Thinking About Jumping Back In

This post is really just a test. I have been thinking about getting back to blogging for personal reasons, and I am wondering if I should start fresh, or if I can update and re-brand this blog for my current needs and uses... hmmmm. I have a million ideas of things I want to write about, but also have no idea where to start. So the idea of just a personal blog where I can write and post about whatever I want to on any given day is kind of appealing to me. I'm going to publish this little blurb and see what it looks like on the blog and what options I have to change and update the look and feel of everything. That will hopefully give me the information I need to decide what steps to take next.

A Typical Day?

This was the conversation today at our house while cleaning out the kids drawers and trying to reorganize life...

One of the Boys: (can't remember which one)  "I need some, blah, blah, blah...(I wasn't really paying that much attention)"
Me:  (after an hour of working on the SAME 2 drawers with the boys...and their bickering and griping)
        "I need to get some new kids."
Benji:  "Where would you get new ones?"
Me:  "Craig's List"
Benji:  "They don't have kids on Craig's List."
Me:  "They're about to have 4 of them."
Jon:  "Mom really could be a comedian."

:)

I Have No Title

I know, I know, I said I'd be around more...have you ever heard the quote, "We plan, God laughs."  Well, yeah, that's true.  I have pages of daily schedules, weekly plans, and yearly calendar appointments, and yet I don't think I've successfully completed one day of my plans in the last....well, ever!  One reason for the chaos, is Emmitt.  He is the Miniature Schnauzer puppy we got for Jonathan back in June.  He was a 6 lb. floppy eared snuggle muffin when we got him, and I had a hard time doing anything, but cuddling the little guy.

Now, he's a 12 lb. snuggle muffin with a LOT of energy and we spend at least an hour every day at the dog park letting him play with the other dogs and run around and around and around, and around and.......

 Dave has decided he wants to learn to knit like Mommy and Maddie...he's working on practice rows, but he thinks it's a sweater.  :)

 Maddie got her very first Pointe Shoes and has started dancing on pointe at the studio this year.  (That's her AMAZING ballet and pointe teacher, Ms. Deidre.  She came with us to make sure the fit and the shoes were just right for the girl...I told you she was amazing!)  And pointe is just ONE of her ELEVEN classes at the studio this year.  She takes her dancing VERY seriously!  :)

 I tackled Entrelac Knitting for the first time, and then I felted it to cover up all the mistakes, which resulted in one of my favorite projects ever..this purse.

 I liked it so much that I made another, slightly bigger and more "fallish" version...and gave it away to my friend for her birthday--that's how much I love her.

 Then I pulled out the Cashmere/Merino Wool yarn that I bought for another project that didn't wow me once I got it started (the project, not the yarn) and I made this adorable little boy sweater and hat set for a couple at church about to have their first baby! (Sorry, I forgot to rotate the picture before posting...and now it's too much work to go back and do it again.)

 I thought this button was fabulous, even though the picture doesn't show the colors well at all!  The sweater is a lovely neutral oatmeal shade and the button has several tans and rust colors all swirled around on it.

 So, I added a tan stripe to the matching hat, just to make it worthy of the sweater!  ;)

And THAT'S what I've been doing since I "saw" you last.

Currently, we're still homeschooling 4 days a week.  The Texas fires have stayed away from us, but threatened my folks and some friends for awhile there....too scary!  We're dancing full force again with daily classes and weekend rehearsals every other Saturday.  I have two pair of socks on the needles in various stages of completion, as well as David's ninja mask which I put down when it got too hot for him to wear, but will need to pick up again to be ready for the winter...if winter even shows up around here this year!  (I have my doubts.)  And another felted purse is in the works to add to the Etsy store since I've gotten more oohs and ahhs over the two I finished than I have over anything else I've made. 

So how about you, what have you been up to?  Fill me in...I'm so out of the loop!

In Case You Were Looking for Me....

I've been on Etsy. At least that's where I've been internet-wise.

I've been to Dance Intensives with the girl, Motorcycle Competitions with the boys, 3 day long Birthday Bashes with the girl and her friends, and I've been to Dallas a time or two for Kidney Stuff...sigh.

At any rate. I am going to try to stop by here a little more often, but I must warn you, the cakes and cookies will be few and far between. I have found that making them for other people is quite stressful and tiring for me and with a 3% loss in my kidney function over the last year, I don't need to add stress. So, from now on, I'm only doing them for VERY special occasions and for immediate family. The knitting on the other hand, is more relaxing and fun for me, so plan to see a lot more of that around here. :)

With that in mind, I've opened up my own little Etsy shop! It's in the VERY early stages right now, and I hope to do more aesthetic work on it soon, but I'm just trying to get it stocked with some merchandise at the moment and start generating some sales.

An interesting little story about the name of the shop...As long as I've had an "At Home Business", (from Tole Painting to Cakes to Knitted Items) my business has been called "Linen and Purple". I took it from the verse in Proverbs 31 which says something to the effect of "...she clothes herself in linen and purple by the works of her own hand." With that in mind, I entered that as the name of my new little Etsy shop and guess what? Someone else already had a shop by that name! AND they referenced the same Bible verse. Kind of cool that someone out there thinks like me, but kind of a bummer to lose my name after all these years. However, I thought about it, and I decided that I've become so connected with the name "Kids and Cakes" that I'd just stick with that name. It's how I'm known here in the blogosphere, it's my name on Ravelry, and I even use it for my email address, so why not keep it over in the world of Etsy? And that's what I did. If you want to find me over there, you can look me up at http://www.etsy.com/shop/kidsandcakes.

I've only got a few items up right now, and I have actually made a couple of sales locally to people who saw my items and contacted me for special orders. But here are some pictures of the types of items that are/will be available for purchase. The felted purse in the picture above I made for the girl, but I intend to make several of these, so they will be available soon!

A 4 Piece Kitchen set: 2 crocheted double-layered potholders and 2 hand-knit dishcloths

Hand-Knit 100% Cotton Cardigan and Hat for a Newborn Baby Girl (sold)

A Combination Knit/Crocheted Market Bag With a Variety of Uses

And Finally, 2 Styles of Elfin Hats for a Newborn Baby Boy (these were a special order, and are apparently a new trend in baby-wear)

Ditto Kelli...

So I just read Kelli's latest post and I say, "Ditto". Every time I sit down to fill you in on all that's happened since surgery, something else takes over my brain and since I can only focus on one thing at a time these days, the blog goes (again) to the back burner.

So, as a quick summary (while my brain is focused here) I had the surgery, but it didn't accomplish much. The problem wasn't in the tube leading into my kidney, it is in the condition of my kidneys in general, and while my doctor and very good friend tried his best to make it better, I ended up septic in the hospital with
peylonephritis. It was not fun. I don't every want to do it again. And the doctor says that because of this development, he won't do that surgery on me again. Which means, the next time I am blocked, well, I'm not sure what we'll do about it...sigh. But I'm better now, and that was just an update for those who have been wondering what happened to me after surgery.

Now, on to one of the other things that keeps me away from the blogoverse...my daughter's dance schedule. She was in 11 different dances in this year's Spring Show. She is taking 11 classes this year including the performance troupe at our studio which participates in MANY performances and competitions throughout the year. For those of you who think that is too much, and I should lighten her schedule, here is how the conversation went in the car last week:

Maddie: Mom, what am I going to do for dance for the next 2 weeks until summer classes start?

Me: Well, I can just take you up to the studio and you can practice whatever you want while I work.

Maddie: But I NEED a teacher to teach me!

Me: Don't you just want to enjoy a little break before you start up again?

Maddie: NEVER!!!

And this year she choreographed her solo for troupe tryouts completely on her own. She chose the song and planned the entire thing by herself. I didn't even get to see it until the day before the tryouts. I do have a video taken while she was still working out the choreography. It's not danced full out as she was still figuring out parts of it, but it will give you an idea of what kind of dancer she wants to be...and why I don't mind taking her to the dance studio almost every.single.day.

FINALLY got the video to work!

Ups and Downs and All Arounds...

I haven't been here in a week or three. Yes, I've been busy, but it's more than that. I've made cookies and cakes, I've knitted socks and ninja masks, and I've traveled and chaperoned the most amazing group of dancers EVER. Yes, I've been busy, but the reason I haven't been here is not the busyness of life. It's the in-between stuff.

I've been having kidney troubles again. And while I've managed to fulfill my responsibilities thus far, in between each of those events, I've been crashed on the couch...recovering. Last weekend, while I was in San Antonio for the ShowStoppers Dance Competition with the girl, it became unbearable and I knew that something would have to be done--soon. So, I am here to announce that I am having surgery to remove blockages in my kidneys tomorrow, March 1st at 3:00pm CST. If ya'll want to say a prayer, that would be awesome.

However, my problems are NOTHING compared to my friend, Kelli. In my last post, I wrote that after 5 agonizing years, a possible donor was found to give Kelli a new kidney. Yesterday, that donor was rejected. She was the last one on a list that began with 50 or so candidates, and they turned her away. The search begins again. My heart is broken for my friend and her family. So while you're saying those prayers, please send one up for her as well, and if you've ever considered being a living kidney donor, please, please, please head on over to No comments:

The Best News EVER!!!

Last night, I was in my car listening to an audio book, when it paused and chimed indicating that I had a new email. I paused the book to check the email,(Calm down, I was just sitting in the driveway listening to the end of the chapter--not driving!) and it was from Kelli! And it contained the best news EVER!!!

WE HAVE AN APPROVED KIDNEY DONOR!!!

WE HAVE AN APPROVED KIDNEY DONOR!!!

SURGERY IS TENTATIVELY THE END OF MARCH!!!!

5 YEARS FROM THE DAY I WAS FIRST LISTED!

We just got word that Sarah has been approved, and should be flown into Cedars in the next 2 weeks or so.

Surgery is tentatively the end of March, but we will know more as we go.

Are we excited? Yes/No. I think with all we have been through it will be a "once I am on the table" thing.

I will need to be going to LA for treatment starting the first of March for 3 treatments, one week apart.

So, now, we just have to kick fund raising up to the moon to get all this paid for.

Ok God, sell a few of those cows on the hill please :)


YOUR PRAYERS ARE SO APPRECIATED OVER THESE LAST 5 YEARS EVERYONE. You have sustained us through so much fear and doubt and and and and and ....

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeehaw!! Woo-Hoo!! WOOT-WOOT!!!

I am sooooooooo happy for my friend who will hopefully have kidney function within the next two months and then perhaps she can get those legs to start working again! The road is far from over, but the light is bright and shining at the end of a very, very long tunnel.

You can pop on over to Kelli's Blog to get more details, or to get to know this amazing friend of mine a little better, or to make a donation to help her pay for all of the travel and surgery and whatnot.

Did I say Yeehaw???