Happy Birthday DJ

July 31, 1994

14 years ago, I welcomed my first child, my only son, Darien Jaimes Young to this world.

A healthy, beautiful baby boy weighing 7 pounds and 11 ounces, with huge brown eyes and dark hair.

Simply perfect in every way.

Dear DJ,

You have been such a whole hearted pleasure to me and others around us, you are such an important piece to our family puzzle.
Simply stated, you are so smart, sensitive, hysterically funny without effort, brilliantly creative, and so much more.

Things have been challenging for you at times, but you have been and are working so hard to help yourself through the rough patches and to learn coping strategies.....I am so proud of you for all that you have accomplished this year.

Its awesome to experience life with you and to watch you grow into an amazing young man.

You are so very special and I am so lucky to have the privilege of being your mom.....despite all of the nagging that I do!

Happy Birthday.....I love you!

Love,

Mom

Happy 1st Birthday Bella!

Dacia and Rick's beautiful baby girl, Bella is
now a full year old.....enjoy her, as it does go by fast!

more weird dreams...

We all dream.
Sometimes, we can recall the dream when we wake from the sleep state. I tend to have pretty vivid dreams and most of the time, when I have a nice solid sleep, I can remember what I dreamt about.....or at least key parts.
Last night I had a dream that I was with my parents in our yard (Chris and the kids were not there) and we noticed a very large, beautiful blimp flying over us. We were admiring it when it suddenly started to descend toward us. I ran, with my eyes closed, preparing myself to die.....I clearly remember how I felt and that I was praying to God to make sure that my kids knew that I loved them.
So, as I was bracing myself, the blimp crashed down, demolished our house but we were fine.
I remember bits and pieces of the rest of of the dream, basically it was me feeling lost and devastated, but thankful to be alive....there were other people in the dream, but its not clear who they were.
Anyway, this has been stuck in my head today, basically the part that I felt so scared that I was going to die yet I had made peace with it.
I am a little uncomfortable and disturbed with this.

I wish that I knew what this meant.....any dream analysts out there willing to share some insight?

lets just get it all out there

Its definitely not a secret that I have a bit of an ocd issue....nothing major, but one nonetheless.
I feel the need to keep things in order and uber-clean around here 24/7, which can be challenging with a toddler, preschooler and teenager....the husband is pretty much trained on board with my order of operations around the house, so he does not pose a problem (normally).
I cringe when the messes start, I just have to keep up with them, or I will slowly go mad looking at and having to step over the destruction piling up within the walls of my house.
I have tried to let things go until the end of the day, but those toys scattered across the living room floor, the cheerios that are formed into fun shapes in the corner of the hallway and the knocked over sippy cups dripping a puddle of ice water onto my kitchen floor keep taunting me to clean them up.....calling for me despite keeping busy with the kids.


There are times when we leave to avoid the pressures that I put on myself....I am fine if I am not looking at it. I also need to state that I realize that these are my issues and I don't carry this outside of my home, I am not looking in corners for dust bunnies when I am visiting your house.....I promise!

I have resigned to the fact that I fully enjoy order, organization and structure, it works for me and keeps me happy.
My family also makes me happy and I have been able to balance my "issues" with their natural instincts to use their imaginations and play happily in the same disarray that makes me sweat to think about. I have learned to let some things go and just do what I can do while they are playing, clean up dishes and the kitchen while they are eating and wipe down the bathroom while they are in the bath......multitasking, us moms are good at this.

Today, I was able to get my kitchen organized and straightened up nicely, quite an achievement now that everyone has access to all of the drawers, cabinets and pantry. I am a happy girl right now!
Go ahead, take a peek.....









But, we all have something that we hide in shame, a dirty little secret that we keep tucked away. I have mine and I am going to get it out there and free myself of it.....


this is ugly......


My computer desk.

My personal space.

This is in its clean state, I have no desire to have it organized at all and that is odd to me.


Although, I do keep it closed up when I am not using it, so there is a little bit of denial.

funny little creature comfort things...

I adore these dolls found on Etsy.






Chloe Ballerina doll found at vivikas.

This is a crochet pattern found at DeliciousCrochet.

Completely hand sewn, find on milkrun's shop at Etsy.

a quick visit

We had a friend stop by the house the other day.....


She hung out for about 20 minutes and went to find her mama.....she was just a baby!

summer project

I seem to be feeling crafty this week....I did a little makeover on our backyard shed.
It is not fully completed, as I want to put a stone patio coming from the door and curve around the side to where I have a flower cart as well as a table and chair set.

I envision a quaint little cottage along with a cobblestone patio surrounded by wildflowers and birdhouses, leading into a blooming garden complete with butterflies, dragonflies, rabbits and birds.

I guess this is still a rough draft.....



Do you see my vision?

pics

best friends.....

looking good....

jump around, jump around....jump up, jump up and get down....

DJ, Grandma and Uncle Al chillin on a Sunday afternoon....
lazy afternoon in the grass....
looks can be deceiving.....

taking shelter from the storm

What to do when there are random tornado warnings in Massachusetts....

decopauge!!


An old, worn out shelf that has seen better days...

A yard of fabric.....a most lovely fabric, I might add.

cut fabric into frayed pieces

brush on Mod Podge

lay fabric pieces on shelf

apply more Mod Podge on top of fabric

let dry

Find the perfect spot to hang it.....

bring out those vintage pieces that are packed away......

so charming!

celebrate life

Tonight, we will celebrate the life of my best friend, Remily's mother,
Sharon Estrella,
who passed away unexpectedly.

Its very sad to have a dear friend lose a parent.
It is also sad that it takes a funeral to justify a dressed up, evening out for myself and Chris....

Remily, Cara and Andy,
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother.

Sharon, you are missed.

Q & A

question:
What is brown, streaked, highlighted, lowlighted, blonde, red and presently black and comes in a variety of shapes, lengths and textures?



answer:
This chick's schizophrenic hair over the last year.





I'm getting the itch for yet another change, but I have exhausted most resources (I recently cut it short and colored it black, not pictured).....I guess I could perm it.....probably not a good idea.