Giveaway - Free Frame with Custom Embroidery

It's time for another Bloggy Carnival's giveaway!







I am giving away a free 5 x 7 black frame with your choice of embroidery design inside. Visit my website to see an example of a frame. (Click on Around the house to see frames.) Possiblities include
birth statistics, wedding date, Scripture, quotes and more.



Leave a comment with your name by midnight on Friday, August 1st. I will post the winner sometime on Saturday! Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you or just check back on Saturday to see who won!

Thanks!

Big Savings

One of my favorite blogs is having a big sale on helpful ebooks for saving money, living on one income, household management, grocery shopping and more! She only spends $35 a week to buy groceries & household items for her family of four!

Over $100 in course materials for $5.97 today only. Tomorrow it will be up $3.

Click Here!

For more information visit these blogs: Money Saving Mom and Biblical Womanhood.

One step forward...two steps back!!

I got my passport today! FYI, if you're in the market for a passport, don't pay the extra $90 for expedited guaranteed two week service. Mine came in 10 days when it was supposed to take 4 weeks! We are just waiting on a few more documents and we can send off our dossier and officially join the waiting list.

The Indian government has licensed our orphanage so things are moving along after months of inactivity. Quite a few families received referrals last week so the list is getting shorter.

On the other hand, the US Dept of Homeland Security called today and said I forgot to include our money with one of our immigration forms. Oops. Trying to return a call to that office is difficult as you could imagine - they're pretty busy protecting our country and all - so now things in that area are stalled! I am definitely kicking myself over this.

God's timing, God's timing, God's timing. I repeat this again and again and again!

Trouble

As Nate becomes more vertical (learning to walk) and less horizontal, the obstacles we faced when he first started crawling are starting to arise again! Back then, he was discovering everything 6 inches or so off the ground and I had to follow him around for at least a week to help him learn his boundaries. We were doing so well until now that he is walking there are a whole new assortment of things to get into. I had to snap pictures today before I corrected him. :)

Here he is messing with the computer - somehow he managed to start up one of Lucy's games:

Then it was off to the pets' water bowl (this had been recently conquered as a no-no but obviously that needs to be re-established.)

This ok, Mom? One foot in? I took my shoe off at least...


Both feet fit! I'm swimming!


And here is how Lucy has been entertaining herself lately. She built this microphone out of a wrapping paper roll, paper towels and the extension to my vacuum. We got the cd from her VBS program and it is very rock n roll so naturally a girl needs a proper stage & mic to perform with.

Christmas in July SALE

I love to shop year round for Christmas gifts (it's especially helpful when you have a large family) and so I'm offering a Christmas in July sale for my business, dream maker designs!

15% off your entire order when you order by September 1, 2008. Please mention code BLOGJULY when you email me and feel free to pass this promotion along!

I have new items for sale including embroidered napkins & headbands! And there are still the favorites like embroidered pillowcases, lovey blankets & diaper/wipes case holder for baby.

Merry Christmas!

Visit my website and email me at orders@dreammaker-designs.com.

Encouraged

Lucy and I were swimming the other day and she was pretending to fish using a big foam noodle. I acted like the fish and swam up to the noodle so she could "catch" me. As I got closer she said, "Oh, it's the mother I always wanted!"

A dilemma....

Mark's favorite baseball team just GAVE my favorite team their very best pitcher. Well, it was a trade so really we gave them some stuff back but not really anything that worthy.

So my dilemma is that being a Cubs fan for 19 years I have learned not to get too excited or too involved in the season this early on. The 2003 NLCS just about ripped my heart out and almost caused the premature birth of my daughter as well. So generally I have a mid-August rule. If they are still competitive in mid-August, I will start to "act" like a real fan. Until then I keep my distance merely as a self-preservation mode.

But now they have this awesome new pitcher and it's not even the All-Star break. Part of me feels ready to jump on board, make predictions for the World Series and research getting tickets (we're less than 5 hours from Chicago). But the other part of me, the part that has been shredded again and again by this team, tells me to stick to the mid-August rule. What to do?

Texas

The kids & I are in Texas enjoying a great time with Nan & Pops! Last Friday, all 12 grandkids got together which hadn't happened in a long time.


Maybe the next picture there will be 13 kids meaning we will have gotten our son from India! We are currently waiting on paper work to be processed so we are not even on the waiting list yet...

Mark and I attended the wedding of one of our very best friends and got to see some old A&M friends as well. It was fun to go out without kids since our anniversary plans were canceled due to the yucko illness. (We're celebrating 6 years!)

Lucy says it is too hot in Texas (which I agree after leaving 80 degrees in STL) but we get to swim every day and are having a blast!