Pink = Good (mostly)

Nature makes pretty pinks.

I've always thought that Flamingo's are divine.  I'd love to wear pink feathers too.

Little piggies with soft gooey noses.

And who knew that dolphins came in pink too.

Did you know that nature also made some uncool pinks too...

Don't want to meet him in a dark corner...

..or anywhere else either!

...fail?

We were given a manila envelope and told to fill out all of the paperwork inside before his next appointment in 3 weeks. I sat down that very night armed with a pencil and a Diet Coke.  This shouldn't be hard. Just answer the questions.

  "Distracted by external stimuli?"   

                                                 

  "Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected?" 

  "Often does not follow through instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (not due to oppositional behavior or failure to understand instructions)"

  "Poor performance in Schoolwork."

   "Careless..." "Impulsive..."  "Disorganized..."  ..trouble focusing.." "difficult.." "Mean spirited..."

  "Moody..."

  I answered all of the questions on 3 or 4 different forms.  I sat back, relieved... for a moment. Then I looked at what I had done...spent hours judging my son.  Picking his behavior apart. Saying that he was not perfect. That our family is not perfect.  That I am a bad Mom.  I mean, shouldn't I have been able to fix this?  I saw ADHD in him years ago. I talked myself out of it, "He's just being a kid."

 We sat in the Doctors office today for 2 hours while he made his diagnosis.  He was VERY thorough!  

In the end he gave us the diagnosis. Explained the reason why his brain works this way. Gave us choices in how to proceed. We left the office with one excited 6 year old (he can't wait to start taking his pills), samples of medication, (and prescription for more) and a sense of relief. A Dr. had finally confirmed it.

Not even an hour had passed before I got the biggest lump in my throat.

What had I done?

What had I done wrong?  

I had failed my son.  My son that I had worked so hard to protect.

  For years after he came to live with us I was afraid to speak to him harshly, or discipline him because I felt so guilty that he had lived in an Orphanage for 15 months.  Maybe that is where I had failed him.

I love this boy. He is precious. He is perfect.

This is not his fault, and I know

it is not my fault either.

Why do I still feel like it is?

Think Pink

Photo Via 

I have a brand new goal in life.  That's right!  My old goal of being a Gold Medalist in Rag Time Interpretive Jazzercise has been dumped big time!
My new goal in life is to try to collect every cute sewing machine on the planet. 
 I'm a little obsessed with looking for them on ebay, and in the classifieds. 
 Now the trick to this goal is going to be getting the machines into the house without my husband ever finding out. 
 Serious! 
 He wouldn't understand.
Gotta cute sewing machine (preferably pink) that you are trying to rid yourself of?  Give me a call!

Tree fall

Had a little storm last night.

I couldn't sleep because of all of the thunder and crashing noises. It really didn't seem to bother any of the rest of the family though, they all slept right through it!

We lost one of our big-er Quakies.  Breaks my heart because it takes so long for trees to grow.

The storm was strong enough to blow down trees,

 but not strong enough to blow any of the kids toys out of the yard. 

Recovery

I've been wanting a Wing Back chair for a long time!

  I saw this beauty at a yard sale and picked it up for a mere $30!

It was in pretty good shape and matched the room fairly well, but I wanted to test out my Re-upholstery skills that I picked up from blog land.  

They make it look so easy and fun to take an old piece of furniture and make it new an gorgeous.

I have to admit that it was NOT as easy as I thought it would be, but it was fun...in the end.

I have a few tips I'm going to share in case you ever decide to re-cover your furniture. 

The first thing you need to do is collect the right tools.

I used a staple gun, pliers, and a hammer.  The Legos, baggy of Fruity Dinobites, and mini-football helmet are optional (but necessary if you have a 3 year old assistant)

You will also need plenty of fabric.  This project took almost 6 yards because I wanted to match up the pattern...I'm a little OCD like that. 

I also used some thick poly-batting to freshen up the foam.

The most important tool, in de-construction, was a flat head screw driver.

Be prepared to make a huge mess.  I pulled out 10,000 staples I swear!  

Try to pay attention to the order that you take things apart.  That is the way you will have to put it all back together.  I took a marker and marked each piece as I took it off so that I would know where to put it back.

Tearing it apart was MUCH harder than I thought.  I ended up gouging chunks out of my thumb a couple of times.  So, I guess that Band-aids are another necessary tool too!

It took me about a day and a half  from start to finish, but I am very happy with how it turned out!

Not to shabby for $60-ish!

I had to add a little nail head trim to the sides because they wouldn't lay as flat as I wanted them to.

I think it looks pretty cool though.

Here are the before and after pictures.

 Now, back to work on school clothes and stuff.  I have been working on Appliquéing some shirts for my Macy using Izzy & Ivy's Abbie Appliqué pattern.  Hopefully I'll be able to show them off later this week.

Have you done any furniture makeovers?  I'd love to see how they turned out!