Update..mom brag

We finally checked Anisa's grades and were not surprised, but happy to see that she got a 4.0 for her first term. :) It helps when you LOVE what you're doing. Go Anisa!!! :)

Proud Parents

Anisa got a letter from school yesterday. We were thinking, "oh no, I hope it's not a bill. No, it can't be. We should't owe them anything..." So, she opened it and started reading.....

Dear Honor Student,
Congratulations! On behalf of the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society at the Art Institute of Washington, we wish to congratulate you on your outstanding academic achievement. Your success has made you eligible for membership in Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society.

So, the ALD invites students who have a 3.5 gpa or higher AND are in the top 20% in their class in their first year. She will be able to compete for special scholarships and fellowships. And, she'll get a special pin. tee hee

We are so proud of our kiddo. She LOVES school (except math and english, but not many people love those classes). We are seeing signs of her becoming an adult, not just because of her age, but her behavior. She'll always be our baby, but someday, she'll be a successful woman....wierd. :) but cool. I know we're not the first parents in this spot, but it's OUR first time in this spot, and so far I really like it. :) I like watching my kids succeed in things they love.

Sara is getting ready to go to Nationals with the dance team. We watched the team last night perform a Pom routine. They looked so awesome. I never get tired of watching them. Of course, I have a hard time watching the TEAM, since I'm more focused on my baby. Sometimes her talent amazes me. I wonder where she learned to do moves like that. :) We were going to go to the DMV today to FINALLY get her driver's permit, but it is snowing out, so I'm not sure today is a good day to even leave the house. Maybe later. We'll see. I'll save that for another post. :)

19

Yesterday was Anisa's 19th birthday. OH MY. The time has flown by. She has turned into a spectacular young lady. She's funny, cute, smart (sometimes smart mouth, but not often). We have fun hanging out together, doing lunch, shopping or even sewing. She is loving school and is doing a good job in her classes. She had a night class yesterday, and because Sara has a weird schedule with dance, we'll do Anisa's b-day meal tomorrow. She wants to go to Chevy's Mex rest. She was not surprised about half her gifts. It's hard to surprise her much anymore, since I can't really buy her clothes anymore, and so when we were out shopping recently we bought a few things for her but I told her she had to ACT surprised when she opened them. :) She got a couple of bottles of Victoria Secret spray, eye shadow, eye make-up stuff (something you put on before your eye shadow and it makes it last longer...ok). Those are the things she knew about. She was surprised about the Williams Sonoma measuring cups, whisk, knife and peeler set. I love WS, and so does Anisa. **I just noticed, she was wearing the same outfit LAST YEAR in her birthday picture. :) hahaha

Today we're hanging out. She's still sleeping (no school today) and I am gonna go sew. Speaking of sewing, I made these little bags for Renee and her (and my new friend) Sara Beth. I showed them the fabric last week and they both REALLY liked it, so I came home and whipped out these fancy-schmancy Monica bags. :) I love how they turned out. The floral fabric might have to be part of my stash. I really like it, but for me, it will be used more as a quilt. I like the little floral bags, but I don't use them. I like making them a lot because they can be whipped out in a few hours from washing to finished project. LOVE THAT! I've got a new quilt in my head, and hope to get to work on that soon. I'm collecting fabrics for it....greens, yellows, golds....I'm gonna keep it a secret til I get it started. :) hee hee I hope you all have a FANTABULOUS weekend! love you!

catching up

I am one lucky chick. I had a lunch date last week with a new friend, Lisa. I have "known" her mom-in-law, Marie from blogging for quite a while now. I haven't had the pleasure of hugging Marie yet, but Lisa is the next best thing! What a sweet chick. We had lunch at Bertucci's italian rest. We visited for over an hour with not a quiet moment, well, except when we were chewing, of course. :) When I found out we were moving to VA, I mentioned it on my blog and Marie told me her kids and grandkids lived here. So, when we found out we were living in Springfield, she was even more excited since that's where the family lives! Turns out, we live about 2 miles from each other and Lisa's son is in Sara's spanish class! It's such a tiny world.

Sara is a little sick chick again. She was sick over Christmas Vaca, and is now sleeping on the couch with a very stuffed up nose and sore throat. Poor little kid.

I have also done some sewing lately. I finished another little nightgown for Princess Ava. Here she is with Baby who also got a couple of nightgowns, so they can be twins. Doesn't she look so cute and snuggly?















I also just made this little backpack. It's kind of Vera Bradley'ish....quilty and soft and cute. :) I will probably give it to Ava, too. :) Next projects are already cut. Working on two more little Monica bags. :)

Dance Team

The dance team had a competition at American University in DC yesterday. They performed their most awesome Hip hop routine and it earned them a First Place, Best Crowd Appeal and Grand Champions who get to perform at an AU Basketball game! We are so proud of the team. These kids work their butts off practicing and getting the routine DOWN.

snow...blah

Well, it snowed here last night. Not a lot, but a couple of inches. Enough to delay school for 2 hours, which made Sara happy. I have decided I don't really care for snow in Virginia. After our big snow, I saw that this place isn't really prepared for snow. It's been over 2 weeks since our storm and there are still HUGE ice piles everywhere. The ice piles were made by the plows that just shoved the snow to one side of the road and left it there. Sidewalks were not cleared, so there are places where you cannot walk (or in our case, RUN) on the sidewalk. I hear that it's supposed to get cold tonight and the stuff on the road will likely freeze. great. Oh well.

On a happier note, Sara has a dance performance tonight at the girls' basketball game. That will be fun to see. I love watching them perform. They are SO good. They practice their buns off and it shows. They have a competition on Sunday, so I'll probably be posting pictures of that later.

I have been sewing today. I made a couple of little nightgowns for Miss Ava (Renee's little chick) and finished one more, along with some matching jammies for her Baby. Then, I made a little bag/purse thingie out of some fabric that I had gotten especially for this little bag. I am heading back up to sew a little more. I'm planning to make a little Vera Bradleyish backpack. I'll post pics of the craftiness soon. :) I just haven't taken pics yet, and I have to give the little Ava model her jammies so I can show you all how adorable that kiddo is. :)

Ok, off to sew! Hope you all have a splendid weekend!

Hot Chocolate with Tiny Marshmallows

That's what I call this little wallhanging. I don't know how or why I thought of it, I don't even really like hot chocolate, but I do like tiny things. :) Maybe it's because anything hot in the cold weather we've been having would be nice. Or, maybe it's just because. :) Anyway, I like how it turned out. Now I have to figure out where I'm gonna put it. :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering it's 19"x19". :) Small, just like I like it. tee hee

Now for the pictures

This post is for pictures mainly. Our Christmas picture and the girls by the tree. :)



















Here is the quilt that I made for Renee for her birthday. It's a pattern called Frog Frolic and I saw it a couple of years ago and REALLY liked it (see the froggies?). Renee likes froggies, so she was the perfect person to make it for. ;) Turns out, she loved it. :)

HAPPY 2010

Wow, can you believe it? It's already 2010. I can't believe how fast time flies. We're heading into DC with the Holm family today. I think we'll hit the Museum of American History and the Botanical Gardens. It's supposed to be about 45 degrees and overcast, which is nice compared to yesterday's 28 and freezing rain in the morning. Luckily, that melted pretty quickly.

We finally got our Christmas/New Years/Holiday cards sent out. We are running so late for EVERYTHING this year. I don't even really have a good excuse. I could say it's because we had company, but I could have done a lot of stuff before they came since it was planned ahead. I could say it's because of the moon aligning with Venus in just the right way, that it threw my whole schedule, but I'm really sure that's not it. But it sounds cool. I was late, because I didn't do stuff on time. period. Oh well.

The point to my whole post today was just to tell all my family and friends who even bother to look at my little (rarely) updated blog that I'm so glad you all are part of my life. People around us are what makes us who we are and I feel very special because I have so many VERY COOL people in my life that I can call my family (I feel like my friends ARE my family). :) I hope this new year goes by slow enough that we all get to enjoy our lives, quick enough that we don't have time to dwell on anything bad and that you all stay happy and healthy in 2010.

I love you all! :)