not, it actually happened.  The paradox is that I was really, really productive last weekend as well, and yet I was very well rested and relaxed by the time Sunday evening rolled around.

Friday night we had dinner with friends at Carinos Italian Grill, which is always a treat!
Saturday, I got up, went grocery shopping and did a few other errands, came home, baked the lasagna that's on the menu for later this week, baked up some chicken for another recipe that's on the menu this week, did laundry, made the girls' handcrafted Valentines (they helped), figured out how to use my digital scrapbooking software, read a book, and digiscrapped a couple of layouts.
Sunday, we got up, went to church, came home, finished the Valentines, did more laundry, digiscrapped some more, did my little DIY project on my skirts, the kids gave the dog a bath, and read some more.

All in all, a very nice, relaxing and productive weekend!  So nice!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I saw this cute idea on another blog, and I had to make them for the girls' class Valentines.

It's a little hard to see with Michaela's, but she is holding  the smarties in her palm.  I'm so happy with how they turned out!

A quick fix...

At work, we have ID badges that we wear.  Mostly, I think it's a great thing.  It helps with safety for the kids, and helps me, as a staff member, to know who is in the building that is supposed to be.  I just have one teensy, weensy little problem with them.  We had to choose between a lanyard style that would go around our necks, or a clip style that we could clip to a belt loop.  I chose the belt loop style because I don't like extra things around my neck very much.  This, then, is what caused my problem.  The problem:  my skirts don't have belt loops!
So, I came up with a solution.
The clip:

The solution:  Ribbon!

The process:
First, I cut a small length of ribbon to attach to the inside of the skirt.

Next, I sewed the bit of ribbon to the inside of the skirt:

Here is the loop with the ID tag attached (you can see that it folds over the top of the waistband):

And here is the loop neatly tucked back inside the waistband, unseen, for the times when I'm NOT wearing my ID tag:

So there was my little 10 minute project!  I hope it inspires you!

A little relaxation?

It's Friday, the weekend is here, and I have almost zero plans!

What? you say...  How is this possible in the crazy land of the Meeks?

It's an anomaly, it's true, but I plan to enjoy every. single. second.

Dinner at Carinos with friends tonight, crafting with my girlies tomorrow, church on Sunday and a lazy afternoon...  Sounds like bliss.  I'll let you know if it all works out.

At some point I have to go grocery shopping, but we're not talking about that.

Update on the car...

Last night we went car shopping, and came home with a new (to us) Honda Odyssey!  It's a 2003, has heated seats, leather interior, is GORGEOUS(!), has a DVD player, and all sorts of other fun stuff.  It's very nice to drive, and I'm enjoying it a lot, so far!

The good, the bad, the ugly

The good:  The old van is dead, so I get to shop for a new van!!!

The bad:  The old van is dead, so I have to shop for a new van.

The ugly:  Car payment, after 4+ years without one.

I'll keep you updated on what we find!

A change of plans...

This weekend, we were supposed to travel to Bozeman, MT for Gabe and Bethany to participate in the First Lego League robotics tournament that is held every year.  Both of their teams worked really hard all fall to prepare for the competition, which includes programming robots, preparing a presentation for the judges, building robot components from Legos, and then actually performing missions with their robots.  It's a pretty fun event for the kids, and they were really looking forward to it.  Jon, Michaela and I were looking forward to the pool at the hotel and a possible tour of the Gibson Guitar factory.

The proposed timeline:
3:30-4:00:  I would get off work and head home, we'd pack up and be on the road by 4:30.
5:00:  We would drop the dog at Papa's house, grab Mickey D's and be on the highway no later than 5:30.
8:30:  We'd be checked into our motel, changed into our suits, and headed down to the pool and hot tub before getting to bed....

Then, LIFE happened.

The actual timeline:
4:06pm:  I left work and headed home.  Just a wee bit late, we can still hurry up and be on the road by 4:45....
4:30pm:  I arrive home, we finish packing, and are out the door by 5.  A little late, but so far so good.
5:15pm:  Jon drops me at Target, so that I can grab the dog food while he goes over to Wendy's to grab the people food.
5:25pm:  I am finished at Target and waiting outside, and as I'm trying to get something out of my eye, my contact lens (I wear semi-rigid gas perm lenses) pops off my eye and onto the concrete sidewalk.  A really nice woman helped me look for it for about 10 minutes, but it was gone forever.  This should have been the first indication that things were going badly.
5:45pm:  Give up the search and head for my dad's house.
6pm:  Drop off the dog and get on the road.  All is going swimmingly, with Nutty Bars, Ding Dongs, Wheat Thins and Easy Cheese, when...
sometime after 7pm:  The oil light comes on in the van.  Okay, not a super big deal...EXCEPT that Jon had just filled the oil a few days ago...
Luckily for us, we were only 9 miles outside of Deerlodge, MT.  We pulled in, bought some oil and topped it off...only that didn't fix the problem.  The oil light was still on.

To make the rest of this long story short, we ended up staying overnight in the Deerlodge Rodeway Inn (which was less than a block from the gas station, thankfully!), got a really great rate due to our situation, and were helped out by family and friends in our efforts to get the van (and us) back to Missoula today.  We tried all avenues to get the kids to their competition, but came up dry.  As a mom, I felt pretty helpless and pretty discouraged, but there comes a time when you realize that despite your best efforts, you aren't going to be able to fix the situation, so you'd better just make the best of it.  We spend the rest of the evening watching Disney channel and letting the kids chow on the snacks.  Michaela got to experience a 4B's restaurant for breakfast this morning (loved it!), and my awesome friend Brooke came out and drove us home.

There are still a lot of things to think about...How much is this going to cost?  Is it worth it to fix it?  Did we stop before the engine was damaged?  Is it time to think and pray about a new vehicle?...and yet we find ourselves feeling so thankful tonight for wonderful friends and family who came to our rescue, and for a great God who allowed this to happen not at the top of Homestake Pass, but just outside of a town that has cell phone service and a gas station, motel and restaurant right off the interstate (quite literally!!  You take the exit and it's all RIGHT THERE!).  For small miracles such as these, and the larger miracles of love and support, I am thankful.

Micky (note the cheesy smile and the Easy Cheese in the background)

Nice.  Everybody is chillaxin'.

My sweet, yet disappointed, girl.  Such a great sport about the whole thing.

{ Birthday Parties }

Sunday was Bugsy's 8th birthday!  Wow, how the time flies.  It seems like just yesterday that I was blogging about the day she turned 5 and I would be sending her off to school in the fall.  Now she is a super smart 2nd grader who is at the top of her class.  On Saturday, we had some of her sweet friends over for a hot tub party and yesterday our family joined us for cake and ice cream.  She was very blessed and received many great presents!  Happy birthday, Bugs!!